Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Send us a Text Message.Guest: Georgia Gibson, Co-Founder of YouniAbout the Guest:Co-founder of Youni, a platform providing a hub for university extracurricular life including societies, events, careers opportunities, and moreGraduated from Oxford University and saw the need for a centralized platform while organizing events through her various societies and groupsLaunched Youni in Oxford and is expanding to additional universities, taking a bottom-up approach working directly with student gro...
Guest: Georgia Gibson, Co-Founder of Youni
About the Guest:
Key Points:
Calls to Action:
Don't miss the premiere podcast conference in the B2B space this November 11-13 in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the B2B Pod Con (https://www.b2bpodcon.com/). Tickets are on sale with early bird pricing through August 9.
Make sure to reserve your spot at the best conference for B2B podcasting.
Don't miss out on the premiere event for B2B podcast professionals in Nashville, Tennessee this November 2024. B2B Pod Con is a conference specifically designed for you in the B2B space. Join hundreds of B2B podcast professionals learn from industry leaders, experienced podcasters, and content strategists.
Tickets go on sale July 31. Go to https://www.b2bpodcon.com/ and sign up for more information.
_____
1400+ subscribers each Tuesday learn how to be a
better podcast host and guest through Podcast Prep
You can find it at https://podcastprep.xyz/
_____
I use Riverside.fm for recording my podcast.
_____
LinkedIn: ericrutherford
Email: eric@straightforwardmg.com
https://www.buildthatpodcast.com/
There are affiliate links above.
Welcome to “It’s Marketing’s Fault”. If you are a marketer, this phrase is familiar to you. Sometimes deserved, often times not.
Don’t worry, you are among marketers and friends here. Let’s discuss how to do marketing the right way.
As a side note, in episodes 1 through 37, this was Build That Podcast. The goal of this podcast is to help you learn how to use a podcast to grow your business and expand your influence. If you go back and listen to earlier episode (those before November 2023) you will hear that name. Don't worry--it's good content too. :)
Welcome to It's Marketing's Fault, the podcast where we discuss how to do marketing the right way. I'm your host, Eric Rutherford, and I am thrilled today because I have with me Georgia Gibson. She is co-founder of Uni, which provides the university community with a hub to build and boost their society's groups and events all in one centralized platform.
Thank you so much for having me. Can I just say, I love how you say that.
I feel like it will not recorded for all our advertising reels. Great, Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's, it's fine. It's, uh, I've been able to do this and kind of got into rhythm of it. So it's, uh, uh, it, it has worked out well. It was not always this So that's Yeah. I'll take the voice. So, um, So one of the things, I saw this post you did on LinkedIn and then I read this, watched this just as fascinating Instagram reel that you did that just really kind of set the stage and really was like, man, I need to have a conversation with her. Before we get into that and other things, though, really, it's this question of like Facebook or Meta or Instagram or, you know, I love that. Well, it's true, right? It's because that's how, I mean, your experience, your co-founder's experience, everybody that you are engaged with seems to have sort of this negative experience with the organization globally called Meta. But recently they had like a shareholder meeting, there were dividends, their stock price reached new highs. Popular opinion looks like Meta is still king. Would you agree or disagree? I got a feeling I know where you're going with it, but I still want to give you the option. And then why do Well, OK, yeah, I kind of have a bit of a multifaceted response to this. And on the first, just to pick up on the language you use where you said matter is still king. I don't think that that means that it can't be superseded by a new queen, for example. So even if it has predominance right now, it doesn't mean that it will do tomorrow. And similarly, the news article that you're referring to is particularly shocking. because of its decline that was noted to Q1, Q2, et cetera, Q3 of last year. And suddenly Q1 of this year, it's gone up again. Why?
I mean, it's interesting. So Facebook is no longer really a social network. It's more of a social media company with a real focus on the word media. And it's pretty much just become a giant billboard, a giant advertising space for millions of people. I mean, the Facebook user numbers are huge, of course, because it has so many different demographics. it's not, you know, Facebook is not the social media company that your grannies don't understand and aren't using. In fact, people over the age of a certain sort of threshold, which don't use the other social media companies are very active on Facebook. And so in terms of like advertisers bang for your buck kind of situation, something that Facebook is very good at, because it has such like a monopoly or a plethora of different features in the platform, whether it through chat or events, etc, even though it's completely scattered and trying to do everything ultimately is not really doing any of it well. It does have loads of data on people and it allows you to do very targeted advertising for huge demographics and huge numbers.
