Founder, Xplorealms

Reedah El-Saie

“FFA’s expert speakers provided inspiration, with honest, relatable, accounts of success, failure, and being a female entrepreneur”

Serial entrepreneur and mum-of-three, Reedah El-Saie made massive strides on the Female Founders’ Accelerator with her business:  Xplorealms, an education platform offering the National Curriculum through gamification and augmented/ virtual reality immersive technology.

While on the programme, Reedah refined her strategy, operational and business model, developed her pitch, forged strategic partnerships, recruited Curriculum Innovators, and established an international children’s ‘Board of Brilliant Brains’, providing advice and feedback on the concept.

Reedah’s main challenge was her lack of tech knowledge about scaling, as well as small- business HR, were all barriers to growth, “I’d develop great ideas, and secure extensive media coverage, but I couldn’t go from start- up to acceleration and stabilised growth”.

FFA provided dedicated time to focus on  Xplorealms and specialist expertise, resulting in rapid business development. Tailored advice from experts, sessions with specialists, and the diverse skills and experience of other participants helped Reedah build her knowledge and shift her business mindset. As a result, Xplorealms now has three full-time staff, supported by a team of 6 freelancers, who are building the platform one module at a time.

Thanks to our mentoring programme, Reedah’s now using an operational style that better meets her needs as a small business, “it’s not an approach that I would have ever considered [but it’s] a practical tool that’s really helped me to focus and move along.”

“Women in business and in professional lives have different experiences and challenges to men in these arenas. The FFA plays a vital role in meeting and nurturing the needs of female entrepreneurs. FFA’s expert speakers provided inspiration, with honest, relatable accounts of success, failure and being a female entrepreneur.“

Since the end of the programme, We have been awarded membership of Google for Startups new Campus, a place on the Natwest Pre-Accelerator and last week I was approached by 2 EdTech VC funds on Linked In even though I am not actively seeking funding right now.”

Founder, Built by us

Danna Walker

“Hatch is the difference between singing in the bedroom and singing on stage.”

Danna’s career started with an apprenticeship as an electrician, not the typical career path for a young women. She then retrained as an architect but her real passion was to address the inequalities in the UK Building Industry faced by women and black and minority groups. 

She entered our Incubator programme in 2016 determined to change the face of the Building Industry.

In the short space of just 2 years, she is one of the UK’s biggest influencers to pushing the diversity & inclusion agenda in her sector. She recently presented Architecture of Incarceration on BBC Radio 4, got interviewed by architectsjournal.co.uk & womanthology.co.uk, as well as sharing her story in the UK’s first Women In Construction Summit. Yet, when we met Danna, Built By Us had only been incorporated for a year as a limited company and it was far from the incredible not-for-profit consultancy she needed to address the big challenges her industry is facing.

As part of the Incubator, Danna benefited greatly from our modular business training but it was the mentoring programme that had the biggest impact on her and pushed her business. “My mentor, Ignacio Delcastillo, from Deutsche Bank was brilliant, understanding and driven. He now sits on the Advisory Board for Built By Us.”

Mentoring is now part of her business model and Hatch shared our methodology, our mentor handbook and resources for her to apply it to her specific setting. She now has 3 live mentoring programmes working with almost 100 mentors and mentees across 2 existing programmes called “Shape” (16 mentors/ mentees) and “Fluid” (80 mentors/ mentees) and is launching a new programme called “Build”. These programmes link volunteer mentors and mentees from across the construction industry, with construction professionals from diverse backgrounds and at different career stages. In her last financial year she turned over £15,000, with growth anticipated for 2019 at £45,000. 

Her needs are to operationalise the company further, especially around selling her mentoring programmes, as well as getting help with impact measurement and reporting.

Founder, Solocal

Joly Zou

“The programme brings women together to support and empower each other. My business is all about empowering and connecting women around the world – it fits perfectly with the programme.”

Joly was born in a traditional Chinese family in Northeastern China and believed the paths to success were education and “golden bowls” (means a job that you get to keep for a lifetime), so entrepreneurship was never really on her radar. 

When she decided to quit her job to start her business, her mum cried for months telling her that she was “destroying her golden life”. Over the course of a mid-career gap-year, Joly travelled around the world alone, seeking new experiences, and opportunities that would revive a sense of purpose in her life. Rather than feeling “trapped” in a job that couldn’t give her what she wanted anymore, she decided to create something that would help her, and women like her as they went on their own personal journeys. 

