I’m Karl Swanepoel, and I’m a tech entrepreneur based in the UK – Growing up, I lived in South Africa, Germany, England, and now Wales.
Some quick links about me – I’ve been:
- featured by Insider Media, Business Live, and Welsh Government
- interviewed on FounderTech Decoded, iWork, and (Un)usual Stories
- published by Young Upstarts on how to secure venture capital
(more press mentions)
I’m currently the CEO & Founder of Revolancer
Revolancer is a freelancing platform that gives freedom back to freelancers by creating a brighter future for flexible work.
Today, Revolancer has 15,000+ users, and is backed by high-profile investors including SFC Capital and Bob Skinstad (former SA national Rugby captain), and advised by Mat Braddy (founding CMO of Just Eat).
I secured £160k in pre-seed funding from SFC Capital, after winning Aberystwyth University’s startup competition and Engineers in Business Fellowship grant.
I studied Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at Aberystwyth University in Wales.
Revolancer became reality after winning a startup competition at Abersytwyth University, securing a seed grant for Revolancer. As a part of this, I also won the Engineers in Business Fellowship funded grant, for which I was then a national finalist.
After 6 months, we secured £160k in pre-seed funding from SFC Capital (covered on Insider Media). Today, I’m leading an energetic and passionate team to take Revolancer to the next level.
My heart was set on fixing freelancing conditions at 15 years old with BuySellJobs.
Starting my freelancing journey at age 14, I quickly understood and lived through the problems of the industry firsthand.
I quickly ran into some issues with a lot of the freelance platforms because due to their enormous commission fees, difficulty attaining clients, and heavy-handed restrictions on communication.
Wanting to do something about this, I decided to make my own freelance website called BuySellJobs. I grew the platform to 2,000+ users (with ZERO marketing spend). Due to being unable to have a payment processing account whilst being under 18, I exited BuySellJobs (sold for a modest sum to an India-based holdings company) before my 16th Birthday.
I am back with Revolancer and a goal to give freedom back to freelancers.
I showcased my love for marketing in TheWatchFace.
As a founder and editor-in-chief of TheWatchFace, my team and I nurtured the online magazine to 600,000 total readers, 10 contributing writers, and an online vintage watch shop.
At 15, I was the youngest-ever brand ambassador for Britain’s largest business conference, The Business Show.
From 2015 – 2018, I have since been an ambassador several times, and had a stall and gave a keynote speech at the 2018 show at the Excel Centre in London.
At 18, I founded RocketBlast Digital and opened my first high-street office.
In 2018, I founded a web and marketing agency where we delivered work for clients such as NHS (The National Health Service) and Harlow College.
Our mission was to provide transparent and straightforward pricing and project delivery to our clients – an approach that is unfortunately far too uncommon in the agency space.
Whilst at University, I helped Lifewill as their CMO and Interim CTO.
Lifewill was a tech startup and Enactus project looking to create a challenger platform in the social media space, focused on challenges and self-development.
I joined the early team as CMO and interim CTO and developed an integrated monetisation strategy (sponsored challenges), and oversaw the team developing the app until I successfully helped recruit a new CTO.
I help connect young people in Wales with industry expert ‘role models’ to kick-start their careers at Leapinto.
Kevin Mansell-Abel and I helped students with their career concerns by connecting them to industry professionals and opening their eyes to the real work world.
Our efforts have been covered by the South Wales Argus, Wales247, and FreePress Series.
If you’re interested in working with me or have any questions, please feel free to: