Full Name: Camille le Goff
Education/where: Toulouse Business School, France, Toulouse
Title: SEO Guru
Area of expertise: Search engine optimisation
Previous Role: Advertising and PR intern

How long have you been with WeDo?
I will celebrate my two year anniversary in the company over the summer 2013. I joined in July 2011 and started working for what was then Technovated as an intern while graduating from a French Business School. I remember back then we were a team of 5 people, look where we are now a few months after!

How did you start your journey?
I saw an ad on Gumtree about a cool tech company looking from brilliant interns, went to the group interview after filling out a loooong questionnaire and Wedo contacted me one month after to offer me to join the company.

Why did you join WeDo?
I immediately liked the multicultural working environment and saw the opportunity to develop my skills and a set of knowledge within the company.

What is your role now?
I mastered in online marketing and wanted to my develop skills in search engine optimisation as this is not a field you are taught at school. I then learnt from scratch, tested, made mistakes, had successes and I am now part of the e-commerce team optimizing 5 niche furniture websites for major search engines.

How would you explain your time at WeDo? How would describe your progress?
I surely made huge progress in my understanding of the e-commerce industry and as I mentioned it earlier when you are brand new graduate student you mainly learn by doing before becoming an expert in your field.

What are the main challenges which you faced at WeDo?
Challenges are a daily routine but I remember the first time that Google rolled out its Penguin update back in April 2012 knows as the “over optimization penalty” that un-clutter the web and change the way marketers used to build awareness for their brands.

Where do you see yourself in 2-3 years’ time from now with WeDo?
I see Wedo twice as big as it is now with twice as more niche stores to develop and people to manage, and a larger online marketing/ SEO department to run.

Do you have any memorable moments with WeDo?
A terrible moment in the instant but a good laugh now: when Brad involuntarily deleted all products from the CMS?

If you were to pick 3 favourite things about WeDo, what would they be?

• Unlimited filter coffee: Looking forward to seeing the day where we will upgrade to Nespresso
• Multicultural working environment: Ginger, Mexicano, Frenchies, Gunners, East Londoners and even gluten intolerants, you see lots of different profiles working very well together
• Fast growing industry: nothing new here but e-commerce is an exciting and evolving environment I enjoy working in.

If you were to pick 3 favourite things about your role, what would they be?
Search engine algorithms are well-kept recipes so you need to always be in the lookout for the strategies and keep yourself minute up-to-date which doesn’t make room for daily routine.

What are your interests outside of WeDo?
I like breaking my speed record of the day before (talking about cycling here), snorkeling in hot water and surfing in summer, snowboarding and eating cupcakes in winter. This is actually perfect timing to make a big announcement: I am still looking for volonteers to join my ToughMudder 2013 team !

What advice would you give to anyone considering a role at WeDo?
I will quote the big guy: “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”

Whats the point of Le Green Hat you ask?

The Green Hat is the price you pay for making a silly mistake. There are no boundaries, no exceptions and the hat knows no hierarchy. Whether you’re the CEO or simply an intern, you make a mistake – The Green Hat will choose you. It is highly encouraged that you loath the green hat from the day you start work at Wedo for those who enjoy wearing the Green Hat is untrustworthy and is approached with caution. If you wear the Green Hat, you WILL lose respect, we WILL laugh at you and we WILL see you with utter disappointment. We won’t be angry, we’ll just be disappointed. The Green Hat has had many victims in its life, the Wedo historians estimate this to span far back as the early 21st century. Some say The Green Hat was god’s punishment to all things silly while others believe Steve simply came across it at a market stall while on holiday, we don’t know which is true but all we know is that it is a curse.

Some interesting facts about The Green Hat

Age: God only knows
Colour: Green – luminescent
Shape: Cross between a Dray-gon and Crocodylus niloticus
Features: Evil eyes, canine teeth, reddish tongue, Green poisonous skin/fluff
Other facts: Never been washed, never been loved, has an odor which could instantly kill a kitten
Green Hat Warning: “Where’s the Green Hat?”