However, so as an advertiser's platform, yeah, Meta Business Suite also is quite good, though not all of their insights or analytics are always accurate, so be careful there. But I'm not building an advertising company, and that's not what I set out to do. So I don't even feel like I'm competing with them in that sphere. I think that in terms of what they set out to be, which was a network, a social network, a connection of individuals, of micro-communities, no, they're not king there anymore at all.
I appreciate that distinction because, yeah, they have just a ton of users. They have all the data because that's what they do. That's where they make their money is through advertising, through the data. But I like how you described they're not a social network anymore.
Maybe they were in the beginning, but they're not now.
How would you How would you define or I think with a social network, connection of communities is the core goal. I don't think that is Facebook's core goal anymore. I think it's about putting advertisers and advertisements in front of eyes. And they're very good at that. But actually connecting people who aren't selling anything I don't think they're winning there. So that's the difference is like, are things being sold through these connect micro communities? Or is it ultimately about sharing different things, And that makes sense. And that really kind of leads us into uni because you are truly a social network by those definitions. So So Uni is an aggregate app for extracurricular life at university. So at the moment there is no centralised database for anything beyond the lecture list at University at Campus Life. There is no one place where you can find out all of this stuff like beyond your degree. So it's the music, it's the sport, it's the events, it's the careers, it's the panels, all of that. And this is a problem that is hitting all stakeholders interested in the space. So the student body, the societies, the student organizers, the venues, the clubs, et cetera, recruiters as well, and also alumni. Everyone is missing this kind of centralized database to tap into student life. So ultimately, that is what we are building. And with the focus on social, I think another big thing that makes us different to something like Facebook is that we don't make any money from screen time.
And that really shows that we're about social interactions in real life. It's not just about the media and how many eyes are on the media. We actually need to get you off the app because we make money through attendees going to events, through commissions on ticket transactions. So Wow, that is a very different model than any of the, we'll call them loosely social platforms out there because all the others, like you say, their goal is eyes on platform, woe be it if you have a link that sends you off platform, you get docked and dinged and banished to the wasteland. If you dare try to take somebody off platform, But it sounds like that's ultimately then your goal, really, you're trying to solve that problem of how to get people connected and everywhere on campus, around campus. I'd love for you Yeah, so the way that Uni works, so there's different kind of sections of the app, but the core fundamental bit is a feed of all events that are going on, and you can categorise. We're also actually just, I mean, this is a bit of like a spoiler, but we're just about to introduce friends into the platform, so you can have a feed and see where all of the events that your friends are going to, which was one of the good things when people were on Facebook, is that you kind of connect with them by saying who's going to what, which you can't really do anymore because no one is on it for those reasons. But yeah, so there's an event feed where societies can post their events, all the information about them, and do ticketing through the platform at a very competitive rate to some of the other major ticketing platforms out there. There's also a group feed. So currently, the only way to kind of see all the societies and plethora of different events organizers out there is on Freshers' Week or Freshers' Fair, where you have like all of these different stalls and a stuffy tent, and you just have to sign up on a whim. and you've only been at university for two days and you don't really know who you are at that point or who you want to be next week. So we have one place where you can imagine seeing like kind of on Spotify, you can see all the different artists. So you can click on a society, you can see the up-to-date committee of it as well with pictures about them. which at the moment doesn't exist because all the student union websites are out of date. I mean you can also see their event card, see the kind of things they're talking about, photos etc and all of the events that they post will come from that page. You can also have all of your tickets within the app, there's also a QR code scanner so you can run events on the door so it's all in one really making the event organiser's life super easy. And something that we're releasing as well, so another bit of a spoiler, you can now book a venue through the app and also book a student band, a student DJ, a student photographer. So really catering for every part of the event execution process. And now we have profiles too. So you have student profiles, you can see what people are studying, you can see what their next event is coming up. Kind of fun about the social experience of university. So if I go on to someone else's profile, I can see all of their socials. So we direct link to Instagram, I can go straight to Instagram, I can go to your WhatsApp, if you allow that as a setting, I can see what you're studying, I can see what event you're going to next. So I mean, like, in a social scene, if I were to, I don't know, have a crush on someone, I could also conveniently turn up I love that. Now, do you then as do you approach the university as far as doing this through sort of university or whoever, you know, or is this through the individual groups Yeah. So we've chosen not to go top down as it were, like go university first, but actually go bottom up. And there's two main reasons for that. The first is that University bodies are very slow and bureaucratic and very traditional. I mean, we're trying to disrupt quite a traditional entity in lots of ways. And we've actually had a meeting with the kind of Oxford tech team, as it were, of the university. And they were kind of like, we've got enough on our plate right now trying to centralise the academic life of university and make that all tech-friendly post-COVID, extracurricular, like that's always been the students' domain. crack-on kind of vibe Also, they're not necessarily going to kind of endorse one platform just in the same way. They're not like hey guys everyone use Instagram or whatever The second reason that we're really approaching all of the societies is that our whole brand is really about platforming the student hero and the society organizers. And I pride myself on these really good relationships with the people that are organizing everything, the society presidents and the students themselves. And our brand is really about that. We're a micro-community platform and we want to build out our relationships with the micro-community organizers. And ultimately, in comparison to other social media platforms, which don't really have that much brand loyalty, in the sense that when the scandals were held at Facebook store, no one rushed to defend them. No one was like, no, don't take Facebook. With Uni, we actually have really good brand loyalty in the sense that people know our voice. We're kind of building something that people care about, like almost what, you know, Nike did the just do it culture is what I want our brand to be. Like we, when you go on our page, it's very little about the product or the app. It's more about promoting the kind of lifestyle we want to help facilitate. So, you know, going out there, finding your people, finding your passion, spending less time in your I love the fact that you're doing that very specific way with groups and societies, not worrying about going through the bureaucracy of the university. Because that was a question I was wondering about.
