We love to feature great start-ups and share with you insights on how they did it, to inspire you to maybe take action, too. So it’s no wonder that we had to learn more about the School for Creative Start-ups in London, a social enterprise dedicated to demystify the seemingly complex business system for creative people. The yearlong program aims to help aspiring entrepreneurs in the creative sector through a series of tailor-made workshops to come up with a more structured approach knowing all that it takes.

Besides its very hands-on way to teach the basics of business, the school offers its students a great community of people to connect with. Many well-known industry experts such as Anya Hindmarch, Natalie Massenet or David Bailey already support the school’s efforts and the group of people who are willing to share their knowledge and experience is growing steadily.

Intrigued by the school’s philosophy that entrepreneurs are made and taught, not born, we have asked the school’s creative director Medeia Cohan Petrolino for an interview.

Medeia wears many hats. From building the curriculum with co-founder Doug Richard, to writing content for the website, to the selection of the students, to the mentoring of the students, to meetings with the industry experts to securing sponsorships - Medeia does it all. Knowing how busy she is, we were more than happy that she gave us an interview. And, what can we say, we like the concept even more after having talked to her. Her passion for what she does is highly contagious! Here is what she has told us (it’s rather long, but hey, we’ve talked about an hour and I promise it will be a truly energizing experience). Enjoy!

What triggered the desire to launch a School for Creative Start-ups?
[Doug Richard’s] School for Start-ups has existed for over five years. Over those 5 years Doug has taught about 18’000 people in different places allover the place. More and more he was seeing creative people popping up at School for Start-ups. And he realized that they weren’t been taught exactly what they needed to learn and they definitely weren’t taught in a way that they needed to learn.

I was at the time head curator at University of the Arts London and I was trying to teach professional development to creatives across the six colleges (the art and design colleges that make up the University), and finding it increasingly frustrating because the universities don’t feel like it’s their responsibility. And, it’s kind of a dirty word in the creative sector. Being commercial isn’t really the goal for many people.

So, Doug and I kind of came to the same conclusion at the same time that really the creative sector wasn’t being catered to in this way and that there was huge potential there - wonderful IP [Intellectual Property] and all these things that they weren’t benefiting from. I think inherently creative people are entrepreneurial because they have a vision. They tend to not want to work for someone else; they tend to want to follow their own vision. There were lots of little programs out there, and there are still lots of wonderful programs out there that are like an hour talk here or a short course there. But, there wasn’t really a program carrying someone through that whole first year of starting up a business. And, I think it is very intimidating specifically for creatives to have a real block. They don’t feel included in the business world. It is not their language, it is just not comfortable for them and they really haven’t been taught the basics of business acumen.

So, the program came out of a need. I think it probably is an exaggerated need in London but I think it exists all over the world. There are creative people all over the place, who don’t have access to this kind of curricula and this kind of support and they would like to. Creativity plays a part in every brilliant business that is out there.

How did the two of you meet?

I met Doug a couple of years before I came to work for him at a talk that he gave and I think that I was the only person in the room that understood him. It was a room full of creative people and everybody wanted the answer, they wanted to be told the secret. And I think they didn’t understand that there wasn’t a secret. So we after the talk kind of connected and have kept in touch every since. And I was always quite interested in what Doug was doing and he was interested in what I was doing. But there wasn’t a project that really was perfect for us until this.

So, you were involved from the very beginning?

Yes, it is a good joint project. It’s been a great pairing actually because as much as he knows about business, I know about the creative sector. So, together we do a great job of kind of managing the program. My deal with him is always if you can teach me, then I can teach them. I think it’s really important from our methodology, the way that we teach. We really cater toward the creative community meaning I look out at a room full of left handed dyslexic, ADHD creatives, who can’t be talked at for hours. They need interaction; they need visuals. They need a more engaging way of learning and jargon-free, kind of un-intimidating, supportive environment. So we worked really well together in building those things.

What has been the most exciting part of it?

I don’t know. I think the students are pretty awesome. They are so cool and they give me energy. They take it as well but they give it to me. It’s watching some of them kind of just keep going. They are just waiting to drop that kind of own obstacle of lack of confidence. Once you sort of demystify some things, they are off and running. And that’s so inspiring and it really encourages us to keep improving the program.

