WHO WE ARE
We are the team that founded and run SaveTheHighStreet.org
SaveTheHighStreet.org is an industry-wide movement supporting local businesses across the UK. We’re on a mission to make high streets diverse, vibrant, and successful. The movement launched in August 2016 and engaged 20,000+ UK businesses last year.
WHY JO EXISTS
High streets are changing faster than ever, bringing both new opportunities and threats for everyone.
Our local economy and communities are at stake. As are the livelihoods and dreams of high street entrepreneurs across the U.K.
We believe the future high street will be led by small and start-up businesses with the support they need to achieve their potential in this rapidly changing world.
We built Jo to make this a reality. To help local independents succeed, every step of the way.
BUILDING JO
In 2017, we kicked off a multi-year research project with contributions from thousands of high street businesses and industry-wide experts to answer the question: ‘What does it take to succeed on the high street?’
At the same time, our product designers, data scientists and software engineers started work on a new solution to radically improve the impact and economics of local business support.
Jo was ready for testing by 2018, with 300 high street businesses helping us fix and evolve almost everything we’d built; ensuring Jo focused on what independents needed it to do.
BETTER BUSINESS SUPPORT
In 2019, Jo began rolling out area-by-area around the UK with the support of councils, community champions, and others making a stand for success on their high streets.
Through the pandemic, Jo powered council-funded business support programmes on dozens of high streets as well as enabling ‘space and support’ innovations to repopulate vacant units in town and shopping centres.
Today, Jo is supporting retailers, restaurants, salons, cafes, galleries, gyms, pubs, market traders and other local businesses, on programmes ranging from Covid-19 recovery & resilience to digital transformation, starting-up on the high street and more.
WHAT’S NEXT
The Local Footfall Accelerator on Jo by SaveTheHighStreet.org has launched.
This is the most important Christmas in the history of the high street and Jo is uniquely positioned to help from the bottom up; empowering an army of local independents to achieve their potential.
Jo is being developed all the time with new goals, ideas, support and features, all informed by the needs of small and start-up local businesses across the UK.
We see a future of diverse, thriving local high streets full of successful independents and we believe Jo has an important role to play in making this happen.