What do you enjoy about your role?
The ability to create something and make things work. Implementing something that started out as an idea and transforming this idea into an actual product. To create systems that help everyone throughout the company and help our customers as well.

Can you give us a brief overview of a typical day in your shoes?
Coffee. Coming in to work, going through what was achieved/needs to be achieved with the team. Implementing features, reviewing code, helping out people, preparing releases. Some more coffee. Going through questions that my team has, training them. And then some coffee

What challenges do you face within your role?
Scaling. Growing so fast in such a short time is a real technical challenge, as this means that you need to adapt your approach to a lot of things very often and make sure that everything works for one and for thousands of users. Having only 24 hours in a day and so many ideas that would like to be implemented.

How has your experience been in the company so far?
I’ve never been in a company that achieved so much, with so few people in such a short time – so basically really good. We moved 4 times during the time of my employment here, needing more and more space, getting more people on board.

What is favourite aspect about wedo?
That the whole company has a very close and familiy-like feel to it. Everyone puts in his extra time to make everything work, cause we want us to succeed. We don’t have to wear suits and all of us can excel in who we are, without the need to pretend to be someone else.

Are there any particular contributions to the company which you are particularly proud of?
Well, all the features that me and my team already implemented. Optimizing Magento to a very high level.

What are your interests outside of wedo?
I’m a singer/songwriter/artist and hip hop dancer, so everything that’s related to music.

What would you say to anyone who is considering to apply for a position at wedo? What can they expect?
They can expect to not run out of cool things to do. They won’t be just a number in a big company that no one knows. If they have good ideas they will be able to implement them. They can expect a lot of responsibility and a thriving company culture with people that are 200% behind what they do and what they want to achieve.

Full Name: Brad Sellars
Education/where: University of Southern Africa (UNISA)
Title: Head of Content
Area of expertise: Site Content
Previous Role:  Project Management

What do you enjoy about your role?
We are trying to be an industry leader in every aspect of our company – from a content perspective we aim to provide our customers with the most comprehensive details about the products they are interested and create buyers guides to help their decision process.

Can you give us a brief overview of a typical day in your shoes?
We start off every day with a quick 15 minute stand up meeting to ensure the team is focused on the right priority and that we are all aware of what each other is working on – this allows team members the opportunity to discuss problems and share solutions with each other. We are growing so quickly that we have an endless stream of quality suppliers wanting to work with us so we prioritise our workload according to our focus for the current month and work towards achieving our targets – we add hundreds of products across all our sites every month

What challenges do you face within your role?
Every supplier has their own way of doing things and supplying information – our job is to provide information to our customers in a consistant fashion to make their experience on our sites as easy and rewarding as possible.

How has your experience been in the company so far?
I was here from the begining when it was just an idea and have therefore been able to see the amazing transformation; which is a successful business that is contributing to the British economy and employing more people in these years of struggle. It is extremely rewarding to see the work that we all put into Wedo and the results that we get out each month.

What is your favourite aspect about Wedo?
The constant striving to better everything about the company – we are very ambitious and know that we all have to pull together in order to achieve some difficult tasks. Often the teams get some pizza/sushi and work late into the night to ensure that we don’t fall behind.

Are there any particular contributions to the company which you are particularly proud of?
To date we have created over 70,000 combinations of products for sale across our sites – in order to do this effectively you need to constantly create and refine processes, checks and balances. Every time we identify a potential issue, we tackle it head on.

I am also quite proud of our hiring philosophy and company outlook that we have nurtured. We understand that the people that we hire are the future of Wedo and we spend a fair deal of time ensuring that we hire the most suitable people. Once they join us, we involve them in our culture from the first day. We hold company meetings every month where everyone is updated on all aspects of the company so that they know exactly where we stand and where we are doing well/need to improve.