You wear many hats at the School for Creative Start-ups. How does it compare to your previous at the University of the Arts London?

I wore many hats there, too. I ran the University of the Arts’ art gallery, I ran the art collection, I ran a collector’s program, I taught professional development and I ran the alumni program. So, I am used to wearing many hats. But, this is a lot more fulfilling. I think this has a lot more focus and a lot more direct impact. I am helping a lot of people in a more meaningful focused way in helping them when the skills they need to build to live from what they make or do. And I think that is the greatest freedom a person can have.

How does your typical day look like?

A typical day? Chris [Christopher Cunniff, Program Coordinator] will tell you I spend all of my day in meetings talking. And I do. We have a Titans program around the School for Creative Start-ups. So I meet incredible people, experienced entrepreneurs doing really interesting things, who want to give back and to advise our students. I meet lots of wonderful corporates and private sector people, who are sponsors and who help us run the program. I meet loads of people that we partner with, I meet with students for one-to-one advisory sessions, we sit around and develop curricula, I go off to other people teach so I can learn from what they are doing. It’s a pretty insane day and I usually try and get some galleries in in the evening.

How big is your team?

We have a lot of programs and there are ten of us, who run all of those. We have School for Start-ups Nigeria, School for Start-ups Romania, the Enterprising Academic program, School for Creative Start-ups in London; we run a program called Web Fuelled Business. But, Chris and I and Nancy [Nancy Fulton, School for Creative Start-ups Business Guru] pretty much full time work on School for Creative Start-ups. So, there is kind of two and a half of us on that. Which when you have 93 students and 60 alumni it’s a lot of people, who want your attention. But, they are a good bunch and I think they need you less and less. If you are doing your job well, they need you less and less.

How does the School for Creative Start-ups work? It is pretty impressive to have up to 100 start-ups on board and offer each of them coaching sessions upon request. How do you cope with it, if they all call you for help at the same day?

They don’t all need you all the time. In the first six months we have one session per month. So we had a three-day boot camp last month and a one-day workshop this month. They have a month in-between to do what they need to do per project. Each session is harder for a different person; everyone usually doesn’t get some of the same things. So it’s a good mix. And between the three of us it just works. I haven’t needed to bring someone else in yet.

And, the best part of what happens on the program is that they start being able to help each other. The network within the group and the contacts; they are network sharing, resource sharing, skill swapping, they are advising one another. It’s wonderful. A lot of them have been in business so they know more than someone who comes on board with an idea. So, there are different stages and they help one another. They do form these little groups and they support one another and that’s awesome to see. My students from last year help my students from this year as well.

Considering the different stages the students’ start-ups are at, how does it work during the initial three-day boot camp where you start working on Doug’s famous 10 questions they should answer for their business?

It is really hard but you find that it doesn’t really matter at what stages they are at. Most of the people that find their way to us find that they did something wrong or they don’t know how to do something. So even the ones who are established, it’s equally hard to have that perspective and it’s a part of what you are doing to come up with for the first time. Actually I think they are all kind of in the same boat for the first part.

A lot of them did ask these questions to themselves in the first place. Know they are pretty far down the road and having to ask these questions now is a lot harder.
Please tell us more about these famous 10 questions. How does it work?
We have a three-day boot camp around the 10 questions, where we teach them. Then we have a guidebook on the 10 questions. We send them away for a month to go work on them. And, when they are having a total freak-out meltdown they can meet with us for a one-to-one session anytime they need. But, Nancy, who is based in LA reads everything of one of them and writes some notes. So really they are working on those 10 questions across the whole first term and really across the whole year. And as they learn things they’ll go back and tweak and change it. But, as they finish every question really leads to the next one. So you have to get that first one right before you move on to the next one. So, they will send their first question to Nancy, who will send back all these notes and they go back to the drawing board. It’s a lot of back and forth. Nancy is terrific, she’s amazing - the amount that she can cover with them!

Chris and I do a lot of encouraging and hand-holding. I think it is so much easier if it is not your business to look at it and have a perception and really understand what makes it work and what doesn’t. It’s hard for them to see it when they are in at and they love it. It’s their baby and it’s hard to ask those tough questions about it.

