Founding partner Simon Hay talks transparency in learning, parental engagement, funding and international expansion!
Today, Firefly supports over 500 schools in 33 countries – that’s some 500,000 students, as well as teachers and parents using our online tool every day.
We’ve grown quickly – our product has evolved to support the changing needs of schools and make use of new technologies, and also as a company we have more or less doubled in size every year.
The truth is, what will affect travel the most in future is what will affect virtually every other industry: the rapid development of the digital world and the vast increase in mobility. Simply put, travellers are now more connected than ever and that’s changing the game.
It is absolutely possible to regenerate a city while paying homage to its past. Adaptive reuse is a significant part of our strategy here at Bedrock. The majority of our 95+ building portfolio consists of historic structures and we strive to honor and preserve the city’s existing infrastructure through all of our developments while creating unique experiences through our real estate.
I’ve always had a fascination with technology and thanks to growing up in an entrepreneurial media family, was privy to the latest innovation & technology from an early age. Take that and my curiosity to understand how everything works, it’s no surprise that when I started in what was a family print business and was asked if I wanted to take on more responsibility or try something new, I would always say yes.
It’s official; the under 30s are the influencers, tastemakers, official critics and reviewers in society today. This consumer audience makes up a quarter of the UK population and according to a Viacom study the under 30s are set to make up 75 per cent of the UK’s workforce by 2020. Their purchasing power is huge. They also happen to be incredibly brand loyal as a collective whole. So, what happens when a long-established brand – those that are over 50 years old – looks to reposition itself to a millennial audience? This is where it gets complicated.
When Ian Siegel & his co-founders started building ZipRecruiter in 2010, they were solving a problem they faced daily in their own professional lives – hiring great employees fast, so they could get back to work. “We started out with humble ambitions, to bootstrap a lifestyle business,” says Ian Siegel, “that first year and a half, it was just us four guys, working at each other’s kitchen tables part-time while still working our full-time day jobs.” For its first four years, ZipRecruiter was only funded through the profitability of its product, “amazingly, we were able to grow our business to over 3,000 customers before hiring any other employees…but it really took off on us.”
I co-founded Winnow in 2013 to help the hospitality industry prevent food waste by making the kitchen ‘smarter.’ With my co-founder, Marc Zornes we identified a massive opportunity to help solve the issue of commercial kitchen food waste in a way that is profit-enhancing.
An employment tribunal has ruled that drivers engaged by Uber are ‘workers’, not self-employed contractors, meaning they will be entitled to national minimum wage, paid annual leave and whistleblower protection.
The French tech ecosystem is thriving as France has become a favorable environment for entrepreneurs to innovate in the digital economy.
I co-founded Marley Spoon in 2014 with the mission to radically reduce food waste and fundamentally change how grocery shoppers purchase food by providing access to convenient, market-fresh and delightful meals to millions of households around the world. The food industry is the last industry to move online, and as the inevitable next step, I saw this as a huge opportunity to move into that space and cultivate a company that creates solutions to the intrinsic problems faced daily by customers when purchasing and cooking food.
