Meet The Find Others Team; Georgina Hollis
In this week’s edition of Meet The Team, we hear from Georgina Hollis, one of Find Others’ Co-Founders.
Describe your role, where you fit into the team, and what your responsibilities are?
I head up the team with Amar, my partner in life and work. As Co-Founders, our roles are increasingly varied, and no two days are ever the same. Our main tasks include; making sure there is enough money in the bank which means continually applying for grant funding and speaking with investors, going out and talking to potential users and partners, managing the finances, creating/implementing marketing strategies, overseeing the system development, hiring etc (the list really is endless).
While we run the company, we are very fortunate to have an excellent team who we can lean on and share responsibilities with. Therefore, our main priority is to support the team and provide them with the tools they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
What was your experience before coming to Find Others?
So, I’ve never really had a full-time career job. I left University having only ever worked in various part-time customer service roles (I made a terrible waitress; you can only spill so many pints down customers before this realisation hits you). I did apply for several graduate positions in various companies but failed to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Amar had progressed with a concept for a new ticketing system, which he had been working on since our final year at University.
Sadly, that year my world shook when my Dad passed away, and it occurred to me that life is far too short to be wasting time looking for jobs I wasn’t passionate about. Now was the time to take a risk, not be thinking about my future pension package. So Amar and I decided to pursue the ticketing idea together. We threw financial caution to the wind and embarked on a startup. We spent a lot of time fumbling around, not really knowing what we were doing, but eventually, we somehow cracked it.
We took Una Tickets from an idea on a piece of paper to a fully-fledged tech startup, we raised finance, won government funding, grew a fantastic team and managed to convince a large number of people that we knew what we were doing. Eighteen months after raising our first round of funding and at the age of 25, we were acquired by Sky UK who were throwing their ball into the ticketing world. We never expected to be acquired pre-launch, nevermind by a FTSE 100 company. It was a whirlwind of an experience with many highs and lows. One thing I can say for sure is that I learnt a hell of a lot more in those few years than I think I ever would have in one of those graduate jobs.
Moving on from Una Tickets, Amar and I took some time off and just experienced life for a while. We had a little book of ideas and slowly but surely Find Others came out on top as our favourite idea to pursue, mainly because of the potential it has to give people a voice. I don’t believe in building technology for technology’s sake or building a business purely to make a profit. It has to serve a purpose; to improve the world in some way or another. If you are working on something that solves a genuine problem, the rest will follow.
What does a day at Find Others look like for you?
At the risk of repeating myself, every day at Find Others is different. We usually arrive late (not particularly morning people, although I have started getting up early and going swimming, which is an incredible way to start the day).
I feel I send an obscene amount of emails, and sometimes that can get quite repetitive, but it has to be done.
Then I typically do anything from sorting the finances, meeting with lawyers and accountants, meetings with potential clients and users, speaking with the regulators, to going through the product development with the team.
How do you expect that to change over the next year?
I suspect we will only get busier and busier. But that is never a bad thing for a startup. Busy is a good position to be in.
How do you like working with the Find Others team?
Love it. I consider the team to be a family. We are all aligned with one vision — to deliver the best system possible that provides a genuinely valuable service. Put simply, the team could quite easily be working anywhere they choose. They are some of the most talented individuals I have ever met. The fact that they choose to work with Amar and me is incredibly humbling and a massive compliment.
Amar and I just need to keep our end of the bargain up and deliver on the business side of things!
What are your thoughts on the idea of Find Others, and how do you see it impacting the market?
I’m crazy about the concept. I wouldn’t be working on it if I wasn’t passionate about it. I can see the platform being at the forefront of justice, in the UK and globally. The significant issues like human rights abuses and war crimes are where I see the platform having the most impact. People in these situations are often voiceless and have nowhere to turn; we can change that and give them a platform to seek justice.
What are your hopes for this business, and what would you like to see it do in the future?
I would love to see it gain mass adoption and be instrumental in large scale redress cases. I think we are on the cusp of significant change; people are waking up to the injustices in the world and gaining the confidence to go out and change things. I would love for Find Others to be a part of that movement.
What personally motivates you?
I’m not going to beat around the bush, I do have quite a strong desire to be successful, and I’m a very ambitious person. While I can’t precisely quantify what I mean by successful, all I know is that I haven’t got there yet.
On a more personal level, I find travelling and experiencing different cultures very motivational and inspiring. I love being in the outdoors and around nature. If there is a meaning to life, I believe the Scottish Highlands is where you’ll find it.
What behaviour or personality trait do you attribute your success to, and why?
This is a tough question because I think the personality traits that have helped me to get to where I am, are not necessarily the best traits a person can have.
I can be very stubborn for instance, and I can also be somewhat blind-sighted and doggedly persist with ideas that may or may not be right. I can also be quite confrontational and demanding. But, I think that these traits mixed with a level of optimism and a belief in my abilities, have served me well.
Who inspires you?
Lots of people. I think people are often shy about admiring the successes of others, but I think it’s good to celebrate what other people have achieved.
However, I do have to say that the person I admire the most in this world is Amar. Without him, I would never have had the confidence to pursue dreams of this sort. This may sound like a cliche love story, told from the eyes of his doting partner, but truly, you will rarely (if ever) meet a person quite like Amar. From the moment I met him, he was different from everyone else. He talked of these big ideas capable of changing the world, and in a way where you 100% believe him capable of doing it. He is brave in his convictions and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. He continues to inspire me every day.
If you could learn one new skill in 2020, what would that be?
To learn how to swim properly. Right now, I’m just saving myself from drowning; it’s not particularly graceful or dignified.
If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which would you pick?
- Twitter (who doesn’t love an echo chamber)
- Google Maps (terrible with directions)
- Whatsapp (by far the most used app on my phone)
What’s the best advice you have ever been given and who was it from?
You have to work hard if you want to get anywhere in life … and don’t take drugs — Charlie Hollis (Dad).
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