What are your interests outside of wedo?
I’m an avid sportsman so I am usually outdoors playing or coaching various sports. Travelling and music festivals are also high on the list.

What would you say to anyone who is considering to apply for a position at Wedo? What can they expect?
Joining an ambitious start-up is not for everyone – you need to understand that it is not a cushy 9-5 job. We are creating an entire company from scratch and are identifying and tackling new challenges every single day. We need people who can think on their feet and adapt quickly.

Joining Wedo will give you experience that you would not get at many other companies as here you actually can see and quantify the work that you do every day…it is very rewarding.

“How many chances will you get in your lifetime to say that you helped create a successfull company? – Brad Sellars”

Full Name:  Mitchell Goldman
Education/where:  Bachelor in Film, Emerson College, Boston USA.
Title: Product Owner
Area of expertise: Magento, Software development and testing.
Previous Role: Project Manager at Session Digital, one of the top Magento agencies in Europe.

What do you enjoy about your role?
Challenging to do, but satisfying to see how the progress we make enables the company to succeed and grow.

Can you give us a brief overview of a typical day in your shoes?
Stand-up meeting with Tech team, address any blocking issues. Address any server or site issues that may be going on. Enforce the data-importing schedule and guidelines. Roadmap and Sprint planning to queue up the next features for development, prioritising and scoping them out. Reviewing and assigning andy new features and bugs that are reported. Developing new technical solutions to improve Revenue, Costs, or Stability.

What challenges do you face within your role?
Time-management. Speed of communication. Keeping everything organised and tracked.

How has your experience been in the company so far?
Excellent. Challenging. Glad I came on board.

What is your favourite aspect about Wedo?
How much I’m learning, not just about my job but from everyone else.  Getting the instant feedback from releasing new work, watching the revenue increase.

Are there any particular contributions to the company which you are particularly proud of?
The destruction of one of the exercise balls in a spectacularly loud and embarrassing way.

What are your interests outside of Wedo?
Playing with my son, learning guitar, learning to speak Spanish and eating Spanish food. Neil Stephenson books and John Carpenter movies.

What would you say to anyone who is considering to apply for a position at Wedo? What can they expect?
A role that will challenge them and push them to be their best, but also be very satisfying and fun.

There were fu-manchus, handle bars and even a Bollywood inspired tash which is normally only worn by the hero: the policeman.

The cause was greatly supported by our team and considering it was only our first effort, the Mo-team managed to raise £170. That’s not all though, we’re a fun bunch and with the help of our very own in house graphics designer we managed to make this Mo-timeline.

Also, Adam Pluta won the most prestigious prize (which is our much revered Giant Flap Jack from the corner shop) for sporting the best tash.

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/HCpK9_hDUzg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Welcome Adam, the new face of Wedo

Full Name: Alan Brooking
Education/where: Tywyn Grammar School, 7 GCSE’s and 2 A Levels.
Title: Operations Director
Area of expertise: Business Operations, Business Administration, Distribution, Warehousing and Logistics, Purchase and Supply.
Previous Role: Head Of Operations, SW Golf Ltd, Operations Director CSF Group.

What do you enjoy about your role?  
Seeing people grow in the company and taking on or carrying out important roles in the company. We are also small enough that everyone gets heard and can influence our growth and direction.

Can you give us a brief overview of a typical day in your shoes?
It can be anything from helping with a customer to working on key business plans. What I really like about working in the operations field is it’s a bit like an Italian traffic warden standing in the centre of the square with 6 streams of traffic coming at him, you have to be able to adapt and think on your feet , so that everything flows as smoothly as possible.

What challenges do you face within your role?
It is simply managing the growth and ensuring we have the people, processes, suppliers and systems to ensure we are as efficient as we possibly can be, whilst still making money.

