Entrepreneur Andy Callaghan is the founder of Jammed, based at York Science Park.
Jammed is an online booking platform powering creative spaces like rehearsal rooms, recording studios and photography studios. Studio owners can take bookings in their sleep, get paid instantly and rent more rooms. Jammed not only makes life easier for the thousands of independent recording studios that struggle with keeping up with telephone enquiries, now-shows and making the most of their space, it’s also a top choice for their customers who can now book rooms with greater convenience, choice and flexibility.
Andy's Journey
Having graduated from the University of Reading with a BSc in Computer Science in 2009, Andy was overwhelmed with three job offers but ultimately decided to accept an offer with an early-stage events listing start-up in London.
“Through this time though, my dad was seriously unwell before dying in 2010. He was a mentor to me in so many ways, but I also worked with him before and during university as an IT guy/programmer at his company. He was an entrepreneur, coming from being a chartered surveyor, so I think I owe a lot of my drive and ambition to him. My dad died in 2010, but I kept working in small companies like his.”
“I then worked as a Ruby on Rails programmer in London for ‘Spoonfed’ for 3 years, and then moved to live with my now wife in Liverpool in 2012, working remotely for the same company but then becoming a freelance contract ruby programmer. I worked as a freelancer for different startups companies in Liverpool, London and Leeds selling my time for increasing amounts of money as I improved my programming skill and became more senior.”
“Key to this was working at a vast range of companies –an online events company, a multinational delivery company, online photography SaaS (Software as a Service) product, and then a women’s fashion marketplace during lockdown. This range of small and medium sized companies helped me hone what I did and didn’t want to do myself, meet some amazing people and save enough money in my business account to allow me to have a runway for my current business.”