I'm like, man, if you're going through, if you're having to go through university, man, that's, yeah, that is a serious uphill slog. Well, and even, you know, as you described, having up to date you know, about and and like who's leading the groups and everything else, which, yeah, like university websites are notorious for not being quick to update. So it's like everything is accurate as of today, different groups, different organizations and doing it from the ground up. I mean, that makes that makes it so much easier from both from your side and from the student side, I would think.
Completely, but that's not to say that we haven't spoken to like the official departments within university. So currently actually my co-founder is on a call in the other room with Oxford alumni network because right now that's a very, that's another very data blind process in the sense that they like ring up and they go, hey Georgia, you were at Oxford in year, do you want to give money? And I'm like, hold on, what? Whereas if I could say, I could pay George, you were Oxford, you were part of, you know, Oxford Netball team, they're looking for a new kit. We know that you, you know, like you were part of Oxford Women in Business, and they want a new sponsor, way more likely to kind of respond to that. And ultimately, if you get a commission I like that too, because it's very targeted, man. The word targeted comes to mind, but it's not somehow in this context that feels a little, I don't know. But it's very specific for that group. And it could really solve a problem for donations and alumni as they're able to go, okay, we have a need, here's their background. you know, it fits them uniquely and I mean, that kind of leads on to a point about data, which I feel I should mention at this point, because I could say, like, how come you're just giving that data? I mean, ultimately, we're about to go into quite an interesting data time as, like, things become cookie-less and zero party data. So that is the data that you kind of consent to give out in a simplified understanding.
And every data point that we collect on a student is very much consented. So, for example, you know, they click what they're interested in and they can click to make private or make public what events they're going to and what societies they're part of. Luckily, a lot of students do want that data to actually be public because it looks great if you're the president of a society or you're attending X event or you're an X team. And now more and more as recruiters look for culture fit hires and for people that have not just got straight A's but shown a level of discipline and you know, beyond your degree, that kind of data is actually, people want that out there and actually struggle to translate that often. So similarly, we're going to have the option where you can, once you pass to be a student at university, you can be an alumni and actually targeted alumni correspondence, which isn't just like blanket emails, like come to this event and give us millions of pounds, but actually like, hey, we're doing a meetup with the football team that you're in.
That's actually a joyful experience that I would want people to know that so that I can connect. And that's that word network again coming in.
It's allowing people to use their data in the right way to facilitate micro-community networks that actually bring people close together rather than just selling loads of data to brands, to market, anything that cookies picks I like how you said that using the data in the right way, it's like this is the ideal way to use data from a personal vantage point as opposed to a corporate vantage point, much like Meta, much like the others where they're trying to use data. you know, for honestly, to build shareholder value. Whereas you, you're really trying to, to highlight the value to the individual user, and give it it sounds like then giving them full, full authority over their own data, what they share, what they don't, and a lot of it they want Yeah, and it's in it's in the same vein of the kind of recruiter standpoint for a platform like uni is that we allow We connect societies and sponsors. So societies want money.
