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Jas Schembri-Stothart: “Ask Yourself Whether You Absolutely Love the Problem You’re Solving For.”

Jas Schembri-StothartThe co-founder of Luna talks about the challenges of being first to market, showing up every day, and why choosing a business partner is like a marriage. 

I’m the co-founder of Luna, a digital health and wellbeing companion for teenage girls.

You’ve got to show up every single day for whatever you are building. That takes resilience, energy and passion. 

I went to schools to go and talk to teen girls about the idea for Luna. After I left, I started getting emails asking me, “Where can I download this app?” “Can I come do work experience with you?” “Can I start coding it?” 

There’s a real need for a product like Luna and I want to be the first one out there building it.

I’ve been a teen girl before. It’s hard. And it’s even harder today in 2024. 

My co-founder said, “I want to do this idea,” and I couldn’t let her go and do it without me!

Ask yourself whether you absolutely love the problem you’re solving for. Because you’re going to live and breathe this for the next five, seven, ten years.

It takes a lot of energy. You need your friends and family round you, rallying and ready to support you.

If you’re building a business with someone, make sure it’s the right person. Is this the person you want to essentially enter into a marriage with? You’ve got to trust them.

Nobody was doing anything in this space. Teen health is a largely untapped area.

I think being the first in a market is super hard. It is for any business trying to be the first in a space. It’s still difficult but we’re able to show traction. We’re able to show that we can execute.

When raising money from investors, we had to prove three things: first, there was a problem; second, there was an opportunity; and third, this was an investable space—and that we were going to be the first ones to do something about it. 

If you can make introductions to people, do it. It costs nothing but it means so much.