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Start-up Interview: Female Entrepreneur Louise Campbell of Freeosk
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Louise Campbell is no stranger to internet start-ups. In 2005 she established Loulas Boutique, before providing American giant Etsy with a little homespun competition when she launched MyEhive. Here Louise talks to The NextWomen about her newest venture Freeosk – which will supply free-standing, eco-friendly, green mobile trading vehicles to creative businesses for hire – her belief in impermanence and the importance of getting advice on business before you spend even a single penny. |
Tell us a bit about yourself – your education and work experience?
Graphic designer by education and ecommerce disciple by profession. I worked for Liberty of London for six years, gaining a strong background in luxury retail sales and ecommerce. In 2005 I established Loulas Boutique the ‘Cult Designer Jewellery Store’ for Liberty of London designer’s who had no web presence at the time. In September 2008 MyEhive was launched in response to multiple designers aspiring to sell their products by virtue of a trusted storefront, nestled amongst an uber-cool online creative community. We currently have over 600 members and rising.
What is freeosk and how might this change my life?
Freeosk will allow creative businesses to showcase their goods to the public whilst remaining solvent and out of debt, the key to their success. There are over 60K design graduates in the UK and rising at 3% per annum. It’s increasingly difficult for graduates, to find affordable retail space in prominent locations especially in the South East of England. We hope to change that in a big way. Freeosk will supply free-standing, eco-friendly, green mobile trading vehicles to creative businesses for hire. It is similar to ‘Street Cars’ business model, but for creatives.
You founded MyEhive, an online platform for buying and selling handmade gifts, so what inspired you to make a seemingly unrelated leap into mobile kiosks?
After conducting a feasibility study, I realised there was a real market for Freeosk’s products. Over the summer I was doubly inspired by Wayne Hemingway’s static kioskiosk in action at one of my favourite locations on the Southbank in London. MyEhive.com and Freeosk.co.uk are closely related, they both serve the same market – artisans, designers and foodies – for whom being able to get in front of the public whilst remaining solvent is key to their success.
Were you always destined to be a serial entrepreneur?
I believe in impermanence, from the false passion for security on which we base everything. I let go of the idea that one idea is permanent, I enjoy working with change, it frees you up.
What is the business model for Freeosk and how long after your launch in June 2010 do you think it will be before you become profitable? Read more
e-trader Announces Buyout of Koodos as Miriam Lahage Passes the Helm to Miranda Grubb
The e-trader group, today announced its acquisition of the award-winning discount site, Koodos. One of the UK’s leading fashion e-tailers, the site offers consumer discounts of up to 80%. The deal, involving a part cash, part share consideration for an undisclosed sum, represents the next step in the company’s strategy to become the UK’s leading e-commerce business focused on the fast growing clearance and overstock market.
Miriam Lahage, original CEO, will remain with the company for the interim to ensure a smooth transition as she passes over to Miranda Grubb, Managing Director of what a find and new CEO of Koodos. When asked about her next step, and considering her 20 years’ experience in merchandising, team leadership, negotiation and market relationships, Miriam told us:
‘I am looking at a lot of things, and have a feeling that I will be making a decision quite soon. I will definitely be looking at projects in the online fashion world…’
The company, which launched in 2006, is presently estimated to have an off price market place worth in the region of £14billion annually. With the recession causing problems for many businesses, it is clear it has had a positive impact on the venture as people shift their buying patterns towards online sites which enable them to continue shopping, yet at lower prices.
The e-trader group, which specialises in the clearance and overstock sector by offering retailers and manufacturers access to both the trade and consumer markets via one single easy-to-use online platform, was no doubt a wise choice to ensure continued success of the business. Yet the good choice gets even better, when you consider their new CEO, Miranda Grubb, comes from a site, Whatafind, which has itself built sltrong relationships with over 50 luxury homewares brands. Read more
Two Funds Aimed at Women Led Companies are Launched (and The Start of Shareholder Activism on Gender Diversity)
Two funds which focus on women-led companies have launched in the last couple of weeks: The Women Leadership Fund and The Texas Women Ventures Fund. Both make a business case that investing in gender-diverse companies gives higher returns and fulfills an important socio-economic objective. The Women Leadership Fund, however, has an extra objective as the first activist shareholder with a focus on gender diversity.
