Experience
30+ years
Knowing what tends to happen when organisations build, grow, change, procure and innovate.
About GoodShip*
There’s more than one way forward.
Every challenge is different. So we don’t start with a fixed route.
GoodShip* is a Purpose & Impact Agency from Liverpool. We help people and organisations find the right way forward, bringing together whatever the challenge needs to turn purpose into action and impact.
In plain terms
The short version.
GoodShip* is a Purpose & Impact Agency based in Liverpool and operated by Good Ship Consultancy Limited. GoodShip* works across consultancy, creative, digital technology, AI, community, experiential learning and innovation.
GoodShip* was founded by Gavin Sherratt in 2024 and works with organisations across business, education, technology, healthcare, sport, community and the public sector.
GoodShip* creates its own programmes, products and communities, including AI Activator, KinShip, OneDock and Fableit, and collaborates with Liverpool Chamber of Commerce on Navigate.
Difficult to put in one box. Deliberately.
- Consultancy
- Creative
- Digital products
- AI
- Technology
- Community
- Education
- Innovation
That can make us difficult to describe using traditional agency categories. We're comfortable with that.
Because the challenges organisations bring us rarely fit neatly into one category either.
A strategy problem can become a technology problem. A technology project can become a people problem. A community challenge might need creative, digital and programme design.
What are you trying to make better?
Start with the problem. Not the department.
The idea grew.
GoodShip* started in 2024 with a relatively simple proposition: collaboration creates better things. That still feels true.
But the first two years taught us something. Collaboration was the method. It wasn't the whole reason for the business to exist.
Through client work, programmes, communities, products and experiments, a clearer pattern appeared. The work we cared about most was trying to create confidence, opportunity, useful technology, stronger organisations, meaningful participation and positive change.
So the proposition evolved. From Collaboration Agency to Purpose & Impact Agency.
2024
GoodShip* begins.
Founded in Liverpool on the belief that collaboration creates better things.
2025
Experiments take shape.
Communities, programmes and the first AI Activator pilot develop alongside client work.
2026
Purpose & Impact.
Products, partnerships and programmes expand, and the positioning becomes clearer.
Collaboration is how. Purpose is why. Impact is what we're trying to create.
GoodShip* is young. The experience isn’t.
GoodShip* was founded after decades of working across digital, creative, technology and business.
- Agency leadership
- Digital transformation
- Software
- Product development
- Websites
- Emerging technology
- Start-ups
- Business strategy
- Creative industries
- Public-sector projects
- Education
- Ecosystem work
GoodShip*
2 years
Being willing to ask whether the old answer is still the right one.
Experience should create better questions.
Not fixed answers.
What's with the *?
GoodShip* has always had a slightly imperfect relationship with conventional agency language.
The name gives us room to be serious, playful, useful and provocative.
The asterisk creates a little uncertainty. A footnote. A question. Something that makes you look twice.
And yes, it gives us permission to occasionally ask: do you give a shi*? We try not to abuse the privilege.
A bit of play makes serious work more interesting.
Play is serious business.
Play doesn't mean careless, unserious or random.
It means creating room to explore, question, test, imagine, make, fail cheaply and discover something unexpected.
That's useful in strategy, products, technology, creative and learning.
Organisations often ask people to innovate while creating environments where experimentation feels risky. We prefer to make experimentation part of the work.
Play creates possibility.Purpose gives it direction.Impact tells us whether it mattered.
We build our own things too.
GoodShip* doesn't only work on client briefs. We create our own products, programmes, platforms, communities and experiments.
We call them Activations.
AI Activator
Experiential AI and future skills.
KinShip
Community and knowledge sharing.
OneDock
Digital infrastructure for discovery.
Fableit
Participatory storytelling.
Navigate
A collaborative initiative developed with Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.
AI & Tech for Good
Collaborative knowledge sharing on AI and technology for good.
Why? Because making our own things forces us to deal with the same realities our clients face: uncertainty, budgets, users, technology, adoption, sustainability and impact.
Practise what you preach. Then share what you learn.
GoodShip* is people.
We are not trying to build a giant traditional agency structure.
GoodShip* works through a combination of core team, associates, specialists, collaborators, delivery partners and client teams.
That means we can build around the challenge rather than selling whoever happens to be available internally.
Gavin Sherratt
Founder
Crew
Gavin founded GoodShip* to bring good people, good ideas and useful technology together around work that can make a genuine difference.
