—

Hello,

Participants are needed for an experiment that involves answering some questions on a Supply Chain Management scenario with the use of an appropriate software system.

-What: You will be asked to answer questions on a Supply Chain Management (SCM) scenario. For this task you will use a simulation and explanation system.

-When: by the 10th of May (could consider a later time too, if needed)

-Where: Informatics Forum or over Skype

-Participants’ profile: business/management studies or relevant industrial experience, no expertise in SCM (basic knowledge is allowed)

-Duration: 1 hour

-Prize: SCM textbooks for the two participants with the best performance

If you are interested, please email me at A.Manataki@sms.ed.ac.uk to arrange a convenient day and time.

Kind Regards,
Areti

I haven’t been along to one of these events but John O’Rourke from the organising team has this to say:

“The event structure takes 12 early stage startups with a something to demo, puts them in the informal setting of a Dublin pub, and lets conversation flow over a few pints. Everyone who’s demoed with us so far has been blown away with the range of tough questions they’ve fielded on the night.  

So far we’ve had two events with over 400 people at each. We’re gearing up for our third on April 30th. Since then the direction has morphed somewhat; we have positioned ourselves as an open platform for emerging startups to get quality community mentorship from various backgrounds. From a startup perspective there are no barriers to demoing, we don’t charge for the demo stand (its actually just a pub table) and there’s no powerpoint presentations. All a startup needs is good chat.”

If you’re interested in demoing then you can register via their website http://dublinbeta.com/  You can also find them on twitter: @dublinbeta

If you do wind up going along, please drop us a message on hello@startupcafe.co.uk to share your experience!

I’ve been interviewing startups across the UK about their quest for rockstar employees!  The idea is to give an insight into startup recruitment to folk who are interested in working for startups so that they might learn how to put themselves into a position of strength! Entrepreneurs might also be interested to see how their approach and perspectives compare to others’.

————-

(Also posted on www.workinstartups.com)

Introduction

A big thank you to co-founder Andrew Crump at Bluefields – a startup that aims to make football team organisation and management really easy – for making time to speak to me even though he had pulled an all-nighter and was clearly lagging from having worked so hard! Despite exhaustion he was warm and polite and happy to share with us his opinions and experiences of hiring.

WiS: Let’s begin Andrew! More and more startups tell me that they don’t like to use recruitment agencies. Where do you search for awesome employees?
Andrew: Well we found our front end developer through WiS! I found someone through Matchfounder and also we get referrals.

WiS: The recruitiverse is overflowing with advice about good-looking CVs. Is there anything specific you look for?
Andrew: Well for starters, I don’t look for degrees or judge a person based on the university they attended.  It’s impressive if you have a good degree, and it serves as validation, but it’s not what I look out for.  I hate boring CVs; our designer submitted a pretty one… but if you’re not a designer then just make sure you submit a simple, professional looking one.

I like cover letters as this is a candidate’s opportunity to communicate their personality, their behaviour, and their passion.  But recruitment documents aside, there are actually two main things that I look for…

WiS: And what are those?
Andrew: I look for someone who goes out and does stuff, a do-er, an enterprising person who can use initiative.  So for a web developer position, a candidate would need to show me something they’ve built and any sub-projects they’ve worked on.  I always look to see what else a candidate has done on their own – projects they’ve worked on in their own time, out of their own interest.

WiS: And what’s the second thing you look for?
Andrew: A learning disposition. We’re young guys, a young team, and we’re always learning and trying to improve.  I know that nobody wants to pay someone to learn on their own time but one of our developers learnt PHP on the job whilst working for us. One of my other developers came to me to ask about HTML5 and asked for books on development stuff.

I think that if someone is intelligent and they want to learn, then you should consider hiring them.

