MSc Business with Consulting: Starting my own freelancer platform

22 August 2018

Sahan Suman, MSc Business with Consulting student and Founder and CEO of Bubble, shares his experiences of setting up a freelancer platform whilst studying for his MSc.

“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.”

These are words I have lived by my entire life. Growing up I saw my grandfather and my father put in the effort, going from zero to one. An entrepreneurial mindset was a gift I inherited and I feel it is my duty to cultivate and enhance this skill.

With this in mind, I’ve always taken every opportunity to question and learn anything I could not understand. By the age of 18 I started trading, and in the following two years I interned with a range of startups in India, building strong networks and acquainting myself with the raw, crude and competitive world of business. The constant pressure, the late hours, deadlines, and competition; I loved every second of it and truly found my passion. This desire to learn and my urge to excel is what prompted me to apply for the MSc Business with Consulting at Warwick Business School. They say that the people around you help you shape yourself, and my peers here at Warwick Business School are open, curious and intellectually driven to think, collaborate and innovate together. The Business School has been a nurturing ground for me to start my own company, Bubble (Instagram: @bubble.ltd).

Bubble Founder and CEO Sahan Suman

How I started Bubble

I was back home during my first break and was eager to know how my friends were doing with their own lives and careers. I was curious as most of them had great ideas and aspired to be business owners, but I was disappointed to notice that most of them had given up on their own business ventures and were working for big corporates, complaining about their work life, low pay and how this was not what they wanted for themselves. Whilst I have nothing against working for these firms, I am a strong believer in loving what you do!

On further questioning, I learnt that all of them had the same problem, with one of them explaining: “To start a business, you need basic services such as legal services, web/app developers, graphic designers, photographers, printers, content writers and more. Most of these services in the market are too expensive for a startup to afford, and those affordable services are of a poor quality." As entrepreneurs, rather than focusing on building the business, they spent most of their time in search of the right service providers.

To me, every problem is an opportunity waiting to be knocked open. Devising a solution to this “problem” led to the launch of my company, Bubble.

What is Bubble?

In short, Bubble is a highly curated freelancer platform for all business services, catering to startups and mid-sized companies. We have curated a range of services according to quality and affordability, including taxation, photography, graphic design, printers and content writers, and have aimed to create a one-stop destination for entrepreneurs, with Bubble acting as a bridge between brands and service providers. Complementing these services, we also work together with venture capitalists, incubation centres and media houses, providing collaborative opportunities to entrepreneurs via our platform. 

We are blessed to live in one of the greatest eras of technology where it can be leveraged to provide solutions across the world. Even though we are yet to officially launch, and are still in our beta testing stage, we have had over 30 clients using our services from across India, UK and parts of Africa, generating a revenue of over $4,000 from a $0 investment in just three months.

Utilising my course knowledge

This solution seems simple, however developing the platform meant constant restructuring of business logic and algorithms to create a unique business and financial model. My modules in consulting at Warwick equipped me with practical tools which were instrumental in cementing the business. Project management seminars and interactions with professors helped me devise my own custom models of time management, allowing our team to work more efficiently. Overall, my Masters programme at Warwick has helped me to think smarter, faster and be pragmatic in every step I take. I could have never asked for a better home ground to start from.

To every student, graduate or entrepreneur reading this blog, I cannot emphasize enough on these words “Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can” and remember, for every business need, #justbubbleit !

Be patient, trust the process, and keep hustling.

Visit Bubble’s Instagram page @bubble.ltd to find out more about Sahan’s freelance platform.

Discover more about our MSc Business with Consulting on our webpages.