Arfah Farooq, tell us all the 'Discoverables' we need to know
by Startacus Admin
Arfah Farooq is 22 years old and co-founder and relationships director of Discoverables; a gameful platform that enables young people to identify, develop and showcase the key strengths and skills needed to succeed in work and in life…
"In my final year of university where I was doing a degree in Media and Communication at Goldsmiths I 
wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to go. I stumbled across this opportunity to join the pilot programme for an online coaching and careers programme run by youth aspirations charity Spark+Mettle.
We learned a lot about flourishing in life, soft skills and careers through group discussions on Google Hangouts. Taking what I learned from this program and my experiences of CVs being so frustrating, led to us pitching and winning £50k funding to help solve youth unemployment in innovative ways. I simply lent my brain as a young person but came out on the other side as co-founder.
It was a nice little project that somehow spun out to become it’s own social enterprise and I was given a lot of responsibility from day one. Our platform launched back at the end of January but then also the biggest struggles were felt then as well. We had just launched an amazing platform but we had £0 in the bank and we wanted as many young people to benefit from it.
I was tasked to use my social media skills to get users on our site and now we currently have nearly 750 users. From January to September we had no money at all and while I was unemployed I was always meeting potential investors to partners. I then started a very boring day job as an admin assistant for a government work programme and I really struggled with trying to run a startup on the side.
Any holidays off from work were always to go work on something Discoverables related. We recently securedinvestment and got accepted onto Wayra Unltd which is 02s Social tech accelerator near Goodge Street, that is when I got to quit my job and completely go full time on it.
When I went full time on it in September the first thing we had to do was give me a job title! My official title is 
“Relationships director.” My job involves managing all the different stakeholders from young people to employers to schools and youth organisation. Every day is different for me; I work on everything from marketing to helping to develop the product.
My most favourite bit is when I get to speak about Discoverables at events. The least favourite bit is due to running a start-up, you sometimes have a lot of admin to do like setting up a bank account. Those things really get In the way of the fun stuff but are so critical to a business.
I didn’t go out my way to choose this path but it chose me. All my life I use to help friends with careers and was involved in many youth projects. Education, technology and empowering young people are the things that excite me. I didn’t develop the platform but contributed a lot of the ideas to it.
There seems to be a huge misconception that to be in the tech world you need to either be a geek or know how to code. I definitely don’t know how to code but I’ve learned so much about UX and product development. I aim to learn to code one day and if you know how to then it gives you the extra edge above the rest but there are so many non technical roles in the tech world and it’s all about discovering what your strengths are which you can do through Discoverables.
Skills like mettle, positive relationships and collaboration are the skills that employers are looking for so don’t tell them you have those skills show them. They are after hungry self-starting young people so it des not matter if you went to uni or not, if have a certain kind of attitude you can work in this very exciting sector.
My last piece of advice would be is if you have a number of different ideas, try everything and see what sticks and gets attention the most. Work on things alongside your day job, it’s hard work but when the moment is right for you to take that jump or to make that career change you will know."
Looking for more young entrepreneur type stories? Check out:
Story of a Graduate Entrepreneur - Hannah Catmur and From idea to largest music website in the UK - Simon Robinson
If you like what you see here on Startacus, why not become a member of our growing community? It's free! And you'll get all this - exclusive access to our Business Toolkit, discounts and offers galore for your business via our member only business deals, the chance to network and connect with loads of fellow self-starters, and maybe even become our celebrated 'Self-Starter of the Week' and tell the world your startup tale! Join right here for free
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Take advantage of today’s digitised world! Here are 4 reasons digital marketing could work for you and your business.
Research shows that the majority of staff prefer benefits to high monetary compensation. Here are some ideas on how to increase talent retention...
Innovative project launched by UK Proptech startup to reduce workers' commuting and in turn help alleviate pollution and congestion
Startup funding is never easy, however here are a few of the options that can help you fund your startup without going broke in the process
The future and success of Britain’s high streets has been long debated. So, what are the tech trends that could help impact the Highstreet in 2020?
Innovative startups are currently being sought by BMW Group Financial Services UK which has just launched the third instalment of its Innovation Lab
Starting a business can be a lot of hard work, so here's a few ways to avoid burnout and find a healthy work life balance.
The child health app on a mission to become the first nationwide digital redbook, just got a step closer to making their mission a reality...
The Cambridge-based startup that has created an empowering tool to drive the next wave of biological innovation
The fintech startup that's making it a doddle for the self-employed, freelancers and contractors to organise their pensions
Published on: 17th December 2013
.png)
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Ideation NI Thon at NI Science Festival sets out to solve global issues 17th Jan 2020 At one-day event Ideation NI Thon, students will get the chance to solve global and local sustainability, environmental, city and health problems.
- NI startup ESTHER takes flight to New York 16th Jan 2020 NI startup ESTHER, a peer-2-peer giving platform allowing charitable donors to give money directly to people living in poverty, head to New York for a 4-day fact finding mission.
- 2019 stats show that the gender pay gap continues 14th Jan 2020 Recent research by Starling bank shows that in 2019, women earned up to £12,319 less per year than their male colleagues of the same age and within the same industry
- Digital DNA Awards 2020 nominations now open 13th Jan 2020 The Digital DNA Awards, held in partnership with MCS Group, celebrate the best tech talent, from companies of all sizes, excelling in the world of Digital and Tech and not just in NI...