WiS: Right, you’ve decided it’s time to invite a candidate in for an interview. What do you look for at this point?
Andrew: I try to determine whether they’d fit into our company culture; and I look for honesty.  Candidates should be honest – about what they’ve done, what they can do, what they want etc.  They shouldn’t over-promise and under-deliver…but they shouldn’t underpromise either.

WiS: What could a candidate say in an interview that would make you sit up suddenly and take notice?
Andrew: An amazing response from a candidate would be “give me XYZ and I’ll try to put it together this weekend!”

There was this one guy we invited for an interview; his CV made sense but he was very nervous.  He tried to tell us what a mobile app is…that’s not a good sign… we know what an app is…

WiS: What should a candidate not say in an interview?
Andrew (smiles): Don’t say ‘I don’t like working as a team’.  Also, don’t bash the ex-boss. You may have had issues with the boss but find another way to communicate this.

Try to make sense. We asked one interviewee whether he liked sport.  He said yes.  We asked if he played football.  He said yes.  We asked which position he played in.  He said the midfields – but that’s not a position!
We still considered him because he had some good traits…he was passionate…he’ll get somewhere because of his passion.

WiS: How do you know if someone’s going to be right for your startup?
Andrew: It depends – you need to consider the size and age of your company.  In the beginning you need people in your startup who are entrepreneurial and can take initiative but eventually you’ll just need people who can execute on their role.  By the time you’re on to your 50th employee, if he’s a designer then you’ll just want him to concentrate on design.

You’re ability to do more than your core job is important but this doesn’t apply once startups get bigger.

We have an open desk in our office, and one thing we do to see what folk are like is tell them to come and sit there and hang out; they can use that space to work on one of their own projects or one of our own…it’s an early stage tactic. We leave the invitation open and flexible and see what happens – some of them stick and some of them don’t

WiS: When you advertise, are you clear about what you want and what you’re offering?
Andrew: Actually, who you want to hire and in which role is often up for debate. You might have four roles advertised but only have budget for one person.  This means you have to see which applications come in and see how many boxes each candidate can tick and then form a decision.

WiS: Finally, how proactively should a jobseeking candidate seek a response after submitting a job application/cv or attending an interview?
Andrew: I think candidates do need to push a little bit because we’re all so busy – I mean I didn’t sleep last night because there’s just too much to do.  Candidates should bug us; if a candidate cares enough to pursue it then I’m more likely to take notice of them amongst the sea of others.

There is this one guy who has sent me about 10 emails to ask about a job.  I haven’t seen his CV yet and I’m not that bothered to be honest…he’s been persistent and clearly wants to work here so I’ll probably hire him in some capacity.

Hirers might have a pile of CVs to get through and if someone keeps calling or emailing then that candidate will probably get put nearer the top of the pile.  Sometimes, there are so many CVs that this acts as a filter i.e. those that pursue will get considered and I’ll disregard the other CVs – there are just too many.

WiS: That’ll do for now Andrew. I think I’ll let you go and grab a shot or two of caffeine. Thanks for making time to chat.

Andrew: Sure, no worries!

——–

More about the company

Bluefields takes the headache out of organising and managing football teams.  It makes communication easy.  

How it works is that a sports organiser puts in relevant details and the system communicates to all players via SMS, email and iphone notifications etc for free. Players respond with a simple Yes or No and the system sends out reminder emails to those who haven’t replied and keeps you updated on all responses. An online clubhouse provides a space for match banter and an online payment system means organisers don’t need to worry about chasing payments.  If you organise sports you can find out more on their website: http://www.bluefields.com/ or twitter @bluefieldscom

You can find more on Andrew on his personal blog.

A growing number of you apparently – I hear that the number of Drupal users in Scotland is growing rapidly.  So why not head to Edinburgh University’s Informatics Forum on 25-26th May 2012 to attend DrupalCamp Scotland – a free training and networking event – to meet, learn from and hang out with other users and fans?