So, the 10 questions exercise is a recurring one?

Yes, because they form the business plan. The first workshop is about pricing and that’s one of the questions. Before the first workshop, at the end of the first boot camp, I like them to have a brain dump and just get all the information out that they think they know about their business. At the end of the program it’s great to put out all the notes they took every time they did the 10 questions and to see the evolution. It’s very insightful. It gives you a really clear understanding where you started out and where you’ve gone to. But everything we do, they go back to it and redo it and it’s changing all the time. So, it’s an ongoing process that we all go through together.

What do you think is the skill people need to learn most at the School for Creative Start-ups?

I think the biggest hurdle plaguing creatives is a lack of confidence, a lack of self-belief. And I think because they haven’t been given the tools, it hasn’t been embedded into their curricula in school, it’s intimidating and as soon as you simplify it, as soon as you make it accessible for people they really pick it up. It’s something that can be taught and learned. I also think there is a huge fear about selling versus selling out and maintaining your integrity and all those kinds of things. You don’t have to make that choice. You don’t have to sell out.

For creative people it’s hard to overcome those kind of challenges. It’s intimidating.
Please tell us more about the application procedure. What do you look for?
I look for the innovation and the uniqueness of the idea, for a good chance of business success, for people who are really dedicated, who have done the research, who tried working toward something really dedicated to seeing it through. I look for people that I know we can help, that we can make a difference for. I don’t want to waist anyone’s time, and I don’t want to waist my time. If I don’t think I can help them, there is no point in having them on the course. And the last thing I look for is someone that I want to spend a really intense year helping. Because is someone difficult, it’s a very long year.

Can you figure that out at first sight?

You can tell in an interview. I interview almost everyone. We do first round of applications and if they tick most of the boxes I interview pretty much everyone because I don’t think everyone fills an application as well. It is important because this is really intimate. We get calls in the middle of the night or on the weekend, and my whole team is really dedicated to them and if there is someone who is going to be really difficult to work with or if they gonna take more time away from other students, we have to make these decisions. We have a limited resource.

And also we are a social enterprise. 90% of our students pay a subsidized tuition. Which means I pay for them to be here. So I want to know that they are as dedicated to working hard as I am to working hard for them. So it’s not costing me more than they are paying.

How many applications do you receive for the 100 spots?

We are just shy about 500 people. I’d like to be above 1,000 in a perfect world.
If you review every application, that must take a lot of your time?
In the new year until August people can apply. So it gives me a lot of time reviewing applications and interviewing, if they don’t wait till the end.

Are you open for non-UK residents?

Yeah. We have got a girl on the course that flies back and forth from Dubai. We had applicants from South America, from America, from Europe. If they’re gonna come internationally they need to be dedicated. It’s a big deal to be flying over six to seven times a year.

What is the range of businesses you support?

We have ten creative sub-sectors: Digital, Broadcast Media, Craft, Design, Fashion, Film, Culinary Arts, Performing Arts, Music, Communications and Fine Art. Quite honestly, if the idea comes from a creative place I am not that bothered. It just has to have the creativity at the heart of what it does.

Is there an age limit?

There is no age limit. There is nothing like that. I tend not to take people that are very very young for two reasons: one I don’t feel that they have the necessarily have the life experience and I also think there is a lot of support out there for young entrepreneurs. So, for me it tends to be 22, 25 and up. But, if I had someone who is amazing who applied and they were 18 and they were just an entrepreneurial genius, I would happily let them on. I don’t have any restrictions.

What backgrounds do your students typically have?

I have a lot of moms who’ve been on maternity leave and don’t want to go back. I have a lot of people that have been made redundant that want to pursue their dream and I have a lot of people who worked in the industry a long time and they just know enough now that they want to do their own thing.

To which extent do you help shape someone’s idea they come to the program with? What about the one-on-one surgeries that you mention on the website. How does it work?

It depends. It is a hard question to answer. I think what we do is that we test their idea. I would never be like «you can’t do this, you have to do that». We sit down with them and we bring in angel investors or we bring in entrepreneurs for one-to-one surgeries and have a conversation and ask some questions.I think the changes, whatever changes happen to someone’s business, come out of conversations where they don’t have answers to questions, they haven’t thought about solutions to problems. I think they come with an idea that’s unfinished and the more you push them, the more they realize that it doesn’t work - of their own.

