Maxx Turing

Joined Centre for British Progress as COO

Whilst continuing to run Startbook I decided it was time to jump back into the world of policy and joined Centre for British Progress as their founding COO. Starting off this involved launching a new website, rebrand and setting up operational processes and payroll. CBP is a non-partisan think tank accelerating and shaping an era of British growth and progress. The mission of the organisation is for the UK to achieve the highest living standards in the world and lead at the frontier of global scientific, technological, and industrial progress. We produce research and produce concrete ideas and implementation-ready policies to make it easier to build the future in Britain - read more here.

Started an Airbnb business

I decided to start renting my flat on a short-let basis utilising platforms such as Airbnb, which gave me an opportunity to focus on redecorating and improving my flat. I quickly became a Superhost with a ★ 4.95 rating. Since starting I've hosted close to 100 days of stays with guests from around the world.

Startbook Hires its First Full-time Employee

After bootstrapping for ~3 years with the company supporting myself and a number of part-time contractors, Startbook had finally grown enough to hire and support its first full-time employee besides myself - a growth of the team by 100%!

This milestone was a turning point for the company - allowing us to expand our product offering and giving us more capacity to continue to grow the business.

Took Hiatus From Political Campaigning

Having spent ~2 years dipping my toes into the world of local politics, I decided to renew my focus as 2023 approached. I hit pause on the part-time political campaigning work I had been doing with the Islington Liberal Democrats in order to spend more of my time growing my business, Startbook.

The Tribe rebrands to Startbook

We decided to adapt our brand to lean more towards our focus of creating software for incubators and accelerators. The Startbook Platform allows our clients to easily digitise, share and manage the data of their entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Secured 991 Votes in May 2022 Local Elections

We didn't win, but we collectively achieved the best electoral result the Liberal Democrats had in Islington since 2014, taking home ~32% of the vote in St Mary's & St James'.

Individually, I achieved a similar level of votes to my co-candidates, despite the fact that they had been established candidates for several years.

You can view the full electoral results here:
votemaxx.com/2022-results

You can read the manifesto for the campaign here: votemaxx.com/manifesto

We campaigned over several months on a number of issues including reducing litter and improving affordable cycle parking. The overarching theme of the campaign focused on ensuring residents were being heard and respected via methods such as citizen's assemblies; a big issue present at the time was the divisiveness of the newly-introduced 'Low-traffic Neighbourhoods' in Islington.

Selected as Target Ward Candidate in 2022 Local Elections

After consolidating the vote in the Islington Bunhill by-election in May 2021, I was selected again by the Islington Liberal Democrats as a candidate for the campaign's target ward, St Mary's & St James', alongside Kate Pothalingam and Terry Stacy MBE as part of the 2022 Local Elections in Islington.

Secured 572 Votes in Local By-election

I didn't win, but improved on the previous 2018 Bunhill campaign by increasing the vote percentage by 2.7%.

The by-election was also the same day (Thu, 6 May) as the 2021 London Mayoral Elections. The Liberal Democrat candidate for the London Mayor seat achieved 121 votes in the Bunhill ward - I received 472% more votes than the 'baseline' of the comparable candidate.

You can view the full electoral results here:
votemaxx.com/2021-results

My campaign focussed on highlighting a need for better local representation and improved accountability within the local council, as well as better health and safety and an improved local environment for residents.

Highlights of the campaign included:

• Creating an informational campaign website:
• Website: votemaxx.com
• Designing and printing 6,500 z-fold leaflets and stickers:
• Leaflet: votemaxx.com/leaflet
• Sticker: votemaxx.com/sticker
• Filming and editing a campaign video:
• Video: votemaxx.com/video
• Raising £1,420 of donations for the campaign:
• Donate: votemaxx.com/donate
• Running a digital marketing campaign:
• Instagram: @VoteMaxx | #VoteMaxx
• Facebook: @VoteMaxx | #VoteMaxx
• X: @VoteMaxx | #VoteMaxx

Selected as Local By-election Candidate

With my business growing and profitable, I decided to spend some of my spare time giving back to the local community where I live in EC1.

I became aware that there was an oligopoly of broadband provision by BT and Virgin Media in my local area, so I attempted to lobby the local council to improve broadband connectivity in the area and was ignored. In the process I became aware of several issues with the local Labour-run Islington Council, I decided to join forces with the Islington Liberal Democrats to run for local councillor in the Thu 6 May 2021 by-election for the electoral ward of Bunhill in the London Borough of Islington.

Spoiler: Islington Council's Housing Scrutiny Committee later responded to my campaigning by highlighing the broadband provision issue in their meeting on 28/6/21 (following the by-election) and resolved to launch a tender to tackle the problem.

