Rachel's START UP Journey

Tell us about your journey with START UP

I approached the START UP team when I made my first freelance income by winning the Hachette Children’s Novel Award 2023 at the Northern Writers Awards for my creative writing. At the same time, the voluntary network I lead, Women in Tech North East, were thinking about formalising. After I got in touch with START UP, they paired me with Alan who’s been giving me tailored support and advice, including setting myself up for self-employment, finances and funding, and founding a social enterprise. Since then, Women in Tech North East has successfully transitioned to becoming a CIC, I secured an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant for my creative writing, and I’ve worked with Innovation SuperNetwork, my first major client as a Digital and Innovation Consultant.

How did you find out about the grant funding?

Discussing our future plans for Women in Tech North East, Alan let me know there were START UP grants available, and it sounded like a brilliant opportunity to meet some of our start up costs.

How did you feel about the application process and working with the team?

I created a pitch deck and filled in an application form, then I went in to pitch to three members of the START UP team. I told them about Women in Tech North East, our plans for the next three years and what we anticipated we would do with the funding. Alan gave me some information about what to expect on the day and some feedback on my proposal. And it was amazing to get the funding!

What did you / do you plan to do with the funding

I asked for approximately £3000 to meet some of our essential start up costs as a CIC, including things like insurance, finance and IT support, and support for marketing and branding for our events.

How does the funding change your plans, could you have done the same without the funding?

Newcastle University START UP funding was the very first funding we received as a company, and it was a real confidence boost that we were going in the right direction. It’s helped us to pay for some absolute essentials that we needed to set ourselves up as a CIC and it means that since then, we've been able to focus on sponsorship and collaborations with North East tech companies. Since we’ve received the funding, we have ran four more fully-booked events collaborating with Gateshead College, Marra, CyberNorth, BJSS, Hedgehog Lab and Mercator; we have partnered with Gateshead-based Layers Studio to develop our website; and we've just arranged our first event funding sponsorship with software company Sage.

What would you tell other students who were thinking about applying for funding from the team?

Go for it! Shy bairns get nowt. It's a great opportunity.

Anything else you want to say about the funding and working with the Start up team in general?
Thank you for all the support you've given me and Women in Tech North East. If you’d have told me I’d become a CIC founder, award-winning novelist and a successful freelance consultant this time two years’ ago, I would have been amazed!