We never discourage someone. I think I am very much of the school’s thought that they need to figure out to answer these questions for themselves and that they need to come to conclusions. And they also need to be comfortable with whatever that leads them to. So, I would say we aren’t changing people’s ideas. I would say we put to them a lot. We challenge their ideas and we put their ideas to test and if they can hold, then you are on to a good thing. And we can help them with when it comes to branding your marketing or things like that when you are off the mark that you need to solve. I hope that most of them they come to us with a strong core idea and we can help them kind of take it to a full-grown business.

How does the Titans of the Industry program work?

The way that the Titans of the Industry program works is, that we wanted to put together a network of people succeeding in or supporting the creative sector and we wanted them to give back a bit. They have learned first hand how to do things and we wanted them to share their experiences. The idea is that once the students have their act together in the second term, we give the students access to the Titans. They can ask them specific questions.

In the first term the students often don’t know what they don’t know. So they don’t know what to ask/the right questions to get answers. Actually what they are learning in that first six months is who they are, what they need to get where they want to go. At the end of those six months, they have their business plan, their funding model and their pitch down.

At the end of those six months we open with the showcase event that we do here in Somerset House. All the Titans are invited to come and see all the students with their products or services. And from then on, we want the students to develop relationships with those people on their own. I am not a fan of organic mentoring programs where they match you with someone. I think you have to find a mentor, who really understands you and who you can work with really personally and really in-depth.

The idea with this was to bring together a lot of people who could give a bit of time, not lots of time, but they can answer specific questions in the industry that they work in that we can’t help with. But I tell both sides I hope that the students endear themselves to the Titans and that they do develop these relationships. But, I am not gonna spoon-feed anybody. They need to know how to make the most out of those relationships by the time that we give them access to those people. It’s a great resource and it’s a great endorsement for the school and it’s a great gateway to huge networks for the students. I am really proud of the Titans program and I am looking forward to them meeting this group.

How do you get access to the Titans. Do you seek them out or do they approach you?

It’s been a mixed bag. Some have approached us. The initial group we went and sought out and met with. But since then a lot of the Titans have recommended other people. It has been an incredible journey. What I’ve learned is that those kinds of people aren’t being asked to kind of pass on their knowledge. The uptake was so positive, it was so easy those conversations getting people on board that I realized so often people are asked to give money or they are asked to give more than they are comfortable giving. But very rarely they are asked to give their experience and kind of pay it for a word.

In the creative sector people are much more willing to share and to work together, and I think it’s been a really nice realization that people are quite keen to do that. They just needed an opportunity and a forum to do it. The way that we do it at the program and we protect them from being abused I think made it appealing to a wide audience.

How do you manage that they not all approach the same Titan at the Somerset House showcase, let’s say Net-a-porter founder Natalie Massenet?

That’s awesome about it. I think a smart entrepreneur doesn’t go for the most obvious person. It’s also, that they don’t have the most amount of time. There are a lot of people on there that aren’t household names but they are still experts in what they do. It’s just that being an SEO expert [SEO=Search Engine Optimization] isn’t at sexy as running a Fortune 500 company. So, I also think it comes down to what you need from that person. What are you asking Natalie Massenet for, what do think she is going to do for you? If you go and talk to someone, who is an SEO expert and you show him your website he could probably give you a few great tips that could change your whole life. So you know, I do prepare them how to use it; we talk about it beforehand. We do give them a reality check so they are not having lunches with David Bailey all day.

How does the Angels Society at the School for Creative Start-ups work and how does it tie in with the Titans?

The idea with the Angels is that when the students are ready for investment - and that’s generally after when they have left the program - they can come back to us and can become a part of one of our pitching events. We have three pitching events a year and we have an exclusive group of Angel Investors, who pay a membership to be part of that group, to have access to those alumni and students.

What they pay in annual membership goes toward bursaries for students, so covers the costs of students. The Titans just give their time. Paul Smith and Natalie Massenet are giving an annual talk for the students and many of the other others will give one-to-one advice sessions and so on. And they get stuck in where they want to. We have a minimum ask with them, that they reply to emails or that they meet students on occasion. But for some of them who want to get more involved, they have that opportunity. If they want to give a talk or if they want to provide a services or whatever they want to do, we’re excited to have them on board.The Angels and the Titans tend not to be the same people.