Free Drupal training sessions are being planned for Friday 25th May as is a Drupal for Business event aimed at folk who want to understand how the free and flexible, open source modular platform can make a difference to their organisation and clients.  Saturday 26th is to be filled with presentations and discussions to suit all levels of practitioner.  Social events will be arranged for the end of each day.

So would you like…

…to attend?  You know, so you can chat to your peers (whether developers or non-tech business folk) about their experiences?

…to sponsor?  Go on, show your love for the community!

…to be actively involved and propose a session?  You know, so you can show off, ahem, share your knowledge? You’ve got until 30th April for this.

Then get in touch with the organisers on @drupalcampscot or visit the website: http://camp.drupalscotland.org. Oh, and tell them you found out about this via StartupCafe (‘cos we like it when our ears get warm).

• Who would like to have a meaningful impact on the world?
• Got a cool idea but lack the skills to bring it to life?
• Or want to use your superpowers in design, web dev or business to help develop someone else’s vision for improving education, healthcare, finance, community or mobile?

The Idea Transform team are organising a startup bootcamp weekend where people pitch ideas on a Friday evening, the audience votes for ideas they’d like to work on and people form teams to work on projects over the rest of the weekend.  The event aims to inspire projects that can deliver long-term change across the globe.  These projects will then be judged, and a winner announced on Sunday evening.

Teams will be supported and inspired throughout the weekend by mentors and speakers who will be on hand to answer questions and offer advice. The event will be held in Cambridge on 20th-22nd April 2012 at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is supported by the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning.

I’ve been told by the organiser that last year’s event saw many make their way down from Edinburgh and Glasgow so, if this is of interest, check out their website for more details.  Developers in particular are especially encouraged to attend!  

The event is open to both students (£40) and non-students (£70) from the UK and beyond!  Ticket prices include lunches and dinners (yum yum) as well as a steady supply of caffeinated beverages and soft juices.

As usual the event presents an opportunity to meet cool and talented people, make friends and network with mentors, judges and speakers. You have until April 8th to buy the £70 tickets – afterwards the price will go up!

[Updated: DISCOUNT CODE to reduce standard non-student ticket price from £70 to £50!  Valid until 8th April 2012.  http://ideatransform2012.eventbrite.com/?discount=ITTWENTY ]

Twitter: @ideatransform

I’ve been interviewing startups across the UK about their quest for rockstar employees!  The idea is to give an insight into startup recruitment to folk who are interested in working for startups so that they might learn how to put themselves into a position of strength! Entrepreneurs might also be interested to see how their approach and perspectives compare to others’.

————-

(Also posted on www.workinstartups.com)

Introduction

Decoded is on a mission to demystify coding and make it accessible to everyone! This startup offers workshops to businesses to teach staff how to ‘code in a day’.

Bubbly and enthusiastic co-founder Kathryn Parsons, also co-founder of the agency The Scarlett Mark, is currently looking for new recruits and kindly agreed to have a chat with WiS about what she looks for during the recruitment process.  So listen up!

Bela: Firstly, code in a day?  How does that work?
Kathryn: We spend the morning putting code into context; there are lots of languages out there but we teach the web – HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Rather than just diving in, we show why these languages are important, where they’ve come from and where they’re going. We humanise the story and strip away the jargon

We also help eliminate the emotional barrier to learning how to code by making sure the environment is one where people can ask ANY kind of question without feeling uncomfortable.  By the time a group begins to code, everyone understands what code looks like – and we don’t leave anyone behind during a session so everyone is able to progress at the same pace. We’ve had some great testimonials. We’re now looking for more facilitators – these are the people who deliver the workshops.

Bela: What do you look for in job-seeking candidates?
Kathryn:  For the facilitator role, a good candidate would be a phenomenal communicator, very personable, and just absolutely brilliant in front of people.  They’d be able to simplify the complex – so a good teacher who comes with an ability to code in html, css and javascript.

