Dominic Bird and Jamie Griffiths attended a London university studying Marketing & Advertising. Dominic and Jamie make up a third of the Young Enterprise student company ‘Wet Fish’ – a company established in their second year of university as part of our Start Up Programme.
“We have gained [real world experience] before graduating rather than being a graduate with no real world experience. Our lecturers have told us that our CVs will stand out from everyone else’s because we’ve got such a big story to tell.” – Jamie
Dominic Bird and Jamie Griffiths attended a London university studying Marketing & Advertising. Dominic and Jamie make up a third of the Young Enterprise company ‘Wet Fish’ – a company established in their second year of university as part of the Start Up Programme.
All team members signed up to the optional module in their second year. Wet Fish were comprised of four Marketing & Advertising students and two Computing students. Dominic took on the role as Managing Director (MD) and Jamie as Marketing director.
The company’s initial idea was to create smoothies however, they quickly realised that there were a number of hygiene and food regulations with that idea and so, it was quickly scrapped. It was on a night out that Wet Fish was born; a social card game designed to be more specific to one’s social circle than other card games on the market.
The company went on to do very well. They won the regional finals and secured and investment at the 2016 National Start Up Final. With every win confidence grew.
“After so many presentations with Wet Fish I can speak in front of people quite confidently and calmly. It’s helped me, it’s been a massive learning experience” – Jamie
Both Jamie and Dominic mention learning new skills that will put them in good stead for the future:
We have gained [real world experience] before graduating rather than being a graduate with no real world experience. Our lecturers have told us that our CVs will stand out from everyone else’s because we’ve got such a big story to tell.” – Jamie
Unlike Jamie, Dominic expressed that before the programme he had no intentions to own a business, however taking part in the programme has raised his aspirations:
“[Start-Up] made me think…do I really want to go into a big company and start at the bottom or so I want to look for something that’s abit more involved.” – Dominic
One year later, Wet Fish is still going strong. Jamie continues to be the Company’s Marketing Director; Dominic as MD as well as taking on the Finance duties. The team is currently in the process of setting up a Kickstarter project- a global crowdfunding platform – after using the rest of their investment provided by Old Mutual Wealth to finalise their packaging.