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Lucy met Harris at a social enterprise dinner. Both were working separately to help people make better career choices. They'd both identified their users were mostly over 50 - a time in people's lives when the drive to change is greatest but where employer support is weakest. This was validated by Emma Jones (MBE), who - as founder of Startup Britain and Enterprise Nation, had similarly recognised a lack of support for older entrepreneurs.
To counterbalance society's obsession with youth, we've formed a Partnership to celebrate and support those wanting to make work a positive part of their lives.
Brave Starts CIC is a not for profit organisation
Our business structure prevents us from being driven by profit: when you join our programmes, we create opportunities for you to spend time talking to, meeting or shadowing experts doing the job you want to explore. If a corporate employee spends time with you, we make a donation to their corporate charity. If you shadow a successful business owner, we pay for the opportunity cost of their time. By working with us, you 'give as you learn'.
"Up to 30% of our fees support charities and small businesses"
A successful track record of launching over 3,500 businesses
Focused on the needs of people over 50
A dynamic community of over 100,000 members
Shadowing opportunities with the best UK businesses
We are an innovative and exciting not for profit, supporting and connecting people like you, who want to work and build more purpose and meaning into their lives. Older really can be wiser and the possibilities to explore and do new things have never been more exciting.
Co Founder
Tech Lead
Harris is a tech and product guy at heart - with 10 years experience across Financial Services and Property Industries - such as Fitch Ratings, Lloyds Commercial Bank, and CBRE. He is also Product Officer of an innovative health tech hearing company. His passion for helping people is what drew into the Brave Starts concept.
Co Founder
Editor and Comms
Anna Streule is our Editor and Comms guru! Relocated from Switzerland where she was editor of an online magazine. She brings a variety of experiences across management consulting, personal training, and teaching - the ultimate career changer! Her passion is supporting people like her who are looking for their next big change!
Co Founder
Strategy and Partnerships
Lucy is a psychologist and Vice Chair of the Association for Business Psychology. She was previously Global Head of Recruitment in the Investment Bank and Strategy Consulting sectors across JP Morgan and LEK consulting. Brave Starts is a result of people passionately joining together to try and help companies supporting their employees to work and age better.
Enterprise Programme Lead
Learn MoreAs well as being the Chair of Entrepreneurial Spark, Lucy’s currently undertaking academic research understanding drivers for entrepreneurship as well as running her own coaching business with Gayle Mann. Since she launched Entrepreneurial Spark in 2011, she and Gayle have witnessed development of over 3,000 startup businesses. We could not think of any better person for our start a business programme.
Enterprise Programme Lead
Learn MoreGayle Mann is the non-executive director and Chief Operating Officer of Entrepreneurial spark. She is completely passionate about the Start up world and similar to Lucy, has supported over 3,000 startup businesses, and will be one of the coaches on the start a business programme. Lucy and Gayle’s coaching business of Misadventures in Entrepreneurship is a match made in heaven with Brave Starts.
Career Change Programme Lead
Learn MoreSteve Purnell is a seasoned career change expert and coach - with having attained his qualification from Henley business school. He also is a wizard with Digital Marketing.He is dedicated to the Brave Starts Career Change Programme and will be supporting the cohort as they go their career change journey.
Founder - Enterprise Nation
Learn MoreEmma Jones runs the most active small business community as the founder of Enterprise nation. She regularly appears in the media commenting on small business issues. She was appointed SME Representative by the Government for the Crown Commercial Service in 2016.
Ian has built strong investor and grant funding networks. He was recently Head of Access to funding at The Knowledge transfer Network helping innovative companies raise money via investors, grants or equity.
David is an award winning Chief People officer. He’s a huge advocate for ageing better and has won significant recognition for the fabulous work he does in this arena.
Michael brings his experience of being a Chief People Officer to the team. He’s got over 20 years experience at Senior HRD.
An award winning expert on all aspects of pensions and later life policy
Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community of over 100,000 members nationwide. Our partnership gives you access to a nationwide network of entrepreneurs and business start up support services.
Free Agent's award winning, powerful and easy-to-use accounting software for UK businesses brings everything together – from invoices and expenses to Self Assessment tax forms.
We are always looking for brave people who want to help people succeed in their life aspirations. If you can regularly commit a few hours a week, please send us an email to hello@bravestarts.com with your background (preferably LinkedIn) and why you would like to join our mission and team.