Do you have any early success stories or favorite stories that you want to share?

There are a lot of good success stories. Success is an interesting thing at School for Creative Start-ups as not everybody wants to be the next kind of Facebook. Not everybody wants to be millionaires. A lot of our students just want to have lifestyle businesses. Depending on where they start out and what goals they set for themselves, determines what their measure of success is. But, we had a girl on the course named Tina, who runs a business called Tobyboo, and when we met her she was really interesting to me because she was so nervous and fraggled. She was just all over the place. I looked at her work and it was beautiful work and I thought you’re really going to be a challenge for me. She struggled to focus and she’s really energetic and I thought I gonna let you on the course and you’ll test me. And if we are not doing it right, you’ll be the guinea-pig. I’ll realize with you that our methods aren’t working.

She came on the course and she just went from strength to strength! About in January of last year we sent a thing around saying Mary Portas is looking for people to pitch products to her House of Fraser store and Tina submitted her work. And she got shortlisted and then she had to go and pitch. And I can do her pitch for you right now because we must have practised it together about 5,000 times. She was so nervous; she was so paralyzed. And we covered all her basics and she went into the pitch and she got it. Now she is carried in House of Fraser stores all over the country.

But, after that experience she hadn’t heard again from the shops. She knew that some of the others who had been shortlisted had heard from them about the orders that were being placed. So, she called them up saying I haven’t heard from you, but I know from some of the other people that they have heard from you. So, is this not gonna happen?, and they said: No Tina, you gave such a good pitch. You’ve answered all our questions. We are only calling people that we need more information from. It was really a testimony to how hard she worked; she did everything upfront. She knew what she had to do; she had her house in order. She knew her numbers; she knew her costs. She was prepared!

And she now sells in Museum of London gift shops, she sells really well online, she sells to House of Fraser’s, she is just everywhere! She works her ass off but she is so much more confident and so much more succinct and she knows, who she is as a brand. She is just shining. She has grown so much as a business and as an individual. It’s empowering! She is going from strength to strength!

Do you have any plans to offer workspace or administrative support such as PR, accounting to your students and alumni?

On our online community we have recommended service providers and resources. When we do find great people to do accounting or web design for creative people we post them on there and they can use the services generally at discounted rates and they can review them. They can advise one another on their experience. So, the online community is massive. It has discussion boards and recommended resources, a library, and e-learning and course materials. So, within there we provide a lot of that.

What’s next?

In the future we would like to have a School for Start-ups in London that does cater to the non-creative disciplines. We have one currently in Nigeria and another one in Romania. But that’s about it at the moment. I’d like to have one in London and I’d like to have School for Creative Start-ups globally in creative cities allover the world.

What do you like best about School for Creative Start-ups?

The cool thing about the School for Creative Start-ups is you’re on the course, you have all your peers of the year you’re in, you have the alumni peers, you’ve got the Titans, you’ve got staff. There are a lot of people here to support you. You can bet that there’ll be at least a handful of people who can have a massive impact. One of the things that I love is that it’s not sectorial. So, it’s not all fashion people competing against one another. It’s a very mixed group and everybody can help each other. It’s quite nice.

I do a free event every month, a meet-up event on www.meetups.com. We do a free event once every month because I’d like to show what we do to people and I think it’s great for them to get a feel for what we do on the course if they want to apply in the future. And I think there are lots of talks not being done. I see a lot of the same talks over and over again but I am interested in what people aren’t talking about. You can find out about IP, you can find out about taxes and VAT but understanding how to break into a sector or understanding how to get funded, to use apprentices are things that aren’t really talked about but would be hugely helpful for your business. I am quite interested in sharing that kind of information.

What would be your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

For me it’s just finding a great mentor and that really is an organic process. Finding someone, who believes in you, who understands what you are doing, to just be encouraging and hand you tissues when you’re crying your eyes out. I think there’s a lot to be said for having somebody on your side. And I think research is the most important part of starting out. Before anybody quits their job or makes great declarations, there’s a lot of research to be done. And people don’t do it.