Joly Zou started her company Solocal Travel to empower women to explore, learn and grow via travelling. A former Global Marketing Manager for Microsoft, Joly decided to use her skills to build a platform that would represent her and her hopes for society. She sought to create a world in which women can feel connected, safe and able to explore and learn about different community and cultures while making a positive impact on the local community. 

With no experience in entrepreneurship, Joly was left with the myths and legends rather than practical startup knowledge. When she went full steam ahead into the entrepreneurship world with her skills as a corporate employee, she found that the same rules didn’t apply. She no longer had a large budget and a large team implementing on her behalf. It was all on her. To help her deal with her new reality and to learn ways people building startups actually make a success of them, she decided to join the Hatch BAME Female Founders Incubator.

Founder, Particle6

Eline van der Velden

“Our last quarter was our most successful quarter last year. I think that’s because of the course”

Eline, an award-winning Actress/Writer/Director and ex-Managing Director of Makers, joined the programme to scale Particle 6, an award-winning media production company that brings a science perspective to complex stories and makes them accessible and entertaining.

Particle 6 was in its second year when Eline joined the programme, and while the company survived early rough patches, “there was no structure, and that wasn’t very scalable,” reflects Eline. But, Particle 6 was growing fast. It had made its first international sale earlier in 2018, and although equity investors were showing interest, “I was very anti raising money” says Eline, “I didn’t know how or why anyone would give me money.”

“I was looking for an accelerator programme in order for me to really be that next level leader.”

But, finding the right accelerator was a problem, “There was nowhere to give me any guidance, any structure whatsoever. Nothing to help me that was reasonably priced”.

“Somebody suggested Hatch, and it turned out really well” says Eline, “the content of the course was really at a level of high-achieving people and it was very beneficial for me”.

Specialist financial mentoring provided Eline with the skills and confidence she needed to work with investors. “Jess was phenomenal. She really knew about the stuff that I needed to learn about.” As a result of Hatch’s support, Eline created a Board of Advisors who have been given options to raise finance for Particle 6. “I was able to negotiate these options with my advisors very confidently because thanks to the support I received from the FFA Programme. I also knew what the company was worth because I’d been able to do a valuation thanks to the financial projections I did. This is all because of the course. Six months earlier I had no idea what my company might be valued at.”

The programme provided space to reflect, and expert guidance, helping Eline to step back, and “take more of that visionary role into the future and ensure that top-level company stuff is sorted out and not the day-to-day running of it”. As a result, Eline implemented a new structure at Particle 6, adding full-time employees to the pre-existing pool of freelancers.

The course brought a host of unexpected benefits for Eline and her whole team. Her programme attendance created an absence from the office, which meant Eline had to delegate more responsibility and her employees developed greater independence. “It was nice for them that it was forced in this way, otherwise it probably wouldn’t have happened.” Eline’s course attendance also brought a fresh enthusiasm to Particle 6, “I had lists and lists of all these things I wanted to do and I never normally would have that.  I’d come in Monday morning and be “This is what we need to work on.”

The company has benefitted in other ways too.  Two employees attended a sales mentoring session with Eline, and, implementing ‘really good suggestions’ from experts, Particle 6 overhauled its website.

Eline’s experience of Female Founders’ Accelerator has shifted her previously sceptical approach to training, and her team is benefitting. “ I’ve realised the power in training. I have these four managers at the top, just underneath me – I’ve put some management training in for them.”

“A lot has changed since I’ve done the programme.” says Eline, looking back on her experience. “I have more of a hold on the business and can think further into the future”

Founder of Hemp & Williams

Shaine Williams

Shaine Williams first had the idea to start a dairy free ice cream business when he ventured into a vegan diet and noticed a lack of vegan friendly options. After much experimenting with ingredients and processes, the 24 year old finally landed on an organic, vegan, dairy free, hemp based ice cream. At this stage, Shaine admits, “I was an idealistic kid with a pipe-dream”. He had very little money, no clear direction and no resources. Shaine worked at a security job to cover his basic living expenses and was in receipt of housing benefits but he was desperate to break out of the social security system and to be his own boss.

“I enrolled in a Lambeth enterprise programme but abandoned it soon after because I could not relate to the general, classroom style teaching.” But this did not discourage him from trying another one, and this time he found a fit with Hatch Enterprise. As a young entrepreneur in Lambeth Shaine received full bursaries for Hatch’s Launchpad then Incubator Programme, where he clarified his idea, created a business model, and tested both his product and business. Shaine reflects fondly on his time at Hatch as an important period for learning and personal growth.

