Joe Seddon

Joseph Henry Seddon (born 4 June 1997) is a British technology entrepreneur known for founding Zero Gravity, a technology company that supports students from low-opportunity areas into universities and careers.

Since its inception, Zero Gravity has supported over 8,000 students from low-opportunity areas into Russell Group universities, including more than 800 into Oxbridge.

In 2022, Seddon was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his contributions to technology and entrepreneurship, and, in 2023, he was honoured in King Charles' Birthday Honours List. In 2024, ''The Sunday Times'' featured Seddon in their inaugural Young Power List as one of "the 25 most inspiring people aged 30 and under in the UK and Ireland".

Early life and education

Seddon was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire in June 1997, and was raised in a single-parent family by his mother, Catherine, who works as a speech therapist in the National Health Service. He grew up in Morley, a post-industrial town in West Yorkshire whose woollen industry experienced significant economic decline in the late 20th century. In 2018, Morley was ranked in the bottom 50% of English constituencies on the Social Mobility Index, which measures how likely a person from a disadvantaged background is to progress to a higher social status later in life.

Seddon was educated at Westerton Primary Academy, a local state primary school in Morley, West Yorkshire. He then studied at Heckmondwike Grammar School, a state grammar school in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, securing 12 A*s in his GCSE exams and 4 A*s in his A-Levels. In his later years at school, Seddon was involved in competitive debating, where he won a number of regional and national awards and was invited to join England's National Debating Team.

Seddon has stated that, for most of his time at school, attending a prestigious university “wasn’t really on my radar”. It was only after a radio interviewer questioned him about applying to Oxbridge upon revealing his GCSE results live on BBC Radio Leeds that he began to entertain the possibility seriously. However, Seddon struggled to navigate the Oxbridge application process, describing the interview as “almost like arriving on a different planet”.

Seddon was ultimately successful in receiving a place to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, and graduated in 2018 with first class honours. Whilst studying at Oxford, Seddon received a £6,500 means-tested bursary from the university to fund his living costs. Notably, during Seddon’s final year at Oxford, not a single student from his home constituency of Morley & Outwood was admitted to study at the university. Alongside his university studies, Seddon was an occasional contributor to The Daily Telegraph, where he wrote articles about reforming Britain's higher education system.

Career

Zero Gravity

Upon graduating from the University of Oxford, Seddon founded Access Oxbridge, a mobile app that connected school students from low-income backgrounds with mentors currently studying at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Prior to the app’s launch, British universities had come under criticism for the number of students admitted from private schools. In 2016, the University of Oxford gave 59% of offers to UK students from state schools, whilst 93% of all UK students are educated in state schools. Oxford University spends £14 million per year on programs to recruit applicants from low-income backgrounds, costing £108,000 per student admitted.

Seddon’s app aimed to increase access to Oxford and Cambridge by matching low-income students with undergraduate mentors who coached students through weekly hour-long video calls. Seddon built the app from his hometown bedroom and initially funded the initiative from the remnants of his university maintenance grant. In its first year, 110 low-income students mentored on the app achieved offers to study at Oxford and Cambridge. In October 2019, Seddon was given a Point of Light award for social impact in education.

Media coverage of Seddon’s work attracted the attention of a number of social impact investors who, in March 2020, provided Seddon with £425,000 of venture capital investment to expand his work. Seddon re-designed his app and relaunched it as Zero Gravity in May 2020. Zero Gravity aims to increase social mobility by developing technology to identify low-income students and provide them with personalised support to win places at UK universities, including Oxbridge and the Russell Group.

In 2020, over 1000 students mentored by Zero Gravity achieved offers to study at Russell Group universities. Zero Gravity has supported 261 low-income students to study at Oxford and Cambridge since its launch. In June 2021, Seddon received the Diana Award in memory of Princess Diana for social impact in the education sector.

In December 2021, Seddon confirmed that he had raised a seed round of investment in Zero Gravity totalling £3.5 million. In 2022, he was named by Forbes in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Seddon was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to social mobility.

Advocacy and media

Seddon's work as an entrepreneur has been covered by BBC News, ''The Times'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', and ''Corriere della Sera''. He is a contributor to BBC News, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he discusses education, social mobility and careers. He has also been a guest speaker at the Cambridge Union, where he has delivered lectures on social entrepreneurship.

In October 2020, Seddon was appointed as a Trustee of the British Youth Council. Seddon is also a Governor of Lister Community School.

Personal life

Seddon lives in London and is a Hull City supporter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seddon, Joe
1997 births
Living people
English company founders
English chief executives
British technology company founders
Businesspeople from Leeds
Recipients of the British Empire Medal
People educated at Heckmondwike Grammar School
Socio-economic mobility
Alumni of Mansfield College, Oxford
Alumni of the University of Oxford