April 2020 is not a time most people want to be reminded of. We were in the middle of the first pandemic lockdown. We had no idea what was going on. We could only leave the house for an hour a day. We were watching the news updates to try and make sense of what was happening. It was a strange time. We could see that the world of work was being turned upside down. Employers who said roles could not be done flexibly and from home, suddenly made it work overnight. People struggled to figure out how to work in those times, and we could see there needed to be radical change in so many ways in the world of work. It was during that time that we were on a zoom call socialising (as we all did then) and we thought we might as well use the time to try out this business idea we had. We’re not sure of the exact date, but we have this screenshot of our original branding and logos from around 20th April 2020. So it’s our fourth birthday (we officially registered the business in July 2020). And what a four years it has been, full of so many twists and turns.
From those early days we have stayed true to those values and they are still our company values:
Challenge – we want to challenge the status quo and the way things have always been done
Compassion – we want to do that with compassion for different people and perspectives
Impact – we want to make an impact in everything we do
Those values have helped us as we have developed what we do, created a business with services that help people work better together. And we have scaled and grown so we continue to create more impact in what we do. We continue to challenge things with compassion, and we make an impact in the things we do and the people we work with.
If you had asked us back in April 2020 whether we would be doing what we’re doing now, we would not have been able to imagine it. At that point we were setting up social media and talking about how we would help to solve the problems we wanted to solve without a clear idea of how we would do that. From the start we wanted to create the company that stayed true to our values. Mo and Allegra have always had the same job title of ‘Co-Creator’ as we co-create everything. Our Slack messages show the extent of the collaboration between everyone involved in the business. Everyone has the freedom to create, make suggestions and work in the way they want to.
So as we reach the milestone of four years in business, here’s some of that story and things we have learnt along the way.
Be award-winning
We knew we wanted to become award-winning, we didn’t know if we could though. We entered a few awards. Then came the moment that changed everything. We entered the Simply Business, Business Boost competition….and we won! That meant we beat 25,000 businesses, we won £25,000 and we developed relationships with Simply Business and the judges. That moment also gave us the confidence and belief that we were doing something valid. It gave us the confidence to know we could do more. And if you watch this video, our reactions to being told we had won are 100% genuine. We did not know what we were dialling into that zoom call to be told that day.
That win was the moment that changed everything. We then went on to win other awards too. We won the Dynamic Award for Start Up Of The Year in 2022, Allegra was named as one of the top 100 female entrepreneurs in 2023 in the f:Entrepreneur ialso100, we were finalists at the Start-Up Awards and Great British Entrepreneur Awards, we won SME News awards and we continue to look at awards to enter. Our advice to other businesses is always to enter awards. Someone has to win and it might be you!
Network and make friends
When we started our business, we could not meet people in person. So we learnt to network effectively online. And although we can now meet people in person, we continue with online networking too. So many things have happened because we have built effective relationships all the way through. We continue to seek connections with people and we learn so much from the people we connect with.
Building effective relationships is about how you help people as well as how people can help you. Connect with people and you never know what might happen. You can help people, and people will definitely help you if you build strong relationships.
We have continued throughout the last four years to join networking groups, community groups and to connect with people. We help people as much as we can and people help us. This means that people refer us to their contacts and those people become clients, it means we develop partnerships and friendships, and people know us and what we do.
We speak at events, we help people and make introductions. We run our own free Slack Community, The Sp_ce so that people can connect with others working on similar things and make those connections. No-one can solve problems alone, it takes community and connection. We continue to make wonderful connections with fabulous people. We make true friends along the way.
Grab opportunities
There have been many times when people have asked us to do something that we know is a risk. We say yes and figure out how to do it later! We take bold decisions when we need to and that has enabled us to scale in a way we would not have been able to if we had been more cautious. That said, we are proud to have never taken any loans or got into any debt. Our approach of saying yes to things works because we’re not afraid to jump at things. That doesn’t mean we don’t make mistakes. There are things we have said yes to, and then realised we need to step away from them. And there are decisions we have made which in retrospect were not the right things to do. Mostly, we’re really proud of the things we were bold about and said yes to.