Since graduating Shaine has devoted himself to finalising branding and selling under his new brand Hemp and Williams. “It’s been a learning curve. I never knew how many steps were involved.” He has been in contact with retailers and restaurants around South London and hopes to secure markets for the summer. “Ice-cream isn’t the easiest sell in winter so I’m gearing up for summer when I can make the best impression.”

Despite living at home, he, like so many other entrepreneurs, works part-time to sustain himself and his business. But he is looking forward to the day where he can invest all his energy in his business. “I truly believe that people should be doing what they are passionate about.”

In February 2017 Shaine was awarded £800 through Hatch’s Opportunity Fund, which he intends to put towards branding and insurance costs. He also recently had an investment offer of £10,000 – an incredible accomplishment so early on! As is the case with young entrepreneurs, Shaine has no shortage of spirit, energy and dedication. Now equipped with practical business knowledge, a mentors and a supportive community he feels he can stand as an entrepreneur and follow his passion.

Founder, Young Mums Support Network

Fiona Small

“The reason why I support young mums is because ‘society’ has really labelled them as ‘the bottom of the pile’. They’re very socially isolated and excluded.”

In 2016 Fiona applied to our Incubator programme with those words: ‘’I need to develop a solid infrastructure that will allow for this model to scale, develop a commercial strategy which in return allows us to become sustainable. I need help with developing a training programme and accrediting the four programmes we currently have.’’

She shared with us “14 years ago, a single mum myself with mental health issues, I had nowhere to turn to, to get support. I was frightened that speaking about mental health would put my child at risk.” It was a long path for her to build her resilience to ‘warrior’ level but when she reached it, she started her movement! She created 4 programmes to help young mums deal with motherhood, especially for those who are single parents. She had the enthusiasm, the skills, the experience but YMSN lacked a social business model, especially seeking to develop sustainable revenue streams.

Through our 3-month Incubator programme and the twelve intensive weeks post-programme mentoring, Fiona took all vital parts of the programme on board, especially around building a cash flow forecast, business & financial modelling, pitching for funding and fundraising. Through our mentorship programme, she was matched with a mentor from Deutsche Bank to help her develop her social enterprise. In 2016, YMSN had a small turnover of less than £1000, which has grown to just under £12,000 in 2017 and is set to triple for the financial year 2018/19. Fiona recently secured a 3-year contract with a large housing association to support young moms in Wandsworth and has secured her own space called the YMSN Hub via a crowdfunding campaign. With the new space, she can support more moms back into education, training and employment but also have a social space to bring them together.

Since she graduated from our programme, she had the honour to visit number 10 Downing Street, got featured on BBC’s website, BBC Radio 5 live, and the Guardian Online. She developed partnerships with the NHS, Metropolitan Housing Association and TFL, created pathways into employment with the British Transport Museum for mums and developed a work experience scheme with Lloyds Bank. Fiona is currently on a capacity building programme with a Hatch partner to explore her social impact and evaluation framework, a cornerstone to secure social finance and to help her support more young moms in the future.

Founder, School Ground Sounds

Tom Scott

Hatch has been instrumental in where SGS is today. The team has supported us with securing funding, helped with communicating our offer in a clear way and pointed us towards a range of helpful local opportunities.

When Tom joined the Hatch Incubator in 2015 his social enterprise was little more than an idea, but with a strong methodology of using music to help young people from disadvantaged areas succeed in the education system. We advised him on his legal structure, but with everything having to be set-up from scratch, our pro-bono law partner Skadden did most of the heavy lifting.

Through the Incubator programme we helped him refine his business model, we also accompanied Tom through our mentorship programme. Hatch continued to share ways to engage corporate funders, a model Tom was keen to try. In 2016 a corporate partner, “Orbit Sounds”, came on board donating a percentage of revenue for every product sold to the charity. In the four years of operation, SGS have received a total of £200,000 in funding, including £100,000 in grants from trusts and foundations.

SGS now has an impact on 350 young people across 50 schools in London. SGS has been featured in various publications and has appeared on Sky News recently to comment on a report about the worsening state of music education.

Founder, Piece of the Puzzle

Toby Lyons

I now feel that I am able to clearly articulate the steps needed to reach my business goals. I am very close to launching my venture in the first partner country.

