Understanding Yourself as a Leader

Founder: Claire Cockerton

Located: London, UK

Current Accelerator: Founder and CEO of Plexal

Education: MBA at Imperial College London

Introduction

Claire is currently the Founder and CEO of Plexal, which provides various business services from start-up accelerator programmes to industry-leading events. Previously, she founded Entiq, designed and developed the Level39 Technology Accelerator, and was Founding Director and CEO of Innovate Finance.

The Beginning of Claire’s Entrepreneurial Journey

Prior to moving across the pond to London, UK, Claire studied fine arts and architecture at the University of Toronto. To help pay for school, she decided to start a landscape architecture company, which was called Aesthetic Earthworks. Her company was focused on environmentally friendly practices, sustainable design and organic urban gardening, and did not use any chemical herbicides. This was great timing, given that Toronto had just passed a by-law regarding the use of heavy pesticides and synthetic chemicals, which helped her company prosper.

Taking the Next Step

In 2009, she decided to sell her company and move to London, to pursue her MBA at Imperial College London. During this time, her passion for entrepreneurship continued and she wrote her thesis on business incubators. This was followed by a consulting project with Virgin Unite to establish the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa, which included both a research and consulting piece. She spent a few months there and researched the business support and working requirements; she said it was a fantastic project because of the entrepreneurial aspects, but also it helped the South African populations that have historically struggled with company development. She said supporting this community building businesses was very fulfilling and important to her.

Some of the Challenges Claire has Faced

Claire noted that if an incubator has a variety of different businesses in different sectors it makes it very complex and she strongly believes that incubators need to have an industry focus; this is something that the accelerator in Johannesburg didn’t have. Claire continued “When you have a stronger focus on one industry, you are able to bring more value in the long-run. You are able to make introductions to clients and partners.” In addition, Claire noted as a young entrepreneur in Johannesburg, you still feel the social and political challenges of a very segregated society.

What has Helped Claire Become So Successful

Claire has worked on various projects and is now working on creating a start-up ecosystem located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Stratford, in London, called Plexal. When I asked her what has made her so successful, she humbly noted that she doesn’t feel that she is successful, but more so, she has taken on a bunch of different things and some have been more successful than others. She has also learned a lot of hard lessons building companies, which have changed as she has become more experienced. Claire noted as a young entrepreneur, you are developing your leadership style, figuring out what kind of culture you want to establish, and developing your intuition about and understanding of what motivates people. People and sourcing great business partners and rallying around projects has been a consistent challenge. But when you do, she said, it is incredibly rewarding.

Claire suggested something that doesn’t get talked about enough in being an entrepreneur is understanding yourself as a leader and understanding what kind of culture you want to demonstrate and cultivate in your company because it is so critical in executing your business strategy. She gave an example of her previous start-up, Entiq, which was very lean and didn’t necessarily have the investment or resources to hire senior level talent that would have been necessary to grow the company. Although she did manage a successful exit of that firm.

A Note on London’s Tech Space

Claire noted London’s tech space is very vibrant. London is a very multicultural city with many disciplines working together, like engineering, design and business and despite the recent Brexit vote, Londoners still do want to be connected to the rest of Europe. As an international, ambitious city, she noted, it is a very good business environment to work in and there are lots of business policies in place that foster a supportive environment for start-ups and scaling companies. This includes organizations like London in Part and many different incubators, like Plexal.

Women in Tech

She noted that the finance and tech sectors have commonly struggled with the gender gap, but more importantly, women face male dominated cultures and male decision makers when operating in these industries. Claire noted “we need to encourage young girls to take up science and tech subjects, and in terms of businesses that operate in these sectors, to retain top female talent when women are at the peak of their career.” For her, she feels lucky to be able to create a business that is flexible and creates the right kind of environment for women. Her team is currently 50:50 men and women, but the industry as a whole is still lacking diversity.

Entrepreneurial Influences

Both of Claire’s parents came from the world of academia and encouraged her to be an independent person, which led her to wanting to be in business and to be entrepreneurial. She also has a wonderful network of mentors, peers, and colleagues around her to speak about challenges and to seek advice.

Books!

If Claire wrote a book, she would call it Fashioning your own future: Being Bold. because she believes a lot of people have entrepreneurial skills and that each of us have an ability to shape our own jobs leveraging our passions, when we apply our thinking. In terms of influential books, she noted that she has a selection of books from design, art, architecture, to culture, strategy and fiction novels. One particular book she found very inspirational is called Three Marriages: Reimagining your relationship with yourself, your career, your partner by David White.

Something Claire Wish She Knew Prior

Claire noted that the human element is very important in building a company early on, but this is learned more through years of operating a company and not so much through school.

Thank you so much Claire! This week, focus on how you perceive yourself as a leader and brainstorm what culture you want to cultivate in your company. If you are interested to see what Claire is currently working on, check-out Plexal, or reach-out to her @clairecockerton. If you have any questions for me, please reach-out through social media.