The Inclusion Journey
a book written by the founders of Watch This Sp_ce is available for pre-order now
The book will be published in August 2024
An example of that is last summer, when Lucy Carter, Commissioning Editor at Kogan Page contacted us to ask us if we were interested in talking about writing a book. We were busy, with huge lists of things to do, but we had always dreamed of writing a book. It was on our first Trello board for the business. So we made time to talk to Lucy, and we said yes, and agreed to a 2024 publication date. So that meant writing 86,000 words as well as running the business. Saying yes to that opportunity and figuring out how to do it afterwards, means that we have a book which is now available for pre-order and will be published in August 2024. It’s a total dream come true for us, and so exciting to see our names on the book cover design.
The book is an example of so many things we have said yes to, even if we were not sure how we were going to do it. It’s those things that often turn out to be the moments that changed our fortunes.
Welcome brilliant people
Along the way, we have had so many brilliant people who have worked with us. Zoe Thompson was our first intern through the University of Sussex intern programme. We continue to employ graduates through the programme every year. And we continue to add wonderful people to our team. In the last year Kaia Allen-Bevan, our Engagement Lead has taken the lead on so many areas of the business to help us grow. She is shaping the direction of many different aspects of how we work. We’re growing around the country too as we work with different clients across sectors and around the country.
And as we turn the page on the next chapter for Watch This Sp_ce, we have new people joining us and our amazing new Advisory Board to help us with the next stage of growth.
The growing team at Watch This Sp_ce, including our new Advisory Board. Read here for more about each person in the team.
So, as we reach this wonderful milestone of four years, here’s what Mo and Allegra have to say.
Allegra
It’s been the most incredible four years since we started Watch This Sp_ce! We set out to try to make the world of work better for everyone, and my hope was that other people would have better experiences in the future than I had had in the past. But, in all honesty, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to have a meaningful impact. At that point, we were just two people in front of a huge corporate world that seemed unwilling to change. It’s been such a rollercoaster ride, and so exciting to connect with so many clients, partner organisations, staff and freelancers who are committed to making a difference, and suddenly here we are, with a team driving change all across the UK and beyond. Just today, I completed a training session and a manager told me how excited she was to take what she’d learned back to her team and help educate them on more inclusive ways of working so that they could embed collaboration and connection across the whole organisation. I feel as though I’m watching a dream come true, seeing the work we’re opening people’s minds and enabling new possibilities, and I’m so grateful to work with such amazing people to make this happen!
Allegra Chapman, Co-Creator at Watch This Sp_ce
Mo
Founding a company is not something I ever thought I would do. And I definitely would not have been able to do this without a co-founder. It’s a genuine partnership and it’s not always smiles and laughter. We have had many tough times along the way and I’m sure there will be more. We wanted to make the world of work better for people. That’s always been the mission and it still is. We want to work with people who want to drive change and have an impact on people to help people to feel included and inspired in the work they do. And we see so many wonderful things happen with the people we work with. That’s what drives me to want to do more. We can make a difference so that people can feel they belong in different workplaces. In the early days we had a Trello board where we set out some things we wanted to do. We wanted to write a book, we wanted to win some awards, and I wanted to speak at a TedX conference. All those things have happened! It shows us that belief in what we do can make things happen. I had a successful career in the corporate world before all of this, but nothing I achieved in those roles has come close to the feelings of joy in everything we achieve at Watch This Sp_ce. We have so many incredible people supporting us, and it’s exciting to think of what we could achieve next.
Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator at Watch This Sp_ce
We’re celebrating four incredible years. We’re celebrating the employers who have embraced change and are creating wonderful, inclusive workplaces for people. And we’re celebrating all the people we have worked with during this time.