Toby joined Hatch Incubator Cohort 9 (February to May 2017) with his non-profit organisation “Piece of The Puzzle”, a fundraising platform for grassroots educational charities around the world. With a background in international development, Toby had identified local, community driven charities to be among those that deliver excellent standards of childcare and education in developing-world countries, despite remaining underfunded and underexposed. Piece of the Puzzle’s aim is to connect tourists and people that travel and want to donate to the local community via the beneficiary charities in a transparent way, in order to increase access to and quality of education around the world.

The organisation was at a very early stage when Toby decided to embark on a journey with Hatch; he had just started connecting donors (friends and family) with charities in Goa which has helped a charity to pay for 5 children’s tuition fees. He was going through a tough time himself, being unemployed and looking for part time or full time work to support himself while continuing with his venture.

Hatch provided him with a bursary that allowed him to keep working on his project and to focus on the challenges he was facing. At that time Toby had just recruited his first corporate partner and wanted to be accountable to them. He was also willing to understand how to raise funds for Piece of the Puzzle to make the business sustainable.

Since completing the 12-week Hatch Incubator, Toby has made huge progress: he has not only grown his network (thanks to his mentor and to the connections made at Hatch Pitch Day) but he has also grown in confidence.

Founder, Make Do And Mend

Sarah Bennett

I gained the confidence to make important business decisions that were coming up at that time.

When Sarah joined the Female Founders Accelerator in February 2017 she was struggling with deciding how she wanted to grow her business.

During the course she was given the opportunity to relocate to a larger retail space and found the course extremely applicable to her move. Expanding her business alongside the course was helpful, as the workshops addressed the points of transition she was struggling with most.

Sarah’s coaching allowed her to delve deeper into the topics most important to her and to set up good processes for sustainable growth. “The FFA really helped me realise what areas of my business needed more attention. It also forced me to take time away from the shop and really look at my business. This was initially quite challenging but I quickly learned how crucial it is if you want your business to grow. I’ve recently employed someone so I can dedicate time to continuing this practice!

Founder, Nude Nutrition

Katherine Kimber

Wow, I’ve ticked off everything that was a problem when I first came to the course

After qualifying as a Registered Dietician in 2013 Katherine worked for the NHS and in a private practice, juggling work with high-level competitive road-cycling. Searching for a more stimulating career, and a flexible lifestyle that allowed her to travel, Katherine created Nude Nutrition in 2017.  Nude Nutrition provides personalised 1-1 nutrition advice and coaching.

“I always knew I wanted to work for myself but I didn’t think I’d do it this early,” says Katherine, who quit her job in 2018 to focus full-time on Nude Nutrition.

“I knew I had a big mountain ahead of me. I had the time and energy to do it, but I didn’t know where to go with it. I didn’t know where to start with it, I didn’t know what was a priority, what was important, what was not important.” Feeling overwhelmed and needing to connect with a community of entrepreneurs, Katherine searched for the right accelerator programme, and found Hatch’s Female Founders’ Accelerator.

When she joined the programme, Nude Nutrition provided general services and Katherine had decided to focus in on niche services – but was unclear about how to position herself. As a result of the expert session, “I properly landscaped out my competitors, which I’d never done before…that’s helped me decide on my next steps”.

Branding mentoring clarified Nude Nutrition’s direction and branding – “Someone else has confirmed to me that what I’m doing is fine, and the way I’m talking about it is fine. That was a huge thing hanging over my shoulders, and when I had that clarified, I felt free”.

The programme’s marketing mentor ‘helped me with going through my website, front-end, and saying you should move this around, basically looking at my digital ecosystem with me’.  The immediate impact was impressive: website hits more than doubled, organic searches doubled, the website bounce rate dropped by 10%, and online course subscriptions have more than doubled. “I’m getting lots of new enquiries coming through” says Katherine, and “newsletter subscribers are rapidly increasing”.

It’s not all been plain sailing though. The conversion process is slower and focussing on a niche has meant a short-term sacrifice, notes Katherine, but sales mentoring has helped. “He was just brilliant. He helped me with structuring my sales calls, because that’s one of the core things for me”.

“During the course, I felt like I had that connection and community” says Katherine, “and anything I got really stuck on, I had the 1-1 sessions, and I could iron everything out”.  “Knowing I was on a programme, and getting support made me feel really relaxed. It calmed me down a bit… I thought, ‘right, I’m dealing with all of this’”.

