This week we are leading with a founder story that has genuinely stayed with us. Salman and Shabeeb came to the UK from India to study, saw first hand how easy it is for international students to be exploited in the part time job market, and built a business to fix it. Their company, Ailze, is now approaching its own ILR milestone, and the story behind it is one of the warmest we have published.
When Salman arrived in Preston to study at the University of Central Lancashire, one of the first things he did was look for part time work. He walked into a takeaway in the town centre and was offered a job at roughly a third of the National Minimum Wage. He turned it down and kept looking, but he never forgot how many students around him could not afford to do the same.
That memory, alongside years of watching international students stay quiet about how they were being treated because they were nervous about their visa status, became the foundation for Ailze. Salman built it with his close friend and business partner Shabeeb, who had made the same journey from India to UCLan and saw the same problems up close.
Ailze is a temporary staffing agency based in Preston that connects local businesses with international students and fresh graduates. It covers the cost of transport to shifts so workers are never out of pocket before they have even started, and it runs a salary advance scheme for anyone facing a genuine financial emergency. Salman describes it as a support system as much as a recruitment agency, and that shows in how it runs day to day.
Many students have found positions through Ailze on paid internships so far, others are now working in the NHS, and some even work with multinational companies in India and Saudi Arabia. Salman and Shabeeb are now looking towards Indefinite Leave to Remain, and their story is a genuinely useful one for anyone approaching that stage of the journey themselves.
Read the full story now:
Harriet Fuller
...and echoes of journeys we have told before
Ailze's story sits comfortably alongside some of our favourite journeys on this route. Adam Raymond built a designer toy brand from scratch and now holds Indefinite Leave to Remain, three years after arriving with nothing but a strong instinct for an underserved market. Sean Zhu did the same with Hyper EV, and described his ILR application as a thorough review of everything he had built and documented along the way, exactly the kind of evidence Salman and Shabeeb are now pulling together for their own.
If you missed either story the first time round, they are well worth a read, especially if ILR is somewhere on your own horizon.
Harriet Fuller
Harriet Fuller
A new space to find each other and access support guides
We've decided to give Facebook another go, but we're going to do it slightly differently. We are opening a single group focused on anyone who wants help building their business in Britain. Whilst it is monitored and supported by Innovator International, it is open to anyone.
We would love for you to be part of it. It's a place to ask questions, share wins, post events you are attending, or just find other founders on the same business journey as you. The more of you who join, the more useful it becomes, so please do share it with anyone in your network who might find it valuable too!
It is a private group – it does have a few access questions and rules – but this is to help us make sure that the group doesn't get overrun with people selling things, or offering information, or making posts that are not in line with the ethos of the group.
Most importantly, please bear with us! When you join, there may only be single figures, but we hope to grow this group quickly to make it something really meaningful. However, we can only do that with your help and input.
Remembering Craig Hines
Last week we said goodbye to a good friend and fabulous assessor, Craig Hines. Craig supported the journey of many international entrepreneurs building new ventures in the UK, and at his funeral we learned just how far that impact reached beyond our own community. He will be missed by everyone who knew him.
Innovator International
Save the date: Manchester and London this summer
Two more chances to meet the wider community in person this summer. We will be in Manchester on Thursday 23rd July for an innovation gathering (the focus is Growing Northern Food Futures), and back at 1 Triton Square in London on Thursday 13th August alongside Venture Café and Tech Nation. Both are free to attend and well worth the evening.
For all our upcoming events please keep an eye on our events page and mark your calendars with any you wish to attend, zoom sign up links can be found on each:
Innovator International
That's everything for this week. See you next time!
