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November 18, 2022 - No Comments!

Meet the Team: Ivana

It's time for the latest in our 'Meet the Team' series!

Last month, we met Keith, our Chief Commercial Officer. We learned a lot about our elder statesman's day-to-day dealings at PCHQ, as well as his love of Jack Nicholson films, his puppy Jasper and his dreams of visiting Japan. Today we're going overseas to central Europe, to meet Ivana!

Hey Ivana, it's great to have you here. Please introduce yourself to the blogosphere...

Hi everyone, my name is Ivana and I work as a Quality Assurance Specialist here at Paperclip.

How long have you been here & what did you do before working at Paperclip?

I started here back in March 2019. I previously worked in the airline industry. As a German and English language graduate I started working as a customer consultant and later in B2B travel agency support at Lufthansa in an office in Brno, Czech Republic. I was providing guidance via email and phone to passengers and travel agents, checking-in, rebooking flights, cancellations and more. I also worked as a coach and trainer for new employees in Czech Republic and Germany.

Tell me about a day in the life of Ivana at Paperclip...

As a Quality Assurance specialist, my day is filled with website and mobile app testing, raising bugs and re-testing bug fixes. My work is planned beforehand and I'm testing website and mobile apps once the development phase has been completed. I test platforms from various perspectives - whether all match the designs which I'm sticking to, and whether it all works server-wise.

What are the values that drive you?

I admire a minimalist way of life. At its essence, minimalism heals the living. It is a process of identifying what is essential in life. I aim towards owning things that serve a purpose as it's hard for me to function when there are unnecessary things everywhere. I prefer quality over quantity. Therefore, I love the concept of Paperclip which is aimed at sustainability and selling things people don't need anymore. It can help us lead a more mindful and eco-friendly life.

What has been your favourite project to work on?

I like when new features are introduced, but my favourite project so far was testing a simplified Trade Centre as it allows users to have a nice and simple overview of their previous purchases and trades. I find this section very useful and user friendly.

Do you have any pets?

I have been accompanied by many dogs throughout my life and now we have a 11 months old Shar Pei. His name is Dante. Even though this breed is unique and demands extra time commitment in terms of skin care, he is my best friend and a blessing.


Dante and his plushy pal
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I absolutely love traveling and I'm not into staying home when I have a day off. Hiking is also a very favourite activity of mine. What I like to do the most when I have a vacation is exploring new countries and swimming in the sea in exotic countries. When I'm home and I'm not working, I like cleaning, cooking, shopping and simply doing everything that gives me a feeling of a well organized life.

If you could pick one place to visit anywhere in the world, where would it be?

There are so many destinations I would like to visit! One of them is an island called Fernando de Noronha in Brazil, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a delicate ecosystem. It's so treasured that the amount of visitors is really restricted. My big dream is to watch dolphins and turtles in their natural habitat during sunrise and sunset.

I know you love to read. Who is your favourite author?

My favourite books are all novels, poems and short stories written by Charles Bukowski who I consider to be one of the greatest authors!

Thanks Ivana...and sorry for referring to you as an 'elder statesman' Keith.

Keep up with the latest from PCHQ. Follow us on Instagram here.

Published by: Laurence in Team

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October 6, 2022 - No Comments!

Meet the Team: Keith

Good evening from Paperclip HQ!

We're back with another instalment of our new(ish) 'Meet the Team' series. Today we're meeting Keith, our Chief Commercial Officer. As his title would suggest, Keith is the main man when it comes to developing Paperclip's commercial strategy and building relationships with our beloved customers and partners. We sat down to talk about life at tech start-up, the circular economy...and ramen noodles.

Now we've already met his pet pooch Jasper, but let's hear from the man himself...

Hey Keith! Would you like to introduce yourself to the blogosphere?

Hi I'm Keith and I'm the CCO at Paperclip. I've been with the company a little over two years now. Prior to joining the team, I worked at a social media start-up aimed at university students, and prior to that I worked at UCAS Media.

So what's a typical day in the life of Keith?

As Paperclip is a start-up, my working days are quite varied, but I will generally have a video call with Paperclip’s CEO Rich and members of the Marketing and Design teams. Developing proposals for customers or prospective customers takes up much of my day and often I will be looking at market analysis and debating our strategic approach with Rich. I tend to end my working day reviewing the new items that have been listed on Paperclip and seeing what items have been traded.

What do you like about working at Paperclip?

The people and the proposition. We have a great bunch of hard-working and creative people at Paperclip who are united behind the vision, “to change the way people think about their possessions”. We're enabling people to buy and sell unwanted items, or to rent instead of buying, reducing waste, helping the environment - and people's pockets.

What project that you enjoyed working on the most here?

