Blakemore is co-director and joint founder of Bikeworks, a London-based social enterprise, which uses bikes as tools to create social and environmental change at community level. He started the business in 2006 with his partner Zoe Portlock, who is now chair. Dave Miller, who was running a similar start-up at the time, joined forces with the start-up, and now runs the business as a co-director.
Bikeworks grew out of a dissertation that Portlock wrote during a social enterprise degree at the University of East London. It was a business plan for a bike enterprise that would prolong the Olympic legacy, and create change in local communities. Blakemore ran a bike hire business in Cambridge at the time, and was able to help Portlock build the plan. The dissertation sparked his “aha moment.”
Before the bike scene beckoned, Blakemore spent his early career DJing and promoting club nights across England, squeezing in time to teach people with learning disabilities to DJ in his free time. Through Portlock's research he discovered how to bring the two strands of busines and social purpose together. He sold his shares in his bike hire business, and he set about with Portlock and Miller to make the imaginary cycling social enterprise a reality.