Robin Ferris is the CEO and Founder of Bankuet.

With the cost of living crisis and inflation, food poverty in the UK is at it’s worst. This year 9.3 million people in the UK will experience food insecurity and in the last year 1 million people have used food banks for the first time.

Volunteering in his local food bank, Robin saw firsthand the challenges that food banks face and how they would struggle to meet the continued increasing demand.

Robin wanted to build a tech platform that would make it was easy and simple for people to donate, whilst making their money go further. And also making sure food banks got the food and items they needed, when they needed them.

In 2019, Bankuet was born with the vision for no one in the UK to go hungry. Since then, they have partnered with over 300 food banks across the UK and delivered over 2.8 million food and household items to help tackle food poverty.

Highlights:

• 03.23: The harsh reality of food poverty in the UK
• 07.15: Things are only going to get worse and less food is being donated
• 10.53: The food bank system, how it all works
• 17.08: The story of Bankuet
• 31.26: The power of technology to solve social issues
• 39.53: Build brand awareness and attracting donations
• 43.31: Bankuet is for profit, building a scalable impact business model
• 49.06: Internal operations, managing volunteers and part time staff remotely around the UK
• 55.33: The future plans for Bankuet
• 59.22: Meeting King Charles

Our Host:
Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com

Our Guest:
Robin Ferris, Founder and CEO of Bankuet.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinjferris/ / https://www.bankuet.co.uk/
Donate here >> https://www.bankuet.co.uk/givenow

Our Sponsor:
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0

Our Producer:
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionado, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.
https://www.jabrielalsuhaimi.com/ / https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimi

Philipp von Lamezan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Squake.

Travel and transport are responsible for 20% of emissions worldwide, with the global population growing, this footprint is only going to increase in the next decade unless we do something about it now.

Squake are advocating for short and long term change, by building a platform that makes sustainable travel and transport accessible to everyone. They do this by focusing on three main steps:

1. Working with businesses to accurately calculate emissions, so consumers can understand the impact of their travel decisions.

2. Reducing or avoiding emissions through alternative means or better modes of travel.

3. Compensating for any remaining emissions by investing in carbon projects.

In this episode Philipp explains more about sustainability in travel and what needs to change, his journey building Squake, the hardest part about being a Founder and his advice for hiring as a startup.

Highlights:

• 02.00: Travel and transport make up 20% of global emissions
• 05.06: Changing consumer behaviour to minimise the impact
• 10.39: The pressures on businesses to change
• 14.33: Transitioning to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in the future
• 17.34: Squake overview
• 23.46: Emission calculation, regulations and frameworks
• 26.42: Helping consumers minimise their impact
• 33.30: Raising their Seed round, the good and the bad
• 37.11: The hardest part of the Founder’s role
• 42.31: Early stage and engineer hiring advice

Our Host:
Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com

Our Guest:
Philipp von Lamezan, CEO and Co-Founder of Squake.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vonlamezan/ / https://www.squake.earth/

Our Sponsor:
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0

Our Producer:
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionado, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.
https://www.jabrielalsuhaimi.com/ / https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimi

Elena Rueda is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dama Health.

900 million people around the world use contraception, yet 80% of women report experiencing side effects that decrease their quality of life, and on average women try 4 different contraceptive methods before finding the right fit!

Pretty shocking right! Elena explains why the lack of data and research in this field combined with pressures on the NHS, results in a very poor patient experience and can lead to serious side effects in women including depression, blood clots and heavy bleeding.

Dama Health are fixing this broken system by applying personalised and precision medicine to contraceptive health. Their screening test identifies patient biomarkers and personal preferences, to enable better decision making between patient and clinician. They are also conduct genetic research studies to better understand how different genes react to different contraceptive methods.

Highlights:

• 02.06: Elena’s career journey and being her friend’s contraception guru
• 08.34: The reasons people take contraception
• 11.13: Different forms of contraception
• 13.08: The current routes (and challenges) in being prescribed contraceptives
• 15.34: The side effects of taking the wrong form of contraception
• 17.44: The challenges prescribers face
• 24.40: Dama Health and their work
• 37.15: Dama’s genetic research studies
• 46.30: Getting the right funding for R&D heavy startups
• 57.51: Meeting Davina McCall and being on Channel 4’s recent documentary

Our Host:
Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com

Our Guest:
Elena Rueda, CEO and Co-Founder of Dama Health.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-r-14335187/ / https://damahealth.com/
Channel 4 documentary: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/davina-mccalls-pill-revolution (Elena/Dama Health snippet 36.58-40.06).

Our Sponsor:
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0

Our Producer:
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionado, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.
https://www.jabrielalsuhaimi.com/ / https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimi

Dan Garrett is the CEO and Co-Founder of Farewill.

For everyone, losing a loved one is one of the hardest things you’ll need to deal with. Trying to process your emotions, whilst having the pressure of deciding on funeral plans and dealing with probate. Most people end up turning to their local high street provider, who costs thousands of pounds, and they often don’t reflect the wishes of the family or deceased.

Dan recognised the opportunity to innovate an industry that hasn’t changed for 100’s of years, even though everyone will need to use it at some point in their life. So Dan founded Farewill to build a tech platform that focuses on making it as easy, simple and affordable as possible for people to deal with death and provide a meaningful goodbye to their loved ones.

Farewill is now the largest will writer in the UK, and one of the largest providers of probate and direct cremation services, and with a 4.9 rating on Trustpilot and multiple awards for their services – they must be doing something right!