Profile
Abubakr Abdulraheem
Innovation & Growth Associate
Crew
Abu helps turn GoodShip* ideas into things people can actually use.
Profile
Shawla Ahad
Creative
Crew
Shawla brings creativity, curiosity and a strong sense of purpose to the GoodShip* crew.
Profile
Emma Robinson
Strategy & Programmes
Shipmate
Emma brings together experience in entrepreneurship, education and social mobility to help turn good ideas into programmes with real-world value.
ProfileBuild the team around the problem.
Not the problem around the team.
Founded by Gavin Sherratt.
GoodShip* was founded by Gavin Sherratt, a digital and innovation strategist with more than three decades of experience across creative, technology, agency leadership, digital products and business.
Before GoodShip*, Gavin spent much of his career working where creativity, technology and commercial thinking meet.
GoodShip* gives that experience a different focus: how can those capabilities help people and organisations create something useful and make a positive difference?
You don't need a large agency. You need the right people.
Different challenges need different expertise.
A digital product
- Product strategy
- Development
- UX
- AI
- Commercial thinking
A community programme
- Facilitation
- Creative
- Engagement
- Evaluation
A brand project
- Strategy
- Design
- Storytelling
- Motion
GoodShip* can bring those capabilities together without pretending every skill needs to sit permanently inside one organisation.
We collaborate with specialists we trust and work comfortably alongside existing agencies, developers, internal teams, consultants and partners.
Collaboration isn't a delivery risk when you know how to do it properly.
Things we try to hold onto.
Make a positive difference
Leave something better.
If we're spending time and energy on something, we'd like it to leave something better.
Be a go-giver
Contribution first.
Ask what can I contribute? before what can I get?
Stay curious
Questions create possibilities.
Certainty can close them down too early.
Believe in people
Capability comes first.
Capability often exists before confidence does.
Be transparent
Say the useful thing.
What we know. What we don't. What we think. What changed.
Be authentic
Be human.
Say what you mean. And avoid unnecessary bullship*.
How we try to work.
- 01
Purpose before output
Understand why before deciding what.
- 02
People before technology
Technology is a tool. People are the point.
- 03
Question before answer
The wrong question creates expensive answers.
- 04
Make before perfect
Sometimes you need something tangible before you can know what you think.
- 05
Collaboration over ego
The strongest idea matters more than who gets credit.
- 06
Simplicity matters
Complexity should earn its place.
- 07
Participation creates impact
People care more when they have a meaningful role.
- 08
Share what you learn
Useful knowledge becomes more valuable when it moves.
- 09
Measure what changed
Activity is not enough.
Making things isn’t enough.
A website going live isn’t impact. Neither is an event happening or a programme being delivered.
Those are outputs. We’re interested in what happens because of them.
Did someone become more confident?
Did an organisation make a better decision?
Did a founder move forward?
Did people learn something?
Did a relationship form?
Did a service become easier to access?
Did someone find an opportunity?
Did something useful exist afterwards that didn’t exist before?
That’s impact.
1,000s
people brought together
Across multiple GoodShip* community events and experiences.
45
Internship opportunities
Created through university relationships.
87%
Increased confidence
Reported in the original AI Activator pilot.
80%
Changed perspective
Changed career perspective following participation.
2 years
Of experimentation
Projects, partnerships, programmes and play.
Different organisations. Shared ambition.
GoodShip* works with businesses, universities, charities, public bodies, communities, sports organisations, founders and innovators.
Some are around the corner. Others are further away.
Some need strategic thinking. Some need technology. Some need creativity. Some need a programme, platform, community or partner.
What interests us most isn’t the sector or postcode. It’s whether there is something worth changing.
Interesting beats familiar.
- Something needs figuring out
- Technology is changing the possibilities
- People need to participate
- Several disciplines need connecting
- A new product needs testing
- An organisation needs an independent perspective
- An idea has purpose but lacks a route forward
We're comfortable with uncertainty.
You don't need to arrive with a perfect brief. Often, creating the brief is part of the job.
Bring the question. We'll work out what kind of work it needs.
Different sectors. Similar questions.
Education & Skills
Universities, colleges, schools and learning organisations.
Technology & Innovation
Start-ups, products, platforms and emerging technology.
