Alex Stephany, CEO Beam - Parking the Homelessness Crisis

When the UK tech scene started to come online in the late noughties, Oxford-grad Alex left traditional careers in corporate law and management consultancy to join Anthony Eskinazi’s startup, Parkatmyhouse, which soon became JustPark. As CEO of JustPark from 2012-5 Alex oversaw several high-profile funding rounds including the largest equity crowdfunding round for a startup in history. In 3 years, he grew revenues 10-fold and set the company on a path towards its current user base of 1.5million drivers. He is also a published author with his book on the sharing economy “The Business of Sharing” and is an active mentor for TechStars. His latest project, Beam, is a social impact startup backed by the Mayor of London. The company leverages the crowdfunding model to empower people out of homelessness. The focus is on giving each member “person-centred” support in the form of finance, training and social ties while empowering the public to lend their help in the most effective and beneficial way possible. We talk in depth about Beam and the homelessness crisis in the UK. We discuss the triggers that cause homelessness and the isolation and diminishing sense of self-worth which makes escaping the downward spiral so hard. We discuss appropriate ways for people to help and how technology like Beam is empowering people and institutions to provide the personalised “scaffolding” required to beat homelessness.