Date: 22 March 2021 Author: FINTECH Circle Gihan A.M. Hyde is the CEO & Founder of Communique, a social enterprise communication startup. Read on to find out how they’re changing the future of communications!

How would you describe your business in one sentence?

Communique is a communication start-up that helps companies communicate their Purpose, Environmental Impact, and Social Impact (ESG) so their investors, clients, and employees understand the role they play in making this journey a reality.

Tell us why is your company a game changer for our industry?

Communique is the only social enterprise communication start-up that focuses on ESG communications. We help organisations translate their ESG and Purpose into stories, actions, behaviours, and attitudes that would explain how their ESG strategies will grow the business and what role employees, investors, and community will play in this journey.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

As a start-up we are three months old but during these months we:

• Supported and advised one of MENA’s largest tech companies to clearly articulate their ESG stories ahead of embarking into its IPO journey.
• We become and first and the only Communication Strategic Partner with Fintech Circle.
• I became the first and only communicator to have a bi-weekly Vlog with Fintech Futures.

What has been the greatest challenge leading a startup so far?

What we do is ahead of the curve in terms of how we look at an ESG journey and how we translate it into behaviours, attitudes, and mindset. Clients know they need to start thinking about their environmental and social impact but don’t know where to start from or if they need to communicate it. Therefore, explaining why organisations need our services and how our work will help their business grow was a roller coaster but a fun one.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from your fundraising journey?

We have not yet embarked on the fundraising journey as we are depending on our personal savings, but the goal is that within one year we will investigate seed funding which will enable us to support more clients and hire more Associates from the underdeveloped countries and underrepresented communities.

Your advice to anyone starting out as an entrepreneur?

• If you are a sole Founder like I am, make sure you have a circle of trust whom you would utilise to bounce ideas from and to. It is a lonely place so if you can have a co-founder for sure do it.
• Give credit to your team if they have done a good job, do not get engrossed into the weeds of running the business that you forget your own people.
• Don’t try to do everything yourself because your time is extremely valuable so choose what you should focus on carefully and learn to delegate.

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Gihan A.M. Hyde is the award-winning CEO & Founder of Communique, a corporate communication social enterprise start-up specialising in clarifying and amplifying a company’s Purpose, its Environmental and Social (ESG) and building communication departments for start-ups and Scale-Ups. Prior to founding “Communique” Gihan led some of the largest change projects and communication departments including Barclays IA, HSBC AMG, M&S HR, Philip Morris, the Riyadh Metro Project, and the Department for International Trade. Her work impacted more than 150,000 employees and closed $300m worth of sales deals. She can be reached on LI: Gihan Hyde or Twitter: @gehanam