We’ve just hired a guy who was a touring musician – so he’s got the creative side but he also has a PhD in maths and taught himself to code.  As a facilitator, you’re performing in front of an audience in a way, so we’re looking for actor/coders I guess!

Do you remember Eric Schmidt’s comments last year and the luvvy/boffin debate?  Well we’re hiring a nice combination of the two – someone who can demonstrate showmanship but is a nerd at heart!

Bela: What do you look for in people who want to fill any non-technical roles?
Kathryn: I need people for business admin roles.  These guys will be involved in setting up meetings, dealing with logistics, coordinating etc.  These roles will involve wearing many hats, as you’d expect in a startup, so I’m looking for hardworkers who are willing to get stuck in!

Any recent graduates who have some work experience behind them should get in touch. Decoded isn’t a place for candidates who are just in it for the money, but it’s exciting as employees would be much closer to the big decisions than they’d be in a larger organisation.

Bela: Where do you source your recruits?
Kathryn: Well, we mainly use our personal networks and go by recommendations.  Steve (co-founder) is extremely well connected and uses his network, and I use mine.  Ali (co-founder) did actually post an advert in the coding community.  So we use a mix of traditional and non-traditional methods.

Bela: What do you scour CVs for?
Kathryn: I look for any evidence of passion for working in a company like ours or about teaching people how to code.  It can be hard to demonstrate passion on a CV, as opposed to a cover letter, but this could be demonstrated on the summary section at the top of a CV.

Candidates should absolutely tailor their CV, and keep it short.  Also, the CV should cover the basics.

Bela: What do you mean by the ‘basics’?
Kathryn: Well we’re looking for people who have teaching experience, so if you have some – even if it’s TINY – you should mention this in your CV.

Also, we need to know about any technical experience, so even if there’s only a little bit, candidates should definitely mention it.  In fact, I’ve found that some of the best people out there, don’t know how GOOD they are! They are the ones who say things like ‘oh well I did this tiny thing blah blah blah’ and actually what they’ve demonstrated is exactly what we are looking for!

Candidates should be honest about what they can do and then we’ll try to offer them at least 30 minutes of our time and see how things go.  We try to do this as much as we can. At the moment, I am very excited at the talent that is currently out there.

Bela: What do you want to see in someone who’s made it to interview stage?
Kathryn: Zen!  We look to see whether a candidate will fit with the team.  We look for positivity and eloquence!

Those who get through to the second interview then have to present to each other.  So we look for the things I’ve described above…ability to teach, to simplify the complex, etc.  We also put coders and non-coders together and get them to code together.  Once they’ve passed this stage and been selected, they receive training to deliver the workshops!

WiS: Kathryn, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us.
Kathryn: You’re welcome!

(End of interview)

—–

Conclusion
Interestingly, yet another startup in this series highlighting the use of personal networks to source desirable job-seeking candidates.  So perhaps a better approach to blindly sending out cvs and cover letters would be to see if you know anybody that could refer you to the startup that you are interested in.  (That said, Kathryn did seem genuinely excited at the talent that’s out there so any curious, young, hardworking and ambitious recent graduates should email her on jobs@decoded.co).

In addition, it would appear that your ability to fit in with a team/company is equally as important as who you know and what you know.  Together, these three factors form the (cue dramatic music and deep, booming voice): Holy Triumvirate of Startup Recruitment!

Until next week folks…

—–
More about the company

Decoded  is working to get coding placed in the UK school curriculum in an effort to transform the skillset of the next generation of the workforce.

Founded in January 2011 and launched in August 2011, this startup offers workshops to businesses to teach their staff how to ‘code in a day’ in an effort to give them greater confidence in their roles and ability to communicate with designer/developer colleagues.

Workshops have been delivered to staff at BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty), Ogilvy, Omnicom, WPP, BBC, BBC Worldwide and O2.