Health & Life Sciences
Healthcare, MedTech, life sciences and innovation.
Business & Professional Services
Businesses navigating growth, change and technology.
Charity & Community
Purpose-led organisations creating social impact.
Sport
Clubs, foundations, leagues and community organisations.
Public Sector
Organisations working around places, people, skills and economic development.
Creative Industries
Agencies, studios, cultural organisations and creative businesses.
What interests us isn’t the sector label. It’s whether there is something worth changing.
Liverpool is our home. Purpose is our territory.
GoodShip* was born in Liverpool. And the city has shaped the business.
Creative. Independent. Funny. Resilient. Community-minded. Slightly suspicious of unnecessary pretension.
Liverpool also gives us access to an interesting intersection of creativity, technology, universities, healthcare, culture, business and community.
It's a useful place to experiment.
Good ideas don't stop at the city boundary.
Neither do we.
Work where the interesting problems are.
Liverpool is home. It isn't a commercial boundary.
GoodShip* works and develops relationships across the UK and internationally.
- A Liverpool-based project
- Partners in London
- Programmes elsewhere in the UK
- International relationships
- Activity in places such as Malta
- Contexts
- Partners
- Constraints
- Opportunities
What are you trying to make better?
Impact rarely happens alone.
GoodShip* likes partnership models where organisations bring different strengths.
That could mean working with universities, Chambers, delivery organisations, funders, specialist agencies, community organisations and public bodies.
Navigate, developed collaboratively with Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, is a good example.
Liverpool Chamber brings
- Business infrastructure
- Membership
- Networks
- Experience
GoodShip* brings
- Creative
- Digital
- Technology
- Community
- Experimentation
The interesting bit sits in the overlap.
Good partnerships don't erase differences. They make those differences useful.
Apparently other people give a ship* too.
Recognition isn’t why we do the work.
But it’s useful when people outside GoodShip* see value in what we’re trying to create.
- 2026Winner
Creative Innovation Award
GoodShip* won the Creative Innovation Award for AI Activator, recognising its creative approach to combining artificial intelligence, experiential learning and real-world challenges to build practical skills, confidence and career opportunities.
- 2026Finalist
Digital & Technology Business of the Year
GoodShip* was named a finalist for Digital & Technology Business of the Year, recognising its work across digital, technology, artificial intelligence, innovation and purpose-led business development.
- 2026Finalist
Best Start-Up
GoodShip* was named a finalist for Best Start-Up less than two years after launch, recognising the development of the business and its work across innovation, collaboration, technology and positive impact.
- 2025Winner
Innovation Community Impact Award
GoodShip* received the Innovation Community Impact Award in recognition of its approach to creating positive community impact through collaboration, creativity and technology, including activity through KinShip and AI & Tech for Good.
- Profile1 August 2026
My Planet Liverpool
From Mashbo to GoodShip*: Gavin Sherratt's journey
- News26 June 2026
Liverpool Business News
GoodShip* sails forward with AI programme
- Feature29 April 2025
Forbes
Upskilling In AI: The Key To Survival And Success For Startups
A few useful boundaries.
Not a traditional agency
We don't begin with a predefined list of outputs.
Not a management consultancy
We like thinking. We also like making.
Not an AI company
AI is increasingly important. It's still a tool.
Not a charity
GoodShip* is a commercial business. Commercial success and positive impact can coexist.
Not limited to one sector
Cross-sector learning is often where the interesting ideas appear.
Not limited by geography
Liverpool is home, not the boundary.
Two years of play. And a surprising amount of impact.
- Experimentation
- Client work
- Programmes
- Technology
- Partnerships
- Communities
- Events
- Prototypes
- Mistakes
- Opportunities we couldn't have predicted
That's probably how we want the next few years to feel too.
GoodShip* shouldn't become so polished that it loses its curiosity.
The aim isn't finish experimenting. It's get better at experimenting with purpose.
GoodShip* is still an experiment.
We'd like to keep it that way.
What we’re thinking about.
We write about building the business, purpose, Activations, AI, community and the lessons we’d rather share than keep.
Thinking, learning, experiments and useful knowledge from GoodShip*.
What are you trying to make better?
You don't need to know which GoodShip* service you need.
You don't need a finished brief.
You don't need to know whether the answer is strategy, technology, creative, a programme, a Sprint, a partner, or something else.
Start with what matters. We'll ask questions from there.