Sam Taylor - Enterprise Ambassador

Starting a successful business through Spark

Sam and his colleague Matt Wheeler co-founded madeby.studio during their final year of undergraduate study at the University of Leeds. “Matt and I were both studying Graphic and Communication Design, so we had plenty of overlapping skills, but also different strengths,” Sam says. “We came up with the idea of our business from the success of a live project we were set during our degree. With the support of the Spark programme, we set up madeby.studio, a climate-conscious digital agency helping organisations scale with commercially valuable, low-carbon websites. We’ve been taking the business from strength to strength ever since.

“I’d benefitted from the support of Enterprise Ambassadors as a student,” Sam explains. “After graduating, I kept working from the Spark student incubator at the university’s Nexus innovation hub before moving into our madeby.studio office during the pandemic. I stayed in close contact with the Spark team, and met Dr Richard Tunstall at various Spark-led events. We spoke about the value of the ambassador network for students, and I put myself forward for the Enterprise Ambassador role.”

Bringing personal experience to a mentorship role

As a relatively recent University of Leeds graduate, Sam felt he could offer the current students a fresh perspective on what it’s like to launch a successful business. “Many of the other Enterprise Ambassadors had been in business a long time,” he says. “While that is, of course, incredibly valuable, I felt some students would also benefit from the guidance of someone they could closely relate to, who’d recently been through the Spark programme themselves and had a good understanding of university ecosystems today.

“I also wanted to support the students with the brand strategy and marketing side of business development,” adds Sam. “I know a lot of students want to get into digital roles, so I wanted to show them how I’d used my design and marketing education to create and run a digital agency.”

Gaining crucial perspectives for business growth

“There are so many ways to provide support as an Enterprise Ambassador,” says Sam. “But one thing that really stands out is the ‘speed networking’. These are drop-in sessions, where students can come and ask me about my experience launching a business while at university. I’ve really enjoyed helping them navigate the fantastic support networks the University of Leeds has to offer, and increasing their confidence to take the plunge into launching their own businesses, too.”

Sam is also keen to stress the benefits of the Enterprise Ambassador programme for business owners themselves: “Times change so fast, especially in the digital world. Even though we’re fairly recent graduates, we still have a lot to learn about what matters to students today. And it’s really beneficial to understand what makes them tick. For example, we asked students how they would have solved a problem we faced at madeby.studio in a live project we offered, and got some brilliant answers and suggestions. Not only did this give the students a real business challenge to work on, but it was also a great learning opportunity for us as a business.”

Paying it back to the students of today

“I’d 100% recommend business owners take part in the Enterprise Ambassador programme,” Sam says. “Having gone through the university enterprise experience myself, I understand how beneficial this external support is for students. I felt like I had a duty to help those coming after me, passing on the knowledge and advice I’d received and sharing what I’d learnt post-graduation.

“From a business perspective, the ambassador network is a fantastic resource where everyone is keen to help each other,” concludes Sam. “Not only that, but it seems to attract lovely people – some who’ve become friends I’ll grab a beer with, too. It’s a brilliant, supportive group, and I’ve gained so much from being part of the university in this way.”