Meet Bhavna Malkani: Co-Founder of She’s Got Skills/Meebox & Inclusive Innovator at UCL’s East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone

Bhavna's work as an entrepreneur and co-founder has led her to the emerging area of Inclusive Innovation. A creative entrepreneur and consultant, she is currently running two businesses: She's Got Skills, a platform dedicated to women in football, by organising events for employees at corporate, tech and lifestyle organisations, and MeeBox, a creative beauty box dedicated to nails.

Bhavna has had a varied and atypical career path -one of the reasons we enjoyed speaking to her so much about the benefits of career exploration! She has experience in delivering large scale projects programmes, events and communication strategies with a variety of organisations such as The Old Vic Theatre, King's College London, LSE and the Natural History Museum. She is currently working on an exciting project at Here East for University College London (UCL): the East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone, developing a programme around inclusive innovation. She explains just what that means in this short clip, and you can read on for our full interview in-depth.

Xperienceships: Bhavna, thanks again for joining us. I wonder if you could tell us a bit about your first job and the journey you've had, from then to what you do today.

Bhavna: I think it's quite interesting in terms of a definition of a first job. There's your first ever job when you're that 15-16-17 kind of age. And then I think there's your first job out of uni, if you are doing the traditional university route. So my first job when I was at sixth form, was actually at a sports shop: JJB Sports. I was about 16. I threw myself into the middle of Oxford Street in London, wanting to be in the city rather than staying local. Because in my mind, I was like, hold on a minute, you could get a couple more quid per hour, I think it was like ￡5 an hour or something. Whereas locally, it was like three quid. Plus, I really enjoyed the fact of meeting people from different locations. So it wasn't just meeting people in your area in London. 

Just after leaving uni, I did a Master's. At the time, I wanted a temp job that was just for a couple of months just to pay my bills, and just kind of see how things were going. I did an MA in Media specializing in documentary filmmaking in Southampton. I moved back to London, and I just thought, okay, let me get a temporary job, so I can work the whole Film Festival route and see what freelance gigs I can get as a filmmaker. I was doing music journalism, at the time, as a side thing, because it wasn't paying the bills.

So I thought, right, I'll just get a temp job, and it happened to be at the Natural History Museum. And I remember when I got it, I was like, how is that connected? What am I doing, I was doing creative stuff, music industry stuff. At the museum what am I going to do with dinosaurs and all that sort of stuff?

You know, as I got there, remember, my first day I was doing a lot of data entry. And I remember coming home, I lived with my parents at the time. And I said to my mum, this isn't what I signed up for. I did my bachelor's and my master's. And I'm sitting on a computer just entering data. And my mum said, look, you’ve got to start somewhere. That's where you start. And then you build your way up. That's just life. And you know, I remember being quite young and frustrated: “I can do more, they don't know who I am”. But of course, you know, when when you get there, you realize everybody else is pretty much doing the same thing. You start from the bottom and then work your way up. 

As I got into working at the Museum, I was very, very fortunate. I was around a great team that allowed me to grow. And they recognized that I had a passion for content generation. At the time, social media wasn't called social media. It was just its early beginnings. The energy there was, people were supporting one another, whether that was wanting them to excel at the museum, or doing things outside work. My manager at the time, Emily was motivating me. “Okay, so you like filmmaking you like content generating, like let's get you to manage the marketing materials a bit more.” I was able to kind of breathe new ideas, and I think the lesson I learnt there was, no matter what your role is, see what you can get in terms of maximizing that opportunity.

Looking back at it now, now that I'm older, I can appreciate what the Natural History Museum is about, and what it stands for. And I was very fortunate that actually, I worked with David Attenborough. So to say that that's on my CV, you know, at the age of 24!

I was very fortunate because my managers were doing their best to keep me on financially. So they would move pots of money around in terms of budget. They saw that the content generating work I was doing for them at the time was helping them, because nobody really thought about it. I was helping them get into social media in a way because, you know, I was living and breathing it with my filmmaking work and my music industry work. So I could see that there was this connection with the way that corporates could use it.

