This week we continued our series of “5 Mins with a Founder” and interviewed Chris from ThriveMap, a software tool that measures culture fit between people and teams. To learn more about them & how they are doing some really innovative things head to https://thrivemap.io/

How old were you when you first tried a venture?

In retrospect, I’ve always been fairly entrepreneurial. When I was 8, my brother and I set up a family newspaper called ‘Ferndale Press’, it had a readership of about 15 extended family members, then when I was 11 I started making bracelets from bits of coloured thread and sold them in the family restaurant. I’d pray on unsuspecting diners and guilt them into buying them (they were for charity). It wasn’t until I was 25 that I moved to London to set up a new office for a recruitment company when my entrepreneurial spark got rekindled.

Do you have any role models?

I have plenty but they’re siloed in particular areas. Balance is hard to achieve and I wouldn’t say any of them are to be admired in all areas of life. Take someone like Elon Musk for example, he’s a huge inspiration business-wise but he’s not someone I’d look to for work/life balance.

Who has taught you the most?

I have. I’ve taught myself most things in life. I never had a stand out teacher or mentor. Sure, I’ve worked with smart people and learned a lot from my parents, but I believe it’s your own responsibility to self-educate.

Which one failure did you learn most from?

It’s not a failure as such but when my dad passed away I learned a lot about myself. What I was willing to tolerate, what I should be doing with my time and who I should be spending it with. Hardships help you grow as a human being. Being a younger sibling I’d never really had to step up like that before and I regretted having never thought about the benefits of taking more responsibility.There are two attractive things about suffering in the long term. One is that it can make you accept the world the way it is. The other thing is that it can change you in an extreme way.

If a plaque had to go up in one coffee shop/restaurant/bar saying your company was founded here where would it be?

It would be etched into the dashboard of my brother’s car. After our mum passed away a few years ago, we were talking about going back to work after the funeral, I told him I’d had a business idea I’d like to explore. There were four of us in the car and the consensus was, just go for it. That’s when I resolved to start up.

What is the best thing about working at ThriveMap?

We’re in a really interesting space. Company culture and cultural fit is fast becoming a topic of interest for CEOs as they realise that it’s just as important as having the right business strategy. Not only that, but with advances in technology and research, culture is becoming something they can leverage to generate incredible long-term results. Having a tool that helps them pull that lever is really exciting.

Do you think there is a gender Imbalance in Tech?

Well if you look at the numbers then yes there’s clearly an imbalance. There are many different perspectives on the why that I’d rather not go into. However, in order to reach greater equality, we have to ensure that from an early age a child has every opportunity at their disposal to choose what career they’d like to pursue.

Again if you want to know more about ThriveMap head to https://thrivemap.io/