About

After working for several years as a startup operations lead and experiencing the fast-paced environment at multiple accelerator programmes (Entrepreneurs First, The HackTrain and The Family), Maxx Turing joined the NEF Programme as a part-time founder participant in late 2019 to work on developing his own business idea, whilst also working full time in a Founder Associate placement role at a tech startup.

During his time on the programme, Maxx ideated through several different business opportunities and settled on leaning into his experience working with hundreds of founders over the years to launch a B2C community, Founder Tribe, which provided diverse founders with the tools, knowledge and support they needed to help them stay accountable and succeed, including access to special events and perks via a growing list of partnerships with leading startup suppliers.

In March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown caused Maxx to reassess his initial community and events-based focus and instead pivot the business model and go-to-market offering to a B2B SaaS solution for entrepreneurial ecosystems. He built and utilised an MVP for the entrepreneurship programme he was taking part in, which resulted in the most successful pitch day since the programme's inception; upon completing the programme Maxx was awarded the CEO's Award by Neeta Patel CBE for his entrepreneurial leadership skills.

Soon after finishing the programme, Maxx entered a startup competition in the summer of 2020 and pitched his business idea to a panel of judges, winning a £20,000 CVC Young Innovator Award to help launch the business and make it a reality. After winning the grant money, Maxx incorporated the business and used the funds to contract a software engineering consultancy to build a sellable product.

After the initial product was live and functional, Maxx left his day job and went full time on the business. In order to sustainably fund growth with revenue, the business also provided operational support services - running entrepreneurial learning programmes, workshops and pitch competitions for clients such as The Centre for Entrepreneurs.

The business' strong list of SaaS clients including Imperial College London, UCL and LSE enabled reinvestment of profits into further product development and a rebrand to Startbook in the summer of 2022. New clients continue to onboard from the growing sales pipeline. As a solo founder, Maxx has built the business up from scratch whilst being supported by a talented team who have helped make Startbook into what it is today.