Latest / The Charity Changemakers Podcast / Season 3 | Ep 9 Rushab Shah on fixing charity's data problem with an F1 mindset

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Season 3 | Ep 9 Rushab Shah on fixing charity's data problem with an F1 mindset · The Charity Changemakers Podcast

• Adam Stacey: Really pleased to have Rishabh on the Charity Changemakers podcast this week. Thanks so much for joining us. Rushab (OneHive): Key yeah, and it's footage, right? Adam Stacey: Yeah, it's brilliant. great. Great to have you here. And as I say every week, I can never do the intros, the justice that they deserve. So sort of hand that over to you straight away to give us a introduction as to who you are and what you do. Rushab (OneHive): So Rushab CEO of One Hive, we're a tech for good organisation helping charities streamlined their admin and scale their impact. Adam Stacey: we're going to hear more about OneHive through the conversation today. So yeah, really, really excited to do that. to, you know, obviously, you thinking about technology and, you know, advancements, obviously in technology AI and is clearly hot topic across lots of sectors, all sectors, but particularly, obviously, in the charity sector at the moment. So it's going to be great to pick some of that and hear more about what you're doing. But I guess before we get into the big stuff, we've got the quickfire questions that we throw out all of our guests each week. Yeah, what does a good weekend or a day off look like for you? Rushab (OneHive): It's quite hard because ⁓ days off are are rather rare. So consistency of what's being done. Right. I'm gonna go with gardening whilst listening to a podcast. That's my ⁓ or like an audiobook, an audible. That's I like the day off kind of thing. It's just so detached from the laptop and as far away as possible. Adam Stacey: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, that's great. I mean, clearly, obviously, the charity changemakers is your go-to podcast. But after that, yeah, what's the, is there a sort of a recommendation in there or one that you really, really enjoyed? Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, how I built this by Gyraz. So I don't know if you've come across it. So Gyraz ⁓ basically just goes through these founders of like Airbnb and Stripe and Slack and just just literally asks them like, so where where did you mess up? What was good? It gets quite he's good at getting like the the reality out of the people as opposed to the glossy front end, which is quite nice. Adam Stacey: Okay. Now I haven't. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, brilliant. Well, that one that I need to go and listen to for sure. yeah, that's great. Gardening, I suppose, might be the answer to this next question, but you might have something else up your sleeve as well. What's something small that brings you a disproportionate amount of joy? Rushab (OneHive): I've got a funny answer, chasing after a ball. Adam Stacey: Okay, yes, yeah, yeah. Rushab (OneHive): So so I I'm not a fan of running, but I love playing six-side football, paddle, squash, like anything that involves chasing after a a small spherical thing. I'm on in. So Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, I like I really like that answer. I think I might have the same I think I might have the same one actually from playing football to cricket to playing squash. Yeah, I'm made and he's rephrased. Yeah, rephrase the way in which I answered that question in the future. now I like it. No, that's great. Yes. Yeah, yeah, indeed. There's there is something about finding that in a in a dog within within us. Yeah. Rushab (OneHive): Okay. Yeah, again it's a great way to keep fit, but also it's like a f a a marginally useful purpose off the action of getting fit. And there's some form of like competition in it, which is always good. Adam Stacey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Indeed. Yeah. And I think you're right when it comes to the exercise, yeah. Compared to, you know, jumping on a bike or, you know, going for a run. It's yeah. Yeah. It's I guess in some of those sports, there's a team mentality as well, but there's also, yeah, like you say, there's a competitive side to it as well, which is interesting. So yeah, that's great. That's good. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, exactly. Adam Stacey: I love this question because we had a whole variety of different answers throughout the series. But what's one thing people always assume about your job that just isn't true? Rushab (OneHive): So the thing that everyone assumes is you can get other people to do the stuff for you. And and I and I think that's a channel, you actually can't, you've got to do it yourself. And quite often you you have this balance of ⁓ what you can just pass on to the team versus rolling your sleeves up and you just have to do because when you're shaping something, when you're driving something, especially something that's so hands on as the charity sector. Adam Stacey: Yes. Rushab (OneHive): you've got to lean in so it's not, you know, you're not in an ivory tower, it's not all glossy and shiny all the time. You you've got to actually go in and and get your hands dirty, so to speak, so you know I'll end up delivering workshops all the way through to make you know, creating the marketing content myself sometimes when I need to because the team can't get something done. So yeah, it it's not all ⁓ pretty sunflowers and rainbows and butterflies. Adam Stacey: Yes. Yeah, that's right. Indeed. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure we'll hear more of that through the through the conversation. So, and look, you've got really interesting career journey, and we're to be really interested to hear hear more of that. And I guess things that you've learned along the way that have influenced and grown you into the person and leader and founder that you are today. But we'll sort of start these conversations by asking, you know, how that, you know, how that career journey navigated, how you found yourself working in the charity sector, how did it all come about? yourself. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, so that I there's a couple of like key pillars to the journey that start from school. And and at school I had the opportunity during Easter when I was seventeen to participate and be a ge a host for a vo like a residential week we were hosting for kids with disabilities. Now this is quite important because when you take a seventeen year old who's from a pretty decent background, everything's fairly chill and you're doing your thing. And then you have a young person with discharge muscular dystrophy, which is means all your muscle tests are fat, wheelchair bound, everything from changing, cleaning, working with this kid who's got autism and down syndrome as well, the multi complex needs that builds a layer of responsibility in the individual and awareness. ⁓ that's none other. So I then went on to mechanical engineering university and went into the Formula One sector, which is why I love the love for little. Pire on the wall, which is always good. And ⁓ although I worked at Williams for a bit, slightly different. But we did work at a company that used to build McLaren's engines and Bugatti's gearboxes. So, you know, but whilst at university, I ran a youth club for kids with disabilities. And the the sort of thesis was Adam Stacey: Yeah, that's fine. Rushab (OneHive): Uni students who go to Warwick Uni, where I went to, don't often see people with disabilities because of the nature of the challenges to get into the university. You know, it's it's a highly academic space. If you're struggling with disability, then it's it's not a space that you're gonna actually just be able to get to. So you'd see like other diversities, international genders and this and that, but you would not see that. So by Running the youth club, we would get clubs and societies, so the Salsa Society, the engineers, the American football team, to come in each week and deliver sessions, like a workshop. So you had these young people from the local area getting experience and exposure to these incredible activities from like three D printing pens to running around with pads and helmets on themselves and learning how to play American football to learning Salsa and it was a fantastic opportunity. ⁓ but one thing I realized quite quickly is As a young person volunteer, you don't really get trained or know how to work with people with disabilities, you know, like the nuances of ADHD and autism and Down syndrome like what you should and should do. And my approach was it doesn't really matter like how and and and you know, so actually instead of spending time trying to train the volunteers, I just shortcutted it by saying, Well You like engineering, you're studying engineering, the kid likes Thomas Tank Engine. I would just tell the engineers to talk about trains to that kid. And that would be the thing that helped that young person feel comfortable. Or become curious, they'll come out their shell, they'll start asking questions, and then they would become confident and you can get them to participate in the activities. And as a result, the volunteer also felt like they were able to engage with this young person. with a disability and it wasn't necessarily about the technicalities of working with a person with autism or whatever. Like no no. It was just the fact that you have a shared common interest. And and and that became really interesting. And so after the career in engineering, I then kind of realised, well I hit my ceiling was doing some incredible stuff, like, you know, zero emission transportation across Europe, million miles of dri trucking and Adam Stacey: building that rapport. Yeah, absolutely. Rushab (OneHive): decarbonising in the maritime sector for the Shetland Islands and so like really like crazy cool stuff. And then I was like, I kind of hit my ceiling. And but I knew how to build good tech ⁓ at the charity sector again with the lens of what if we could do the same stuff we did in engineering, where we gathered data, we simulated, we forecast, we overanalysed, you know, the the then Formula One is a great example, right? By the end of the first corner of a lap, the race team knows and can probably predict to about a tenth of a second accuracy what the lap time would be. Because you could bank on the driver doing the same ⁓ And you'd know that the car would perform. What you're then looking at is where the car is on the track. And therefore you'd be pretty car con in terms of what the time would be. As opposed to the charity set to where we spend all this time and effort doing the intervention. Adam Stacey: Yeah, sure. Rushab (OneHive): And then spend a whole load more time trying to analyse it and review it and report on it. And it's almost too late, as opposed to making the opportunity to intervene before. And and that's kind of where I've I've kind of found my kind of like journey back into the non-profit sector and the charity sector, the impact sector. But coming at it from an engineer's lens, ⁓ but with that kind of lived experience. to know supporting and driving and doing stuff in the sector. So it's kind of a a convergence of of different things. Adam Stacey: Yeah, and a real range of different things, know, from, you know, from, clearly from an engineer's skillset to that, you know, engaging with, ⁓ you know, running a, running, running a youth club. Really interesting that sort of, you know, can pan that back to a, to an experience as a 17 year old that obviously, you know, that exposure just opened your eyes, I guess, and a value alignment towards, you know, clearly wanting to make a, make a difference and do, do something for, you know, do something for good. