Founder(s): Anisa Morridadi
Started: February 2013
Degree/University: BSc Business & Management (Aston University, 2012)
Sector: Arts // Social Enterprise // Youth Engagement
Highlights So Far: Reaching 48,000 young people in the UK in 2020 through the Be Internet Citizens training programme powered by Google and YouTube.

Working with young people and brands who dare to use their creativity to challenge the way of the world.

Beatfreeks is a growing community of young creatives. The organisation connects them to businesses, governments and funders to get them to influence how the world works. They’re interested in getting young people their share of power in order to work with business, government and funders to build the ‘Institutions of the Future’.

Founder and CEO Anisa has been a social entrepreneur since the age of 15, before she even knew what the word meant. After graduating from Aston (where she took part in many enterprise activities), she had a strong desire to act on her passion for youth, art for change and redefining the culture of enterprise so that business and social are seen as inextricable.

Beatfreeks, a youth insight and engagement agency, was the result of that passion and energy. The organisation has evolved and grown exponentially since it got started with BSEEN back in 2013, but the commitment to pioneering new ways of engaging, empowering and developing people and spaces has remained. As well as BSEEN, Anisa had early support from the UnLtd Fast Growth programme.

“BSEEN helped me in the early days to figure out things like finances and business planning, leaving me to focus on the work I truly love”

Today Beatfreeks is headquartered at the Custard Factory in the heart of Birmingham’s creative quarter, with a team of 22. Some of their current key projects include the annual National Youth Trends Report and ‘Be Internet Citizens’, a free programme that equips teachers and youth workers with the tools to empower young people to be safe users of the web. Not forgetting of course their long-running renowned Poetry Jam nights.

Anisa has led the organisation from the beginning, lining up accolades along the way (Forbes 30 under 30, NESTA and The Observer’s 50 New Radicals, and more).

The future vision for the organisation is to continue to unleash the creativity of young people and grow their reach internationally. The mission is simple: the more clients they work with to let young people have influence, the better their business does and the more opportunities they have for young people and communities.

“My advice to any aspiring social entrepreneurs is to find the sweet spot between your purpose and what the world deserves – and make a business out of it.”