Alex Depledge Leo Wilkinson

Fee Band


Leaving her job at Accenture for the uncertainty of a startup, Alex and her friend Jules started helping.com (formerly hassle.com). The pair got through the challenges, the mistakes, and the lack of investment to build a company that sold for over £20million. They’ve repeated the process with Resi, a disruptive architecture and planning business that is now a market-leader. Alex looks at the lessons she's learned, from startup mindsets to the future of the workplace, the pressures on leaders to balancing culture and growth (including a dramatic increase in Resi's business during the Covid-19 pandemic).


Biography

Alex Depledge is an entrepreneur and businesswoman. She is the co-founder and former CEO of helping.com (formerly Hassle.com). Since selling that company she started a Resi.co.uk. Resi has gone on to be one of the biggest residential architecture platforms in the world. Alex is part of the Governments taskforce on Women-Led High-Growth Enterprises, and Labour’s review of business startup funding.

After specialising in customer and channel execution at Accenture, Alex joined her friend Jules Coleman to start an online business. What became helping.com started life as a rather modest booking page allowing users to book all manner of services. Over time, and after various mistakes, few customers, little interest from investors, and a lot of effort, the site evolved into helping.com. They focused on domestic cleaning, worked tirelessly to gain new investors, built the brand, expanded, before selling the company for £24million. Jules and Alex then went on to establish Resi. Aimed at disrupting the architecture sector, Resi removes much of the cost and bureaucracy associated with small, domestic planning projects like extensions.

With a lot of lessons learned in a short time, Alex considers what her experiences can tell would-be entrepreneurs and big organisations seeking to adopt a startup mentality. She compares disruptors and established players in areas like transport and energy and examines the differing approaches to things like focus, speed, and complacency. Alex looks at the vital importance of a strong brand, how to scale up a business without losing the culture that made it special, and how to respond to customer needs. The Covid-19 pandemic saw Resi's business grow enormously as customers spent more time at home, a growth which holds a wealth of lessons in culture, dealing with enforced change, a leader's duty of care, and diversification.

Alex has become an active voice within the UK tech sector. TechCity Insider named her Entrepreneur of the Year, and she’s chaired the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec). She was also a founding member of the sharing economy trade body SEUK, contributed to the government’s independent review into the sharing economy, and worked with Department of Trade and Investment to identify the next top UK startups.

With her direct, refreshingly ‘non-techy’ approach, Alex looks at broader trends in the tech sector, how the UK and elsewhere measures up against the dominance of Silicon Valley, and the future for workplaces and workforces. She shares her experiences and opinions on women in technology and the disruptive power of the sharing and gig economies. She also considers why she believes working from home is a bad idea, how architecture has failed to understand what homes need to be healthy and happy, and how to adopt a startup mentality in a big company.

 

Videos

JLA Speakers Breakfast

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Agent Recommendation

We’ve all had that feeling that we could be entrepreneurs, if we just had the time. Or the funds. Or the skills. Alex tells you that all you need is to be brave. With zero experience of coding, she and a friend built an app in her bedroom and turned it into a multi-million pound business. Alex’s talk is eye-opening, frank and at times very funny. It’s also truly inspiring, in an ‘anyone can do it’ way that’s more believable than any other entrepreneur I’ve heard.

JLA Agent Georgia Sharp
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JLA Presents

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Event - - Date TBC

Speakers Breakfast

Racing to High Performance with Guenther Steiner and Paul McKenna

Speakers
Paul McKenna and Guenther Steiner

Date TBC.  We will be looking at high-performance and mindset with our two excellent speakers.

Guenther Steiner is the Former Team Principal of F1’s Haas, a role he held from the team’s inception until this year. Under his leadership, he grew Haas into one of the sport’s leading independent teams.

Joining Guenther on stage will be broadcaster and behavioural scientist Paul Mckenna, who has written a number of bestselling books, and works on how psychology and mindset can impact achievement.

Please register your interest using the link above for what is sure to be a fascinating and illuminating session.

Location

Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH

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Event - 17/09/2024 - 09:00

Speakers Breakfast

Navigating Risk and Chaos – Strategies For Coping With An Uncertain World.

Speakers
Clive Myrie, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, Rt Hon Lord Parker of Minsmere, and Robin Niblett

On Tuesday 17th September we had the pleasure of hearing from a remarkable panel of speakers, who shared their expertise on the challenges of managing Risk in a chaotic world.

The panel featured esteemed speakers, Dr. Sabrina Cohen-Hatton KFSM (Firefigter and Neuroscience researcher), Lord Parker of Minsmere (Andrew Parker, Former Director General of MI5), and Sir Robin Niblett (Former Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House). The event was hosted superbly by Mastermind and BBC News presenter Clive Myrie.

Over the hour, our panellists explored Risk on multiple levels, from global affairs to business environments and personal everyday challenges. They provided valuable insights into how we can better manage and mitigate Risk in today’s unpredictable world.

 

Location

87 Barts Close, 87 Bartholomew Close, London, EC1A 7EB

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