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah. Adam Stacey: Yeah. And was it that you, guess you sense within that sense of engineering that it kind of wasn't scratching that itch? That it was, like you say, you kind of reached the ceiling, there was something, it kind of felt like there was just something more. Was that something just personally inside of you? Rushab (OneHive): Yeah. It's an interest one because I think this so I was fortunate so the stuff I was doing in the engineering world was phenomenal. We were driving test cars, around test tracks, gathering data, literally ragging cars, got trained on how to d control cars in all unstable conditions, basically a day of drifting. That was a that was a day of work. And the g but what I found was I then found myself in the role in about twenty nineteen, working with the board as a graduate. And Adam Stacey: Yeah, that's a show. Which is brilliant. Rushab (OneHive): They a new MD had come in and went through a whole like reach strategy. And I was the first to do all the work on developing the strategy with an external consultancy and then worked with the CFO to build the investment plan, the CTO to build out the technology roadmap for the organization, you know and went then work with the COO to actually print out the all try and look at how do we restructure this business to a map to the future that we need to achieve. And ⁓ and then was basically asked what I wanted to do. And I said, well, digital strategy, that's kind of what I want to own, and so took that and grew that as a practice. So I I'd done pretty much everything from the hardcore bit through to strategy, through to investment strategy, through to roadmap and forecasting, horizon scanning, through to building a business unit out from the ground up, pitching it, presenting it internationally at conferences. you know, a and then actually winning programmes and delivering on those. So I'd kinda done a lifetime's career in like the course of a five year span. And and I think and then a and then there was a bit of change in the business. So the executive team changed and the business moved on a path to acquisition and and there was a whole bit and I like, you know what? All the people that kinda gave me f like had good link into was able to stretch my legs and push and do and drive. They were all leaving. So I was like, well, I could stay. Or it's a good opportunity to kind of roll the dice a little bit and step away from that full-time secure role you know, I've done that. And and potentially it's a safety net or the confidence that I have in myself that I think I could always go back to it. But I was like, well now's a good time because I'd either be looking for a new role elsewhere Or I would stay and see this through but I knew I'm gonna need a new role in a year or two years' time anyway. So it it felt like the perfect segue opportunity to then, you know, like four or three years ago, four years ago to kind of like step away from that and own something, build something and and you know, I haven't really looked back since, I don't think. Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I guess I'm a little bit interested in that in that five years. I mean, obviously to go through such a, you know, range of roles and so much exposure, and like you say, have that opportunity to stretch your legs with that was that down? Was that literally down to just being given the opportunity? Clearly, you know, leaders, managers seeing an attitude in you and giving you the opportunity. I guess coming alongside you mentoring, supporting coaching, what was it that gave you that real breadth over those five years? Rushab (OneHive): kept saying yes to stuff and and I think you know you've got these two minds that a lot of people have one which is like ⁓ I've got to really precious and specific about my time and and be really careful what we say yes to mine was like an abundance approach because I look I'm early in my career I'm just gonna say yes to everything and I hope I don't drown and I back myself to swim. Like I was like that was the fundamental approach. Because during COVID especially Adam Stacey: Yeah, sure. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, most people ⁓ work from home. They were in a position where you actually did have a a load more free time to do so and and you had those two different tactic. Some people upskilled themselves, some people were just furloughed and chilling, some people were just like, right, I to take a breather, some people have family challenges they had to negotiate and deal with, whereas I was quite fortunate, I could just say, well, I was gonna double down on doing work stuff and spent probably a disproportionate amount of time to what the salary was over. gonna be to and nothing as a result of doing that, then kind of it's it's then then you're kind of in that position where you get opportunities, but you can also craft opportunities and take opportunities. And it's a b it's about you're not just gonna keep giving stuff. But ⁓ and when you say yes to something, the person who's asked you for it, especially if they're a director or a CEO or C suite, whatever, they're asking you for a reason. Like they've got five reasons behind the back of their mind that you don't know about. And if you say yes to it, you don't know. And that was kind of the approach I took. Adam Stacey: Yeah, it's really interesting. think we see it across sectors, whether it's obviously outside of charity sector or within it is that opportunity to say yes, to take things on. It's actually the previous episode with Clam Dixon from Citizens Advice actually gave a very similar answer to, which is fine. But I'm going to say yes to opportunities and see them through, which is really interesting to see how that can help people. the career. So tell us then, you've obviously gone through this journey, this five years, this itch to think that there's more this working in a sort of a tech for good. What happens next? Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, so so what happens what happens next is we we launch a a company called Tutor Hive. So we didn't actually start in a charity sector, but we built a tutoring platform because again at that time was all the range. And but we used AI to match hobbies and interests for students and tutors. Same concept as the the the youth center. But if I want to learn maths, but I'm struggling with maths and I love baking, find a tutor that likes baking. And we just talk about XYZ as eggs, milk, flour. all of a sudden algebra makes sense. And that's all it would have taken. And so we we built that out and thought this is gonna be, you know, this is how we're gonna make our millions great and you know, we'll become the Uber of tutoring and Airbnb of tutoring. But I didn't quite transpire because the business model was completely different. Turns out don't really care who my Uber driver is, as long as they got a good rating, but I do care who my tutor would be. ⁓ Adam Stacey: Yes. Rushab (OneHive): as well. So so it it became more challengeable. We grew it to about a thousand three hundred students, tutors, ⁓ and parents using the system to deliver their programs. So that was great. And we only had one twenty two year old doing the operations. So so whilst the rest of us running around our headless chickens, as you typically do in any sort of start up y venture where you're trying to work out product and pitch to investors and this and that and that. But then we took a moment to reflect and realised that actually we'd built probably the most lean educational organization in the world, which was one twenty-two-year-old to a thousand three hundred, you know, stakeholders using the system. And we're like, hang on. That's powerful. And and so what we started to do is we started so we're like, who else what if we took that platform that we built that was doing a lot of the heavy lifting and made that the core of what we do? And the the point in doing that We realized actually tutoring and mentoring are very similar. Who's doing that? And we started to then connect with different organizations, everything from Barclays Bank and IBM through to charities like Generating Genius and Future Leaders. And by speaking to different types of people in different organizations, different sectors, we realized that a gaping hole for That charity that is delivering educational employability, skills, talent, youth empowerment stuff in that infrastructure because they're not a school, they're not a university, they're not a college, like they haven't got large-scale budgets, and therefore they're kind of making it work. And there's a huge admin tax and safeguarding risk that goes into the delivery of these programs. Adam Stacey: Yeah. Sure. Rushab (OneHive): But also not a huge amount of imagination in in the nice possible way. So with Generating Genius, we then started on this journey to work with them to build a gamified and bring their vision to life, which was a gamified challenges complementary bit to a mentoring programme they ran for young people in year nine, outside of London. Adam Stacey: Yeah, Mark. Rushab (OneHive): And it was taking those young people showing sparks and and actual like genuine future prospects in stermal engineering. So all of a sudden I was attracted. I was this is great. Engineering is my jam. I know the space. This is ⁓ about ⁓ changing how this organization fundamentally operates, but by doing it with the charities and their young people and their beneficiaries. So Adam Stacey: Yeah, okay. Yeah, indeed. Rushab (OneHive): Giving that young person a portal that's cutting edge, that looks like a game, that they can play with, they can do their mentoring, they can do all that stuff in one place, boosted the engagement of the organization massively. It helped us kind of understand the sector a bit more. And and then we started working with the next one and the next one and the next one. And we took the same say yes approach. So a charity would come to us and say, Look, can you can we manage our events through the system? We're like, Yeah, come on then. What does that mean? Well, we need to be able to publicize the event, RSVP, track attendance, and then you know, get feedback. And that's all got to be tagged to one event. We're like, yeah, we'll build it. So we just kept saying yes. And what's transpired as a result of that approach is we now support about 30,000 end beneficiaries across 15, 18 now actually youth focused organizations. Adam Stacey: Yes. Yes. Rushab (OneHive): are delivering programs on the ground in real time and the infrastructure's become their back office. It's their their back end. It's the spine that the organization brings all of their fragmented tools together, from Excel and Calendly and then a Zoom thing there and then a Novembrite thing there and then some registration forms and and all of that comes into one place. So yeah, that's ⁓ that's how we got to what OneHive is doing, ⁓ and how we got to just to be in the change making space. Adam Stacey: Yeah, absolutely. And what does One Hive look like today? You know, when you think about the of infrastructure and how you've set up the organisation and then how it's delivering to obviously, you know, for various partners across the sector. Rushab (OneHive): It so one hive's still a very small organization. You know, like we we run with about a team of nine of us delivering outsized impact leveraging AI and how we've coded it and and built it up, but it's built for scale, which is how we've gone from two and a half thousand to thirty thousand prop users with a ninety-nine point eight percent uptime of the system, like over two hundred thousand hours of learning that's been done through there over the last year, you know, and that's not looking to start. ⁓ anytime soon. And I think that's kind of what we realize because we built it well. And then now we've got the base infrastructure and the foundations, then you can leverage and be rather thrifty on the skills and and how we use different tools to