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Questions for start-ups: Worldeka
Sophie Cox, founder Worldeka
In Sanskrit, Worldeka means one world. Worldeka therefore is focused on ‘we’, that is those of us that want to work towards social change. Worldeka is a collaborative platform for social change aimed at charities, NGOs activists and policy makers.
Sophie Cox is the co-founder of the site, that has launched in private beta last month. She shared some of her insights on the founding of the site as well as a private beta code for the site: Next2648.
How did you come up with the idea of setting up Worldeka?
I’ve always felt strongly that people want change but often feel they can’t make an impact; the world is too big, there are too many issues or they are just one tiny person. The aim of Worldeka is to use the internet to make the world smaller, to focus people on the issues they are passionate about and to connect users together to create empowered, organized influential groups. I wanted to create a site that would inspire, activate and connect people.
How do you compare to other social projects?
A lot of the functionality we harness on Worldeka is apparent in other areas, we just make things easier for third sector organization and individuals by making it all accessible online on one easy to use site. We are also very platform focused, organizations have their own distinct environments but they are very much housed within the wider Worldeka community with shared values and goals.
What was your biggest challenge during the development process and how can other start-ups learn from that?
Our biggest challenge has been the technical development of Worldeka. I love the Internet but I’m not a techie, my background was in global business development and marketing! My key advice is to never allow yourself to not fully understand what’s going on in your own business. All technology is accessible if explained patiently and simply by great developers. Our first team tried to bamboozle us with complex coding expressions and so on to divert attention away from the fact they weren’t doing any work! I allowed this to go on for far longer than I should have, due to my insecurities about my technical prowess. Now that we have a truly great team I feel in command of all the knowledge I need.
Whether it be the technical side, the finances or the marketing that confuses you, make sure someone (or some resource such as business link or smarta or so) is there to help you understand your own business.
How did you fund your business? What did you learn from that?
We’re privately funded, we have been offered some VC but felt the exit orientation wasn’t reflective of our goals and to be honest having autonomy over your own business is excellent. Worldeka’s my baby, you’d have to take her from me kicking and screaming!! Whether your privately funded or not I think the principals we uphold for financial success are relevant, especially in these times of financial uncertainty. We focus on multiple streams of small level income to ensure we keep ticking over even if one revenue source dries up. We believe in being very agile, signing short-term flexible contracts that reflect the growing trends towards consultancy and the market fluctuations in pricing.
We also work in a very striped down way; the Worldeka Head Quarters are also known as a garden shed, albeit a very nice one! If we have to work in town we often hot desk through Sun Microsystems, or if we have an important meeting than we take advantage of the plethora of free or low cost meeting facilities available, such as private business clubs, the ICA or the private rooms at the TATE modern.
I also believe very strongly in skill exchange, I can offer marketing and business advice and often swap this for technical expertise. For example Glenn Shoosmith is our virtual CTO, and there’s lots more talent emerging onto the market – particularly now as people are made redundant. Your network is your powerhouse, help people out and they will sort you out accordingly – money isn’t the only unit of exchange.
What are you working on right now?
At the moment we are firefighting all the little problems Beta uncovers. We are also getting ready to travel to America as we were chosen by the British government and Chinwag to go on the digital mission to SXSW, which we’re really excited about!
Where do you want your company to be in 5 years?
One thing that would be very important to us would be a global positioning; we only went live on January 20th and are still in a very closed Beta yet we have users from Asia, the US, South America, Africa and most of Europe! This is essential, as we want to be connecting people from all over the globe. We would also like to be in a position of influence with Worldeka known as a place of education, development and change.
What is a ‘to watch’ company that you like in your sector?
I like the way Net squared and Century 21 are showing initiative in the events sector, they really seem to be encouraging debate and promoting educational events. Unltdworld are really involved in the London community, Huddle is transforming project management tools and freerice’s simplicity and message is an inspiration. In the startup scene as a whole I like fav.or.it, bookingbug.com, snagsta.com and quick.tv, I also love female run techfluff.tv whose founder Hermione Way brightens up the tech scene and smarta.com whose innovative female core are an inspiration for aspiring women in business.
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Thanks for great article guys ! Just one thing – the “great team” link doesnt seem to be going to http://www.andymayer.net. Thanks a lot, Sophie
It’s been changed..! Linde