Victoria Peppiatt – One of Hey Savi’s three female co-founders talks about the importance of knowing your market, being customer obsessed and how building something people need and want isn’t enough.
We’re on a mission to change the way people search and shop online by building the world’s most trusted fashion search engine.
You’ve got to have true passion in what you’re building.
It’s going to be a hard journey. You’ve got to have the resilience in order to problem solve and find the solutions.
Once I fully understood the problem that needed solving, and I’d met my two brilliant co-founders, we knew that we could do it.
I’m passionate about doing business the right way. That means leading with integrity and empathy.
Know your market. Know your competitors. Understand what your financial requirements are.
You’ve got to be customer obsessed. You need to know there’s a real problem that needs solving and what that solution is.
Build something that customers not only need and want but they love and adore.
It’s a bumpy road so build a network. Not only will they support you from a business perspective, but they’ll support you from an emotional and well-being one too.
You’ve got to be determined to get there no matter what.
Enjoy the ride but make sure you look after yourself. It’s all pointless if your mental and physical health aren’t good.
Invest in us. I think there aren’t enough people investing in female-founded businesses, even though research shows that when you invest in a female founder, you can see up to 30% higher revenue in some sectors. Women need more VC funding.* Less than 2% of female-founded companies in the UK are invested in by VCs** We need to make the change.
The way you overcome fear of failure is by doing the research and fully understanding the problem that you’re trying to solve and knowing how you’re going to solve it. Once you’ve done that, the fear goes away.
*Source: UK Fintechs and Gender Diversity: Firms Founded by Women Report 30% Higher Revenue Growth. Finance Magnates**Source: Venture capital needs to venture further: The Treasury Committee
