University graduates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face significant barriers when entering the job market. Without the benefit of family networks, established contacts, or access to traditional mentoring programmes, many talented individuals are left behind before they even get a chance to compete. Traditional mentoring models often relied on “who you know”, creating a system that excluded those without privilege. Or are admin-heavy services only a small number of individuals.
At the same time, the 2020 lockdown created both urgency and opportunity. Young people leaving education were entering one of the most uncertain job markets in decades, while businesses were under pressure to demonstrate genuine social impact. The need for a digital-first, scalable mentoring platform that could break down these structural barriers had never been clearer.
Existing solutions were piecemeal, fragmented, and largely ineffective. University-led schemes tended to be resource-heavy and inconsistent. With shockingly low participation. Corporate mentoring programmes were often inaccessible to those outside existing networks. Graduates lacked visibility of opportunities, while employers struggled to find ways of reaching diverse talent pools in a measurable and scalable way.
The challenge was not just about building a platform, but about repositioning mentoring itself. To succeed, TipStart needed to appeal simultaneously to graduates, mentors, and HR decision-makers. It had to prove its value as both a social mobility initiative and a recruitment innovation, avoiding the trap of being seen as a “nice-to-have CSR project” with no long-term traction.
As co-founder and creative director, I led strategy across brand, product, and platform development. The first step was to ground the concept in research—interviews, surveys, and behavioural insights helped define three clear user groups: graduates (TipStarters), mentors (TipSters), and HR partners. Understanding their distinct needs allowed us to design a product that created value for all sides.
We positioned TipStart as a bridge: enabling graduates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to access mentoring and networks, while giving employers a tangible way to connect with diverse talent and demonstrate measurable social impact. This dual positioning, CSR and recruitment innovation, was the strategic unlock.
On the creative side, I built a bold, inclusive brand that rejected HR clichés and instead felt modern, digital-first, and human. The product was designed as a scalable SaaS platform, allowing growth from small pilot schemes to enterprise-level rollouts. By focusing on accessibility, adaptability, and trust, TipStart became a credible alternative to traditional mentoring models, capable of shifting the category.
Through building the brand and marketing funnels, we created a community of over 500 graduates and facilitated more than 100 mentoring matches across the charity and SaaS phases of the business.
We also secured a paid pilot with Osborne Clarke, which validated the model’s relevance for corporate CSR and recruitment needs. Alongside this, TipStart was recognised nationally through the 2020 Innovate UK Young Innovators Award.
On the marketing side, we developed robust organic social pipelines and automated email systems that consistently attracted and engaged new users. These systems provided the foundations for scale and showed that brand and comms were not the limiting factors in our growth.
Ultimately, the biggest challenge lay in technical resourcing and strategic focus. We spread ourselves too widely across six sectors when a more concentrated approach. For example, focusing on government and policy, which would have been more effective in the early stages. While TipStart didn’t scale as we had hoped, it provided invaluable lessons in building communities, validating ideas, and aligning product strategy with brand vision.
