Grant and Jess introduced me to Al, because Al wanted to start organising some events, inspired by the Ragged Schools, and Grant thought I might like to help. I was hugely interested – I think education is the single most important thing – so joining a small team of friends on an exciting journey of experimenting with new ways of taking pleasure in learning and in teaching sounded like an opportunity I couldn’t miss.

I had built a very basic website, opened up some social media channels and I continued to manage the digital side of our activity, handing out email addresses all over the place as Al’s inspiration spread further and further, and more and more were recruited to the cause.

I’ve co-founded or helped to scale a number of commercial and social enterprises, usually with a focus on education, enterprise or employment; or some combination.  I now head up the careers team at Makers Academy, finding amazing jobs for the junior developers we train over a 12 week intensive bootcamp.  I also chair the Education subgroup of the Tech London Advocates; sit on the boards of EdTech UK, BCS Entrepreneurs, UnLtd SEE Change and Learning Futures; coach at a variety of startup accelerators; and was one of 100 young people invited to the UN to tackle the global youth employment crises.