Lorenzo Gordon has spent his career helping to transform organisations through the implementation of digital technologies. With specialist knowledge of the public sector and not-for-profit organisations, he has co-founded a number of successful digital companies targeting public sector and health and social care clients. We’re delighted to welcome Lorenzo to our community as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR), and you can find out more about him in this Q&A.

What inspired you to launch your first business?

Wanting to improve things for people in public service, and believing that we (I) could do it better than the then-current providers in the early noughties!  Also, wanting more control over my time, on a day-to-day basis, and wanting a greater variety of projects to work on.

Have you always worked in tech, or did your career take a few twists along the way?

Pretty much, though increasingly over time, I moved away from the tech side of things and more into the service improvement and change management side (as well as running the business), because we realised that to have real impact, we needed to be focussed on human behavior change, not just the tech.

Looking back, what’s one pivotal moment that shaped your path as a founder?

Winning SBRI Health funding in 2014 and 2015 for our digital communication passport project for people with a learning disability was pivotal in our development as a business, and accelerated our ability to grow as a company.

Are there any mistakes you made early on that you now see as valuable learning experiences?

Thinking that we had to “hold” onto everything ourselves, both in terms of ownership and risk.  Learning to share both of these (and more) with other stakeholders opened up far more opportunities and built trust with external bodies.

How do you stay motivated through the more challenging periods of startup life?

Keep it human!  Have social activities with colleagues, meet other stakeholders (including customers) in person where possible.  I get a huge amount of energy and motivation from other people.

What made you want to become an EiR at Sheffield Technology Parks?

I’m interested in helping others avoid some of my mistakes, and learn from my experience.  I’m very happy to help people and find it rewarding.

What kind of support do you hope to offer founders on the Cooper Project?

Advice, guidance, mentoring/coaching, and being a “critical friend”.

Are there specific areas – like fundraising, product development, or scaling – where you feel you can add the most value?

Stakeholder engagement, co-production, business strategy and structure, product life cycle and roadmap and commercialisation (product-market fit).

What advice do you find yourself giving most often to early-stage founders?

Validate what you are doing at every stage (it’s never too early or too late), be open to the unexpected, and have a framework for the next few years. It doesn’t matter if (when) it changes/deviates.

What excites you most about Sheffield’s tech/startup ecosystem?

Lots of really energised, intelligent, exciting people with a real drive to make things better.  Love that.

How important is community and peer support in building a startup?

Absolutely critical.  All those cliches about not doing it alone, and not being an island, are all spot on.

Are there any founders or startups in Sheffield you’ve recently come across that are doing exciting things?

Various.  I don’t want to name favourites ;)

And finally…

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“People buy people”

Favourite book or podcast?

Too many!  I do like “The Tao of Pooh”.

One tool or app you can’t live without?

Email and diary (I know that’s two - Outlook?).

If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?

Finding other ways to help people.  There are limitless ways of doing this.

Connect with Lorenzo on LinkedIn.