Isla Featherstone-Clark

We really need to improve the pipeline of young talent, especially those with disadvantaged backgrounds going into tech! 👊🏼 I'm really excited about this episode, there's so much epic stuff included and lots of small wins that local companies could do to support the next gen in tech! I sat down with Henry Jones from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to discuss loads around social mobility, the South West peninsular, diversity in tech and some ideas on how to close the ever growing digital skills gap in the UK! "Work experience is one of the big things I’m looking at, specifically year 10 work experience. My report lays out eight things that we really need to do to improve the pipeline of young talent, especially those with disadvantaged backgrounds going into tech, and number one is more year 10 work experience programs within tech!‘’ Dropping on Wednesday 5th June. 🎙 Tech4Good South West 💚 #techforgood #impact #socialmobility #southwest

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"You need to buy more technology, or your recruitment will fail." I've heard this countless times, especially about AI-driven tech. Quite frankly, it's B$! Technology isn't always the answer to every problem your business has. But if it is, then getting the right piece of technology in play is absolutely critical. With the market flooded with new tech, how on earth does anyone even begin to navigate that minefield? Join me on Friday, June 7th, at the TEAM Network annual conference. I'll be swapping my Boolean hat for that of an operational consultant and procurement specialist — a role many might not know I have. During the 30-minute talk, you will learn how to: 🔥 Identify where the true roadblocks exist in your recruitment process 🔥 Navigate the sea of technology to find the right piece for you 🔥 Become empowered to own the procurement process and not get caught up in "magpie syndrome" Don't miss this chance to cut through the noise and make smart, strategic decisions. See you there! PS not able to attend, drop me a DM and I can share a quick tip sheet.

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Who the hell are these jokers? Here's how you find out (and get loads more insight on AI, business, when tech goes wrong and a tone more interesting stuff) head over to https://lnkd.in/exkMZneM and sign up for the best 5 minutes of AI-ness you'll get this week, or any week. Every week. Including the odd AI art piece that terrifies and arouses in equal measure. Also if you actually have any idea who these people are. Let me or Tom Head know. Ta. #beginswithb

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If the 'A' in A-Team means AWESOME... I'm towards the end of finalising a grant application but a few weeks ago, I was beginning to feel really anxious about the huge amount of additional work this added to my load 😥 As soon as I mentioned we were applying for this grant, my team were straight on it with where they could help, who they could speak to on my behalf, and organising meetings between themselves to help, and making themselves available. Yesterday, I was at an event which went on longer than anticipated so I couldn't make our weekly stand down, but the meeting went ahead without me and a summary was posted in our Slack. ✨🙌 Now, you're probably reading this thinking I've hired a great bunch of people. I wish I could afford to but I'm not impervious to the challenges of raising investment at pre-revenue stage. (Do not even get me started on the inequities that exist! That's for another post.) 👉 None of my team are employed by me, they all work remotely, on a fractional basis. They're investing their time, skills and expertise for sweat equity because they want Sweqlink to succeed, and believe I'm the right person to lead us to that. But they also get to experience the thrills of entrepreneurship in a way that works for them. If we want to work with top talent, we have to be open to the idea that building a team doesn't have to mean employing. If you've never read the book 'Drive' by Daniel Pink, I'd highly recommend it - it speaks about motivation and reward. Sweat equity isn't for everyone, but for those who are interested, we're building the place where you can find opportunities and get the support you need to share in a venture 🌱🌞 Follow us on here or subscribe to my email list (link in comments) 👇 [��� Picture of me on the rooftop terrace at KPMG while my team have it all in hand] #sweatequity #startuptalent #fractional #entrepreneurship

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How did HUEL achieve 4.2 ROAS at 39% lower CPA? (Hint: It rhymes with Ads) I've been advising the team at 222 for a month now, they're the best at creating Ads that convert. Their work with HUEL is a great example of that. See the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/ey-rnkfS The context: ↳ Huel had high CPAs and wasn’t able to scale profitably across paid social. The problem: ↳ Users weren’t taking action from the ad creatives. ↳ Their CTRs and ROAS targets were far from being met. ↳ They needed new ad creatives that converted within their target metrics. The solution: ↳ 222 started the conversation with Huel and performed a full creative analysis. ↳ Within a week, we started producing 30+ ad creatives in a trial package. The result: ↳ Best performance results they had ever seen. 39% lower CPA. ↳ CTR, ROAS, and CPA all exceeded targets. 4.2 ROAS. ↳ They were now able to scale profitably again. Happy days! 222 ended up partnering with Huel on a longer-term deal, involving 75+ creatives delivered each month. So if you're also looking for some awesome performance Ads and improve your CAC... Get in touch with the team at 222 📞 (see link above) Or drop me a DM and I'll put you in touch + a good word for a discount 📥

