Workertech newsletter: July 2021

This edition of the Workertech newsletter takes you under the hood of Bethnal Green Ventures’ Tech for Good Accelerator, along with sharing news and opportunities from the world of workertech.

If you’d like hear more about the Workertech Partnership or any content in this newsletter, please get in touch with us via ventures@resolutionroundation.org or book a meeting in our office hours for a chat.

Emma Selinger
Ventures Manager

Spotlight: Workertech for Good 

Twice a year Bethnal Green Ventures run their Tech for Good Accelerator. It’s a three-month programme packed with learning, coaching and peer support for founders with a technology-based idea for changing the world for better.

Each cycle the Workertech Partnership co-funds around two ventures through the accelerator. Here’s a review of how our Workertech ventures found the most recent programme.

TaskHer 🔨

TaskHer is an online platform which empowers users to find, book and pay experienced tradeswomen, whilst addressing the gender imbalance in the trades industry. Co-founders Paul and Anna told us about their experience of the accelerator:

What did you get out of participating in the accelerator?

The access to the a range of speakers and experts was invaluable. The content from the accelerator was well timed for us as were still in the idea development stage and had lots to work through.

Our coach, Umesh Pandya, was great. Our weekly sessions with him were always useful and we never failed to come away from them with a new perspective or a way to solve a problem we were facing. Ume’s background in design was incredibly helpful. He really helped us to map out the timelines to get TaskHer into development with support on how to marry up branding, UX design and development, none of which we really understood before he stepped in!

Connecting with other founders in the cohort was also a great way to share problem solving. We leaned on them for initial prototype testing knowing we’d get valuable feedback, and even now we are supporting each other as we enter our next fundraising rounds.

What’s next for TaskHer?

We’re now in a position where we can start building out the platform with developers and UX designers, and recruit tradeswomen to join the platform. We’re hoping to soft launch later on in the year and following that, raise a pre-seed round.

Curo 💗

Curo is a digital peer-to-peer carer community, which serves to provide carers with resources, tips and connections to the caring community. Co-founders Hannah, Krishani and Matt share their experience of the accelerator:

What did you get out of participating in the accelerator?

The first sprint of the accelerator was focused on user journey, and this set us up to think carefully about our value proposition to carers. Initially Curo was designed to offer information and coaching to unpaid carers. However, our user research during the accelerator showed us that carers see more value in a supportive community of other people experiencing similar challenges. As a result, we have evolved our product thinking and value proposition. We are focused on building a safe and supportive digital carer community where carers will have the ability to ask and access crowd-sourced Q&As (from other carers in similar situations) and be matched to other carers for one-to-one chats.

We really appreciated the pace of the programme. There was a lot of content in a short space of time and this helped us keep momentum in developing our idea and business model. As all the content was recorded, we’re looking forward to dipping back into it in the coming months.

What’s next for Curo?

We’ve just launched our slack group where we are building a safe and supportive community for carers. If you are a carer or know anyone that would benefit from our community, please feel free to join.

Following this, we’re planning to get product development underway, and are hoping to raise a pre-seed round by the end of the year.

Latest insights from the Resolution Foundation

Workertech and Low Pay – A summary of the Resolution Foundation’s research on low-paid workers and their experiences of the labour market, highlighting which groups we are seeking to reach through the Workertech Partnership.

Wealth Gap Year – A deep dive into how the Covid-19 crisis has affected both the level and distribution of household wealth across the UK, and what it means for households’ living standards.

The Beginning of the End – An insight into which sectors, people and places are currently more likely to be using the Job Retention Scheme and what this could mean for their risk of unemployment when the it comes to an end on 30 September 2021.

Workertech stories

Workertech portfolio venture, Organise, was featured on ITV news as they supported Amazon warehouse workers to campaign against having to destroy unsold goods.

Workertech Partner, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, launched its campaign #MakeJobsWork with a briefing on improving the quality of jobs so that work is a viable route out of poverty, and stories from people who have experienced poor quality work.

Nesta and the Learning and Work Institute published a report on using labour market data to support career transitions. The report explores how organisations have been experimenting with novel labour market data to support career management.

Tech start-up, Collective Benefits, raised £6 million to scale-up their workertech platform which provides a financial safety net for 200,000 gig workers across 20 countries. Benefits for users include sick and injury pay, and family and compassionate leave options.

The Labour Party unveiled their plans to improve work in the UK, calling for universal flexible working and predictable working patterns for shift workers. Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesborough, brought these issues to life by shadowing an Amazon driver for a day.

Get involved

• Apply for direct investment from Resolution Ventures. We accept applications from Workertech ventures on a rolling basis. You can book a slot in our open office hours for an informal conversation before applying.
• Ufi VocTech Trust’s VocTech Challenge Grant Fund closes today at 5pm. There’s still time to submit an application to the fund which looking for ideas that support adults impacted by the digital divide to get the skills they need for work.
• The team at CareerChat, a digital careers advice and guidance chatbot, are looking for a React Programmer to support their development. Get in touch with the team to find out more.
• Founder network Foundervine is hiring for a Programme Manager, Community Manager and Marketing and Communications Manager. Read more about the available roles.