How does influencing a business from the inside (Birchbox) differ from the outside (Beringea)?
The experience of building a successful ecommerce business has been critical to my success as an investor – not only did it bring a lot of functional understanding of what it takes to be an entrepreneur, it also brought a lot of emotional understanding of the trials and tribulations of leading a company.
For a tech growth company CEO, it is easy to be consumed by the daily challenge of exploiting a market opportunity and to focus wholly on creating an exciting operation. It is tempting to believe that fundraising at ever higher values and an eventual exit will naturally emerge. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be the case.
Elvie, a health and lifestyle brand developing smarter technology for women, launched in 2013. It’s CEO Tania Boler has worked in the UN and for charities across Africa and Asia. We caught up with her following the launch of Elvie’s latest product.
How is Elvie contributing to Femtech for women?
Elvie is leading better innovation for women. Femtech has been such a hugely overlooked area. We have a multitude of fitness trackers built and ready to use in our phones but nothing specifically for women. Women’s bodies are so complex and go through so many changes it’s astounding innovation seems to have been left behind in this field. We’re creating products that are allowing women to get to know their bodies more and most importantly, learn how to care for them.
When I was working for a law firm, I represented a lot of venture capital firms, start-ups, and big multinationals. This made me realize two things: first, that I wanted to become an entrepreneur, and second, that I was really frustrated that lawyers didn’t have good technology at their disposal to do their jobs better. My idea was that if you could train a computer to understand the language of lawyers—to understand legalese—you could have a very big impact on the industry.
Seven Hills was founded on the belief that business should act as a force for positive change in society. My business partner, Nick Giles, and I founded our campaigns business because we wanted to back disruptive companies and leaders who are dedicated to improving people’s lives. We call them the Changemakers.
Never did I imagine my search online for a squash court would result in running a global software company. About 10 years ago I was searching online for a squash court near my house and found it virtually impossible to find any information on Google. When I finally found details of a court, they couldn’t take bookings or payments online, or even over the phone; you had to turn up in person to book and pay, to go away, and then to come back another time to play. As you can imagine this was extremely frustrating and I knew there had to be a better way, especially when the UK was bidding for the Olympics and trying to make it “easier for people to engage in sports”.
First thing would be to tell my younger me “Don’t Be So Sensitive!!!” When I was young, I took to heart what people said, thought, did and dwelled on it way to long, often to my detriment. I went to school at a tough Comprehensive school in Lowestoft, where my Dad taught. Got bullied, didn’t do as well as I could have, kind of internalised it. On the day of my last A Level, at 4pm I cycled overnight to Cowes, around 170 miles via Oxford with just some glucose bars. Soon as I’d escaped the bad un’s and naysayers, teaching sailing at the NSC in Cowes, with amazing talent and friends, I started to believe in myself, to be the best I could be in life.
People are your biggest asset
Once your business has taken shape, and the plans have become a reality, tech start-ups must face the challenge of expanding their talent pool. New recruits are not just filling a role; they will play a vital part in growing your company, helping you to scale-up. Like anything new, it can take time for somebody to settle in and learn the ropes but as a start-up, the first few years are a critical period.
Just last week, Echo was featured in the NHS Digital Annual Report for 2017-18. This landmark caps a stellar twelve months for the business, during which time we’ve trebled our numbers; appeared on the official NHS Apps Library; been named ‘Best British Startup’ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona; and received £7 million in Series A funding – with backing from the likes of White Star Capital, MMC Ventures, Public.io, LocalGlobe and Global Founders Capital.