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Much to the surprise of no one, most conversations I have with customers these days are about GAI. I've been working in the talent space for a while now, and this is the first time I've seen such a rapid pace of change and discussion around new tech. Honestly, the sheer amount of information out there can be overwhelming. That's why it was so good to sit in on our recent audio event  AI in Action: Practical Applications for Recruiters https://lnkd.in/eMgtze6a.  where Ashvin Vaidyanathan, LinkedIn’s vice president of customer success and services, spoke with Faye Walshe, director of innovation and AI at Robert Walters, and Dan Schawbel Schawbel, managing partner of Workplace Intelligence. They all did an incredible job of breaking down how recruiters, in fact all of us can start leveraging GAI. I especially loved Dan's point about how GAI levels the playing field: Smaller staffing firms can scale more easily with fewer resources, while larger firms become leaner and more efficient. It's a win-win for productivity across the board. I highly recommend reading the article below for those who missed the event or want to want to dig into the practical tips for recruiters. It was great working with you on this Sheila Azadan Valerie St. John Bruce M. Anderson Laura Hilgers Jennifer Gronski 👇 https://lnkd.in/et6tHZRf

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In my line of work I often see people in very vulnerable states…. …about to pitch on stage, finding the courage to make that first sales call or coming to the realisation that the idea they thought was great…wasn’t actually so great. The knocks are hard, the pressure is real. Entrepreneurship is often falling hard and falling fast. And letting go of the ego is an absolute must 👌🏼 Love this. #entrepreneurship #startup #growthmindset #founder #growth

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𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗴𝗼 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 Two things happened yesterday that inspired me to talk about this. One was listening to Gary Goldsmith's recent podcast, and the pride that he took in being a sales person. The other was discussing a founding sales vacancy with a great tech start up, where a salary couldn't be offered. Why? They needed to sell something to be able to pay them (chicken or egg). If I could give advice to any budding entrepreneur, university leaver or bloke down the pub it would be learn how to sell! It's the most crucial skill in any business, and without it the business will fail. And if you have those skills, be proud of them because it probably took a lot of hard work to get there. Happy Friday! #NineTech #Saasales #Techrecruitment #Manchestertech

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As much as I love using AI tools, they primarily serve as entertainment for me. But for some, a virtual voice isn't just a diversion but a defining representation of their core identity. When Stephen Hawking was asked why he stuck with the robotic voice, even as synthesizers improved, Hawking said it was part of his identity and changing it would be like a singer adopting a new voice. Thankfully, things have moved on since then, and student Daniel Challis was able to build a synthetic voice courtesy of 'donor' Eli Lane after being fed up with "sounding like a robot". And this is just the start. Modular voices today, brain-computer interfaces and powered exoskeletons tomorrow. So much great technology has come from improving accessibility for those most in need, and AI will make a massive difference in the lives of many in the years to come. #voice #ai #cerebralpalsy #accessibility

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5️⃣ reasons its Great News IT Consultancies are hiring ✅ I always say consultancies are the barometer of the tech job market, here’s why: 1.      They don’t hire (in numbers) if they don’t have a good sales pipeline * -         Which obv means their clients are committing to spend 💰 2.      If they’re recruiting their bench is close to fully utilised. 3.      There is confidence in the market and economy 📈 4.      They and their customers are confident in the technology being implemented. 5.      If / when people join them it creates demand/roles in other businesses = diversity of opportunity in the market! Generally I think when consultancies are hiring its a sign the market is on the up! Agree ❓ Disagree ❓ *when taking attrition out of the conversation 

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Your meetings cost how much?! I recently sat with Lachlan Nicolson where he showed me the calculator he built in minutes using ChatGPT. The calculator helps anyone work out the cost of a meeting in seconds. Why? • 7 out of 10 employees feel their time is squandered in meetings • Up to 45% of meeting serve no purpose at all. Read that again. This calculator came together in a matter of minutes to demonstrate value to clients. Lachlan used a clear process: 1. Give ChatGPT a link (or image) with the inspiration for the project 2. Clearly set the criteria for success. The calculator should calculate X by doing Y. 3. ChatGPT should reply first with the exact specification of what it is going to code (for feedback) before starting to code. Could you be doing the same? Check out the calculator at leaderguide [dot] com [dot] au/meeting-calculator. #ai #smallbusiness #entrepreneurship *** If this resonates, repost to share with others ♻️ and follow for more in the future. 