enable us to do more. And and as a result, we've started to go from a system which is a learning management system to the actual delivery of the programs, be it workshops and probability, mental wellbeing, ⁓ emplo like employability, health, just core education stuff, plus the CRM bit, which is about the communication and the engagement to the individual based on attributes about that individual and what they're learning. And enhancing all of that data to automate the impact reporting. So you you're bringing together the three things that every organization needs to do into one hive. And that's been a really interesting transition because now we're starting to work with funders directly. So and commissioners. The County Council have recently invested 112K to roll out the platform into 10 charities in one go. All youth charities across employability, wellbeing, confidence and mental health. So the idea there is well you can start to aggregate, you know, you can build better capacity in the sector just by implementing the system and that that that supports the land's core. The tangential benefit is you can start to gather the data in a consistent way outside of those organisations and look at all 10 or 50 or in Camden's case, the 200 that are supported out of the 2000 charities that are in Camden. You can start to understand what is truly going on in real time, which is powerful because then you can make sure you're investing in the right things that are going to make the right impact for the serve beneficiaries you're trying support. Adam Stacey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I guess it's taken a lot of that heavy lifting that charities have had to do in that, know, impact reporting, you know, like you say, you know, you're talking about, obviously, you know, from engineering, where you got that instant data, you know, you know, I'll go back to running a youth charity, what best part 10 years ago, obviously, you know, you were producing sort of impact reporting at the end of the project. So know, that that type of thing, but this is, you know, think finger on the pulse. Rushab (OneHive): Exactly. I mean we want to use data for good right? We want it to be so that an organisation says you know, which of those young people haven't showed up for the last couple of weeks ⁓ or is there trend that the system can kind of detect and just notify someone on that team say, Hey by the way, you know, like Joe's not been in for the last two weeks on the It's been really consistent. Haven't heard anything from him, and no excuses. we want to use data for good right? We want it to be so that an organisation says you know, which of those young people haven't showed up for the last couple of weeks ⁓ or is there trend that the system can kind of detect and just notify someone on that team say, Hey by the way, you know, like Joe's not been in for the last two weeks on the It's been really consistent. Haven't heard anything from him, and no excuses. That might be a safeguarding risk, that might be a flag. You might just take one phone call. Turns out Joe's guardian or carer has broken their leg and they can't actually get in. So all it would have taken as well. Sally drives past anyway. So, you know, we can just get him to pick ⁓ up. We'll get in it and it's those little bits that maintain engagement, which are so important when we're looking at especially the youth sector. That might be a safeguarding risk, that might be a flag. You might just take one phone call. Turns out Joe's guardian or carer has broken their leg and they can't actually get in. So all it would have taken as well. Sally drives past anyway. So, you know, we can just get him to pick ⁓ up. We'll get in it and it's those little bits that maintain engagement, which are so important when we're looking at especially the youth sector. So it's like, how do you help the teams with the data they need to maximize the effectiveness of the programme and not wait till the end of the program. ⁓ oops, we saw a drop off rate of X percent you're like, well we just could correct it. so yeah that's kind of where I think there's a there's a real opportunity in there. ⁓ and automate as much. Like you know no no I think impact reports are great from a funder point of view, they look really pretty. You know mostly are made on Canva is great. But I don't really provide much value. I think Adam Stacey: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, it's a fascinating product. And for the young person themselves, like you say, some of these workshops and things like that they're engaging with, is that online through the platform as well, as well as guess, you know, supporting obviously facilitating in person? Rushab (OneHive): Both, both. So in person and online, right? And and that's important because you can provide a workshop on how to write a C V in person, which is great. And then when the young person goes home and they've forgotten like 90% of what you said, if they could watch that back or have it in the same place, then great. If there was then a cheaty on how to create a C V as a resource they could just download from the same place, even better. And as a result having that kind of blended hybrid approach, you can start to look at the trends of that individual, young person, and you know, what percentage of those who came to the workshop then accessed the resource and then actually downloaded a copy of the template CV. Interesting. Now that is useful because then you know who is most interested and most engaged and who's not. And again it's about understanding who's utilizing your services, be them online or in person. And and you know some people will actually be okay on their own. they don't need more of a nudge than a automated email or a reminder text or a reminder WhatsApp. Everyone else, though those who do need the support for whatever reason, you can then redeploy your efforts and resources and focus on them. Adam Stacey: presumably your partners clients that you're working with charities organizations range from quite sort of small local organizations right through to sort of bigger, bigger youth organizations as well. