We’re looking forward to meeting Richard at tonight’s EdTech dinner and finding out more about his venture 3Fifteen, an innovative app that helps schools and parents communicate who is collecting a child at the end of the school day.

What’s the elevator pitch for your startup?
We are a secure way for parents that either won’t speak or can’t speak English, to communicate to their child’s school, any change to little ‘Jonnys” after-school collection plans today.

What were you doing before you launched your startup?
I was a communications consultant working with clients on improving their customer engagements via their contact centre.

If you have co-founders, where did you meet them?
No, its just me. That said I had a lot of support from family and friends that gave their input and thoughts.

What’s your biggest ‘hindsight’ moment?
Employing people to sell my solutions before I had built up a large client base myself and learnt what works and what doesn’t firsthand and beforehand.

What will 2014 bring?
Hopefully investment, but the year is running out.

1 piece of advice for someone starting a business in the the sector
Don’t be afraid to pick the phone up to other people that have already done what you’re about to do (I don’t mean direct competitors) and ask those questions that you would love to know the answer to. There are a lot of people that are happy to share advice on what they have learnt on their journey and happy to give people a bit of a steer. Some might say “no, go away” but many will take your call and give you 5 minutes of their time.

Convince someone to use your product/service in under 50 words.
Who is picking up your child after-school today ? Whats to stop someone calling the school and pretending to be you and change your child’s collection arrangements. What if a parent doesn’t speak English, how do they communicate with a school, or if the school phone is engaged, what then ?

How would you describe TableCrowd to someone who’s never heard of it?
TableCrowd appears to be a relaxed way to meet like minded people from my industry, that will allow me to share my thoughts, ideas and challenges, and who knows what ‘golden nugget’ piece of advice I might walk away with.

Thanks Richard, it’s been great catching up with you and finding out more about 3Fifteen! Wishing you the best of luck with it all and see you tonight.

To have a look at our upcoming tables, click here.