My Cardiff Life article, possibly March 2013.  PDF here.

The Welsh Government takes a lot of criticism for the work it does in supporting small businesses. Some of it is fair, but a lot of it isn’t. It’s arguable that we shouldn’t expect a large, intrinsically bureaucratic, organisation to be able to respond to the ever-changing, and multi-faceted, needs of our country’s startups. It’s a complex issue on both sides of the fence, and not an easy one to solve. For every company that receives a huge financial boost to allow them to grow, there will be others complaining that they don’t tick the right boxes to unlock the support, or that they just don’t have the time to work through the many forms and processes required to qualify.

One scheme that seems to have attracted almost universal positive feedback is Jobs Growth Wales. By subsidising 100% of a young, unemployed person’s wages for six months, they get that person off benefits, and the company gets the opportunity to bring in some fresh blood without having to worry about the severe impact on their cashflow. Speaking to several business owners who’ve taken on new employees through the scheme, all of them have had nothing but positive experiences. Pretty much everyone is glowing in their praise. But I thought it is probably most appropriate to give the last word to Laura Ellis, a recent English graduate that we took on here at Dizzyjam via Jobs Growth Wales.

“It’s appropriate that “growth” is at the centre of Jobs Growth Wales, because it’s exactly the word I would use to sum up my first “grown up” job. When I applied for some placements funded by the scheme, I wasn’t thinking much about what it might be like if I was lucky enough to land one of them. Even after I was asked to work for Dizzyjam I was too busy squealing about no longer being jobless (I might have done a little dance) that I didn’t stop and consider what working for a startup would be like.

It’s busy. There’s always something to do, regardless of whether it’s in my job description, and that’s what makes working for a startup different. Because everyone has to pitch in, I have the opportunity to get to know the workings of the company in a way that I don’t think I’d get in a more established business. I don’t walk past colleagues whose faces I’ve never seen before and I know how my work relates to everyone else’s.

Growth is the keyword in all of this – as Dizzyjam grows, I get the chance to grow with it. I don’t feel like I’m struggling to catch up or fit in – sometimes I feel I’m in over my head, but I’m not the only one on a learning curve. I’m not only developing myself but influencing the development of the company, too. I’m  trying not to let the power go to my head”.

  • Hello! Do introduce yourself…
    • Hi! I’m Danny Donado, CEO of BipSync.
  • What does your startup do?
    • BipSync is a secure web and mobile platform for professional investors, to help them collect, organize and synthesize their research into more profitable investment decisions. Think of it as “Evernote for Investors + Salesforce.com for Investment opportunities”.
  • What makes Bipsync special?
    • We’re one of the very few companies that focuses on making a staggeringly beautiful, user-focused tool for what many people would see as an unsexy enterprise industry. Professionals can have it all with BipSync: enterprise-caliber security & collaboration paired with consumer-level polish & usability.
  • What was the eureka moment that made you realise you had to build this company?
    • I used to be a hedge-fund analyst in New York and almost missed one of our highest performing investments due to the outdated tools and systems that permeate the industry.
  • How’s business at the moment?
    • It’s so incredibly busy, I’m glad this interview is short! We’re just closing our seed round, are working closely with beta customers in New York and are looking to immediately expand our Cardiff developer numbers to accelerate development and meet demand.
  • Where would you like Bipsync to be in five years’ time?
    • We envision BipSync evolving into an investor “ecosystem”, interconnecting a variety of industry players, 3rd party applications and data services. We get there by building products to delight our customers – an approach foreign to this sleepy industry and embodied in our mantra: “Designed by Investors, Engineered in Silicon Valley”.
    • More info URL: http://bipsync.com