How has your experience been in the company so far?
Very good, my decision to join was based on Gareth’s dream of creating a business that was inherently different, where we trust and empower staff, where we embrace technology for the right reasons and at the end of the day create a relaxed environment where creativity can blossom. Yes we have to do all the basics as well and I believe we are pretty much sticking to that dream.

What is your favourite aspect about Wedo?
The staff’s commitment, the location, the growth we have achieved, the acceptance we are getting in the market.

Are there any particular contributions to the company which you are particularly proud of?
I think that is for others to respond to.

What are your interests outside of Wedo?
I am Chairman of Harlow Rugby Club and Trustee of Jordan Trust. I love going on holidays with family and friends. I also enjoy Hiking.

What would you say to anyone who is considering to apply for a position at Wedo? What can they expect?
A challenging rewarding environment and one that will support career development. A Company that is just at the start of its journey and one that you can make a difference in.

Full Name: Jacob Gascoine-Becker
Education/where: Business Management, Brighton
Title: Ecommerce Director
Area of expertise: Marketing
Previous Role: Senior Ecommerce Manager

What do you enjoy about your role?
For me, the most enjoyable aspect of the day to day role is the variety involved. In a high growth company, the majority of employees fulfil more than one task and often what is required of a team or individual changes from week to week. This a great opportunity to learn new disciplines and contribute to a wider variety of projects than you would in a Blue Chip company for instance.

Can you give us a brief overview of a typical day in your shoes?
There isn’t really a typical day. I often find that my plans for the week go out of the window shortly after 9am on a Monday morning. My way of thinking about my role has changed over the past few months from a “what do I need to achieve?” mentality to focussing more on what the company needs to achieve and how I can help the teams we have at our disposal to best contribute to those goals.

What challenges do you face within your role?
I think the biggest challenges from my perspective will always be those that arise from factors in the microeconomic environment rather than internal issues. This can be anything from competitors playing nasty, to wholesale changes to the advertising landscape we drive traffic from. I have a lot of faith in the ability of our team to learn from our experience and mitigate against the growing pains we have faced recently. The more we grow, the bigger the need to look forward and react more quickly to threats and opportunities will become.

How has your experience been in the company so far?
In a word, fantastic. I think we have a hugely ambitious and talented team at our disposal and the ethos and values of our company have led to an enthusiasm I have not experienced in a working environment before. I can really see that we’re building something worthwhile and that the potential for us all to learn from this experience is huge.

What is your favourite aspect about wedo?
The green hat and the banter in equal measure.

Are there any particular contributions to the company which you are particularly proud of?
I think the most fulfilling projects I’ve contributed to are those where my prior experience has been limited. Two examples would be helping to set up our multimedia studio and contributing to investor relations. You can research and prepare as much as possible before committing to a decision but the reward of seeing a project return good results is a excellent feeling

What are your interests outside of wedo?
Hikaru Dorodango.

What would you say to anyone who is considering to apply for a position at wedo? What can they expect?
I would say that the people currently contributing to Wedo have as good an opportunity to learn and improve their skill set as anyone I have worked with in the past. We expect a lot from each other and drive and ambition are minimum requirements but we have some of the brightest people in the industry to learn from and a culture of fostering new ideas. It’s a pretty cool place to work.

Not sure on which sofa bed is best for you? Need more help deciding? The why not check out our blog to sofa beds by our very own in house sofa beds expert Zoe.

At a time where just a handful of sales meant so much to us, we decided that when we hit £1Million in life time revenue we would make it something special. What we didn’t anticipate though was how long it would take us to achieve that landmark. With skewed data it was hard to predict a particular month or week until it was only a few weeks away, things were then getting clearer and more interesting. With Brad, being our curator of all things cool, he was organising a secret celebration which no one knew of (and was in all honesty quite worried about considering the last outing was in a derelict building) but at the same time was excited about.

