Having grown up with a hearing disability, Ross wanted to apply learning design principles for communicating educational storytelling in accessible ways.
What inspired you to start your own business?
For me, growing up with a hearing disability has given me a passion for communication and accessibility, especially around education and STEM subjects. Throughout my education, including my time studying Chemistry at the University of Bath, I had to develop the skill of understanding complex information in a visual way.
Having worked in the education sector as a video producer and science communicator for over a decade, I took the chance to start my own business. Our mission is to help other organisations and institutions communicate their innovations, technology and research in ways that are both engaging and accessible.
What early stage business support have you received from the University of Bath through SETSquared Bath?
I was supported through the START programme which was invaluable. I had been running my business on a small scale for about a year, but it became clear that I had gaps in my knowledge that I needed to fill in order to grow the business and make it sustainable in the long term. Fortunately, through my network with TechSPARK, I was directed to the START programme which gave me really good foundational knowledge.
When you're building a startup, you have a million different tasks to do. You're every single head of department, all wrapped up in one person. It can be really difficult to know where to begin. The coaching provided through START helped me to focus my priorities and understand what was going to have the biggest impact for me and my business, helping it to grow.
When you're starting a new business, every penny counts and you're under a lot of financial pressure. The fact that START was fully funded by WECA made it really accessible. Also being led by a coalition of the four universities in the WECA region meant that it was credible and trustworthy. The coaches and mentors at START were there because they wanted to see you succeed and thrive for your own gain.
The other really valuable thing was the community around START that has been absolutely priceless. Knowing other new entrepreneurs helps you feel less lonely. Having that supportive network of peers around you helps to keep you going in those early stages, as well as having a network of mentors and experts so you know where you can turn to.
Finally, getting the opportunity to pitch for a place at one of the four business incubators has had a massive long-term benefit, and joining SETSquared Bath felt like the natural choice. Being a University of Bath graduate and returning to the university community felt like the best choice for us. The level of sort of support and community that we've received going forwards has been absolutely phenomenal.
What challenges have you experienced in starting your own business?
Beyond just the financial challenges, one of the biggest things that you need to develop early on is a strong sense of resilience and patience. You realise that you don't just build a successful business overnight. You don't just come up with this idea and dream to build something and then wake up the next day and it's all happened. It takes a really long time to create.
You need to have that patience, but also realise that you're going to make a lot of mistakes along the way. That can get you down, but I feel like you need to view each one of those mistakes as an opportunity to learn and improve. You know the next time that situation comes about, you’re going to handle it differently and improve. Over time, you then build a really resilient business because you've been through all those trials and tribulations early on.
How did you overcome these challenges?
One of the most valuable things from START was the sense of community. Especially if you're starting out individually or as a small team, it can feel very lonely, so it's really important to find your community and the right network of peers around you. It also helps to find networking events for startups, whether with other creatives or tech startups - such as First Thursday at SETsquared Bath. This isn’t about networking to sell a service or product, but connecting with people to have authentic and honest conversations about your journey, and be curious about other entrepreneurs. From there, you can build a wider network of supportive peers around you.
You can then build the right network of people to go coworking with, meet up in person or online, go for a coffee, and collaborate together. I've got networks of other freelancers who will jump on a coworking call together. We’ll have a social chat and then do a short burst of work altogether, setting ourselves some goals for the next hour. We can share our challenges that we’re up against and have other people pitch in, support you and give guidance. It is really valuable.
It’s also important to recognise that as a founder, you are the most valuable asset to your business. Before you start thinking about how you're investing in your company, you need to invest in yourself. That comes in the form of taking time to rest, to exercise regularly, and take care of your physical and mental health, because you can't run a business if you're burned out. Early on, I almost reached quite severe burnout from pushing myself too hard. It’s a fallacy that the amount of return you get is proportional to the number of hours you’re working, but that's only true up to a certain point before you plateau or crash out. Don't just work from home, never leaving the same room. Go outside, take a walk and get some fresh air. See your wellbeing as an investment in yourself more than anything.
What impact have you been able to achieve through your work?
It's been really rewarding to work on a variety of different projects. We've collaborated with a number of companies, universities, educational institutions and charities to help them communicate their innovations. Some of the biggest impact we’ve seen is from collaborating with academics to help them embrace methods of accessible storytelling to communicate complex information.
Often when it comes to new innovations, there's a tendency to talk about what the innovation is and how it works. When you're wanting to communicate a message more broadly, it really helps to understand why you're doing this research and why you're creating this new innovation. That really grabs the attention of your audience and helps them to understand why it is relevant to their own lives, and why they should be interested and engage with it.
We've done some work with SETsquared Bath, helping them to showcase local businesses but also some educational charities as well. We've done some really rewarding work with a charity called the Lightyear Foundation. They provide accessible STEM outreach activities for disabled children and special educational needs schools. That's a cause that is very close to my own heart, combining my lived experience of disability with my passion for STEM.
What are your aspirations going forwards?
To continue doing what we're doing. It's been a long hard journey up until now, but we've reached a point where things are sustainable and going from strength to strength. There’s a lot of momentum behind the business now and we've built a really strong community around us.
We really want to continue to support and collaborate with innovative industries, helping them to understand the value of creativity and storytelling for communicating technical concepts in accessible ways. That means continuing to champion best practices for creating accessible video content, especially when it comes to deaf and hard of hearing viewers and learners.
We also want to continue to grow our team of creatives. We work with a lot of freelancers to help us scale up on big projects but as the business becomes bigger and more sustainable, we'd like to bring on more full-time staff to help us continue to provide high quality services for our clients.
Our long-term ambition is to build a bespoke accessible explainer video studio designed with inclusive STEM education in mind. The studio could help startups, university spin outs, and academic research groups to communicate their work as a hub for communication of innovation.
Further information
Watch & Learn Productions is running a free Video Storytelling Masterclass at the Bath Digital Festival on Thursday 15 May, 11.0-12.30 at Runway East Bath. Places are limited.