London's Most Inspiring Female Founders

Estelle Lloyd

The Founder of Azoomee, a multimedia platform for kids

Parenthood presented Estelle Lloyd and her partner with the challenges of the Internet safety of their children when their daughter came across inappropriate content on Youtube.

“You’d be surprised how quickly you can go from Peppa Pig to Game of Thrones“, she recalls. “The way kids access content through mobile devices is really scary for parents.”

Mobile devices were even being used in classrooms, making Estelle realize it was impossible for parents to fight against the digital change. There needed to be a 100% safe space for children online. Driven by this, Estelle and her partner Douglas created Azoomee, the multimedia platform that would offer positive screen time and learning opportunities for 21st-century skills. There are no ads, no payment options, and no inappropriate content.

Furthermore, it appeared that teaching in schools was lacking in essential skills needed for today’s society and future jobs, such as social-emotional learning skills around science, technology, and robotics. So, although the platform started with mainly video content, they ended up building a vast library of around 150 fun and educational games, ranging from endless runner games to tech games, even to sorting-out-the-recycling games.

Exciting times are on the horizon for Azoomee, as Estelle tells us “having proven the business model in the UK and a few other countries, 2019 is the year we go global.”

In terms of advice for other female entrepreneurs who are just starting out, Estelle highlights one essential resource needed as new businesses go through great highs, but also extreme lows: passion. “If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, it will sustain you. It will drive you, it will support you in these moments.”

Francesca Boccolini

The Founder of SonicJobs, a virtual recruiter

In a digital world where you can find a date in a few hours, have food delivered in 30 minutes, or an Amazon delivery in less than 24 hours, Francesca Boccolini and her co-founder were baffled that people were still walking around London handing out printed CVs.

“We wanted to have people connect with the job opportunities as fast as they could and get access to more opportunities – not be limited to handing around CVs door-to-door,” she explains.

So they produced the idea for SonicJobs, the virtual recruiter for hospitality and retail that helps candidates find the perfect job, fast.

Initial funding for the project proved challenging for Francesca. “It was difficult for a woman, the Italian girl, the foreigner, trying to get into this closed, elite network of people, coming from the finance industry and Oxbridge. I was completely out of that.” However, through perseverance and earning the trust of a few investors, she was able to turn the idea into a reality.

SonicJobs now has over 85,000 candidates and more than 2500 employers in restaurants, pubs, and bars in London. They have also recently launched a chatbot, Julie, who automatically understands candidates’ personality traits and experience, matching them to the most relevant job. Julie is even able to use personality traits to make a CV, enabling the candidate to get employment without prior experience, and to accessing opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise had.

In terms of new challenges, growth is the biggest goal on the horizon for SonicJobs. Francesca tells us the next milestones are to expand across the UK as well as into other cities throughout Europe.

Priya Lakhani OBE

The Founder of CENTURY Tech, a personalized learning platform

As adviser to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2012, an alarming statistic caught Priya Lakhani’s attention: 1.8 million children were in underperforming schools in the UK.

“I was mortified given there were only 8.2 million pupils overall at the time – so 20% of children in our own country not having the levels of literacy and numeracy that they needed.”

A parent herself and concerned that the UK’s education models were often used for developing countries, Priya explored why the education system was failing and discovered that the sector had been digitally left behind. “We had only gone from a blackboard to a whiteboard and technology hadn’t disrupted the sector like it had everywhere else.”

UK education was in desperate need of an upgrade. One year and two nanodegrees in AI and neuroscience later, Priya had the solution – CENTURY Tech, the personalized learning platform that uses advanced technology to tailor to every student’s needs, as well as providing real-time insights to teachers and parents.

Looking forward, Priya is focused on mass growth; of getting the product to both leading, as well as struggling, educational institutions globally. However, she recognizes that due to change-resistant attitudes in the sector, there is a long journey ahead. “It will take some time to overcome the challenge of convincing educators that there is a tool here that doesn’t replace, but augments them and frees their time to actually teach.”

Her advice to other entrepreneurs is that perseverance is key. “You will fluctuate between euphoria and terror on any given day, but if you believe in what you’re doing, you’ve just got to keep going.”

Sarah Hesz and Katie Massie-Taylor

The founders of Mush, an app for connecting parents

Sarah Hesz and Katie Massie-Taylor had each just had their second child when they first met in a playground on a dreary November day. Dealing with feelings of isolation and exhaustion experienced by many new parents, Sarah saw Katie and decided to approach her.

“I went up to Katie and asked her basically to be my friend… which is such a weird thing to do, and very unlike me, but it’s a sign of how desperate I was.”

Flash forward a few months, and Katie and Sarah were beyond grateful to have found each other. “That’s really what inspired us to think about how we could help more moms have friendships like we have.”

And so the idea for Mush, the app that connects parents with children of similar ages in their local area, was born. Lacking prior tech experience, getting the idea moving proved challenging. However, according to Sarah, “something about being a parent gives you this feeling that anything’s possible. If you can bring a human to life, most things are doable.”

Their compelling, relatable story about how they had built their product from a personal, challenging experience proved to be their biggest strength. Some investors identified with them, enabling them to raise the funding needed.

Today, with a friendship count of 1.8 million, Mush has helped parents all over the UK combat common symptoms of loneliness and depression. “It’s definitely a highlight when we hear from moms who use the app and we’ve made a difference in their lives,” Sarah confesses, “even if we’ve just made their day a bit more fun, or given them some helpful advice.”

Suzie Walker

The Founder of The Primal Pantry, vegan snack bars

Necessity is the mother of invention. That was certainly the case for Suzie Walker.

While working as a nutritionist in 2013, treating people with a range of ailments such as weight management, fatigue, fertility, digestive support and stress, she discovered what she refers to as “the wonders of a paleo, stripped back, primal diet and lifestyle,” and how effectively it worked alongside traditional medicine. But while prescribing clients’ meal plans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner proved to be straightforward, snacks were often a challenge. With limited options on the market that she felt able to recommend to her clients, she took matters into her own hands.

“I decided to make energy balls at home, took them to clients, said ‘What do you think of these?’ and they said, ‘We want to buy them off you.’“

Suzie sprang into action: she found a manufacturer, created the recipes, designed the packaging, and launched The Primal Pantry in February 2014. The Primal Pantry is now a well-established brand with an international presence in around 15 countries. All snack bars are vegan and paleo, and contain only high-quality, whole food ingredients and come in a range of different flavours, from acai berry & superseed primal bars to cocoa brownie protein bars.

Suzie clearly possesses a dynamic get-up-and-go attitude, which is perfectly reflected in her advice for other female entrepreneurs: “Get started. Just do it. Learn from it. Every mistake you make is a learning experience.”