Highlights:

• 01.59: Why the death industry appealed to Dan
• 06.09: The reality of someone dealing with a death – the emotions, the body, the funeral
• 12.18: The challenge of innovating the funeral industry
• 17.15: Planning the “ideal death experience”
• 23.32: Farewill overview
• 32.04: Farewill’s approach to designing product and user experience
• 40.40: The scale of Farewill and their number 1 challenge right now
• 48.17: Burnout, collapsing on the street and having realistic expectations
• 54.59: The publicly available Farewill Handbook, hiring and culture

Our Host:
Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com

Our Guest:
Dan Garrett, Co-Founder and CEO of Farewill.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangarrett-ceo-farewill/ / https://farewill.com/

Our Sponsor:
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0

Our Producer:
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionado, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.

Vese Aghoghovbia is the Founder of Philly & Friends. Philly & Friends is an iconic children’s lifestyle business with purpose, representation and diversity at its core.

In this episode we cover:

• The importance of representation
• Is diversity and representation in child’s toys improving?
• Actions we need to task as parents

Want to listen to the full interview, click below:

• https://www.foundersforgood.io/episodes/vese-aghoghovbia-philly-friends-adding-a-drop-of-colour-and-diversity-to-the-playroom

Felix Atkin is the CEO and Founder of Sharesy.

During COVID Felix started to explore why local schools weren’t renting out their unused spaces to generate much needed additional income. Most still took bookings via pen and paper, on average requiring 30 interactions before a booking was completed. This was frustrating for both the venue and the booker.

Felix recognised this was a much wider problem with community spaces– church halls, scout huts, community centres – they all had unused spaces that they struggled to rent out.

Enter Sharesy. In a few simple clicks, people can find and book spaces in their local community. Their unique model operates on a success only basis, so venues can sign up for free and only pay when a booking is made.

Sharesy are on a mission to help local communities to thrive, by encouraging people to book local venues and put money back into their community.

Highlights:

• 02.00: Spotting the need for small schools to generate side income
• 04.58: Community spaces struggling to rent out their spaces
• 07.38: The issue with existing SaaS solutions
• 11.53: The early days of Sharesy: Angels, lockdown and raising £750k in 6 weeks
• 20.06: Removing the barriers for venues to use Sharesy
• 28.23: Pricing experiments and repeat bookings
• 34.07: Funding, Angels vs VC
• 43.02: Felix’s biggest learns as a Founder
• 48.10: The importance of knowing what you need to hire for

Our Host:
Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com

Our Guest:
Felix Atkin, Founder and CEO of Sharesy.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixatkin/ / https://www.sharesy.com/

Our Sponsor:
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0

Our Producer:
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionado, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.
https://www.jabrielalsuhaimi.com/ / https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimi

Bex Hay is the Co-Founder and CTO of Organise. Organise have supported over 3000 worker-led actions by providing a safe trusted space where people can anonymously discuss topics with colleagues and peers, get access to expert advice, and use tools purpose-built for running effective campaigns.

In this episode we cover:

• How can people take action relating to workplace issues
• Common workplace issues and the most vulnerable workers
• The barriers stopping people from taking action
• How to take meaningful action
• Organise overview

Want to listen to the full interview, click below:

• https://www.foundersforgood.io/episodes/bex-hay-organise-helping-employees-to-find-their-voice-and-take-collection-action-to-improve-their-workplace

Sir Peter Wanless is the CEO of NSPCC.

One of the largest and longest standing charities in the UK, the NSPCC have spent over 130 years delivering on their mission to prevent cruelty to children.

Peter has recently celebrated 10 years as their CEO, where he has helped modernise the charity to meet the everchanging and complex world of child abuse and neglect.

The NSPCC break down their mission into three impact goals: 1. Everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse. 2. Every child is safe online. 3. Children feel safe, listened to and are supported.

In this episode Peter talks about the different types of child abuse, how this has evolved over the last decade, the NSPCC’s work, the challenges running a charity this size, his highlights from the last decade and much more.

Before the episode starts, I’d urge anyone who is able to, to click on the link in the show notes or go to www.nspcc.org.uk/donate and give what they can.

Highlights:
03.28: Who is Peter Wanless?
07.16: Child abuse and the different types of abuse
10.03: How child abuse and safety have evolved over the last 20 years
13.43: The importance of prevention versus protection and intervention
18.40: Why England haven’t adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
23.24: NSPCC’s mission and three impact goals
35.45: Peter’s highlights from the last decade at NSPCC
39.28: Raising £120mn each year, operating costs and how money is spent
45.21: The importance of transparency
54.28: The new NSPCC careers website and open roles

Our Guest:
Peter Wanless, CEO of NSPCC
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sir-peter-wanless-b43aa372/ / https://www.nspcc.org.uk/
👉 Donate here: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/support-us/ways-to-give/donate/

Our Host:
Craig Turner. Founder of Confido Talent, a business that helps Tech For Good startups to scale their product, design and engineering teams.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigturner7/ / www.confidotalent.com / craig@confidotalent.com

Our Sponsor:
Jobs For Good. The only job platform to find the best jobs in sustainability, impact and much more.
www.jobsforgood.io / https://bit.ly/3wjwJa0

Our Producer:
Jabriel Al-Suhaimi. Jabriel is a podcast aficionado, editing and producing podcasts for many, including himself.
https://www.jabrielalsuhaimi.com/ / https://twitter.com/jabealsuhaimi