Brett Wigdortz - Founder Tiney

How do you define an entrepreneur? I think this is one of the most interesting questions and one that has serious effects for public policy.

Are you an entrepreneur when you start hiring people? Is a freelancer an entrepreneur? Or, in fact, is anyone who starts any organisation an entrepreneur?

Brett Wigdortz, today's guest, is a great example of blurring the boundaries of these definitions. He founded Teach First nearly 20 years ago to solve the public policy issue of getting more ambitious graduates to start their careers in teaching.

It has been a tremendous success and is still the largest public sector graduate recruiter in the UK.

 We talk to Brett about the journey of founding Teach First and why now he is aiming to solve the childcare sector with his new venture, Tiney.  

This is our penultimate episode in our 5th series, with it all culminating next week in our interviews with the candidates to be the next British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. 

In this episode with Brett we talk about:

• How being a football referee taught him to ignore others when they’re rude to you.

• Creating the largest graduate recruiter in the UK- and where did the name Teach First come from?

• The cultural change that was achieved by Teach First.

• How he worked with the government to get the project started.

• The challenge of creating Tiney - and stepping back from such a huge project of Teach First.

• The latent sexism in addressing early years care.

• The Airbnb of childcare.

• Choosing to create a venture-backed company, not a charity- why did he do it differently?

• Structuring his year off and how to decide what to do next.

• If Brett was 22 in 2022 where he would choose to work?

• What does he think his kids will do?

• The quote he lives by.