We’ve had a talk last night with 100 people in the room and I asked everyone in the room to stand up, who is starting a business or who had started a business and then I said “keep standing, if you think you need money to start your business” and they all kept standing. And then I said “now keep standing, if you’ve researched and you know your competitors and you know where your price point is and know all these things about yourself” and nobody was standing and it blows my mind. They all think they need money, and they all think that they’re ready to go but actually they haven’t done any research. They don’t know what the market is; they don’t know if people even want what they’re selling. I think research is imperative.

Research and having a really solid mentor who can tell you the truth when you need to hear it. And tissues! There are a lot of tears in starting a business – it’s hard work and it can be a lonely work.

Looking back at your experience so far. What do you think is the key ingredient it takes to become successful? Is it the often-cited perseverance or what is it?

I think perseverance is one of those things people say but actually it can bite you in the ass. I think listening but being confident to understand when someone has his or her own agenda. But, taking on board what people say. Not so that every conversation you have you go back to the drawing board and change everything allover again. Listening and learning and taking it on board and seeing how it works with what you want to do. But, also knowing when to just go.

I think there is a certain amount of persistence and there is a certain amount of crazy self-belief that you need to make anything work. But I also think you need to know when to listen and you need to know when to throw the talent and go. Ok, I’ve learned something here, now I am moving on to my next project. That was just not gonna work. I think listening is key and I think people do a lot of talking, and not a lot of listening. I was at a networking event recently where everyone was talking and no one was listening and I thought, How is anyone networking?

Why is that? They think they know it all?

I think they think they know it all. But I also think everyone has been taught to “fake it, till you make it”. So, if you just talk the talk, then you’ll be fine. Most of the people at networking events need to be networking. The people that you want to network with are generally not there because they know everyone they want to know. So, when I bring Titans out with my students very rarely do they ask the Titans questions. They just tell everybody what they do. They tell everybody and they tell everybody. And it’s like that’s great. What do you think they’re going to do with that information? They’re going to write you a check? Unlikely! You miss an opportunity to ask someone who’s doing what you want to do how he or she’s doing it. So, I think there is something really important in asking intelligent questions and listening to the answers.

Do you have a recommended source of reading?

There are so many great things out there. Maybe one of the best is Business Model Generation. I am reading Sophie Cornish’s Build a Business from Your Kitchen Table book at the moment; she’s the woman who started Not on the Highstreet.com. I don’t know if it’s in a book; going out into the world and trying things and asking people questions and learning from them. There is something to be said for working for other people and learning from them what not to do. I am not a huge book reader. I think that if you just jump and get out into the world, you’ll figure it out. But, we’re writing a book so stay tuned! The ten questions, there‘s no secret. But, asking yourself those ten really tough questions and testing your ideas is definitely important. So, our book should be out in March, hopefully. There’s also a really great website, called the Indie Retail Academy. She talks about how to sell through stores, and how to work with retailers. I like her site a lot and I think her tone is really good.

One of the things for me is about communicating really simply and communicating a way your audience can understand it. Not to talk down to people and not to act like there is some secret they don’t know. I think one of the problems in business is people aren’t always honest. We proud ourselves on cutting through all the bullshit and just giving you straight facts and I think that’s what makes the way we teach so special. It’s not full of acronyms and theory. It’s very much just core facts.
What would be your dream for the future? You’ve mentioned the global expansion before.
I’d love to be in every major creative hub in the world. I’d love to be in Sao Paulo, in Tokyo, in Mumbai, in Lagos, Toronto. I think there are lots of amazing cities, Berlin - lots of wonderful places that are hubs of creative activity. And I’d love for us to be the center of all of those cities and helping creative people allover the world live from what they do.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I feel we have talked about all of it. We’ve got a great group of students and we’re looking for brilliant applicants for next year and I don’t care for where they are coming from. I just want dedicated, brilliant students.

It’s so much fun to be a part of. I feel so spoiled and blessed to be able to be a part of their adventures and fun. And going to their store openings and seeing them on a shelf in shops, it’s really fun. I got a pretty cool job.
Yes, I think so, too!!! Thank you so much for taking the time and lots of continuing success with your School for Creative Start-ups!!!!

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