You can find out more here: http://decoded.co/

WhiskyWeb is conference created for the web community, by the web community, Whisky Web will have something to offer everyone who works with the web, be they a designer, a developer or something in between. This is an amazing opportunity to get your geek on in Scotland’s inspiring capital.

There’s not that many tickets left so make sure you get yours quick!

[http://whiskyweb.co.uk]

Gameippy.com is a portal where consumers can find fun games to play to win discounts and prizes from their favourite brands!

It is also a platform for brands to engage innovatively with consumers and deliver promotions through mobile games.

Why should brands use our platform as opposed to only their website?

• For exposure to a greater audience than just those that would normally visit their websites
• To cultivate goodwill with customers by engaging with them in a fun and rewarding way
• Players will be able to share the games they like with their friends
• Players can rate games resulting in rankings that show companies how they are performing
• Companies will be able to ‘feature’ their games

Wanted: we need some feedback from companies, and agencies who are responsible for delivering campaigns for big brands.  Please spend 60 seconds to answer a few questions:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGh3QkZLRkU3OGZRdEdzcUlyTWsxUHc6MQ#gid=0

Thanks folks!  :)

—–

(Also posted on www.workinstartups.com)

This week I interviewed the intensely-driven entrepreneur Charlie Delingpole from the internationally expanding financial-tech startup MarketInvoice to encourage him to share his recruitment experiences with us, and find out what he looks for in job-seeking candidates.

Charlie has been advertising vacancies for various roles for some time now, and after viewing truckloads of CVs and conducting many, many interviews, certain roles remain unfilled.  I wanted to find out why.
—–
INTERVIEW

Bela: How do you find jobseeking candidates?
Charlie: Mainly through word-of-mouth, referrals, personal networks etc.  We don’t go to recruitment agencies.  It can take three months to know whether a new hire will be any good, and if they are not then you’re left with having paid a hefty recruitment fee that you won’t get back, and an employee that you need to fire. I’m not confident about the effort recruitment agencies put into sourcing and vetting candidates, and not convinced that the fee is worth it.

We have a good personal network which we rely on.  The best candidates tend to be referred but are usually already in jobs and quite successful.  Unfortunately these candidates are also already receiving much higher salaries than we can afford to offer!

Bela: You’ve been interviewing people for quite a while yet positions remain unfilled.  You get what you ask for but you don’t seem to want what you’re getting.  Do you need to be clearer in describing what you’re looking for?
Charlie: Well it can be difficult to know what we need in a candidate.  Take marketing roles as an example.  At the moment we’re not sure which marketing channels will work best for us, and this makes it difficult to judge which traits we should be looking for in a marketing professional – different marketing roles require different characteristics and skillsets in a person.  But I think you get a gut feeling when you come across the right person.

Also, rather than filter people out right now, I’d prefer to see as many CVs as possible.

Bela: Hmmm, you mention gut feeling…but this could be based on any number of things including the mood you’re in that day?
Charlie: Yes, it could.

Bela: So what should a jobseeker do to prove his/her worth?
Charlie: In an interview they’ll need to be able to defend their answers.  If they can’t explain their choices, and if their decisions and rationale fall to pieces under my scrutiny then they will not make the cut. To vet candidates, I may interview them many times.  I’ll keep questioning them, drilling down to the details, in order to see how they think.

Bela: What kind of questions do you ask?
Charlie: I’ll pose questions to simulate situations a candidate will encounter in the role they’ve applied for. Interviewees will be asked competency-based questions but again these will depend…e.g. if looking to fill a sales position the kinds of questions asked will depend on whether we’re looking for someone to do creative sales, consultative sales, telesales – there are lots of different types of sales.

Bela: The questions you ask, and what you are looking for, will vary from day to day if you don’t know what kind of vacancy you are trying to fill. Does this mean luck will play a factor on whether a candidate gets hired?
Charlie: Yep, but only to some extent.  I’m looking for very smart people and evidence of their ability to think.  Your thoughts affect your actions, which form your habits, which forge your character which determines your fate!

