Nick Fulcher and business partner Shazaad Badil are leading Westsidecoders, a software development and digital training business in Birmingham West Midlands. Having attended the city’s Meet a Mentor event in July, Nick was keen to share his entrepreneurial story with us.
It was while Nick was studying for his degree in Computer Science and Business at Aston University in Birmingham that he first got a taste for entrepreneurship, as he recalls:
“During my university placement year I was part of a project called Bseen, which allows entrepreneurs or people thinking of starting a business to test their ideas. That year I set up a business called Mediasent, which gave me some of the basic skills you need to set up, run and market a business.”
Although Mediasent wasn’t as successful as Nick had hoped, the computing professional had caught the entrepreneurial bug and by 2014, having gained valuable experience, he was prepared for another try:
“Once near completing my degree I set up Westsidecoders with Shazaad. I’d been doing web development for about five years before that. Now, as well as developing websites and apps, we also offer digital training. Our clients operate in retail, sports and fitness, and the music industry.”
Through his work with Bseen, as well as other initiatives, Nick has had mentors before and found their support invaluable. That’s why, when he spotted that Meet a Mentor was coming to Birmingham, he jumped at the opportunity to attend:
“The mentors I’d had previously had been great as a sounding board to knock ideas out and get honest feedback from. So, because I didn’t have a mentor at the time, I thought it was a good idea to go along. The day itself was really interesting. I just went from table to table getting different insights about my business. I’d explain what I did and then I’d get new ideas from different points of view. It was good to get that collective response to what we’re doing.”
Nick has a refreshingly open-minded approach to business, which means that although he didn’t connect with one designated mentor at this event, he still used the day as a rich source of support, networking and advice:
“I just went along to meet people, to tell them what I was doing and see what happened. I think it’s a good practice for everyone to network and connect like minded people. There was one guy called Oladileji Adeyemi who offered some quick advice on cash flow and forecasting. We exchanged emails and we may stay in touch.”
Nick and Shazaad have wide aspirations for Westsidecoders’ future and plan to use their small size to their advantage:
“Because we’re quite small we can be agile. Businesses need to be able to diversify. It’s important to be able to react so that if one thing isn’t working, to be able to move into another. We can test an idea and see if it works. I’m a firm believer that the business is to provide value from shareholders to stakeholders.
Right now, Westsidecoders are working with local partners to create a program that will allow other entrepreneurs to gain an online digital presence.
“Entrepreneurs who haven’t yet got a website or digital presence will come along and they’ll bring bits of content they already have. In the space of a day we’ll walk them through the process of making a website, get the graphics done, and talk about how to approach social media and marketing. People will arrive with no website and leave with something solid online.”
The business is also going in a very different direction within schools, using popular games kids are familiar with to teach them programming concepts thus helping to unleash the next generation of young computer scientists.
This wide-reaching attitude to business and the curiosity that informs Westsidecoders approach to the possibilities of the digital world are likely to be the very factors that bring the business plenty of future success.