They need funding. And they want you know consulting society wants to be sponsored by McKinsey. They want to be connected. But right now it's a very again to say data blind process. I've worked for recruiters. I've worked for talent investors for companies seeking students and wanting to sponsor societies but they don't know how to guarantee return on investment because societies have no one place where they have all their data. They'll say like we have thousands of people in our mailing list under the breath, most of them are alumni or we have X amount of followers, but like this many people come to our events. So uni enables you to kind of aggregate all that data and really have up to date metrics on who's active followers, the demographic of like your following and your event attendees, which enable the sponsorship kind of like almost using societies as the micro influences around That's brilliant. Yeah, because you you you give the you give those sponsors that data that is at best like on a spreadsheet or an email otherwise, but here they get up to date, very accurate information that they can use and leverage.
And if you have success, if you have people, if you have that engagement with your society or group, man, yeah, you might as well leverage it to the best of your ability. How did you go about launching this? Did you just build it because you saw the problem and hope it would work? Did you do a lot of market research first? I'm just curious, how did you say, okay, this Yeah, I mean, we're still very much hoping it will work, by the way, I feel like that that stage is constant. But in terms of like, how we went about it, so I graduated from university a year and a half ago. And I was very involved in society life. I ran a funk band, I was part of kind of women in business societies. And I became very aware from an organiser perspective, how scattered and to be honest, just how much of a faff it was organising. And I was like, is this even worth worth it like i so love hanging with these people i said love doing these events but it's so with the decline of facebook i just wasn't getting the same traction on anything i was doing it was so hard to reach people and i was getting people to sign up manually at Freshers Week, put their name down on a mail chain. But I know, because I'm a student, I was like, no one's reading these emails I'm writing. I mean, I'm going to keep sending them, but I know no one's clicking on them. And then I would use Eventbrite, which charged a lot, Fixer, which also charged a lot. And it was all on Instagram. But the algorithm is never going to favor societies and a load of Canva posts. Like, I'm competing with Kim Kardashian and puppies. And unless someone happens to follow my account, you're just not going to hear about what I'm organizing. And then I met my co-founder at an Entrepreneur Society event, actually. And he was having a similar experience. He was head of sponsorship for Oxford Entrepreneur Society, which is the biggest entrepreneur society in the UK. And he was finding it difficult to get sponsors for Oxford Entrepreneur Society. Like, that shouldn't be a difficult situation. And again, it was because there was no platform to kind of facilitate it or to prove that they had the data to make it worth it. And then we kind of just looked around at our friends and news and realized, wow, the stats on student mental health are devastating and student isolation figures and as the sort of technologizing and making everything online of the academic life, the next frontier is clearly facilitating extracurricular life and using platforms to make it easier to actually get out and do these things. So while we were doing our finals, Sorry, this is a very roundabout way of giving you the launch story, but I'm really taking you back to the student bedroom initial story.
We were in our student bedrooms and yeah, we were doing our finals and getting very distracted by this idea that was eating away at us and put out a beta product while we were still at Oxford to kind of test it. It was a very shit app, to be honest, between you and me. in that we just kind of outsourced and we just wanted to get it out, just wanted to test our assumption, like, is this just us? And it got so much attention and so much traction. And we were like, wow, okay, people want to, even if it's shit, like, they've just got used to bad events platforms, clearly, like Facebook and like, you know, none of these other ones are buzzing hubs. And we were like, okay, let's, let's do this. We left university, saw all of our friends taking incredible high paid grad jobs.
And we were like, nope, No one else is doing this, so we're going to do it, and we got our heads down, managed to raise some pre-seed funding as well, have a team of six now kind of working full-time, launch in Oxford officially in October, have good traction and are set to launch in other universities, sort of five to six other universities in the next few months, kind of, well, officially in First, that's just awesome. I love that you saw this challenge. You saw this gap, really, in the marketplace, in just this hole where there was nothing. And you said, you know what? We're just going to try it. We're going to build it. We're going to beta. We're just going to throw something out there and see. And then you got incredible feedback. And then you're like, OK. Let's go.
So I love that you tested the idea, but even more that you're like, I think, yeah, I think for us, it was also not just about testing the idea, but kind of testing ourselves. Like, are we cut out to do this? Because when you say gap and hole, and you're completely right that no one was quite doing it how we are. And we would say that, but there have been a lot of attempts to nail this space and more and more approach every day. I'm not threatened to be honest, because I think it's all an execution. Like the idea is not particularly revolutionary. We're not doing anything new. We're just doing it a new way. But I mean, ultimately, yeah, it's exciting to be in a space that is actually becoming quite competitive. And so all of the points of how we build our brand, stuff And that's a very good point. Because There is competition. I'm sure the roadsides are littered with other companies who have made the attempt, who haven't succeeded. So it sounds very much like the way you're going about it, you're just going after a unique point.