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, so we've actually found, especially with adoption of tech and AI and automations, those small to medium charities are actually got a competitive advantage because there's less bureaucratic layers within. So they're able to move and move quicker. And typically they've got a really good relationship with a a smaller num number of core funders who back them because they see the mission and the journey and the scale up. You know, like i it's that whole bit like it's eas ⁓ especially in the UK, we'd love to back the underdog. And you know, someone who's got like, you know, we're on this growth journey, organizations and funders will all get behind that a lot more easily. And those CEOs of those organizations are probably the ones who are the key relationship holder. So when they present their strategy to that and where they want to grow. Adam Stacey: Yes. Rushab (OneHive): You're seeing greater interest and adoption of that tech from that scale. So we've actually had more of that kind of like under a million kind of income charities that we're working with, down to like startup charities that are just spinning up. The large ones have the infrastructure already, but it's really convoluted. So I think one of them we're talking to have 18 different systems they use to deliver their programs across the UK, and it's all fragmented, and it takes a whole load of heavy lifting internally just to try and stitch together the story, you know, and and they're probably best in class. Adam Stacey: guess, my reflection is obviously I'm not working in this space, but my reflection is you kind of get people, get organizations that are really keen to embrace technology and move with it and recognize it's fast paced plan to keep up. And I guess on the other end, you get people that are quite skeptical about it. And I just wonder what that can be like or what your answer is, particularly to a youth, I ⁓ guess a youth charity, and particularly, guess around some of this narrative at the moment about reducing young people's interaction with social media or technology. But clearly, what you're talking about puts real information in a frontline youth workers hand that's going to be really helpful for them to deliver their job. what's the answer when you come up against those types of conversations? Rushab (OneHive): The tech's there. The t the tank is there, the infrastructure's there, and also young people are have grown up in a world where like the mobile phone is there, right? You and I or you like myself, I grew up by like MSN and Dilarp, and the moment someone called the landline, the internet cloud's out. Like as opposed to be able to walk it around wherever you want. So Adam Stacey: Yeah, sure. Yes. Yeah, remember those things. Rushab (OneHive): Young people are expecting technology to be as good as what a TikTok, a Snapchat, a platform they use online would be, a gaming platform. And that's where they are and their expectations. And if you rock up to them with like a pad of paper and and it's disconnected and fragmented, the communication isn't great. All of those things are really important. You're not going to be able to get them away from something that's maybe destructive, something that's more constructive. So as a sector, I think y you're not gonna be able to avoid it. And you're seeing with things like SOARP and compliance and the changes in regulations and and where the sector's going around the mandatory impact reporting, etc., that you need to do this. So either you've got great funders and they're gonna budget for more resource. But I've not heard many charities say that they are inundated with cash and they can they can do that. Like, you know, that it that's not the case. In fact the other way, there's a constriction on funding and the accessibility and the availability of funding, I think there's a lot there. But how well it's used and deployed is questionable. And I think so before looking at the ⁓ tech is gonna save us or tech is going to kill us or or or let's be that the first bit is all organizationally and operationally, you need to get that kind of lens on it first. Like what is it you're doing? How are you doing it? Where could you potentially leverage savings, not just tech enabled, but actual savings in your delivery. And that kind of requires a different mindset to what goes into that the nonprofit sector. It's more about we need to raise more so we can do more of what we're doing, as opposed to okay, we have an ac access of this amount. How can we widen what we're doing? How can we grow what we're doing with the same resources? How do we restructure our processes, operations have organically grown over time? And that requires talent, it requires resource, requires effort, bandwidth, all the stuff that sector doesn't have in in the most part. But that's where the fake should be. Tech is the solution to that, but it's not the answer. Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Yeah, you can see it as that solution, but I guess people can quite often just be... it in the headlights? that fair? Because obviously, technology is just advancing at such a quick pace. mean, the last few years, mean, blimey, you've seen the advancements obviously in AI and what is possible. guess there's always that worry about what you implement now might not be the right thing in six, 12 months time. But I suppose there's advantages in working with a partner such as yourselves at keeping up with those advancements. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah. And I think that's the idea, like finding the right partners to work with and finding the right thing that works the organization. As opposed to that n nothing's ever perfect and things are always gonna get better and better and better from a tech point of view. The reality is the finance sector is run off Excel sheets, duct tape and cable ties. Right? Formula One is run off Excel sheets, duct tape and cable ties. It's it's no matter how much we have the glossy front layer and Stuff it's gonna be there, but objectively, your young people, young people, from the Milburn report last week. ⁓ you know, it's it's only getting worse in a neat crisis. Like, you know, you're the demand of what you're being asked to supply and support is growing, and that's not gonna change because there's no real like flick the switch and it's all solved, and therefore that's always that's always gonna exist, and so dear in the headlights, you know. something to save some time is better than not doing it. And I think that's kind of the the chipping away at those little things. You know, I I hate that phrase like blow hanging fruit 'cause it's very consultancy. But it is like, you know, like if you're registering people with a piece of paper and a pad and a front desk, just put an actual tool in place. Like it it's so easy, but the value of doing that is tenfold because you're not then a data like There's so many little things that you could do just to start that journey. Doesn't have to be a full overhaul, but just start in little bits. Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And what do you think sort of the opportunities ahead for for OneHive? Where do you sort of see see things developing and moving in the future? Rushab (OneHive): think ⁓ where where we are really focusing on so our our vision is we want humanity to thrive. So it's a massive like massive ball statement which we have to go for. We are tech and tech for good and and that's all we're at. So for humanity to thrive you need nations to thrive. And therefore that nation is you know supporting its own, producing surplus to trade, you know, those hotter countries are able to trade their, you know, their produce for potatoes for colder countries and all that stuff. ⁓ but for a nation to thrive you need communities to thrive. And they we kind of see communities as that, like the mortar ⁓ across you know in in a in a building and then the young people are the bricks. Now the problem is if your bricks start to erode, then I don't care how good your mortar is, the building's coming down. And that's how we are currently as a society. And and we've kind of rehashed that concept of Thrive. So Thrive is a is six pillars. So it's tech, health, resilience, independence, ventures, and education. So across those six pillars, we see the opportunity for one high to support, enable, empower those core sectors around that social mobility, starting with young people, because you know, if we don't scaffold around that first, it doesn't matter what you do at a national level or at a community level, it's gonna fail. Because we've not done the bit at the core, just you know, helping those young people. So I think our immediate opportunity and kind of plan for one hive is working with the Department of Office of Economy, DCMS, DWP, DFE, those like national scale organizations, but to go really hyper-localised and place-based. So doing a lot in North London and Camden, for example, we're going to be looking at Manchester as the next kind of area where we can really go deep. Across that sector and make a real tangible positive impact. ⁓ and as that starts to grow, it's the sort of thing that should be a scalable model that can be deployed via funders, philanthropists, ⁓ commissioners to kind of remove the cost burden from the charity and move it into the funders. And that's what we're starting to see. So the conversations with the kind of the funding organisations to say like you should invest in something like this, maybe not this or or us, which is great, for your charities, because it's gonna unlock a huge amount of potential for them in in the organisation. And you're gonna get better data. And we go through that journey where we start to kind of implement that across the charities in the UK, focus here, but Africa, Southeast Asia definitely things that are back of mind as well. Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I guess from a national point of view, you're talking about the national infrastructure, the funders, that data is ⁓ critical to them and not something that they hold at the moment. So you can see why there's that buy-in from them to help support the sector. Yeah, absolutely. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah, especially at the back of the report that came out a couple of months ago, like valuing the impact economy at four hundred and twenty eight billion and fifteen percent of the GDP. Pretty sure that's not all charities and there are other things in that. But still, believe me, big number. Yeah, it's a lot. That's a lot. And ⁓ and I think that's the challenge. Like that is a significant amount, therefore there's gonna be a lot of noise around it. And it's good. Adam Stacey: Yeah, that's what I'm doing. Yeah. Yeah, see you. Rushab (OneHive): Because then you can start to say, Well, look, it's worth investing a fraction of that. Adam Stacey: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I guess I'm interested. You've mentioned it a couple of times from that, you know, sort of saying saying yes to things, you know, being really important in the early part of your career, and I guess in the the in the building of One Hive and saying yes, I wonder whether there's been a cost cost to you personally, I guess, in that sense of being someone that says yes, and what you've learned from that sort of approach and whether that, you know, whether that remains or whether that's changed. Rushab (OneHive): I think cos personally, I do work hard. Like, you know, I think we push and have a sense of urgency that might mean that you miss out and cause a couple of mistakes. And there has been some like definite mistakes and blunders along the way. There's got to