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The Texas Women Ventures Fund
The Texas Women Ventures Fund, which was launched by 4 female founders in 2005, has announced its second fund, focusing on high growth business. With a $1m commitment, the lead investor has been The Boone Family Foundation. The foundation strives to invest in companies which are able to pass the 60-second test, inter alia – an established track record of $7 to $70 million in revenue and established in Texas and the Southwest – and where women have equity in the business. The aim is to provide a minimum of $750,000, advice, mentoring and a network of resources to qualified businesses. The fund does not invest in startups, and has a current portfolio of women-led companies within the construction and restaurant sectors.
The Women Leadership Fund
The Women Leadership Fund was launched at the end of September 2009, by Swiss-based Naissance Capital to invest in companies with a market capitalisation of $200m US or higher and a liquidity of $10m US or greater. The extra investment requirement is based on both qualitative and quantitative gender screening.
In practice this means companies need to have a 20% greater than average number of women in key roles, and a very favourable gender policy and track record (through awards etc.).
The fund wants to bank in on the presumption that firms scoring well in gender diversity are underpriced and possess hidden value.
Cherie Blair declares a Revolution as Women are Drivers of Economic Growth
At the launch event in New York on September 23, 2009, and in the presence of many prominent leaders, investors and women organisations, Cherie Blair, who is on the board of the Fund, delivered the keynote saying:
“By investing in those companies which have set a lead in harnessing women’s talent and potential, and supporting new women leaders, you are helping overcome the gender gap in business. You are also, of course, helping make money for your investors.
We simply can’t go on not making the most of the talents and potential of half the population. [...] For a revolution is happening. And those firms and countries which don’t understand this are going to be left behind. In developed and developing nations, women have become the drivers of economic growth. The term womenomics has been coined to describe this global phenomenon, seen by some experts as the single most important factor in our economies this century.”
Janet Hanson of 85Broads, a global network for women in finance said:
“The opportunity to invest in women has many of the same strong ‘fundamentals’ [as investing 15-20 years ago in global warming] that make investing in this ‘undervalued asset class’ so compelling.”
The Women Leadership Fund is currently seeking 100 million from investors.
The Women Leadership Fund as Activist Shareholder on Gender Diversity
Apart from its regular investor role, the Fund also has a wider objective: Read more
Vote for The Most Innovative Dutch Media Startup
 Amikasa, in the Top 5 |
More than 250 startups have submitted their concept for the 2009 edition of the Innovation Awards in The Netherlands. |
In September a jury of industry experts ranked all the submitted concepts for the Jury Ranking:
- Amikasa – an online tool to design your house
- Intivation Sunboost – a technology device
- Layar – a browser for Mobile
- Sharkworld – gaming
- Yunoo – a personal finance platform
The Jury also selected 33 concepts which have been nominated for the Public’s Prize.
It is now up to the public to vote and select the Innovation Awards Public’s Prize Winner 2009. Voting for the Innovation Awards is possible until 3rd November 2009, and includes the following categories:
1. Best mobile concept
2. Best web concept
3. Best gaming concept
4. Best connected device
5. Best lifestyle concept
6. Best business to business concept
7. Best green concept
On the 5th of November in the Dialogues House in Amsterdam, Accenture and its partners will organise the Innovation Awards Seminar. Read more
Female Internet Hero: Audio Interview with Rashmi Sinha of Slide Share
As part of their Female Internet Heroes series, and in conjunction with NCWIT (the National Center for Women & Information Technology), The NextWomen will be publishing audio interviews highlighting a diverse group of women innovators from small companies, larger corporations, and non-profits, whose ideas and products are changing the way we think, work, play, and communicate. Listen as these women discuss how they first became involved with tech, why they chose to be entrepreneurs and what advice they would give to young people interested in IT or entrepreneurship.
Rashmi Sinha, CEO and Co-founder of Slide Share
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Listen to the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Interview with Rashmi Sinha. |
Rashmi Sinha
SlideShare is the world’s largest community, allowing everyone from teacher to marketeer to connect and share presentations. The site has enjoyed such rapid growth that it now boasts 11 million unique visitors a month
Rashmi Sinha is a designer, researcher and entrepreneur, having earned a PhD in Cognitive NeuroPsychology from Brown University in 1998. After moving to UC Berkeley for a PostDoc, she did research on search interfaces & recommender systems. She fell in love with the web, and realised that many issues felt by web technologists were about problems of human psychology. Deciding that she enjoyed practical problems more, she co-founded Uzanto, a user experience consulting company and worked on projects for companies like eBay, Blue Shield and AAA. Her first foray into products was with MindCanvas (a game-like software for customer research) released in November 2005.
Rashmi writes about social software, entrepreneurship, and running a start-up on her webiste. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Webvisions and Future of Web Apps. She is involved in the HCI community, was one of the founding members of the Information Architecture Society and co-chairs the monthly BayCHI talk series.
NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information Technology. They are a coalition of more than 170 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits working to increase women’s participation in information technology (IT). NCWIT was established in 2004 with startup funding from the National Science Foundation, Avaya, Microsoft, Pfizer, Bank of America, Intel, HP, the Kauffman Foundation, and Qualcomm.
Is Deauville the Next Davos? Conclusions of The Women’s Forum
Many panels and debates at WF
Last weekend, more than 1000 thought leaders came together to discuss the Economy and Society from a female perspective. Unlike the Davos Global Forum, in Deauville powerful women are in the majority at the fifth international Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. Its motto is:
“Think again, think ahead! It is time for action, change and hope”.
There were many international speakers unveiling their ideas on politics, entrepreneurship, economics; a lot of the time about the effects of the financial crisis, but also on the chances and opportunities that it brings. Among the speakers – 17 Rising Talents of 2009 - was Founder of Smarta, Shaa Wasmund.
Some conclusions from the forum were:
Women are Hit Hard by the Financial Crisis
It may be that women-led hedge funds have performed better in the financial crisis than hedge funds run by men – as was one of the conclusions of a Report launched at the Women’s Forum - and yet women and girls in poor countries have been hit the hardest by the implosion of banks thousands of miles away.
The developed world has received far more funding to combat the crisis, in comparison to that received by the worlds poorest countries. As a result, women now need similarly large-scale solutions, including access to capital and to larger markets, to combat the crisis.
Founder of WF: Aude Zieseniss de Thuin
“The ground has shifted beneath the feet of our business models and social and economic policies”, explains Founder and CEO Aude Zieseniss de Thuin. “The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society views moments of rupture like this as an opportunity to advance new ideas, technologies and even paradigms for society and the economy. With their male counterparts, women have a key role to play in the process of creating a more resilient future,” the Founder of the Women’s Forum said.
Empowering Women makes Financial Sense
Discussed at great length, was the idea that empowering women economically is not just a matter of fairness, but of financial sense. Read more
Start-up Interview: InfinCubator Provides Online Incubation for Women in Tech
The internet is awash with companies that provide business advice to start-ups, but no online incubator appears to target women led businesses, specifically online and throughout the first three years of a sites existence. Here pitch-preneur at our recent Darwinian Business event, Egle Karalyte, founder of InfinCubator (an online incubator aimed at women), talks to The NextWomen about a life-time of entrepreneurial spirit, the need for an online one-stop shop and how the business will look in a years time.
Egle Karalyte of InfinCubator
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
This is always really difficult, but let me try…
I am originally from Lithuania – a small country near the Baltic Sea. I left 10 years ago with a dream to see the world and I’ve been fortunate to have been given the opportunities to do so. Over the last 10 years I have studied Computer Science in Massachusetts (USA) & Dublin; worked in corporations and with start-ups in NYC and London, and travelled to the South and Far East. A need for freedom and adventure seems to have always been with me.
Because of personal reasons, I recently moved back to Europe and have settled in Paris. Since running my own business has always been dream of mine, a year ago I used this change of course to start my own e-business boutique consultancy – InfinVision. For the last year I’ve been helping companies to strategically integrate & leverage web 2.0 concepts, strategies and technologies. The web has been my passion since I was 16 years old, and so it seemed like a natural progression. I now juggle my time between London and Paris.
Can you explain InfinCubator and how you came up with the idea?
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Since starting InfinVision I have networked like crazy – my first few clients were start-ups and consultants with small budgets. I’ve also met quite a few women with dreams to have their own businesses, but who had huge fears to just go and do it.
I’ve noticed that fear, a lack of knowledge about the web and budget constraints to hire consultancies or good web agencies, were the common obstacles between them and their dream. When you are jumping into a business without previous experience, getting web designers in India looks like a good idea – only $100 – but you don’t realise that a bad web presence can seriously damage your brand, which later on is extremely difficult to fix.
I therefore wanted to help these women implement their dreams successfully, and so I came up with the idea for a web-based service that would give them everything they needed to jump-start properly: good professional advice; a do-it-yourself web platform; the correct people to do the job; a community for support, and all for an affordable price. In other words, a consolidated platform of the knowledge I was selling to bigger companies.
How are you different from other online incubators? Read more
The All Female Team of DIY HomeJane.Co.UK is Bucking the Trend for all Male Trades
 Jo Behari, founder of Home Jane |
Founded by Jo Behari in October 2006, HomeJane.co.uk is one of the UK’s first all-female home improvement and property maintenance companies. After several frustrating experiences in her own home with unreliable trade firms, Jo hit upon this novel but much needed concept. |
Online Presence
Behari realised immediately that having a presence online would make marketing the business a far simpler task.
