Stint – The Startup Helping Students Find Jobs and Revive the High Street

We caught up with Sol and Sam Schlagman of Stint to find out about the app that is quickly connecting students to jobs on the high street.

Why was Stint set up? What problem is it trying to overcome?

Stint was founded to help high street businesses to operate more efficiently and give students a smarter way to make money.

When we arrived at university, it didn’t take long to notice that many of our classmates were having to choose between attending lectures or holding down a part-time job. Speaking to students on other campuses, we realised just how difficult it was to find a part-time job with enough flexibility to fit around the student timetable. We wanted to end the trade-off between learning and earning, so we spoke to 1,000 businesses within walking distance of our campus to see if there was a smarter way for students to support themselves at university.

What we discovered was that high street businesses were facing their own issue – rigid rotas were making it difficult to get staffing levels right throughout the day. Today, Stint is solving both of these problems by connecting high street businesses with students to help staff their peak periods. This enables students to fit work around their studies, while giving high street businesses the support they need, when they need it. 

We’re proud to have facilitated over 30,000 Stints at over 1,000 businesses – including at some of the UK’s top employers – since we were founded in 2018.

What have you learnt so far from running the business? 

As young entrepreneurs creating a business straight out of university, we experienced a steep learning curve across just about all the things that come with running a business. Just to paint a picture, we started off as five people on the ground floor of a shared house carrying out Stints ourselves, to having more than 20,000 students signed up to our platform in just two years. So whilst we could definitely have done some things differently, we are glad we made the mistakes we did, as learning from them has allowed us to grow and continue to build a better business.

Along the way we’ve received lots of great feedback and advice which have been invaluable in getting us to where we are today. Working closely with thousands of students has been a major advantage too – we’re grateful to have people from such a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives informing what we do and helping us grow.

What are your plans for growth?

We have already launched successfully in several major universities and cities across the UK over the past two years. But this year we’re really excited to announce we’ll be launching nationwide. It comes at a time when both students and businesses need all the support they can get, and we think there’s a huge role for companies like Stint to help get Britain working again.

Over the lockdown period, we’ve been working behind the scenes on getting everything ready for our launch, including completing a rebrand with our design agency, New Start London. We want to show both students and businesses that there is a better, smarter way of working together that meets the needs of everyone. 

What advice would you give to someone with a great idea and looking to set-up their own start-up?

Always make sure you’re speaking to the people you are trying to help or your business is trying to reach. I think that’s the best way to figure out if you’re actually onto something. For instance, when we first thought of starting Stint, we spoke with anyone who would listen to us in the industry to test whether we had an idea worth developing. The feedback we received helped us to create a better business. 

I’d also say to trust your instincts. Some of the most revolutionary ideas have been things people didn’t know they needed. We started our business while we were still at university- which was a big risk and challenge – but we trusted our instincts and listened to the people who we were trying to help.

For more information, visit: https://www.stint.co/