be. You know, where we try to shortcut things to move things through quicker and it and it doesn't necessarily work. A lot of time and care needs to go into the way we work, the approach and how we work with charities to make sure that they they do realise the benefits. And I think that's one thing that I, you know, we're mindful that process and systems and methodology of how we do need to be refined. We need to get that feedback loop quicker. But you know, I I I listened to a ⁓ podcast with Mary Rose Gunn from before and ⁓ she was interviewing a ⁓ Alexander Hoare and ⁓ one of the big philanthropists and whore and co and stuff. And he was like, if you wanna build fast, go alone. If you wanna build far, then then you've got to go together. And he was like, right now we don't have the time to spend on that, so we're just gonna go fast. And I think, you know, it's an int and and the the the response was to how you work with government. You know, because it takes a long time to move things through policy and government, etc. So sometimes you need the capitalistic start up kind of like, let's just go fail fast and be okay that we don't if we're not willing to fail fast and fail frequently, even with the risk that entails with the sector, then we're not gonna be have a chance to get to where we need to get to. And that's a really important thing that I think I'm kind of grappling with in terms of what are we okay with failing on? What are we never gonna be okay with failing on. what are risks that should be taken, how do you mitigate? So it's that tension. ⁓ but it's not easy. Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, indeed. Yeah, no, not easy. So I guess as you reflect on career today, what's one lesson that you've learned the hard way that's shaped who you are as a leader today? Rushab (OneHive): Think I think it's a the hard the hardest thing I've learned from from this is you're as a leader or a CEO, you're constantly in that kind of like salesy, pitchy mode and and that's not always heard upon in the best way. You know, because you're the eight like the advocate, the the beacon, you are the one that's always kind of talking about what you're doing, etc. And it's not always strategic to constantly be like shouting about what you're doing and you sometimes need to be the one listening. So I think the thing that I try and that we've seen is yeah, people don't respond well to just being sold stuff. And I think that's important. But then when you're have a mini mini voice and you're trying to drive out sized impact. kind of have to shout about it as much as you can off the rooftops. And it's that so I think there's a it's that fine line of building the relationships for the long term while striving short term. And I and if you can get the balance right, which we are definitely doing more so now than we had in the early days, you're you're going from that kind of like, you know, the stereotypical the sky is falling, or I've got this magic potion solution, magic beanstalk kind of kind of solution to something that actually pragmatically makes sense of people willing to buy into. So I think the that bit of how you balance the the pitchy the sales either, you know, we need to actually get what we're doing forward to let's take our time and and and do something slower to build those, to nurture those kind of relationships that are going to unlock the thing in the long term, but not always going for the jugular and straight off the bat. Adam Stacey: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and you're absolutely right. I mean, it's difficult because you want to be able to fund the growth for what's coming next. But yeah, I think with this, with this sector, and I think, you know, what we've seen through the conversation is that, you know, you're someone in a company and an organization that want to add value back. And when people can, you know, when the sector can see that, and funders can see that, and can see that long term, of course, there's, you know, like you say, not necessarily a fan of the low hanging fruit term, but the short-term gains to be had with a product and a partnership with yourself, but also the fact that you've clearly very values driven from that interaction very early in your career and youth work, so wanting to make that difference. That's the message that shines through to the sector that you want to work with and the opportunity that's there, which is great. I could talk for hours, I think, on this, but we're coming into the end of the podcast. It's absolutely fascinating conversation, just a fascinating set of skill sets and experiences and things that you brought together. And great to see what you're building at OneHive. really going to be really excited to see how that continues to develop over the years to come. I take it you're happy, we sort of tag you up and tag the organization when we put the podcast up. Rushab (OneHive): Yeah. And and if anyone wants to reach out, you know, info on one hive dot AI is a ⁓ I can open an inbox that we've used just to like get people to chat about whatever. So just if anyone does want to get in touch, we're fairly easy to like say we're up for that conversation. so so yeah. Adam Stacey: on effect. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, we'll make sure that there's links through these offices, the website and, and your LinkedIn profile in the show notes as well. So yeah, if people want to reach out that they can do that. And yeah, it feels like one of these that we should probably get you back on in any years time or so. Yeah, just see, just all that fast paced technology and how things are changing and what's developed and what's what's what's come next. But yeah, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on one hive and see what comes next. Rushab (OneHive): Thank you so much. And thanks for having me, appreciate what you're doing. It's fantastic. Adam Stacey: Yeah, that's great. Lovely. Thanks, Emreşe.