“We recognised we were ready for advisory expertise in a range of key areas.”

Dittolo is a data-driven platform that gives employers honest visibility of the mental-health landscape inside their organisation. The data leads to better interventions, which leads to more engaged teams, which makes companies easier places to work — and easier places to recruit into. Duncan and Guy launched it after both being made redundant during the pandemic, leaning on their personal network to fill in product, brand, strategy and technology.

After a strong start they hit the same wall every founder team hits — they had got as far as their own network could take them. “We recognised that we were ready for advisory expertise in a range of key areas including IT, business development, apps and growth strategy,” Duncan said. A NatWest connection put them in front of Moray Martin, who pointed them to mentoring through the Experience Bank.

Three mentors came on board: Mark Scanlon, Duncan Davies and John Harrison — covering app development, growth strategy, and how to scale and grow a platform business without breaking it.

“We are very glad we got in touch,” Duncan said. “We found him so easy to talk to. He is enthusiastic and passionate, and we look forward to a long working relationship when we are ready to start appointing high-level personnel.”

The Dittolo phase-one roll-out is now underway. Workplaces using it can intervene earlier and more accurately, with better data than the wellbeing-survey market has historically given them.