Started Working on The Tribe Full-time

The business was starting to pick up pace, so I decided to leave my full-time role at Kantan and jump into my startup full-time.

We would provide software and operational services to incubators and accelerators, allowing them to easily digitise, share and manage the data of their entrepreneurial ecosystems. One of our first major clients was the Centre for Entrepreneurs NEF+ Programme.

Founder Tribe rebrands to The Tribe

To prevent confusion with our initial B2C founder-focussed community offering, we rebranded the B2B business from 'Founder Tribe' to 'The Tribe' and used this as our trading name.

Incorporated Founder Tribe

Whilst still working at my full-time day job, I officially incorporated FOUNDER TRIBE LTD and set up a bank account to receive the £20,000 grant and revenue from our first clients. I continued to work on Founder Tribe part-time and contracted a software engineering consultancy to build out the next iteration of the product.

Won CVC Young Innovator Award (£20,000 Grant)

I was selected as one of four finalists to pitch Founder Tribe at the 2020 CVC Young Innovator Awards in London, UK. I was selected as a co-winner alongside Joel Gujral, Founder of MYNDUP. We were both awarded grants of £20,000 to support the growth of our businesses.

Won Centre for Entrepreneurs NEF Fast Track CEO's Award (£500 Prize)

I was selected by Neeta Patel CBE to receive the CEO's Award for my hard work and efforts on the NEF Fast Track Programme and my contributions to CFE and the NEF community.

Founder Tribe Pivots to B2B

I decided to focus my efforts on Founder Tribe, but struggled to establish a suitable go-to-market strategy and B2C business model. As a result I instead pivoted to providing services (operational services and SaaS) to entrepreneurship programmes.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child"? The same is true for startups. Companies that attend accelerators raise 44% more money than those that don’t and are 75% more valuable.
[UK Accelerator Programmes - Beauhurst (2017)]

The initial SaaS offering was an app that could feature profiles of entrepreneurs taking part in a programme and track their attendance to workshops. This initial offering was well-received, but quickly became redundant when the COVID-19 pandemic started - preventing in-person workshops from happening.

In response, I pivoted the SaaS offering a second time - building a new web MVP that instead focused on showcasing founder and venture profiles that could be easily updated and shared at a virtual demo day event.

Started the NEF Fast Track 2020 Programme

After being accepted in April, the part-time learning programme kicked off in September with a 3.5-day bootcamp, followed by regular workshops and training every two weeks. As part of the programme I began working on various startup ideas.

Track Repair - a platform for tenants and landlords to report and manage residential repairs and seek remedial action, ensuring both parties comply with their legal obligations.

Founder Tribe - a community for early-stage solo founders providing tools, events and deals from startup suppliers allowing members to grow their support network and stay accountabile with their ambitions when getting their idea off the ground.

Name Changer - a platform to help the tens of thousands of people that change their name every year due to marriage, divorce or preference (deed poll) and struggle with the legal process and administrative burden of updating it at 100+ touchpoints.

Joined Kantan as Founder Associate

I selected Kantan as my placement company for the NEF Fast Track programme. The role was cross-functional and required me to work across all areas of the business including operations, software engineering, quality assurance and business development.

Kantan is changing the lives of tradespeople by giving them the tools to excel in a competitive marketplace.

Accepted onto NEF Fast Track 2020 Programme

I was selected as one of 40 people from a pool of over 3500 candidates (~1% acceptance rate) through an 8-part assessment process to join the Centre for Entrepreneurs NEF Fast Track 2020 Cohort.

The programme develops the entrepreneurial leaders of the future with a placement role in a tech startup, 12-month training programme, mentor and executive coach.

Joined The Family as Head of Events (London)

I joined The Family, a strategic, minority, long-term shareholder providing education, advisory services and access to capital to its Pan-European network of entrepreneurs.

In this role I organised our educational and community events in London. The events all featured entrepreneurs and senior startup employees and covered topics such as growth and internationalisation, when to quit your startup and building a data team.

In addition to the standard events, I also organised a biotech enterprise innovation conference featuring 10 senior life sciences speakers.

Graduated Quantic MBA with Honours

I placed in the top 10% of my cohort and graduated the Quantic MBA programme with honours.

Acquired First Full-time Client as a Director of Operations (Contract)

I took on my first full-time remote contract role with Invisible Technologies, a tech startup based in the US. In this role I managed a global team of more than 50 people including 5 direct reports across numerous time zones. It was the first time I'd managed >50 people - it was a great challenge and an amazing learning experience.

Started Freelancing and Consulting

I started offering services to clients on a part-time contract basis - taking on projects when I had the capacity to do so.