As a woman living alone, she often felt uncomfortable having tradesmen in the house. Upon sharing her experiences, she soon realised many others felt the same and having heard numerous stories about women who felt intimidated or who had been conned by ‘rogue’ traders, she took the plunge.
‘Female’ Gap in the Property Maintenance Market
She instantly realised there was a gap in the market for a service which addressed such issues as:
- Lone women feeling uncomfortable or intimidated by having tradesmen in the home
- Elderly or vulnerable people feeling anxious inviting tradesmen into the home
- Organisations for whom it is disruptive or inappropriate for a man to make repairs on their premises (e.g. female changing rooms, women’s hostels etc.).
Women DIY Tips and Workshops
As a DIY enthusiast herself, Jo was also keen to support women in entering trades that still today remain male-dominated. As a result, Home Jane has opened up numerous opportunities for professional tradeswomen (both current and potential) across the country. Read more
Start-up Interview: iCreate-Shoes Allows You to Design your Own Shoes
Personalisation and Customisation of fashion items has become big business. iCreate-Shoes is seeking to do for the ‘brown shoes’ market what NIKEiD has done offline for trainers and Spread Shirt for the humble T-shirt. Here, Raquel Dobson, pitch-preneur at our recent Darwinian Business Event and founder of iCreate-Shoes talks to The NextWomen about gaining business ‘common sense’, her initial steps on the road to funding and her top 10 points of advice for any woman starting her own business.
Raquel Dobson impressing the investors
Raquel Dobson impressing the investors
Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
I have been in the Digital and Broadcast Media industry for over 17 years, having started my career in LA as a Casting Assistant in the Motion Picture industry. Great experience that gave me the essential skills to work with creative personalities.
When I returned to the UK, I was bitten by the digital media bug, and joined a pioneering technology company who launched Video-on-Demand and IPTV. That was an exciting time also as the web was just coming into its own.
Those years were totally different to the years before, and they started me on the path of gaining business ‘common sense’.
Since those early days, I have worked in start-ups, as well as in global brands, Sony Pictures & Disney-ABC-ESPN TV to name a few. I now have a career that runs the spectrum of business disciplines, with good and bad experiences had along the way. All of which has led me to where I am today – Founder and C.E.O. of iCreate-Shoes.
What is iCreate-Shoes and why did you decide to start it?
iCreate-Shoes is a platform where the consumer can ‘customise’ shoes online, and ‘personalise’ their shoes to express their own identity. At iCreate-Shoes the ‘individual’ becomes the ‘designer’.
The iCreate-Shoes Holding Page
Our ‘interactive user-design interface software’ enables customisation by mixing and matching a variety of styles, materials, heels, trimmings and accessories. Our software also enables many ‘personalisation’ USPs, taking the proposition further.
iCreate-Shoes is the first product line to launch on the iCreate-Style platform. The ‘iCreate-Style’ brand is about providing a platform for personal expression, through designing something unique to you – for you, for your family, for your friends, you name it!
I am kicking off iCreate-Shoes now, because of how social network sites have changed the way we interact with the world around us – it’s all about connecting, showing who you are and expressing yourself to the world – and what better way to ‘express yourself’ than through shoes that make you feel your best every time you strut down the street in them.
It is also just about time that women get access to ‘comfortable’ sexy fashion shoes that don’t kill their feet or crush their toes – finally comfort/support and gorgeous shoes can happily co-exist!
How will you be different from the likes of NIKEiD? Read more
Forbes Entrepreneurial Stories of Women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s
Diane Hessan, Communispace CEO
What does it take to start an egg donor company in your 20s, lead an IT business in your 30s, grow an oil products company in your 40s or reinvent yourself as head of an Internet firm in your 50s?
Forbes Magazine has just finished a series of entrepreneurial stories about women of various ages, including: Diane Hessan, Kathy Lehne, Cassandra Sanford and Julia Alkire & Stephanie Goldman. Here are the stories:
Entrepreneurial success in your 50s: Diane Hessan, president and CEO of Internet firm Communispace, creating social communities.
Entrepreneurial success in your 40s: Kathy Lehne, founder of oil products company SunCoast Resources.
Entrepreneurial success in your 30s: Cassandra Sanford, Co-founder and CEO of KellyMitchell
Entrepreneurial success in your 20s: Julia Alkire & Stephanie Goldman of Family Creations
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