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Hello Mr Blue Sky 😎, we've seen a 35% increase demand, a number of C-Suite pitches, plus lots of new roles, and a couple of key hiring projects. The current climate is challenging, it’s not been "normal" for quite some time, and we will not see balance until next year. It's been hard for the last year or so as we experienced a confluence of economic factors: Over-hiring in 2021 and 2022 and the subsequent tech layoffs Rising inflation and interest rates Two unforeseen conflicts These factors have resulted in low investment and, perhaps more significantly, a pervasive sense of uncertainty. This is why we’re seeing poor decision making throughout drawn-out interview processes (everyone is too worried about making mistakes), tough hiring briefs with overly specific job specifications and just general caution throughout. However, there’s a silver lining. Inflation is on the decline, interest rate cuts have been hinted at, and we’re likely to have a new government soon. These changes should help unlock investment, boost confidence, and reignite growth. Everyday I now see more "Congrats on the fund raising", "I've got a job" and "I'm hiring" posts here on Linked in, than I see "#opentowork" and "lay-off and redundancy posts" - I can't remember the last time i saw one of those spreadsheets with all the released employees. Am I just feeling too blue sky, big yellow sun, and happy this morning 😎 What are you seeing? #economy #hiring #tech #growth #confidence #investment #jobmarket numi

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Last week, just one of the incredibly impactful businesses I came across for a second time, at ClimbUK, is zally® I first heard founder patrick zmith’s story at a Barclays Eagle Labs x Plexal event last month and it resonated with me, deeply, having lost my father suddenly in 2015 and with him losing access to emails and other personal, password protected online accounts. zally is on a mission to eradicate the need for passwords completely, which currently lose businesses money in abandoned carts, facilitate online payment fraud expected to amount to $58.36b in 2024 - and of course add challenges to the elderly, people with disabilities or families trying to recover accounts of unwell or passed loved ones. As a marketeer, I couldn’t pass up the chance to scribble my ad concept on my way home from the event. Disclaimer: I am not a designer 😅 So, team zally®, how did I do? One interesting statistic I discovered is that in the U.K., people spend on average 11 days and 17 hours during their lifetime resetting passwords 🤯🤯 I regularly forget passwords and am well on my way to this figure, so am cheering zally on in making a huge impact in this space 🚀 Get early access to their incredible app here: https://lnkd.in/evnunqsK 👀

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We didn’t get it right. When we launched our activity app for inactive students, everything was going to plan. With hundreds of users joining the platform within the first weeks and 90% of them being inactive, we thought we had cracked the code of user engagement on our first go 💪 But as the hype of freshers died down and the months went by, our user data dropped 📉 We knew students became less active around exam season but seeing it happen with our users was gutting. We had to do something radical, something to win back our users and provide new inspiration to get active on the platform. Thomas Abrahams and I sat scratching our heads and then it hit us. What if we rewarded students to move? We’ve seen the benefits of rewarding students to boost engagement, and we would not be the first to try it. But we wanted to do things differently and, importantly, keep it cost-free for the universities. We reached out to a bunch of local companies, including a very popular chicken establishment, asking if they wanted to join forces to tackle student inactivity. They agreed and became our sponsors, supplying us with top prizes for our giveaway. Our engagement skyrocketed, beating the data we received at launch and getting hundreds of students moving! 🌟 Building an app for students was never going to be easy, especially when trying to tackle some of the biggest problems in universities, however with a bit of creativity and grit we are one step closer. Let’s work together to build effective products that create REAL impact and truly tackle the student inactivity crisis. Get in touch for more on our product, YouPlus 😁 #university #appdevelopment #innovation #creativity #mentalhealth

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As we all wait for the onslaught of 'what did England's loss last night teach me about B2B sales & marriage', here are some random thoughts I've been thinking: - I set out on a mission to post on LinkedIn everyday. I did pretty well. Got to about two weeks ago and floundered. Why? My strategy was to be as original as I possibly could and simply start writing what ever came to my mind at 8am every weekday. Good for a while but without proper systems in place it was doomed to fail. Expect a more strategic and consistent stream of consciousness once the YBIE rebrand is complete. - is Nike f*cked? Lots of news stories about their failed D2C strategy, waining cultural relevance and stock price decline. If this anecdital data point is of any use. I counted the number of people wearing Nike trainers at the Voyado run club last week. It was less than 3. Hoka, On and Brooks stole the show. So it is curious that Nike seemed to have missed this rub club wave which you would have argued they should have created. - I've been blown away by the recent product developments at Shopify and Figma. Like, insane. The design and build world is accelerating at lightening speed. I'm still unsure what this means for agencies in the next 2-5 yrs. My sense is that it will impact the middle the most. That is, brands already on Shopify who know there way around the platform and have some design ability in house. It will have less of an impact on new GTM brands and the bigger dogs. In saying that, Figma did disable their Ai feature so who knows 🤷‍♀️ - to counter the above, we've been going deep on 'brand worlds'. What is a brand world? It is a comprehensive approach to creating an immersive and cohesive brand experience that extends beyond traditional marketing and advertising. Why is it important? Potentially an antidote to commodified design and dev powered by automation. I still think humans with taste dictate a brand world strategy. - it only just dawned on me that Claude trumps Chat on brand. And in a world of increasing Ai ubiquity, that is a genius move. Take this comment with a pinch of salt. I am a pretentious East London dweller so this sort of things appeals to me, not the general business community. That's all for Today. #digitalthoughts

