Our first State School Ventures participant is graduating so what better time to sit down and get out the ol’ clipboard for a quick Q&A:

Startup name and description:
Donup
We help individuals & businesses get the most impact from a single donation to multiple charities, and provide them with a dashboard to track and manage their giving, where they receive updates from their charities and can share key impact statistics.

SSV was brand new when you applied, what drew you to it?
There are lots of programmes out there, but 1:1 mentorship that provides rapid solutions to challenges as they arise is hard to find and the most valuable growth support a programme can provide. So when I saw that SSV offered personalised, regular mentorship, it was a no-brainer. You have to take a chance on a lot of opportunities as an early startup, and there's no catch to SSV, so why not.

What did you expect it to be like before you applied?
As a new programme (especially being the first through), I was unsure what to expect about the support available, or where it might come from. I thought we might receive a little feedback around one or two areas of our startup over the eight weeks. It's fair to say it exceeded every expectation and from the first session we realised it wasn't any of these, we'd struck gold.

What surprised you about it?
We've been on a few programmes, but speaking to Tim, or the many issue-specific mentors he introduced us to, felt immediately like having an extended team. SSV was more invested in our challenges than any support we have had before. But to leave with tangible outputs that have set us up for the future (and would have otherwise been very expensive!), is something we could never have expected and deserves immense credit for a new programme.

In what, if any, ways did SSV move the needle for you?
Most of our sessions ran overtime talking through each and every challenge at Donup, across multiple areas, that were pertinent to us then. Not only could we use SSV to soundboard new developments or distil core challenges into addressable steps, but SSV provided key introductions to industry veterans and businesses that were equally committed and directly addressed our problems. Each week we'd bring new issues, but SSV brought experience to bat them away. A great example, among many, was a key technical challenge that required prolonged input from an experienced developer, something I did not have the ability to solve and would never have expected a programme to tackle. SSV helped us distil the problem, lay out the steps to solve it and made crucial introductions to quickly build a valuable solution that we will continue to benefit from long after the programme (special thanks to both Levente Bagi & YLD!).

What would your advice be for anyone thinking about applying to SSV?
Don't think twice about it. Submit the application and come loaded with opportunities for growth that you're navigating now. The SSV Swiss army knife will sort you out.