In the spirit of entering the new year with a fresh start, we’ve asked some our favourite Movers and Shakers from across the digital and tech industries to write down and share their resolutions with us.
What were their biggest lessons of 2014, and what will they focus on for the next 365 days? We’ll share their thoughts and goals throughout the month of January (on our Twitter feed @Gordon_Eden) in hopes of inspiring the tech and digital industries to make 2015 the most innovative yet.
HERE’S WHAT WE’VE SEEN SO FAR:
Kate Unsworth is co-founder and CEO of Kovert Designs, a London-based startup that fuses elegant design with wearable technology. In keeping with their first collection of connected jewellery that empowers the wearer to step away from their smartphone, Kate tells us her biggest lesson of the year has been ‘prioritization’. Beyond creating beautiful innovative products, her company is fueling a movement toward a more mindful use of technology.
Volker Breuer is co-founder and CEO of peer-to-peer payment service Payfriendz, an app that lets you send and request money for free and in real time. Previously CEO of German pre-paid debit card service PayandGo and an experienced management consultant, Volker launched the London-based social payments venture in 2013. This year, he’ll focus on team building – though by the looks of, it seems he’s already doing a pretty great job.
Tamara Lohan is co-founder of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and one-half of the the couple famous for their taste in travel. Having grown into a globally-recognized brand since first publishing their travel books in 2003, the online boutique hotel booking service curates reviews by anonymous tastemaker couples. This year, Tamara is committing some of her extra hours to learning a new language, assisted by technology: she’ll be using ShaoLan’s innovative method Chineasy(another London-based startup) to brush up on her Chinese.
This year, Nick Bell made headlines by joining the Snapchat team as Head of Product from his previous position as Senior Vice President at News Corp. Known for his entrepreneurial ventures during the dot com boom of the nineties, he’s a young veteran of the industry at just 31 years of age. What has he learned this year while jumping from corporate executive to startup executive? Get comfortable being uncomfortable!
Sherry Coutu CBE- A serial entrepreneur and angel investor serving on the boards of well-known tech companies, charities and universities – knows a thing or two about ‘scaling up‘: she has made direct investments in almost 50 startups, invested in three venture capital firms, founded several financial technology companies and held a number of corporate executive roles. By the end of the year, Sherry aims to report a massive surge of UK companies scaling up the UK prime minister.
London born and bred entrepreneur Tom Adeyoola is the CEO of Metail, a startup aiming to create and empower everyone’s online body identity. Coming from an eclectic background in management consultancy and the gaming industry, his current venture aims to solve the online clothing fit problem by giving you an accurate representation of how you’ll look in the clothes you buy online. What’s Tom focusing on this year? Well, just being better all-round.
Alice Bentinck left her consulting career at McKinsey to become co-founder of Entrepreneur First (EF), a European pre-accelerator focusing on growing ideas into fully-fledged startups. Over the last years, the investment programme has brought together 60 individuals to become co-founders of 20 different tech startups and raise a $20 million in funding collectively. She’s also inspiring more women to enter the tech world with her Codefirst: Girls initiative. This year, she won’t be held mercy to her inbox.
Benjamin Southworth, otherwise known as one of the 3Beards and and one of the leaders behind projects likeBetaFest 2015 and TechBikers, is a jack-of-all-trades. Despite being a leader on the London tech scene, he’s learned the importance of keeping your tech time in check.
Want to get involved? Tweet a photo of your 2015 business resolution with @Gordon_Eden#NewYearNewBeginnings