You're not trying to be everything to everybody, and you're doing it in a very particular way. And that seems to Yeah, it's funny you should say that when you say the roadside's littered, because it very much feels... I feel like I'm trudging up Everest and I can see all the dead bodies, because people message me on LinkedIn and they go, we tried to do what you're doing. Get out. Get out of it. Don't do it. And I've had proper conversations. Some people are like, wow, we wish we did it in this way. Like, we want to tell you what we learned so that you can, like, fast track what you're doing. And some are like, genuinely, someone who got quite far was like, don't do this. This is a bad idea. And I was like, I mean, most startups fail because people give up. So I was like, Hey, that's the one difference. I mean, you've done amazing things, I'm sure, but you're not doing them now. And you're not us and you're not our team in this. But it's, it's, I think it's because it's such a universal problem. Like most people have been to university and struggled in this way. But it's a particular time right now where Facebook is amongst Gen Z is projected to kind of drop usership 45% year on year. And again, like the focus on micro communities and people seeking and struggling and kind of seeking more solutions. I think it is a particular optimum time and also mobile technology and all of that. So I'm excited as much as I am aware that I'm entering a very, yeah, competitive space that has had a lot of failures in But like you say, it's a unique time because sometimes ideas and companies and businesses, they're almost too early to the scene where it's, they have the idea, but like people aren't ready for it yet. Where it sounds like now people are ready for what you're offering. Like this is the post Facebook era, whereas And also post-COVID, which has really changed the psyche of my generation. And also I think that something that social media has done is it's made the gaps between generations bigger and the time of which a new generation starts smaller. So people that are five years above me are a completely different generation of how they interact with technology and social media specifically. So I think a lot of reasons as well is that I've seen some companies of founders that are kind of in their thirties trying to do what we're doing. I see how they interact with students. I've received emails or I've been forwarded emails of how they approach them. Like, Hey, can you try this?
Or I'm going to offer you this discount. And it's like, that's not how you do it. And I just know, because I am them and I know how I would want to be approached. And I, I take real pride in meeting so many of our users in person. I go down and I. have coffee with them, we talk about their lives, the stress, the revision, and sometimes I share revision notes either, and really being a personable face, doing things that can't scale at stage when we can, that's so crucial. I'm not just sending loads of, hey, I'm a company and I can get you free Domino's pizza, but you got to try my app. We kind of do funner ways I love that, and it's so funny you say some of that. I interviewed Jacob and Jonah from Lucid Meme recently.
Yeah, I love those guys. They were a hoot, and we were just having this conversation, because I'm an old guy. I can't help it. I'm like 50, so I'm old. And we were talking about this very different... Life's just different and at different ages, and very much you are... you are, I say post-university, but you're, you still are in that, in that demographic range where you feel their pain. Like you, you know exactly what they're going through. And whereas others who are older, they just don't like it's, it's technology has been moving so fast that that truly gives you a, a huge advantage. Um, and you mentioned something that I had never thought about this idea of sort of generations sort of shrinking in terms of age ranges by technology. Would Yeah, big time. So and I actually have a theory about this that I'll come on to. So you can kind of measure it to when different versions of like the iPhone or different apps came out of like what the generation is defined by.
So and also trends and everything and how we sort of interact with pop culture. So when I was growing up, TikTok and iPhones came in when I was in my teens, but not from the start. I didn't grow up looking at an iPad at all, whereas obviously a lot of people now are. And I actually, I have this theory that my generation, the generation that got introduced to social media and iPhones in their teens, but not at the start of their teens, are actually in a bit of a privileged space with regards to finding the solution to a lot of the problems that are emerging because of overexposure to these platforms. Because I think that I both sit on the bridge between understanding the dopamine cycles, the like doom scrolling and the come downs that social media can give you and the addiction of it. But also, I knew a world before that I know and I can also come out of it. And I was very aware when I was growing up what was kind of going on and the change between how we would interact with each other as a result, but we kind of saw it happen. So whereas people a couple years below me, I don't know anything different. So I feel actually really responsible. And this actually comes to a lot of the reasons I do what I do is I feel actually personally responsible to be the person within this little pocket of time that finds a solution because I don't think it's possible in other ways. So I think I have to do it for the generations below me because I know I'm not so out of touch that I don't understand what they're talking about or feeling, You have, calling seems like the wrong term, but there's something in that. It's like you, excuse me, you It sounds like, okay, you have enough perspective to say, Hey, I want to, I don't want you to get stuck in social media. And, and I'm close enough to you that you still listen to me. Right. So I, I mean, for lack of a better term, it's like, but, but like, you can speak into their, you can speak into their lives and they, they listen and you have that impact. And so it's like, Hey, how do we get you?