Started Quantic MBA

I joined the world’s first mobile MBA programme; taught with a revolutionary method that is fast and proven effective by independent researchers from Stanford. In both core subjects tested, Quantic rated as effective as a top 10 MBA classroom.

Started Udacity Mobile Web Specialist Nanodegree

I won a scholarship for a part-time nanodegree (worth £999). I was selected as 1 of 1000 recipients from a pool of over 10,000 challenge scholars. Feb 2018

Started Learning about Photography and Digital Marketing

I wanted to spend more time learning and challenge myself with some artistic and creative projects. So I pursued a number of photography passion projects, taking pictures of African wildlife and nature.

Went Travelling and Explored Learning Opportunities

After spending a year on DWYL I went travelling for 4 months (Cape Town, Johannesburg, the Okavango Delta, Amsterdam, St Anton am Arlberg, Devon) and started working on a number of personal projects, including this website. I applied for scholarships to the Quantic MBA programme and the Udacity Mobile Web Specialist Nanodegree.

Won Udacity Mobile Web Challenge Scholarship

I won a scholarship for a 3-month part-time mobile web specialist challenge course. I was selected as 1 of 10,000 recipients from an applicant pool of over 200,000 people.

Joined a Web Development Agency as Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer

At the start of 2017 I was offered a unique COO and (late-to-the-party) Co-founder role at DWYL, a 20-person-strong web development tech-for-good agency that built web app products, mainly for social enterprises and charities.

Promoted to Founding Partner at Hack Partners

Within a few months of working at Hack Partners I was promoted to Founding Partner status. The position came with increased equity and more responsibility within the business.

Joined Hack Partners as Head of Operations

I was offered a role at Hack Partners, an innovation consultancy firm that specialises in disrupting heavily-regulated and technologically-underdeveloped industries. HP work mainly with the railway industry, operating under the well-known HackTrain brand. Amongst the daily business operations, I managed and organised the HackTrain Hackathon, as well as the annual HackTrain Conference and the HackTrain Accelerator, the world's first programme of its kind specifically designed to meet the demands of the growing RailTech movement.

Joined Entrepreneur First as Operations Manager

After completing my Oxford degree, I decided to join Europe's top seed-stage venture capital firm and deep technology company builder, Entrepreneur First. EF helps the world's top technical talent start deep, defensible technology companies. In this role I learnt a significant amount about early-stage startups, investment and startup legals.

Returned to Oxford to Complete Degree

Following the coding bootcamp I returned to Oxford over the spring and summer of 2015 to take my final exams and complete my BA (Hons) Cell and Systems Biology.

Joined a Coding Bootcamp

I wanted to improve my tech skills and so applied for a place at the Founders and Coders peer-led learning coding bootcamp. I attended full-time for 2 months in which time I learned more about JavaScript Web Development.

Started Interning at a HealthTech Startup

I decided to postpone my final exams for my degree and moved to London to learn more about the tech startup scene. I got an intern position at Medopad, a Westminster-based HealthTech startup, where I started gaining professional experience.

Furthered Interest in Entrepreneurship

I continued to expand my knowledge in technology and entrepreneurship and joined the Executive Committee of Oxford Entrepreneurs, Europe's largest entrepreneurship society.

Change of Career Path

After delving into the tech world and founding and managing university societies, I decided I didn't want to pursue an academic career anymore and instead wanted to pursue a career in technology and entrepreneurship.

Started Learning to Code

When I launched OUSBMS I needed to make the society a website. Researching the various drag-and-drop website-builders, I wasn't able to find a solution that could achieve what we needed for our budget, so I decided to learn how to code and build my own one. I started going to coding meetups run by Oxford Code Lab, Oxford CompSoc and Oxford Entrepreneurs in order to further my skills.

Founded Two University Societies

Whilst at university I became increasingly involved with university clubs and societies and founded two of my own: OUSBMS and OUDbC.

Went to Oxford to Study Biomedical Sciences

I enrolled at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford to study Cell and Systems Biology with a plan to pursue a career as a biogerontologist in research science.

Joined a Local State School

I attended The John Warner School, a local comprehensive where I studied from 11-18. I received numerous awards during my schooling including The Chairman's Cup (11 A* at GCSE). When deciding on my A Levels I decided to specialise in science and mathematics.

Grew up in a London Suburb

We settled in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, a small market town that originally developed as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. My maternal family resided in Northampton and my paternal family in Leicester and Thornaby-on-Tees.

Moved to England at 16 Months of Age

My older brother was coming around to schooling age so my parents decided to move back to the UK so he and I could grow up with a British education.

Born in Germany to British Parents

I was born in Bavaria, Germany - my parents decided to move there in the mid-1980s so they could experience life in a different country. They couldn't speak German when they arrived, but they picked it up quickly after enrolling on a 3-month intensive course.