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Don’t let your CV read like a bland and boring job description 🥱 It’s unique – so make it stand out 🌟 Highlight what you're proud of 💪 The impact you've made in previous roles 📈 Focus on quantifiable achievements rather than bullet-pointing a list of responsibilities 📊 Excite the buyer about what it’s selling – YOU 🫵

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⭐ Do any of my UK connections/investors/VC's want a HUGE discount on this year's tax bill? ⭐ As Co-Founder, CMO of Crumbless AI, we've got some exciting investment news to share with you all. For those who've connected with myself and Oliver Pearn recently, will know firsthand the immense dedication and hard work we've poured into Crumbless AI. Our journey has been filled with passion and ambition as we strive to achieve our ambitious global goals. Our vision is clear: to pave the way for a privacy first Crumbless future to digital advertising. However, even the most dedicated teams sometimes need a helping hand to reach their full potential. That's why we're thrilled to announce an opportunity for support from the UK government, offering exciting perks for our backers. So, what's all the fuss about!! Together, we're building something extraordinary at Crumbless AI, and we invite you to be a part of our journey. Drumroll pleassse🥁: The #SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) If you want to channel your inner Dragon and invest in startups, SEIS is your golden ticket. Here’s why: 1️⃣ 50% Income Tax Relief: Invest in SEIS-eligible companies (like ours 😉), and you can claim back 50% of your investment against your UK income tax. That's like the government saying, "Thanks for supporting innovation, here’s a nice fat check!" 2️⃣ No Capital Gains #Tax: Hold your #SEIS shares for more than three years and say goodbye to Capital Gains Tax on any profits. It's like watching your money grow in a tax-free bubble. 3️⃣ Loss Relief: #Startups are risky, but fear not! If the investment doesn’t go as planned, you can claim loss relief against your other income. It’s like a safety net for your adventurous spirit. So, if any of my network wants to understand more about #SEIS, or chat to me about Crumbless AI you can do so by doing one or all of the following: 🚀 Come to this fun event on Thursday 11th, July and watch Oliver Pearn pitch the Crumbless AI AdTech/MarTech solution: https://lu.ma/us6whota 🚀 Drop me a DM message and I’ll be happy to send you a pitch deck 🚀 Email: andrew@crumbless.ai 🚀 Book an investment meeting with Crumbless AI: https://shorturl.at/eU1jA Cookies are the past, Crumbless AI is the future. #SEIS #TaxSavings #StartupLife #InvestInCrumblessAI #AdTech #MarTech

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There is a big difference between UK & EU companies vs US companies when it comes to their chances of disrupting an industry. I hope it's changing as we certainly haven't seen more scepticism of our ambition for Kaiya in the UK & EU versus the US. Monzo's co-founder, Tom Blomfield, highlights the reality eloquently. We believe that Kaiya.ai will drive dramatic improvement for Executive Search: -The firms -The clients -Their candidates But as a UK startup, we face an uphill struggle. An obvious example is investment. Whilst funding shouldn't be the marker for success for a company (I believe customers are), it's highly likely that at Kaiya.ai we'll face competitors with 10x the funding from the US. We're lucky in the UK (can't speak to the rest of Europe) as we have a mature supportive Angel and VC industry. But it's not the US... We faced this at Exonar- if we raised £10m in an investment round, US-based competitors raised £100m (and more). That has a real impact when hiring and scaling. I wholeheartedly believe that we have the skills to build world-beating startups in the UK and Europe. I really do. But how do we shift our culture so more are encouraged to take the necessary risks (customers, coworkers, investors) to change an industry? What do you think needs to change?

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Close to breaking through the 400 mark for users of our Harrier Candidates platform - think Glassdoor for Law! Working on one of my favourite parts of the job right now: a client has created a role in the platform and is using our industry specific search filters to find relevant (but anonymised to combat unconscious bias) candidates and reach out with CV Requests, but we're also flagging a couple of candidates slightly outside those parameters who we think are a good fit. In this particular case it's because there are some candidates who have told us they have some flexibility on desired salary based on a company's funding stage, or the balance between base and commission. Not only is this process totally transparent, it's half the cost of using a traditional agency and as we grow we're looking for ways to bring costs down further still. If you're in the business of hiring lawyers, commercial/non-commercial LegalTech roles or Legal Ops/Business Services professionals do book in a chat with me so we can explore a model that works for you. Link in comments. We've also lined up some initial membership benefits for those who join the Harrier community, discounts on professional services like career coaches or LinkedIn optimisation consultants. The more we grow the more attractive our offering becomes and the more benefits we'll be able to negotiate - what membership benefits would you like to see?

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