I think so. But how do you get them out of that? And like you say, getting them to events, getting people to actually look at people not through a camera or through a screen and just have a conversation or a cup of tea and just experience This I actually find really special in that other social media companies They make money by kind of keeping their user base in a sub-depressed state so that I reach for the dopamine kick. So like ultimately, when do you go on Instagram? It's normally because you need a bit of a boost. You don't go on when you're feeling super in the zone, super productive, super happy, super involved or engaged by something else. You go when you're feeling maybe a bit full, maybe a bit sad, maybe a bit anxious, and then you get that kick. And that's how these companies need you to be so that you stay on the platform and you keep reaching for these dopamine loops. As I mentioned before, we don't make money in that way from screen time. And also, we need our user base to feel confident and secure and happy so that they go to events and put themselves out there and join groups and explore and want to expand and leave their comfort zone. So as my job in the company is kind of marketing and sales and creative direction, all of that. And I often say that I have to engineer smiles for a living because that's really what it is. I need to make people, give them the confidence through our brand, through our marketing, that they can join all of these things. And that I think is another unique facet to our social networking company is that we really need people to be social, to go on it. We really need you to feel like socializing. And if you're in a doom scroll state, you don't feel like socializing. So the best thing that I can do through everything, every interaction I have, leading by example, being socially hopeful, you know, hopefully I come across that way. But also through my content is all I love that, giving them confidence and helping them to have that confidence to interact. Because it's true, it's like when you are not feeling confident, you do scroll, you lurk, you do all of those things because you're just Yeah, you just feel a bit empty and you need topping up. And the quickest way to It is, it is. And you talk about marketing uni.
What's been the biggest challenge in marketing it and how are you overcoming that challenge? Because I know you're still, I'll say still early in the game, you are building, but you have to get the word out about it. You're having to market. What's the Yeah, I mean, it's exactly that. It is that kind of balance of being early, but also having to push forward like kind of you're a company bigger than you are, or at least sell the vision as much as like the present. I think one of the biggest challenges for a company at our stage and also in our sector, because we're consumer facing, is patience with products.
So it takes time to get product market fit. and to really build something which works for multiple people using it and we're early stages and things crash and there are bugs that are missed and that come out in the wash. So from a marketing perspective, I always say it's about balancing momentum, credibility, and humility. And you can't have too much of either one of them. Because if you're too humble, people won't back you. And they're like, why am I using this? These people don't even believe in themselves. So you need an ounce of credibility. You need to be like, hey, we're the people to do this. We're doing this. Believe us. and you also need to balance it with the momentum of not constantly saying, we're the next best thing, this is the next best biggest launch, we're launching again, because then people are like, hold on, didn't you just launch a week ago? And at this stage of a product cycle, basically the first kind of year to two years of a product like ours, you basically have multiple launches until you really nail the product. So it's buying it's allowing audience to kind of buy into that process and to be like guys you're part of chapter one but this is a story you want to be a character in you want to see how this unfolds like hang on for chapter two there will be twists and turns and plot twists that none of us expect least of all us trust me but you want to be here for the journey because that's the exciting bit so you can say you saw you were here for the come up So from a marketing perspective, it's about building that journey. And so that when things go wrong, it's like not a huge surprise and people don't just delete the app.
Because my generation is, you know, for better or for worse, mostly for worse, impatient, but as they should be, because a lot of tech works really well, and they're used to it. But we're at a stage where we're an early stage company in a very advanced You mentioned humility within that, and I don't know that I've ever heard that word used in the context of a, and what you guys are, I mean, you're a social company, you're a SaaS company, it's all app related. First, I think that is awesome. And I would love for you to expound upon that because I think too often companies lack it. And so I'd love to hear why Where is that from? I'm just not too into like bullshitting. I mean, I work in marketing, so it's people pleasing as a profession to a certain degree.