In the campaign that I was working on in the David Attenborough studio at the museum,  I helped them in terms of putting brochures together, filming their videos. I got really excited because I was able to interview top scientists and look at collections at the museum - and nobody had access to it because it was hidden away from the public. I was able to fulfill my passion for content generating and creating something from nothing. So I think it's really important to have that supporting environment.

X: Wow, that’s a great start! So what's a typical day of work like for you at the moment? 

B: Obviously I’ve now had several roles but I think what's been consistent with all of those roles is either generating content myself, or managing content and seeing how it can work within a strategy. In terms of my day to day now, I’m working on a project with UCL, it's on entrepreneurship and inclusive innovation, and I’m really fortunate to be working out in the Olympic Park. 

My day stays really varied, actually: it's more about the day of the week, and how I structure my day. Monday is very much meetings-free so I can clear the day, not speak to anyone and get down to my actions and what I'm meant to be doing. The other days will be a mixture of working with startups.

What we do is we mentor and develop startups; I have a focus around looking at accessible solutions for the disabled community, or working with startups that have a disabled founder, because quite often they don't have the opportunities. It’s a mixture of looking at new startups that can join the program, developing an accelerator program that fits our accessibility mission, and then also curating various parts of the program. We've got so many partners within it. I'm really fortunate and lucky once again, using that. Networking is the key thing here. We work with Barclays, the London College of Fashion, the Olympic park itself. And so you know, on a day to day basis, I'm managing and monitoring all of those partnerships and curating a program for the startups. 

I'm also a co founder of two businesses, too. I'm quite lucky, I can be quite flexible in my day in terms of if something comes my way that's urgent with one of my businesses, I can attend to that say in the morning, and then move to my other work in the afternoon. I'm more about ensuring that you meet deadlines, rather than having to clock in at nine and finish at five.

I believe most people are managing different multiple projects. And I think that is a skill set that we need to enhance and develop with people that are coming into business. Because as much as it's great to run startups, you don't always get that initial funding straightaway. It is difficult, you've got to prove yourself. And we all know we've got to pay our bills in the meantime. So there is that element of juggling, whether it's a part time job or freelancing, and that I think is important to kind of stress. 

X: What you've said is echoing what some other guests in the series talk about, which is about the career portfolio, or the career chapters or different projects. We’ve been told: look at what's coming next, line up your contracts to make sure that you've got sort of some financial stability, but this can be incredibly enriching, because you're using different skill sets in each of those projects. And you're able to make your networks even larger as well.

B: Yeah, absolutely. I think the important thing is not taking too much on. With businesses, I always say to them, it's okay to start off small, it's okay to build up because there are times and experiences where we've we've tried to go too big on whatever project - you actually don't need to. I think it's learning how to be the best that you can, in anything that you do, whether that is that first data entry job, or running your own startup or whatever it is, always put your best foot forward. And if you say you're going to deliver something at a certain time, do your best to get to that deadline. And if for whatever reason, you can't make it, just be open about it. Because that will help you network and build whatever it is you're trying to build. 

X: So let's hear about some of the projects within the inclusive innovation work that you're doing. 

B: I’ll start with She's Got Skills. It's exactly a year old, actually, you picked a great day to do this interview! We graduated on the 21st of September 2019, and the way that that project came about was, last year, I spent quite a lot of time wanting to take a step back, not knowing that we're going to be locked down obviously! (Laughs).

I took a step back from working a nine to five, thinking: where do I spend my time? What is my passion? I was very hungry to develop something new. I was working in consulting on various projects at the time but I really wanted that headspace to develop something. 

A project came my way through a friend of mine: she wanted me to consult, pro bono first and then we’d get sponsorship to pay me. It was a football project. And football is one of my biggest passions. She wanted me to look at how she could scale up a program, which was about teaching English as a second language to young asylum seekers, particularly boys. I thought that was an amazing project, she didn't know much about football, and she wanted me to help her breathe in ideas of marketing and strategy as well as the football side. I brought in a friend of mine, Rob, who is a qualified football coach, and I was working on the business strategy side. That project fizzled out for various reasons. But Rob and myself were very close friends. And we're both so hungry: we were like, “we really want to do something because we put all these ideas into this project.” Now, we weren't going to pick up that project because it was somebody else's. And at that point, I realized: I spend a lot of my time talking about football, spend a lot of my time going to games, I have to do something in the football industry in the community.

