TipStart was founded in May 2020 at a time when a break in business as usual gave us more time to reflect on how little progress had actually been made on diversity. However uncomfortable, more of us began to accept where we hadn't done enough to help our neighbours, friends and colleagues facing discrimination, prejudice and racism.
The premise was simple: people and organisations want to make a difference on diversity, but having impact as an individual is hard and time consuming. So we created a programme that was accessible, low-burden and centred in a model of community.
The original team - we called ourselves the 'Original TipSters' or ‘OTs’ - was made up of six people: Sam, Zakiy, Eleanor, Isaac, Rich and Angus. Over three months, the OTs grew TipStart from a Keynote slide deck to a fully functioning platform that could host our programme. In the next six months we grew our user numbers from 0 to 400 and were recognised with the UK Government’s Young Innovators Award.
And we did all this as the world shut its doors, to keep COVID-19 out. The team only met for the first time in October - 5 months after we’d got started.
At the end of the first year, as feedback and user experiences were flooding our inboxes, we took the decision to pause and have a re-think. We’d had a brilliant and wild year bringing TipStart to life. But we knew there was more we could achieve. We want TipStart to help hundreds of thousands of people, not just hundreds. So over a 12-month period we took coding lessons, bought a whiteboard and built a new web application that makes TipStart truly scalable.
A social researcher trying to create change in the humanitarian and development sector.
Much like Princess Leia she is dedicated to ending the tyranny of the empire and keeping the boys in check.
A consultant to foundations, nonprofits and governments, Angus gets data and is always working on a plan to deliver process improvement.
Think Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption, only less tunnelling and more social impact.
A designer of brands, adverts, websites and apps… pretty much anything he can get his hands on.
Has been often been compared to Edna for his love of function and beauty, not so much for the hair.
A Diplomat who loves new tech, meeting people and puzzling over public policy.
Shares Gustave H’s passion for customers and leadership, not his love of elderly women and tradition.
