Tech Balance – Creating a better tech-life balance with support from Innovate UK and Backing Essex Business
CEO and Founder Ryan Bell is gearing up to help the masses improve their relationship with technology with his innovative new app Tech Balance – a platform that will enable students to create a healthy tech-life balance.
In our modern world, screens are unavoidable, but also make great things possible. From working, to socialising, to entertainment, screens have become a part of our everyday lives. But how do you know when screens are impacting you negatively, and how do you switch off?
Highlighted by the pandemic when the world went virtual to accommodate social distancing measures, many people saw a dramatic rise in their screen time and use of digital devices. According to scientific research and studies, increased screentime had a negative impact on people in lots of different ways – to attention spans, our relationships, and mental and physical health.
Aware of the impact increased screen time had had on his own wellbeing, in 2021 Ryan Bell sought out ways to make a change – to create a healthy relationship with screentime and make its usage more productive. Entrepreneurship was unchartered territory – but with passion to create a solution for an ever-rising problem, Ryan got to work.
A modern solution, for a modern problem
Searching for ways to promote his own balance between on-screen and off-screen time, Ryan found the solutions he’d found so far didn’t stick. Ryan started to research and speak to other people about what had worked for them, the psychology behind our attention spans, and ways to change your habits for good. With the seed in his mind for an idea that could help not just him, but many other people as well, he sought out the beginnings of his journey as an entrepreneur and thinking of a way to create something that would have real social impact.
“1 in 4 students finds that their screen time is a problem in their studies or personal life; and, students spend most of their time online. The greatest lever you can pull for student wellbeing is digital.”
With the 2021 Young Innovators awards around the corner, Ryan began to map out how his solution could look, and what it had potential to do. Putting together his proposal for the awards for Innovate UK and centring his submission on a business idea that would help to solve problems caused by the pandemic, Ryan won amidst fierce competition – and had officially got the ball rolling on the beginnings of Tech Balance, with over £12,000 from the competition to help get him started.
The journey to Tech Balance
Followed in quick succession were a number of awards that helped Ryan to zero in on his business idea; developing how it would work, what impact it would have, and steps he could take to get there. The next 18 months would mean a successful and reaffirming time for Ryan and Tech Balance, with more and more organisations and Innovate UK seeing the real potential a platform like Tech Balance could have for young people across the UK.
““Ryan Bell’s keynote speech titled “A Call to Action: Achieving Global Digital Well-being” was truly enlightening. I was particularly impressed by his remarkable skill in engaging the audience and simplifying intricate ideas for better understanding. Ryan’s extensive knowledge in the subject matter, coupled with his use of relevant research and practical illustrations, greatly contributed to the success of his presentation.””
Now, Tech Balance is more than just an idea – it’s becoming real. Through Ryan’s work with Innovate UK and its mentors, he’s developed three connected core services that Tech Balance can help to make an impact through – a diagnostic survey that helps to uncover the digital well-being needs of students, helping wellbeing teams at education institutions to better support them, interactive workshops that then address those needs, and the design for an app that will enable students to improve their own digital wellbeing by providing the tools and resources to achieve a healthy and productive digital lifestyle.
““We help educational institutions prevent mental health problems by tackling digital wellbeing and productivity proactively. We look at the big picture, going beyond screen-time alone. Our approach puts students and their ambitions first, empowering them to find and maintain their ideal balance with technology.”
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Making Connections
Coming a long way in just three short years, Ryan is now a Certified Digital Wellness Educator, a Certified Life Optimisation Coach, and hosts the UK branch of LookUp – an international digital wellbeing organisation for young people. Forming relationships with educational institutions that recognise the impact a project like Tech Balance can have, Ryan’s work so far has impacted over 1,000 students, with his diagnostic surveys, workshops and dedicated coaching – helping to educate more people on the attention economy, effective multi-tasking and productivity, self-care, finding balance, social media harms, minimising distractions, how to unplug & disconnect and more.
“ “My focus is centred on helping students discover and maintain a healthy and productive relationship with technology, both through raising awareness and bridging the gap between awareness and action. Doing so effectively requires an approach that is research-backed and student-orientated.
My experience since winning Innovate UK’s Young Innovators Awards has helped to make this a reality.” ”
The Next Steps for Tech Balance: getting the right support
In succession to the Innovate UK Young Innovators Awards, Ryan accepted onto their ‘Young Innovators Next Steps’ programme – where applicants from previous years can submit a new proposal and application building on their previous business plan.
The Next Steps programme provides just under 20 winners out of a possible 200 applicants from across the UK with vital funding of £50k to fuel the growth of their business idea – and Tech Balance was deemed a worthy winner.
To provide some extra support with his application to put his best foot forward, Ryan sought out advice and mentoring from business support service Backing Essex Business – a fully funded service by Essex County Council that provides expert advice and support to businesses across the county. After getting in touch with the team, Ryan was put in touch with Business Advisory Manager Andy Pinkney to discuss his plans for Tech Balance, and how he could achieve his goals.
Ryan was also able to seek additional support from Andy from Backing Essex Business for his application for the Next Steps programme – receiving feedback and suggestions to help him create his successful application.
““It’s good to have someone to bounce ideas off of””
After his success at the Young Innovators Next Steps awards, Ryan is full steam ahead with his plans to launch the Tech Balance mobile app – and is hoping to launch a pilot version of the app within UK universities in October this year. Motivated by his success in the Next Steps programme, and noting it as one of the biggest highlights of Tech Balance to date, he’s in talks with the wellbeing teams at several universities, and aims have Tech Balance in use by students at 50 universities across the UK by 2025. This is expected to build in nicely to his overarching aim for the future of Tech Balance – to become the number one app for students and their families to effectively manage their screentime and wellbeing by the time the business is five years old.
““Parts of the puzzle are starting to come together. Winning the Next Step award was a huge boost for Tech Balance, knowing that the assessors had seen the work that had gone in and the progress you’ve made, and decided to fund you. Developing and launching the app and getting the first pilot underway will be great next steps””
