How we got here…

Decently was formally established in Sept 2021 but our roots go back to Berlin in 2017.

James (JC) and I met on a leadership programme in 2017 delivered by FORM www.weareform.com where over a 6 month period we (alongside about 12 other business leaders from NW) had the privilege to visit a number of creative and digital companies including a 3 day trip to Berlin. 

It was a great opportunity to take some time out of hectic day to day delivery and spend time with people going through similar things, talk about highs and lows and receive some top content from the Form team! (Highly recommended!)  Key takeaway for me was the realisation that so many of us struggle with similar things, challenges and no one has it all sorted which was very helpful especially for my serious imposter syndrome!  But by taking some time out, creating a structure for clearly defining what you want to do can really help you move forward with focus...so simple really! Buzz word for that period and still now was clarity! Clarity of vision, communications etc

JC and I were in different companies at the time but we quickly realised there was an ease of friendship and support we could offer each other in our different circumstances. Then through wider links we ended up doing a joint venture together for a couple of years and working in the same business for a while just in the run up to CV19 landing in Spring 2020.

This, along with no doubt many others globally, caused us both independently to have that chance to reflect on where we are and where we want to be both in terms of careers but more importantly for our wives, kids and what we wanted the next 10-20 years to look like.

Over the summer of 2021 as we independently decided to leave our current employer, these thoughts / conversations became more and more joined up as we started to chat and realise there was a lot of overlap between our short and longer term plans...so why not explore doing something together?

We knew we wanted to do something in the TechforGood space as we had both come from a Health and EdTech background but had a number of different ideas to explore around these sectors but also sustainability / net zero too.  We started to imagine a company where we could co-create (with relevant domain experts), design and build a product (or products) that follow the software-as-a-service model (SaaS) which we had both been part of successful products in the past.

Whilst there were a few options on what projects we might pick up and whether they had the potential to make the leap from project to PRODUCT, what was pretty clear was the type of company we wanted to run...it’s values, size, how it operates, involvement of staff, approach to funding/investment etc which ultimately played a huge part in the decision around the name…..’doing business Decently’!

Throughout the summer we were able to meet up, walk, cycle, talk, note down ideas, share individual plans/aspirations, talk about partners careers etc to ensure we were creating healthy foundations from which to build how we communicate, set good habits, make decisions, deal with conflict - all things we know can trip founders up along the way.

So here we are now - October 2021 - doing it - and really excited about where we go from here, where we can have a positive impact and who might be joining us along the way...stay tuned!