Who we are

We are a small dynamic team, with backgrounds in business (Rothschild Asset Management and PricewaterhouseCoopers). We have built up a working model of how to support ex-offenders in successful self-employment. The support includes funding, business advice of the highest caliber and a personal one to one relationship with a mentor, fitting around client needs.

What we do

The support we provide to our clients includes:

• Business planning support whilst in prison developing ideas and plans
• Entrepreneur Days hosted in prisons, inviting clients to present their ideas to a panel of business experts for advice and potential financial support
• A test marketing grant of up to £300, if the business idea needs researching prior to starting the venture
• Direct grants (this financial backing is only ever given in the context of our other support)
• Provision of a personal business mentor assigned to each client from their time in prison until after release
• Access to our central database of business information and advice from our panel of senior business advisers (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Grenfell)
• Design and printing of promotional material: as our clients open the door to their home on release day their business cards are on the mat
• A network of peer support among clients, facilitated by Startup.

Who do we help?

We provide support for prisoners who want to become self employed and who are aged over 30 years. We have contact with potential clients and support staff in 33 prisons across the country.

The need

Each year more than 80,000 prisoners are released from prison but nearly two thirds of them will have re-offended within 2 years. We know that there are many factors contributing to this re-offending that include family, social, educational and work problems. One of the real tragedies from this re-offending is the loss of the ex-offenders’ potential contribution to society and the damage to their families and children.

It is easy to understand why re-offending can occur as people often leave prison with no money, no car, no bank account, no job and no references. Startup hopes to help ex-offenders solve some of these problems by becoming self-employed, giving them a real chance of a fresh start.

Our solution

We provide focused, caring and consistent support, both financial and personal, that will reduce re-offending by enabling ex-offenders aged 30 years and above to become self-employed (anyone between 18-30 will be put forward to the Prince’s Trust).

We treat ex-offenders as valued clients and to use our best endeavours to help them return to a positive and productive life where they will add value to society.

How we achieves this

Our model of support is unique in that we work with clients whilst still in prison and continue to support them for two years after their businesses have launched. Our clients are intrinsically involved in the design of their own businesses; we are not interested in imposing our ideas on them, but rather in facilitating their own. The Startup model has been developed with ex-offenders and offenders directly contributing ideas, helping plan services and developing a peer network of support.

Startup provides one to one support for our clients from their time in prison right through until their businesses are successfully in operation up to two years later.

To date we have advised over 350 prisoners and ex-offenders and supported 82 clients to set up their own businesses. Our clients are inspirational. They have often surfaced from immense challenges and yet are already proving that they can start up businesses such as web design, plumbing, gardening, sign writing, personal fitness training and more.

We aim to ensure that our clients:

• Are able to run businesses in net profit on a sustainable basis
• Achieve their personal goals (as agreed with mentors)
• Do not re-offend.