From a business idea to multi-award-winners in just two years

A start-up success story: Watch This Sp_ce

A wide variety of entrepreneurs, start-ups and businesses come through the doors at the Business & IP Centre Sussex. We listen to their business ideas or business journeys so far and what their inspirations are, so that we can offer them the best-suited support. But, our relationship with them doesn’t end there. We follow their progress and celebrate their successes.

One of these start-ups is Watch This Sp_ce, an innovative diversity and inclusion consultancy set up by Mo Kanjilal, Allegra Chapman and Rachel Pearson during the pandemic. We asked one of the founders, Mo Kanjilal, to share their inspirational journey of becoming a multi-award-winning start-up business in just two years.

Who are Watch This Sp_ce?

We are a Sussex based start-up business on a mission to re-imagine the world of work to include everyone. We want to see diverse leaders, leading organisations and starting businesses. We founded the business during lockdown in April 2020, at a time when the world was forced to re-think the way it does business. The three of us were already working together on volunteer projects and we realised in lockdown we had the time to do something about changing the world to create a world we wanted to see. And now, two years on, we have won three awards! The latest one, in June, was the Start-up of the Year award at the Dynamic Business Awards run by Platinum Media Group.

What was the inspiration for your business idea?

Watch This Sp_ce began at the beginning of the first lockdown. The Directors of the business have been running a group called Brighton Digital Women since 2015. This community was founded to support those who identify as women to start and grow careers in the digital sector and to make women more visible in this sector. As part of our work running this group, we heard story after story from our members of harassment and discrimination they had experienced at work. Whilst we were working predominantly with women, the impact of intersectionality was clearly visible. 

We knew the issues were about more than women in tech careers. And, as you may, unfortunately, expect, we all had our own experiences that had haunted our working lives. We all felt strongly that we wanted to do something to make the world of work better for under-represented people. We also recognised that there were huge benefits that organisations were missing out on. We knew that the world of work needed to be re-imagined in order to benefit everyone, but we had busy jobs and lives that got in the way of pursuing that goal.

Then the country went into lockdown. Not only did we find ourselves with more time and less work but also the sudden need for flexible approaches to work made it clear that it was now imperative to challenge the status quo. We, therefore, made a commitment to move away from our former roles and focus on making Watch This Sp_ce a reality.  

How did the BIPC help you develop your business?

We built a good relationship with BIPC Sussex early on, and this has helped us in many different ways. The free BIPC databases helped us with research for finding prospects and partnerships and we often use their space to work. I became one of their Experts in Residence, offering one-to-ones, and this has helped us develop relationships with people starting businesses. We’ve also run webinars with the BIPC on a range of subjects. It was great to get to know the team and how they help people start businesses. We often recommend BIPC Sussex to people we talk to, as it’s such an invaluable free resource for any start-ups. 

What are your plans for the future?

We want to continue working with clients who operate locally, nationally, and internationally to scale the business and secure longer-term contracts. Building on our strong customer reviews, awards, and our reputation, we want to grow our client base through sales activities, networking and strategic partnerships. To grow the business even further we are planning to invest in technology to help us scale our products and services to reach more people. And we are already expanding our team, bringing in people to help us as we grow. 

What’s been your proudest moment in business so far?

Winning the Simply Business, Business Boost competition in October 2021 totally changed everything for us. We beat 25,000 businesses to win £25,000. And if you have seen the video of us being told we had won, our reactions are totally genuine! We had no idea what we were dialling into a call for. We’re so proud to have won that award, and now the Dynamic Business Award for ‘Start-up of the Year’ too. 

What’s the best piece of business advice you can give to start-ups?

To network as much as possible and find every opportunity to meet people. It takes time to grow your reputation. In those early days, every conversation counts and could be an opportunity. We also say enter competitions, because someone has to win and it could be you!

What book has impacted you?

There’s a book we quote very often in our training, Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed. It’s about the power of diverse thinking and diverse teams. It’s a great book to help people see how different types of people and different perspectives are what we need to have in workplaces.  

Would you like to be our next success story? Get in touch with BIPC Sussex to book a free one-to-one session with an Information Specialist so we can help you develop your business idea or grow your existing small business.

Visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/bipc or email bipc@brighton-hove.gov.uk