Spotlight on: Octophin Digital
Who are we speaking to today?
Filip Hnízdo, Director of Octophin Digital
In one sentence can you describe what Octophin do?
We build software such as apps, maps, websites, databases, and games for the wildlife conservation sector and do additional work (mostly around data) for huge parts of the UK arts sector.
How did Octophin begin?
I and a colleague at the Zoological Society of London (London Zoo) had great success building web things that got lots of press and interactions so we thought we would try to do things on our own. It worked and the company is still going and growing eight years later.
What has been your biggest achievement in creating a positive impact so far? On a team and or individual level?
Although we do loads of work for many of the world's biggest conservation organisations, the achievements I'm the proudest of are around having run the company by putting ethics and kindness first. I try to look after my amazing team as much as I can, have mentored and trained many people into a job / industry change, and have on several occasions sponsored technology diversity schemes.
The fact that we get all our work through word of mouth is due to putting being nice and helpful over everything. This makes things harder in many ways, but I wouldn't ever change the approach. I may be a useless business person in the traditional sense but I try to be a good person which somehow indirectly leads to good business.
What are you working on at the moment?
We're currently busy coordinating and preparing college groups to travel as the summer term is our busiest period, 150+ young people travelling in the next 2 months! We just submitted several funding applications, so are keeping our fingers crossed for positive outcomes in the summer.
What’s been your favourite project to work on?
One of our biggest projects is the WILDLABS.NET conservation technology platform. As a social network for conservation technologists, it has so many massively complicated features. The team that run it are wonderful and it's amazing looking at what the community is doing and how much impact it's having. I'm so very proud of my team for having built such an epic system.
How can people & the community support Octophin?
Come and say hi to me and my team! We're a very sociable bunch of people so the best thing we can ask is for a friendly workspace filled with fascinating people. Luckily, we've certainly got one here at Better Space.
Do you have any opportunities available now?
We're currently looking for a full time Digital Project Manager. Contact Inspiring Search (also members of Better Space) for info.
How can people contact you?
Please come and say hi in person! I'm always in as is much of my team and love hearing and telling stories about anything. Drop an email to hello@octophin.com Or filip@octophin.com. Also, happy to advise anyone on anything related to the web.