William Hartley (BSc (Hons) Politics And International Relations 2012) is an entrepreneur with a career journey that spans across continents and industries. Starting in sales at a young age, he developed resilience and self-motivation through early experiences in Melbourne, Paris and London. William combined his academic background with his business experience to found ventures including Pilcrow and Certling. He spoke to our alumni team about his journey so far.

Tell us about your career journey to date?

I joined university a little later than most; I was 23. I never saw myself as particularly academic and found a real thrill in working, especially in sales. At 18, I left my home in France and moved to Melbourne, Australia; the city where I was born but barely knew, having left at a young age.

My career in sales began at 19, selling Vodafone contracts door-to-door. Dressed in my red Vodafone polo and name badge, I spent countless days having doors slammed in my face before I could even say a word. The job was entirely commission-based; no sales meant no pay. At that time, I was barely scraping by, couch surfing and doing odd jobs in the evenings to afford meals.

Persistence paid off. After about three months, I became quite good at it; my commission income provided a solid salary for someone my age. I started devouring books on sales and psychology. However, the most valuable lesson was learning to be self-reliant and self-motivated; there’s no better motivator than hunger.

At 21, I returned to Europe and secured a job in real estate in London. It was there that I developed a keen interest in politics and international affairs. Two years later, I enrolled at CCCU to study Politics and International Relations, with hopes of building a career in diplomacy or an international NGO. Instead, an unexpected opportunity presented itself; a role as a Business Development Manager with a French translation company needing someone to grow their UK operations. They specialised in financial services translation, and I quickly had to get to grips with the complex world of investment and banking.

How did starting your own business come about?

Two years after graduating from CCCU and working in financial translation, I spotted a gap in the market; offering tailored services to marketing and communications teams in the financial sector. Unlike research reports and analyses, marketers needed content that simplified complex financial strategies into engaging and easy-to-read material. This type of work required translators who could ‘transcreate’—adapting technical information into accessible content. Pilcrow was created to meet that need and quickly found success, expanding to offer voice-overs, graphic design, and anything else our clients needed to reach foreign investors.

Pilcrow is based in Canterbury, and being the only translation company in town, we often have locals coming in for document translations for work or migration purposes. They are often old birth certificates or handwritten wills that had to be digitally transcribed before translation. It was time-consuming and often done at a loss, but helping people in the community was rewarding.

In February 2023, with all the excitement around large language models and AI, I started reading about machine vision; the technology behind tools like Google Lens. The potential applications were vast; helping visually impaired people, translating restaurant menus on the go, and more. That’s when the idea for Certling came to life; an online certified translation service designed for UK and US visa requirements. It provided instant, accurate quotes from photos or scans of documents. Unlike other providers who charge per page with a word limit, Certling charges based on the actual word count and allows clients to remove unnecessary content, like disclaimers or marketing language. Machine vision allowed us to almost entirely bypass the transcription stage and forward the translation instantly to translators, cutting the production time in half.

How did your time at CCCU support your career journey?

I was fortunate to have amazing lecturers who took the time to get to know us personally. I wasn’t the easiest student; I was cocky and overconfident, masking a fair amount of insecurity. But our classroom was a melting pot of ages, backgrounds, and nationalities, fostering a spirit of teamwork and mutual support. We helped each other succeed in what was a challenging course, and that experience taught me the importance of collaboration. It showed me that behind the bravado, we were all figuring things out, and that working together made us stronger.

Do you have a favourite memory of your time at CCCU?

I have so many fond memories from my time at CCCU that it’s hard to pick just one. University life was full of energy, and there was always something happening; it was never dull. It was a time filled with growth, friendships, and countless stories. It was undoubtedly one of the best periods of my life and shaped me more than I realised at the time.

What are the key skills required to be an entrepreneur?

Tenacity is key. As an entrepreneur, you will experience more failures than successes, particularly at the beginning. Securing those first few clients is incredibly difficult; try convincing someone to take a chance on you without any case studies or references.

Entrepreneurship can also be lonely. Unlike the security of a salaried job, if your venture fails, there is no severance package. It’s just you, left to pick up the pieces. And re-entering the job market after being your own boss for years can be tricky; who do you list as a reference?

Self-motivation is vital. No one will push you forward, especially in the early days when there’s no team to celebrate wins or provide support during tough times.

What advice would you give to others wanting to pursue their own business?

Don’t start your first business alone. Find business partners who complement your skill set and can support you through the tough times. Build a team with diverse strengths because no one is good at everything.

Be different and find a niche. Understand your target client and build your business around their needs; not the other way around. One of the biggest mistakes people make is starting a business based on what they love, without considering if there’s a market for it. Your business isn’t about you; it’s about solving someone else’s problem.

What is next for you?

I see business as a stepping stone to something greater. While I’m committed to making my current ventures successful, my ultimate goal is to give back. I’d love to be involved in charitable work, particularly supporting children and young adults who haven’t had the same opportunities I did. If my businesses continue to thrive, I hope to use that platform to make a real difference in their lives.

This post first appeared on the CCCU Alumni Blog in November 2024.