That’s easy, “Listings never Leave”. The whole team Paperclip got involved with this and it’s a feature that really will transform how people think about the things they own.

Do you have any pets?

Jasper the beagle. He’s just over a year old and is quite a handful. Other beagle owners will know what I mean.  But he is a really lovely dog and a big part of our family life.

Question: do you think Jasper gets his own way a lot of the time?
What's your favourite movie?

It’s difficult to narrow down to just one film. I like Chinatown, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining...most films with Jack Nicholson. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman is also a favourite.

If you could pick anywhere in the world to visit, where would it be?

I would love to go to Japan. There seems just so much to do there. Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Kyoto, the Bullet train and of course ramen!

For the latest news from Paperclip HQ. Be sure to follow us on Twitter.

Published by: Laurence in Team

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August 24, 2022 - No Comments!

Meet the Team: Gethin

Good afternoon and welcome to the third instalment of our new 'Meet the Team' series!

Today we say hello to Gethin, our Lead Front End Developer and Product Manager. Geth has been with us for quite awhile now and has been instrumental in the creation, and evolution, of our beloved marketplace platform. We sat down with the man himself to discuss everything from QA testing to retro gaming...

Hey Geth, great to have you here! So how long have you been at Paperclip HQ and what did you do before joining us?

I’ve been at Paperclip for, give or take, five and a half years now! Before joining Paperclip I worked for Avecto (now called BeyondTrust) as a front end developer on a new web platform they were developing.

Tell me about a day in the life of Gethin…

My days are split between writing code and product management. Half of my time I am planning new features for the marketplace and documenting them using tools such as Notion. Included in the product management part of my job is also managing the development team which includes mobile development, backend development and QA testing, this means deciding what will be worked on next and planning tasks for sprints (two-week blocks of time) and planning releases, amongst a few other things.

The other half of my time is spent developing the Web Marketplace, implementing new features and fixing any bugs that pop up which obviously… doesn’t happen very often (speak no evil, etc, etc)...

What do you like most about working for the 'Clip?

That the company culture has remained the same even whilst growing and going through things like lockdowns and transitioning to a fully remote working environment.

Do you have favourite project you've worked on here?

The Paperclip web marketplace. At my previous job I joined an already existing project, but when I joined Paperclip there was no web version of the marketplace.

version 3, version, paperclip
An early version of Gethin's pride and joy (we've come a long way, baby)...

Being able to bring that to life from scratch and have a say in the direction of the product from day one was and still is a great motivator.

What do you get up to in your spare time, Geth?

I quite like to play squash with friends when timetables allow and I’m also a bit of a gamer, I’ve just started getting back into PC gaming again for the first time in about 15 years and I am enjoying the nostalgia re-playing games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon and Command & Conquer.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

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Your dream holiday?

When I was younger I travelled around Europe for 3 weeks by train and we stayed in Austria for a few days. It’s a beautiful country and one day I want to go back and explore it a lot more.

If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do?

That really depends on how much I won! But if it was enough I’d love to get into renovating houses and real estate.

Sounds far too productive for my liking! It's horses for courses (or devs for dollars), I suppose.

For the latest news from Paperclip HQ. Make sure you're following us on Twitter.

Published by: Laurence in Team

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July 27, 2022 - No Comments!

Meet the Team: Millie

It's time for the second instalment of our new 'Meet the Team' series!

For those just joining us; each month we're sitting down for a quick chit-chat with a beloved member of the Paperclip family.

Today we're saying hello to Millie, our Head of Design. Millie joined us a couple of years ago and has been making the app, our blog and our socials, look beautiful ever since...

Hey Millie! Introduce yourself to the Blogosphere...

Hi there. I'm Millie and I'm the Head of Design here at Paperclip!

Can you tell us a little about your journey? How long have you been here and what did you do before joining PCHQ?

I have been at Paperclip for about 2 years now. Funny story - I did a Trump impression in my interview, it was a bit unorthodox.. but I’m glad it landed well and here I am today! Both before and alongside working for Paperclip, I have worked on design for change campaigns, I guess they would be called ‘passion projects’.

Sounds interesting! Can you tell us a little more?

During the Pandemic, I created a campaign called ‘Skin Colour is not a Symptom’. After hearing that members of the Asian community were getting both verbally and physically attacked due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, I created this mask and photographed Christina (model) wearing it to highlight how incredibly awful and wrong this is and remind people that Skin Colour is not a Symptom. @feminist, an Instagram page with a following of over 6.5 million people, shared and collaborated with me on content relating to this - it was a great feeling knowing that this important message had reached such a wide audience, and hopefully influenced people in a positive way.

From Millie's ‘Skin Colour is not a Symptom’ campaign
That's so cool! So when you're not breaking the Internet, can you tell us what you get up to on a typical day?