So like that degree of like amping things up, I'm all about it. But like, people can see through it and without kind of polarizing the debate, I mean people ask me similar questions to this often and I think maybe the world of which I'm in is quite a tech bro-y world and I've learned a lot from the kind of males that I've interacted with in this space and they have a kind of confidence, a kind of bullshit bravado that they hit every situation and it's all it's all a go and I'm always like where is the humility here but I've definitely learned from that but I kind of always said to myself I want to be the kind of founder that is really honest about how difficult it is and how many mistakes you're going to make and how ultimately it's about fast failing to the top. I've made so many mistakes and so failed so many times and I love talking about them especially to other women who are so scared to talk about failures or see failures when they're not actually failures. So I feel I kind of have a little bit, again, this responsibility to be humble.
I really want our company to redefine quite a lot of areas, whether it's like the social networking space, but also what a founder of a tech company looks like and acts like. And I'm not going to go in there and do a Mark Zuckerberg. I mean, he's not a likable character. He's also not humble at all. You know, I want to be someone that people can approach. I'm building a social company.
I want to be social. And ultimately, you connect through the cracks. And there's a lot of them in our company. But if you point them out, you can do like that, you know, you know, the Japanese, what's, I can't remember what to call it, kintsugi, where you paint gold through the cracks, and it becomes beautiful. I really, really believe in that. So yeah, humility is, you know, when it's balanced with credibility and momentum, don't be too humble, because then you're just, you know, burying your own grave, but ultimately being honest. is just, especially in the consumer facing social, you know, space, which we are, we're so based on psychology. It's also like, how do people interact with our app? Like, so much of our brand is also my personality right now, because we're at the stage where I'm so like, front facing on all the content. So people need to like me and no one likes, like, perfect. And I'm also just far from perfect. So it's just honestly more than humility, I Well, and I like how you say it's it's the humility balance with the credibility.
It's so it's not like it's not like you're going like, I am only a screw up. Like, I mean, I feel that way sometimes about me, right? It's like, I see all my mistakes. It's like, but then there's the credibility side.
So it's, I like how you're talking about this balance of I'm human. We are a human company. We are gonna, we're gonna mess things up from time to time. Cause guess what? We're, we got a bunch of people working here and, and that's okay. I like how you're talking about that, describing that, because I think we do lack that. I think that bravado doesn't Well, I mean, it does in third industries. Really does. On the trading floor, absolutely.
Imagine a transparent social media company. Wouldn't Would, and it's, you're very approachable.
I think that is like, to me, I would rather work with an approachable company who, as opposed to feeling like, okay, I'm, whereas I'm always self-guessers, you know, second-guessing or self-conscious, like I can, I'd rather just work with companies that that are real, for lack of a better, a cliched term, so to speak. But, you know, just like, hey, because guess what? I mean, I, I spill stuff on me. Like, I just like, I'm No, that's just, just biggest failure this morning. So we'll, no, but, but I appreciate that. And I think we, we lose some of that. Um, especially in marketing, like as, as a, you know, as a recovering mark, well, I'm still in marketing. I'm not really recovering. Uh, I've, you know, all about hyperbole and, you know, just go and make it big and bold and bullet point and short phrases and. you know, and then ratchet up the pain point and you know, all those good Well, you can still package the point, but it doesn't always have to have That was brilliant. Absolutely. Use that one. I would say, yeah, use that one going forward as well. But it's true. It's like you can do a lot of things without it being perfect, but yet it still be wonderful and useful and Yeah. I mean, I think I have always lived my life slightly like that in terms of often seeing failures as kind of hallmarks of credibility. So I, my parents always take the piss out of me in the sense that I have loads of boxes in my rooms, which are almost like physical examples of my fast failures. It's the time that I wanted to be an artist, the time I wanted to be a journalist and I just have boxes of like my art or my photography, all of these things. And I've been through so many, Fast failures, I'm not any of those things. I'm kind of all of those things, weirdly. But I always look back and I'm like, God, look at all of those experiences that I ratched up and that made me realize what I'm good at and how I love storytelling and visualizing and all of that stuff. And even though those are abandoned, in a sense, projects, I've always looked at kind of the honesty to be like, that didn't work, that didn't work, that didn't work, but look what I'm doing now. And it's kind of working. And You learn from each of those something. Each of those experiences, maybe it was something, okay, I don't like doing this, or I don't have the strength, but you probably pick something else up that you then apply going forward. That's something for me personally, it's taken forever to learn is like, everything is just one more, for lack of a better term, like one more rep. It's just one more attempt. It's like, I've learned from the things of the past and I'm still learning. And I can't go, oh, that was, oh, I'm a horrible person. I failed at this. It was just like, oh. I learned. I I mean, you say that it's taken you a while to learn that. I find that really interesting, because that is exactly what I want our company to help people learn quicker, is that university is the time to rack up all those failures, to try out being in a band. Almost just to say, like, I'm glad I tried. I don't want to do that again. Or like to try out loads of different panel talks about different professions. And be shit stuff, because it's way harder to find that out later in life. And you ultimately then end up having regrets or you go into the wrong job. So I really want to instill that. That's ultimately what the uni platform is about, is we don't expect you to be experts or to be organizing all the events that we put on. Just go and have fun and try it out.
