Founded in 2015 by combining his skills in video production and his life expertise is helping vulnerable people overcome barriers to their independence, William Britton aims to make a huge impact on the industry so close to his heart.“We’re an EdTech provider that supports vulnerable people across Education and Social Care. We’ve supported people from 12 years old all the way up to those in their early 70s. We focus our support on vulnerable people such as those with learning disabilities, mental health needs and care leavers across Education and Social Care. We help support them with developing and maintaining a wide variety of independent living skills such as preparing and cooking food, cleaning the house or employability skills.
AutonoMe works closely with Local Governments, Education and Social Care providers across the country and their key partners to compliment the way they support vulnerable residents and students to improve out-comes.
What makes AutonoMe special is that support with activities is not delivered in the traditional method; that is, by a person. Instead, Auto-noMe provides high-quality tailored video guidance delivered through the App with home and work-based activities as and when the user chooses. This enables Education, Local Governments and Social Care providers to combine traditional teaching and support methods with technology to cost effectively develop and maintain independence in a modern way that understands and meets the needs of their population.
“By monitoring the way our users interact with our App, our team is able to study this data and provide continuous feedback to the client and their key partners”.
Since founding AutonoMe, William Britton has brought together a team of industry experts to continuously study and interpret user data in line with individual outcomes. The team provides reports, using real-time data as evidence, to help the authority ensure users are getting the right levels of support at the right time.
“Our vision is to become the EdTech provider for vulnerable people in the country, helping thousands of people with various challenges each day overcome barriers to independence. Using our data to measure and cele-brate their success whilst working closely with the Social Care, Healthcare and Education sector to build data-driven services fit for the 21st century”.
Before I put my stuff in the washing machine, I use the App for dusting, hoovering, and changing my bedding”. – AutonoMe Service User
Bristol has an excellent ecosystem to start a tech company that AutonoMe has clearly benefited from. Through this ecosystem, AutonoMe had access to workshops, meeting space, investors, thought leaders, experts, legal advice, marketing, board members, mentors, staff members, and much more. Bristol has a thriving tech scene keen to share openly and honestly what it takes to found a company and scale it up and the support you’ll need along the way.
“The opportunities I had to meet and network with other tech founders with big ambitions was pivotal to building the foundations of the com-pany. Being able to gather expertise and insight from a variety of people who have been there and done it was incredibly beneficial not just to the company but for my personal journey as a founder-turned-CEO”.
We strive to make the girls as independent as possible. One is very capable in the kitchen, and the App really developed her skills. We’ve taken a massive step backward in our involvement since using AutonoMe”.– Support Worker helping an AutonoMe user
Reflecting on the advice and skills needed to build a company, William ex-plained that “communication is key – if you can’t communicate your ideas in a way people can digest or understand then you don’t have a business. You’ll need to communicate with your clients, staff, suppliers, investors, mentors, and board all the time. Spend time working on this skill and it will pay dividends”.
“I founded AutonoMe when I was in my late 20s with lots of naive opti-mism. I didn’t realise at the time I would be poor for a long time – accept-ing that is wise! I do question myself a lot but I’ve always been able to re-main clear about who I am, what I stand for, and what I want to achieve. This has helped me get a great team of people around me who can really see and add value to the vision. We’re successful because we have a great team and everyone works really hard. For others looking to start their own company, I’d say get in good people who can see what you’re trying to build and make sure they share your vision”.
Milestones
Highlight any awards won
- Raised over £900,000 equity investment
- Delivery partners for NHS Digital and Local Government Social Care Digital Innovation Accelerator 2020/21
- Cambridge Social Ventures Prizewinner 2019
- Digital Leaders ‘Public Innovation’ finalists 2019
- UnLTD Grow IT award 2016
- IoTUK Health and Social Care ‘best user design’ Prizewinner 2016 Start-up of the Year 2015 finalist