I get up, make myself a fresh cuppa then I’m ready to crack on with work for the day. My work days tend to be completely different to one another, sometimes I will be working on UX designs for updates of our App and Website (there are some exciting ones along the way that I can’t talk about just yet). Other days will involve working on campaigns, displays, photography, social media posts - the list goes on! Last week I was over in Warwick at a photoshoot, this week I have been working alongside Nicole (our talented junior designer) on elements for a display for an exciting upcoming launch….

So what do you like most about working at Paperclip?

The team at Paperclip are so easy to get along with, something that I’ve found to be very important when working from home. Our Google Meet socials are always great fun - last time we did 2 truths and a lie, which was very eye-opening…

Indeed it was, but I think some things are best left off the blog! So what are the core values that drive you?

I have a passion for designing for change, and Paperclip perfectly fits in with this. I love the idea of a circular economy, buying second hand and renting items from others rather than contributing to over-consumption. I am constantly thinking of ways that we can intertwine having minimal impact on the environment with everything that I design, so wherever possible I make sure that we use repurposed materials for physical outcomes.P

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? 

My house is a bit of a jungle, so watering and re-potting some of my houseplants usually takes up a bit of time each week! I play a couple of sports too - I’m a GA (goal attack) or WA (wing attack) in Netball and have just started kick-boxing. I started kick-boxing mainly so I can feel safe walking home on my own at night, it’s been great fun though and fab for fitness so it’s a win-win-win!

Can you tell us one thing most people don’t know about you?

I’m a biiiiiig DIYer - I’ll get inspired by something on Instagram or Pinterest and instead of buying it I’ll try and make it myself! I started doing macrame during the first lockdown (making plant holders of course), which then became crocheting, which then became pottery, then starting sewing and altering my own clothes. And now I’m planning on making my own floor rug…

And finally, tell us about your dream holiday?

I’ve always wanted to try scuba diving, so I think I’d go to Australia to see the great barrier reef. I figure that as around 70% of the earth is water, surely I should try and see at least a little part of it (I’d ideally like to avoid any sharks though).

That does indeed sound dreamy! Thanks for taking the time to sit down and chat, Mills.

For all the latest news from Paperclip HQ, follow us on Twitter here.

Published by: Laurence in Team

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June 17, 2022 - No Comments!

Meet the Team: Justin

Today we're bringing you the first instalment of our brand new 'Meet the Team' series. Every month we'll be bringing you a short interview with a member of the Paperclip family...

This week we're saying hello to Justin, our long-serving Marketing Manager. Justin has been with us since 2017 and has been growing, and rewarding, the Paperclip community ever since!

Hey Justin, go ahead and introduce yourself to the blogosphere...

Hey everyone I'm Justin, the Marketing Manager here at Paperclip HQ. I mostly work on developing and executing our digital and email marketing strategies as well as providing general support to the team and our users.

How did it all begin?

So it'll be my four year anniversary as a full-time member of the Paperclip squad this coming August. I was studying Business Management at Swansea University and I was working for Red Bull as a Brand Ambassador the same time. In my final year, I wanted to gain some more work experience and started an internship with Paperclip. Once I graduated, there was only one place I wanted to work and that was right here. I started my first job after uni as a Marketing Coordinator and after a year, I became Marketing Manager!

A fresh-faced Justin on his first day on the job (sorry, not sorry - Ed.)
So what attracted you to the role?

I like having a variety of roles and taking on new challenges as it enables me to learn something new, and develop my skills. As we were in the early start-up stage, I thought this would be a great time to jump in and help the company, and community, grow.

What motivates you to keep going?

I love to build things and lead on projects. I love watching them develop and really take pride in any successes we have individually or as a team. I've been lucky to work on so many projects from the ground up, whether that be growing our student communities, creating ad campaigns or email flows to keep our users engaged and feeling valued.

What do you get up to outside of work?

I really like working on my own projects and start-up ideas, currently running a personalised hoodie blanket company! I also love Muay Thai, and will hopefully be having my first fight soon.

Do you have a favourite movie?

Pulp Fiction. What a film! Even though I've only seen it once, and that was about about 10 years ago, I really enjoyed it.

What's your dream holiday destination?

That's a tough one. Though I've always fancied going on a food odyssey in South East Asia on a motorbike. Maybe next year. If I do go, I'll be sure to share the photos on the @Paperclip HQ socials!

And finally, tell us a fun fact about yourself...

Hmmm, well this is kind of embarrassing, but when I younger I learned to play 'Numb' by Linkin Park on the piano. It's actually the only song I know how to play on there. Maybe one day I'll expand my repertoire...maybe.

Keep up to date with the latest news from Paperclip. Follow us on Twitter here.

Published by: Laurence in Team