What it actually was, was a small office celebration with all kinds of food and cheese. With the raspberry cheddar proving quite popular with the crackers and alcohol being served everywhere, Boss man G. Knight (our beloved MFCEO) decided that he would create cocktails for everyone. With Gangnam Style in the background people were getting tipsy but more importantly we were getting to know each other better as the company grew to 30 people in a blink of an eye.

It was a great night to celebrate as people were connecting closer together, it showed a lot of us how important this achievement was and what the new starters can look forward to. It’s also worth mentioning how important it is to work even harder to achieve our greater goals but at same time stay connected together as a company to protect our culture which a few senior members worked so hard to create. Next up, £3million?

A little something to show how genetic disorders affect us:

“Genetic disorders affect 1 in 25 children born in the UK – that’s more than 30,000 babies born each year. Their associated health problems mean that genetic disorders are the biggest cause of death of children aged 14 and under.”

Wedo is a collection of niche ecommerce stores which aim to be the first destination for online shoppers buying in the various niches in which we operate in. We are an innovative and booming company which has experienced exponential growth over the last 12 months, making us one of London’s fast track companies.

Wedo consists of people from all corners of the earth creating a truly diverse culture. Sharing a common goal and working towards one objective is something that we are extremely proud of. In addition to this, our values are what guide us to be who we are and we strive to reflect our personality in the way we present ourselves, allowing us to continue to build great relationships with customers and suppliers alike.

With our blog we aim to share our experiences and expertise with you so that you can be involved with us in our journey to success. Welcome to Wedo!

Experience and Desire

Nothing beats experience, although desire goes a long way to challenging it! If you are just starting out in a new field, do whatever you can to gain experience – just get on the ladder and work hard to climb it. If you are interested in a particular type of job then there is no reason to wait until you have got it before you start learning about how to do it. Get some books on the subject, subscribe to rss feeds. You will be a lot more employable if you already have an understanding of the role in the interview.

Attitude and Aptitude

An employer can teach you nearly everything required to do your job but they can’t teach you attitude and aptitude. You need to work these things out for yourself. These are single-handedly the most important characteristics Wedo looks for when hiring.

Be yourself, not everyone else

We are all different, why then do we insist on all appearing the same when submitting a job application. Wedo actively encourages creative thinking. We are a growing organisation and encounter new challenges everyday, if you want to work with us then you will need to think differently in order to keep us ahead of the pack.

Be the right person for the job

You could send out your standard CV to a hundred vacancies or you could configure your CV to be the right one for just a few jobs that you really want. We seldom look at applications that have blatantly just been received from a ‘shotgun approach‘. If you have experience then we don’t need to see that you were a waiter 6 years ago. Conversely, if you have very little experience then focus on telling us why you are the best person for the job. Don’t over inflate a CV, get to the point

It’s the small things

There is little more disheartening then reading a covering letter or CV where no attention has been put into the little touches. If you do not put in the effort to sell yourself to the world, what effort are you going to put into your job? Pay attention to your spelling and grammar!

Follow instructions

We provide very specific instructions on how to apply in our job adverts. Why? 80% of applicants do not take the time to read the full job application and this is a simple way of weeding out the chancers straight away. We ignore all applications where the steps have not been followed. The mere fact that you are taking the time to read this page means that you are probably in the top 20% whose application will be read.

Preparation

Take time to research the company. Even if they don’t have much information out there about them, the fact that you can say that in an interview means that you tried.
Understand, as much as possible, what the job requires and know why you want the job. It is important to have an opinion, it is a strong indicator that you are thinking about a situation.

Some interesting ways to stand out (until everyone starts doing them – it’s all about innovation)

Interesting CV methods:

• http://cvgram.me/

Video CV’s:

• http://www.meettherealme.co.uk/
• http://www.facetheboss.com/

Create a blog or your own website:

• http://wordpress.org/

These are just a few of our thoughts on the recruitment process, we can’t give it all away or we will never see anything new!

Wedo look forward to hearing from you