Startup for 10: Views For Change

As it’s Impact Month here at TechSPARK, we caught up with tech for good driven and Best Startup finalist for The SPARKies 2022, Views For Change to learn the basics about the business and their journey with founder Nicola Telford.

Views For Change is an impact marketing platform that your business can integrate to create a positive impact out of your ads and campaigns. With 70% of millennials more likely to choose one brand over another if that brand demonstrates inclusion and diversity and since 49% of Gen Z have stopped purchasing from a brand [Source: Arima & Co] that did not represent their values, it’s time to take notice.

So, you can watch or read our Startup for 10 with Nicola to find out more about Views For Change.

In your own words – what do you do?

Views For Change is a platform that enables brands to incorporate charitable donations into their advertising and also other consumer experiences. So we’re essentially making social impact work for businesses.

What’s the most exciting thing about what you’re doing?

I think the fact that we can enable brands to respond to a genuine consumer need in that Gen Z and Millennials are coming through demanding that businesses make more than just a profit. And we can do that in a really exciting way.

What are you most proud of so far?

Well, we raised investment last year with our pre-seed round of £180k, which for someone who’s never raised investment before was a real sort of personal milestone. It’s also been a huge learning curve because I don’t have a clue what I was doing. So I think from my perspective, I was most proud that we did that; and that’s given us the platform to be able to make changes.

What have you found most difficult about being a startup?

Predominantly it’s wearing like a million hats; I have to do so many different jobs. We’ve also got a great team who are also wearing a number of hats and putting everything together in a way that is simple, but also effective and creates the most impact, is a challenge.

Where do you think you’ll be in 12 months?

In 12 months, we should have reached a milestone of £1 million pounds worth of donations to charity through mechanisms. So to do that we need to galvanise the brands that are looking to make a social impact through their consumer experiences, and hopefully a lot of their supporting agencies as well.

What tools/people/services/organisations from the cluster have helped you most?

So I think it’s been great to have the support of Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC), who some of the BPEC seed fund investors have invested in our business and they’re really supportive of our journey. And also we’re filming this in the NatWest accelerator right now. And whilst I’ve been on the accelerator for probably nearly two years now, they’re still a huge support to me, and they really do keep me accountable for moving forward.

What’s the best thing about the Bristol & Bath tech cluster?

For me, personally, my family are around here. I have the chance to live a life that I would like to live whilst also building a tech startup – it’s really great to have my community around me basically.

Who will you be nominating for a SPARKie next year?

Ourselves! We actually nominated ourselves for a SPARKies this year and are shortlisted! We held off last year because we’re very early stage, but we’re thrilled to be shortlisted this time around.

Where can we find out more about you?

You can head the Views For Change website and check us out there. We’re actually in the process of doing a brand lift at the moment. So the new website is launching in a couple of weeks. We also have a community that you can be a part of if you’re interested in social impact or getting to know how brands are facing social impacts.