What is Tech with Purpose all about? And what are we so excited about winning?!
Big Lemon have been recognised as a top mission-led organisation to work in the Escape the City Top 100, awarding those who care about their people and the planet.
The annual awards focus on judging 6 key areas; innovation, impact, mission, environmental concern, B Corp and most importantly, employee engagement.
In the words of Escape the City:
'Big Lemon are kindred spirits of Escape the City...a leader in the movement to use tech for good and with purpose...a frontrunner in the People metric of the Escape 100.'
But why is this so important to us? What exactly do we mean by Tech with Purpose?
Back in January 2020 we first dabbled with the idea of Tech with Purpose. We had a bunch of team chats asking ourselves; what do we want to do work wise, who do we want to work with, what do we want to be known for, what is our legacy and wider impact? We all agreed so strongly about putting ethos, values, and people at the core of everything we do, and so our Tech with Purpose journey began.
Whizz along to February 2021, barely a year of focusing on this new direction and we have been recognised by fantastic do-good folks like Escape the City. Not only this, we have partnered and collaborated on so many wonderful projects, all aligning with our Tech with Purpose mission.
Tech with Purpose to us means, tech that’s good for the soul.
12 months ago was the first time we referred to ourselves as a Tech With Purpose focused company, and what a heartwarming journey it has been in a short amount of time. The vast range of sectors, including edtech/healthtech/social care/sustainable energy/collaborative research and development, green travel, the styles of working, such as co-producing, and the unique projects has grown quicker than we had anticipated.
Designing and making things which align to who we are as people and our values too. Using our abilities to make things that leave the world in a better place.
Trying our best to be better to one another, inside and outside Big Lemon, and also the planet. Being the change we want to see.
Making tech and digital accessible to everyone, not leaving anyone behind, inspiring others by what we create, how we work and who we are too, sharing the possibilities that are achievable.
We place ourselves as an extension of our clients' organisations, rather than a subcontractor, we're on the team, not just the guys building 'that thing', we don’t want to build something and disappear, long lasting relationships are important to us, collaborating, partnering, taking on challenges together.
Things that make you feel all warm inside when you see people using it. Having a positive outcome on the users who end up using the stuff we build. Placing values before profit.
The products we build and who we are is one big mesh of empathy. The products we build can change lives and the people that build them are changing lives. This feeds our mission and allows us to bring people into our little family to keep growing and helping more people.
This is a pretty good north star.
We have a heap of impactuful projects in the 'works' section of our website and some cool projects that are in the works at the moment too:
Opus/Iungo: We have partnered with iungo Solutions and built OPUS, a native app with a mission to change the future of work by preparing people for new careers through unlocking their transferable skills. It has more than one thousand career profiles across seven sectors to help identify the qualifications and professional registration within a chosen career path. Data heaven!
Exhibit C: Partnering with Miller Research and the One Planet Centre to co-create, research & develop a carbon data tracking tool for community groups to directly benefit and sustain themselves from their savings. Funded by SBRI Centre of Excellence, in collaboration with Welsh Government and Cardiff Capital Region. The inspiring Andy Middleton introduced us to Miller Research and the natural alignment and energy was immediately apparent, we know this is the start of a long lasting partnership.
FABRIC: A powerhouse in the social care sector. It was nearly two years ago when we first talked about working together, finally we have been able to make it happen. We are co-designing and building a platform that streamlines the operational processes at FABRIC. The relationship goes beyond a generic build, Big Lemon never approaches projects by halves, we are strategizing and concocting plans for the wider impact and change this bespoke product could achieve. We are at the very start of this journey but it’s already showing signs of being a mover and a shaker in the social care sector.
Zest: Our in-house creation. We love to geek out about inspirational products, people, tools, to share our learnings and play around with the latest gizmos. As a company we allow time to explore and grow. Zest is a Big Lemon passion project that we are bringing to life. We’re all keen to create something that will make a difference to the work of devs and the people they work with, each and every day, delivering an epic experience, so we are building a beautifully-realised MongoDB app for MacOS. We are working on the Beta version at the moment, stay tuned for further developments.
We want to continue to collaborate with organisations to deliver Tech With Purpose, embrace impactful and meaningful projects, to grow our Tech With Purpose community, partnering with clients that align with our values and ethos, and also a broader community surrounding this, to be the change, move away from working in silos and collaborate on a deeper level.