Other female founders provided inspiration, reassurance, and a sounding board, while expert advice helped Katherine think differently about doing business and discover new ways of doing things. After the HR session, Katherine hired a remote intern who helped develop a content strategy for Nude Nutrition, and provides accountability for Katherine. “Now, I have someone that’s knowledgeable about this kind of stuff. It feels like I’ve had a weight off my shoulders to allow me to do the bigger picture stuff and think more about the bigger picture and strategy and driving forward,” reflects Katherine, “I’d have never had done that without the course – I didn’t know any of that was possible.”

Katherine also has a much better grip on her finances. “I didn’t have anything in place for that, I didn’t recognise the importance of financial forecasting. I’d looked back at what I’d achieved, but not really looked forward. Now, I feel that I have more targets for every month, and for the year ahead – what do I want to achieve and why.”

“There was no single thing, but the collection of everything” says Katherine, on how the course helped her and the hard work she put in along the way. “It’s been a slow grind. And me slowly chipping away every day at something.” And Katherine’s efforts have paid off. “Towards the end of the course I looked back at my notebook from the beginning and then I realised that I’d addressed everything”.

Katherine’s excited about the future, with fresh ideas about moving Nude Nutrition towards a product-based model. “It feels like I’ve started from the beginning.  But it feels like I’m getting more interest, and I feel like I’ve got more direction. I know where I’m going, I just need time.”

Founder, Skin Mama

Sahra Mohamed

My experience on the incubator has been absolutely incredible! The knowledge, support and networks I have gained have been invaluable to the re-branding and structuring of my business.

Sahra’s interview on BBC4

Sahra Mohamed started her beauty company Skin Mama to create a sustainable livelihood for female farmers in Somalia.

The company’s philosophy is to produce ethical and environmentally responsible products so that beauty buyers in the UK can become empowered by the knowledge that feeling good, can, and in this case does, equate to doing good.

Sahra holds a First Class BSc in Biomedical Science and is a UCL Academic Merit Scholarship recipient in Advanced Biomedical Imaging having worked on new software to aid early lung cancer detection. While she was at university, she became a self-taught data scientist and programmer as well as a volunteer Business Intelligence Data Analyst within the NHS. Since graduating, she has worked with organisations like M&C Saatchi, Nesta and Tech Nation on their data policies and innovation tools. Sahra is a high achiever and has been able to turn her academic experiences, including a research project on the experiences of farmers in dry areas in Somalia, to good use in her business.

As a member of the African diaspora and a Muslim woman, Sahra expressed that she continually found it difficult to find an understanding and representative community in her professional career. Drawn to social entrepreneurship and seeking organisations that could help her better produce social impact through her product-based business, Sahra naturally applied to our BAME Female Founders Incubator.

When she joined Sahra was selling her product very organically to family members, friends of friends and through her personal network. The programme gave her the confidence to build a brand around her product. She had the chance to pitch it multiple time at Academy London (google space for learning) and at eBay, giving her the opportunity to present her business to experts in her field.

Since leaving the program, Sahra has attended several in-person sales exhibitions as a vendor for the first time and has officially launched her brand online. We helped her being featured on BBC Radio London, and we matched her with a former Boots beauty director to help her get her products in those and many other physical and online retail stores. There are many great things coming up for SkinMama in the coming months, but more than that, we’re excited about the future Sahra is creating in Somalia through her beauty brand.

Founder, Camberwell Fair/ Wormfood Music

Andre Marmout

Working with Dirk has been amazing because he understood what we wanted to do and applied his knowledge around fundraising, impact measurement and evaluation to ensure we’re doing the right things when it came to raising money and reporting on our outcomes. We secured over £100,000 in the last 3 years and we are excited to continue our work.

From 1279 to 1855, Camberwell Fair was held every August. A local Committee for the Abolition of Camberwell Fair was set up by prominent residents who pressurised the parish authorities into buying the Green and closing down the fair with the help of the police. When Andre came to Hatch with Wormfood Music, he also came with a special project: To revive the Camberwell Fair.

We worked with him to assess his funding options and helped structure funding proposals to Southwark Council and the Arts Council. We went through the economic planning of the fair, establishing a business case for it and what the provided funding would return to Camberwell in terms of a social return on investment. Hatch also helped plan the evaluation of the fair, ensuring that funding reports and impact measurements were incorporated from the onset.

With the approval of the funding and securing additional private sponsors, 2015 saw the revival of Camberwell Fair and 2016 its continuation. Over 3,500 people joined on the day, with over 70% of them being from the local community. Over 80% of people who were surveyed said they enjoyed the fair because “something was happening again in Camberwell and it brought the community together.” The fair also involved many local organisations such as the Camberwell School of Arts, The Remakery, local designers and artists.