Cold, hard facts matter to me and so I look for things a candidate can’t fake.  E.g you can’t fake getting a first class degree.  Good grades matter – these demonstrate your ability to think.  References don’t help much – very few employers want to negatively affect someone’s chances of gaining employment elsewhere so they may say wonderful things about a candidate who’s been fired.  I need to look for things that can’t be faked or exaggerated.

Bela: What do you look for in terms of experience?
Charlie: Something tangible.  Can a candidate quantify the contribution they’ve made in previous roles? E.g. if involved in marketing, how have the marketing efforts affected company revenues?  Can they describe in specific detail what they’ve have learned, applied and affected? If not, then it’s useless.

For some roles we hire for potential rather than experience.  Again, a candidate would need to demonstrate their potential by quantifying their past efforts, clearly articulating their strengths and confidently selling themselves.

Bela: Will you bother to look at a CV if a cover letter is poorly written?
Charlie: I don’t care much for cover letters – anyone can write anything in them. Do you know what I mean?  So I look at CVs and scour them for excellence.  I don’t care about a candidate’s listed hobbies – waste of my time.  I look for things that are going to directly benefit my business.  I look for things that are off-the-wall impressive.

My business is everything to me and I work hard to make sure things get done. I’ll do things myself and work through the night rather than hire the wrong person.  You’ve heard the expression it’s better to have a hole than an a-hole, right?

Bela: Can you give a specific example of what you look for in CVs?
Charlie: As mentioned, I look for cold, hard facts. So aside from grades, I look at where a candidate has studied or worked.  So if they’ve studied at Oxford or Cambridge, or worked at places like Google, Proctor & Gamble, a big bank etc then they’ll catch my attention.

I went to Cambridge and I worked at JP Morgan, so I know firsthand how tough the selection process is; these places have tough recruitment processes and so it tells me a lot about a candidate if they’ve been accepted.

That said, you still need your basic skills to be up to scratch.  I interviewed someone from a big bank who was earning £45K but demonstrated poor spelling and grammar – he didn’t get hired.

Bela: Okay, so you want the best…and are you offering the best?
Charlie: (Smiles) Nope..if you were to draw a Venn diagram of the candidates that we’re looking for and what they are currently on or want, and what we can offer – there’s no overlap!

But I’m not going to make concessions; it’s an employers’ market at the moment and I can afford to be aggressive – I’d rather hold out for the right person and do the job myself in the meantime.

Bela: Out of the interviewees who were nearly ideal but didn’t make the cut, what was the reason for not hiring?  What was missing?
Charlie: An ability to sell themselves.  If you can’t sell yourself then you won’t be able to sell the product. I recently hired someone to do PR and marketing, and this candidate was able to push himself forward and sell himself.  If you don’t believe in yourself then why should anyone else?

Also, a candidate has got to really WANT to work with us; they’ve got to want to work with our team and they’ve got to believe in and want to work with our product.

Bela: What puts you off during interviews?
Charlie: I don’t like it when people say things and they don’t know what they’re talking about – e.g. when they interchange words and ideas as though they mean the same thing when actually they mean different things.

One candidate told me we needed to get our marketing synergy right.  When I asked him what he meant by synergy he said we needed to get our marketing strategy right.  He talked about the two things as though they meant the same thing, even when I quizzed him on it, and they don’t!

Bela: When can candidates ask you about equity in your startup?
Charlie: You can’t just come in and demand equity.  Firstly you need to prove yourself and make yourself indispensable.  Then you can ask about equity.  Same with salary.  If you come in at a low salary and prove yourself during your probationary period, then you can ask for your salary to go up – that’s fine. But if you come in demanding a high salary and fail to prove yourself then you can expect no mercy! You’ll be fired if you can’t deliver.

Bela: That’s plenty of insight for now – thanks Charlie
Charlie: No problem, you’re welcome!