I had this desire about female players, because there's quite often more of those platforms for men sport, generally. I'm so inspired by the Women's World Cup, and I spoke to various contacts that work in corporates, and soon developed this idea that was about doing tournaments for women that work in various corporates that want to play. I thought, wouldn't it be really cool if it was like a rival team playing each other, so Adidas versus Nike or Facebook versus Snapchat, you know, that healthy competition is just naturally there! That's how She's Got Skills was born.

We then started to curate what some of those ideas would be like to really give and build a women's football collective in terms of tournaments, developing leagues, setting up an 11-a-side, curating talks to do with women's health, nutrition, and so on, and just utilizing our contacts with the different companies that we work with. So we launched She's Got Skills with four companies, last September. Those companies were Facebook, Universal Music, Amazon, and Mixcloud. We set the bar quite high with ourselves.

We then got interest from certain football foundations to match up the work that they do in primary and secondary schools, to potentially start a role modeling and mentoring program. But we've had to just pause because of covid reasons it would be more about going into the workplace and exploring. We’re very much exploring different avenues; we're very hungry to get involved to see how they could bring that magic of football into various aspects. 

X: Did you have any idea when you were growing up playing and watching football, but it might creep into your professional life? 

B: No! I was “playing” quite loosely because I had an older brother. And he always wanted a younger brother and treated me like the younger brother. So I was always playing cricket and football in the garden, but never did it professionally or anything like that. But yeah, you know, I've watched it a lot like growing up and actively involved in terms of going to the games. And yeah, I never really thought about setting something up. 

Being that focused around football, this wouldn't have happened five years ago. I don't think the world was ready to have a women's football collective, companies could have possibly turned it down. I don't know. But I think the Women's World Cup was a massive catalyst in terms of inspiring everyone. What I found quite endearing about that moment, I was on the bus, and eavesdropping as you do sometimes. There was this kid on the bus, he must have been about 16. And he was talking to his mate on the phone about women's football, and it was just really great to hear that he was actively breaking down that game, just as he would with a man's game, whereas previously, I doubt that would have happened, right? 

I'm seeing it grow and grow, with clubs here and in Europe, and people getting more involved and aware of what's going on in women's football. Yeah, so it's the right place at the right time, as well as being open to all of the possibilities and all the networks that you had that you've built. 

X: So it sounds like you have innovated in terms of your own career. What I'm hearing is that you found the right mix for you depending on multiple factors, some of which are having your finger on the pulse in terms of what's going on in the outside world, but also knowing your skill set, knowing what your preferences were, and being self aware enough to say I want to take time out to be intentional about my work. So how did you decide on the right mix? What were the factors that were important to you? 

B: It's quite interesting, because going back to your question before about whether I imagined setting up She's Got Skills when I was growing up,I think one can never plan. That's what I've learned in this process. You know, when you finish uni, after that there's a period of going well, I've got to get this to this point, this this point, and then you set these goals. And then you get to a certain age and you're like, life doesn't pan out that way, whether that's with careers or personally as well. And I think it's allowing yourself to go with the flow in that in that way and follow where the energy is at the time. And not being scared to try something new. Because the idea of She's Got Skills was a lightbulb moment: like, “Oh, this feels right. Yes, let's do it.”

My first business, MeeBox - completely different to the football world - is a subscription box dedicated to nails. And once again, that was another lightbulb moment, I set that up with two of my best friends. The way that that came about was, we were on Facebook commenting on one of my best friends, Natalie, on how much red nail polish she has, how she needed to kind of diversify her color collection. And then we realized it was a gap in the market. And then we thought, “oh, should we do this?” We took that conversation offline, set up a whatsapp group called Who Run The World, and that was just a light bulb moment that felt right at the time. But prior to 2015, which is when that company was set up, would subscription boxes have worked in 2010? Probably not because the technology wasn't there, the need wasn't there.

I think it is about going with that idea that you do have, but making sure you've got something to support it. But everything is always timing. And I think you just have to go with what feels right at the time. Everyone has a million ideas. You're like, oh, wouldn't this be a great business? And would that be great business? And then they just get left behind. But I think when it's the right one, you know, and it's the right one, just go for it. It's important to talk to your peers, just to get a sense of, not if you go in the right way, but if there's that appetite for it, right? 