I think it's important because they're at that stage in life, like you say, it's the time, right? Because there's It may be safe, but there's the repercussions, like long lasting, you're not having to make a career change, you're not having to juggle career and family and job and locate, there's just, I mean, don't get me wrong, for everybody listening, if you're in a university setting, you feel like your head's gonna explode. So I'm not trying to downplay that.
Because I've felt that way too. But at the same time, there are other responsibilities you don't have yet. And so now is the time very much to be able to get those And you feel like your head's going to explode often because you're spending so much time in your head. And the only way to get out of your head is to get out of your house and to do things that take you outside. So I would say arguably more, you feel like you're, I mean, obviously you don't, I'm not saying become the busiest person ever, but realize that you're probably spending an hour or so scrolling on your phone at some point during the day. And imagine if you replaced that with something with your friends or meeting new people, I promise you, you would feel how, you So true. Yeah. You have to get, yeah, you're in your head. You have to get out, like get outside, get out of, of, of your room, go somewhere. So you can, yeah. So your brain has time to process and not just get stuck in that endless, that endless death spiral. So, As we're kind of wrapping up one take away that you'd like I'd say my one take away would be I mean ultimately the one thing I always want to leave. kind of anyone I speak to as an impression is you can like you really can do it whether it's starting a business at uni or whether it is joining a new society or or starting an event or going to a newer team or going to a concert You really can. You have so much more control than you think you do. And ultimately in life, there's such a shit show goes on. And so I always think control the controllables. And that's all the simple stuff. Spend time outside doing things you love. I mean, I saw a TikTok the other day that was like, someone was saying, I feel very anxious and depressed. And it had a voice outside and it said, have you drunk water? Have you gone outside today? Have you eaten well? And it's like, nope, nope, nope.
And then it ends being like, I wonder why you're feeling a little bit low and it's like young people and I'm not trying to belittle mental health issues whatsoever and there are some very serious cases that need serious solutions however there is a lot of people that would benefit from just simple life changes and just I promise you can like I have been told no about so many different things and I'm not your average tech funder I'm a gay woman from South London like you don't need to look it to do it. So I just really want to inspire people to go out and do what they wanted to do. And if they're at university, message me and I can help you I love that. It is. It's like you say, sometimes it's just It's the simple things that we know, like literally we could have a checklist and that we just don't do. And there are definitely, like you say, there are definitely more serious cases, but sometimes it's But it's OK if you forget that. And I don't think it's possible, which is why little communities are so important, because there's a bit of accountability there. You're turning up with your friends. You said you'd go.
You end up, or if you're rehearsing for something, it's a repeated thing, and it settles into your rhythm. Because it's very difficult to remember to be healthily mentally.
It's difficult to remember that. So put stuff in your life. that takes you out. So you don't even need to think about being healthy because you are, you're doing something which is using a different part of your brain I love that. I love that. So, so Georgia, if people want to know more about you, more about uni, So first of all, follow us on Instagram, which I know may seem like a bit of a weird thing to say after someone just being like, don't go on Instagram. But I'm going to tell you why, because our Instagram is actually At the moment, it's just a lot of fun videos about our brand. And ultimately, the aim is to make people feel seen and heard and inspired to get out. So we don't make kind of doom, scrolly, annoying content.
It's all about, we just did a Valentine's campaign with a same-sex couple and stuff like that, which weirdly is a thing not seen a lot. But it's all about making people feel actually inspired and emboldened. I'd also say reach out to me on LinkedIn. I get a lot of DMs and I respond to all of them because I absolutely love it when students reach out to me whether you're looking to start a business, whether you are looking to enter the tech space or creative or you're part of a society or you just want to have a chat. I love chatting so please just like reach out and yeah ultimately hopefully Hopefully you'll see Uni about, so you'll know So if you're listening, I encourage you, I'm going to drop those links in the show notes. Check it out. Check out their Instagram. Check out their website. I'm excited to see where Uni is going to go, because I think it's solving a huge problem. So Georgia, this has been such a fun conversation. I so appreciate you accepting the