(End of interview)

——–

Conclusion

So there we have it.  Charlie acknowledges that while he needs to hire more people he can’t be sure about what he needs, can’t pay enough, can’t vet candidates, and won’t use recruitment agencies.

The setting of selection criteria such as good degrees from prestigious universities is a risk management exercise.  Employers want to avoid the risk of entering into a relationship with an employee that will be a waste of time and money. There is an expectation that the better your grades, or the higher the quality of the institution in which you have gained your education or work experience, the greater the likelihood that you are a quality candidate and able to perform well.

This is not to say that people who don’t have these credentials are incapable of being effective and awesome…but it does mean that such candidates will need to work harder to prove an ability to deliver and that they don’t present a risky relationship.

In a nutshell, job seekers must get better at articulating what they can do and quantifying their experiences to give employers a solid picture of what kind of performance to expect and to present themselves as a sound investment.

——-

More about the company

MarketInvoice is an online marketplace where businesses can selectively auction their invoices to a network of high-net worth and institutional buyers raising flexible working capital.

The way it works is that an invoice seller auctions an invoice at a minimum value and maximum fee.  Invoice buyers then make offers of how much they’ll advance and the fee that they’d like to take.  The invoice seller picks a buyer and the auction closes.  The seller receives the advance in their account that very day.

When the client pays the invoice, the invoice buyer gets their advance returned as well as their fee.  The invoice seller gets back the difference between their advance and the invoice total – minus the fee paid to the invoice buyer.

Market invoice then takes a fee from either side. Simple. Check their website for more information…www.marketinvoice.com

So Ali, tell me about your new startup.

Our latest project is called BookAdopter, and it’s a website that helps students buy and sell their university textbooks. Check it out at http://bookadopter.com.

Why another textbook exchange site? Why do you think you’ll succeed where others have failed?

It just doesn’t make sense that students buy the same textbooks over and over every year. Not only does this have a significant cost for students, it also has serious consequences for the environment.

The fact that there have been so many other attempts at tackling this problem shows us that people recognise the need for a solution. It’s just that up until recently we haven’t had the right combination of tools to come up with such a solution.

Online social networks are now ubiquitous and dense enough to make such exchange platforms really work. With BookAdopter we’re trying to strike the perfect balance between simplicity and ‘network-awareness’, and that’s why we think it’ll be a success.

How have you tried to make BookAdopter distinctive?

The website is distinctive for three reasons: 1) it’s free, 2) it’s simple, and 3) it makes it easy to share listings.

BookAdopter is free for everyone. Neither sellers nor buyers pay us a penny.

BookAdopter is simple. To use the website you won’t ever have to register, sign up, or provide your bank account details.

Perhaps most importantly, BookAdopter’s integration with Facebook changes the role of students (i.e. the sellers) from a traditionally passive one to an active one. Sellers can post an individual book listing (or a list of all of their uploaded books) to Facebook with a single click. This is much easier than having to manually design, print and pin posters.

Tell me about your team.

I co-founded the website with Philippe Ducrest, a Business student at the University of Edinburgh. We share the same vision for the project, so it’s been great fun working together over the past few months.

I’m currently studying for a PhD in AI at the University of Edinburgh. I’ve worked on a number of projects like this in the past; perhaps the most successful of which has been KeepMeOut: http://keepmeout.com.

Wil Whiting, a University of Edinburgh alumni, has also recently joined our team and will be helping us to develop and promote BookAdopter across the UK.

Do you need anything from our readers?

To turn BookAdopter into a success, we need to get as many books in our database as we can. So if any of your readers have textbooks they want to get rid of, they should upload them to BookAdopter!

And if they don’t, it’d be great if they could tell their friends about our website, because almost certainly some of them will have books that they no longer need.

We’re also working on an ‘ambassador program’ to help students help us promote BookAdopter at different universities, so if any one would like to work with us, please do get in touch!

[BookAdopter.com]