For She's Got skills we knew a few people at Facebook. We were able to test out and say, would something like this work? And they said, Well, yeah, because we've got female players, but they don't want to play in a mixed team: they wanted like a women's team, but it wasn’t really there. Then we came and set that up for them. So I say don't be afraid to try something new. But equally, it was good to kind of sense check a few things with people that you trust. 

X: Yes, that's great advice. So I'm going to ask if you have any advice for educators now, because they're teaching tomorrow's workforce. What do they need to know in your opinion, as they send students out into the world? 

B: I think they need to consider growth and creative growth. I actually was doing an evaluation and consultation on the UCL project that I mentioned earlier in this interview, the East London Inclusive Enterprise Zone. I had an external consultant ask me how it was going and what they could take from its learnings in terms of setting up other enterprise zones around the country. I would use the same answer here, which is: let that person be creative, because you don't really know what ideas could come around from events like Coronavirus.

 There are some programs where you get funding that are very strict in terms of criteria. To do this, you have to do that. And yes, there are certain things you do have to do. But in terms of me developing that program with UCL, I was able to be very creative and think outside the box as an entrepreneur. So then other entrepreneurs can come and learn from my experiences in terms of setting up an accelerated program. 

If you're an educator and you're helping people to be on their way, yes, there is guidance needed. But also, there might be things that you've not thought about, or it might be a generational thing where someone thinks of it differently, just because we do change and adapt according to different generations. So I think it is more about allowing that creative process to happen and not being so fixed. 

As we're learning now, people think in so many different ways. And I think it's allowing that there is no one rule for one. So for anyone who thinks they want to be an entrepreneur, that they want to work in that way: you build your career doing a variety of different things. And let's talk about taking the less traveled route, maybe the career route. How can people get started into exploring what they like, and also trying things out? So they get to know a bit about themselves? 

I appreciate we're living in quite a crazy economy right now. But if you can, just look at what funding opportunities are out there. Think creatively and try and be around people that encourage you to do it. Having that support network, and throwing yourself into physical events or even online events: some might be great, some might be really crap, but at least throw yourself out there. And even if you don't have an idea, it will help you think about different ideas, the more types of events and and even reading as well in terms of like okay, how can I get myself switched on. I also think an important part of that is looking after yourself mentally and physically. I think that really clears things in terms of having that balance and that structure. So I would just advise being around that, that positive, creative energy does quite a lot. And just making sure that you're constantly learning and always working towards your goal. 

If you don't know what it is yet, maybe go into more creative development type of workshops and stuff, there are a lot of free tools and things out there. It's just about finding the right ones for you. And the ones that speak your language, because it might be you go somewhere and you're like, yeah, this is really my scene. 

And if you do have an idea, then great, you take on that advice of what are you doing every day to make sure that you're supporting that goal? Either that's learning to make it stronger, or building it in some way, shape, or form. And just setting yourself those key timelines.

And my hope, as well, is about accessibility. Ensuring that whatever industry we're talking about now: we touched on various industries, the cultural sector, education, entrepreneurship, sports and beauty, it's about ensuring that whatever we're doing is accessible. And when I say the word accessibility, it goes beyond ensuring that something is in a larger font or something like that. 

It’s also about the voices that are writing articles or sharing and running workshops and things like that, in terms of knowledge exchange. It's about having a diverse group of entrepreneurs or facilitators, or journalists or writers: it's important to be aware that people have different backgrounds, and also different ways and challenges in terms of the world at the moment that we're living in, isn't fit for certain groups of people. And by that it might be the disabled community, it could be people from a black or ethnic minority community. The way that the future is going thanks to things like platforms, blogs and social media, there are more diverses voices coming in to say, actually, hold on, this isn't right. And we need to change the narrative and change the script.

My project with UCL is starting work around how to make workplaces more inclusive. So that we can spread and share to other companies, and they can ensure that more people are being part of the workforce. So that's what I hope the future of work will be. I'm hoping the voices and the research will continue to change, and flip the script ?