Job Squad & Ignite Accelerator: 12 weeks of learning, growth and new friendships
Wow! 3 months really has gone by in a flash! During our time on Ignite Accelerator in Manchester, we’ve met over 50 mentors, attended over 40 workshops and drank over 200 cans of Red Bull (Benjamin Gibbs probably drank just that alone!). We’re incredibly proud of how far we’ve come during the programme and have created lifelong friendships with the other 8 teams who we shared the highs and lows of every day with. Here’s a few of our thoughts in writing, a few thank you’s and a link to our final presentation :-)
Failing fast is definitely a good thing
The mentoring sessions right at the beginning of the programme were everything we needed to invalidate our previous business idea (onShowcase) and fail fast as quickly as possible.
Not only did we test our assumptions, we also tested the assumptions our customers were making about why they wanted to use our product — this enabled us to realise our customers’ motivations were misinformed and allowed us to see that our potential market size was significantly smaller than we first thought.
Failing fast at the end of Week 2 allowed us to move on quickly and find a new, bigger problem to solve.
Working on something you’re super passionate about is important
Accelerators definitely live up to their name — having been through more than one accelerator now, I can’t say enough how much of your life they take up while you’re on them. Living and breathing your startup is the norm; make sure you are passionate about your ideas and the problem you want to solve.
Together, our background and passion has always been hospitality —we had a previous startup in this space, have worked in this industry for years, and naturally, we shifted our ideas towards solving a hospitality problem from our own past experience.
You could feel the passion when the other founders’ talked about their businesses — to a point where on the Showcase Evening, everyone was immensely proud of each other and how far we’d all come.
Customer conversations are absolutely key
Once we had decided on a rough direction with Job Squad, we spoke to over 50 hospitality venues, recruitment agencies and current temporary workers to get a deep insight into existing processes, the technology landscape and pain points.
Every conversation we had added more detail to the bigger picture — allowing us to shape what Job Squad needed to be to become the “Rightmove for Temporary Staffing”. These conversations were with people who were having the problem we wanted to solve, which meant they were extremely valuable to our learning and thought processes.
‘The Cohort Effect’ means everyone helps each other
It sounds cliché, but accelerators really do foster an environment where it’s okay for everyone to ask for help from everyone else — whether it be in Slack channel (usually via GIF’s - Ian Cornwell) or in person in the office. On many occasions you’d find teams staying late to solve another teams problems — or coaching another team at their desk about something they needed advice on, like marketing and Facebook Ads.
Gabriela Matic wrote about ‘The Ignite Effect’ in a blog post below.
Our network of mentors just got a whole lot bigger
Despite being based in Manchester the majority of the time, we also ventured out to London three times during the programme too which means our network of mentors (from Ignite) and people who support both the programme and alumni companies spans across the UK. In London, we met over 20 mentors and attended at least 4 workshops — the most memorable ones being a lively Branding session with Gabbi Cahane and presentations by the teams in David Pritchard’s Unit Economics session.
Ignite support never really ends ❤
While the formal programme content has finished, the Ignite network still exists for all of the alumni companies as we grow. Thank you to Tristan Watson, Gabriela Matic, Flossie Hunt and Martyn Davies for pulling together an awesome programme — and to Tom New, Howard Kingston and Deb McGargle for their constant support as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence.
3-minute Job Squad Presentation
Here’s a link to our final presentation at the end of the Ignite programme — it explains in 3 minutes what Job Squad is and where we are heading. We’re currently busy building tech, securing partnerships and getting ourselves investment ready. Sharing of the video is much appreciated!
If you have any questions about our experience on Ignite Accelerator or about Job Squad, please get in touch. You can reach me on Twitter at AthenaTrophy or via instant messaging on our website!
