36. How to get users on your app from day one | Michelle Kennedy

22:08And you cater to a large audience in America?

22:11Michelle Kennedy:70 % of our users are in the US. I didn't know that. Where are the other 30 %? Pretty much UK. And we'll give a small sliver to LATAM because we're starting to grow that. So if you're listening and you're interested, how does our audience find you online? So what's the address, Michelle? So you go to the App Store and search for Peanut App on Google Play or on the Apple App Store. And that's it. Peanut App. Peanut App. and you will find millions of women just like you at the same life stage, whether you're trying to get pregnant, whether you're pregnant, you can track your pregnancy as well. We'll tell you whether you've got baby the size of a watermelon or whatever it might be.

22:54How do you do that?

22:55Michelle Kennedy:So we can tell you by the stage of your pregnancy. Two of my daughters are pregnant. I can't tell you how excited I am. Well, there you go. So I have to get them onto a peanut. They need to go on peanut track and they can track it. And you can see the size of the baby's foot. So adorable. And join groups. So they'll join a group with other women who are due in the same month. Well, that sounds fantastic. Thank you. So how many people are now on board? We have about 5 million a month that use PNL. 5 million a month using it. Yeah. Because isn't, I mean, when you started, I suppose a key success factor was to get this to critical mass.

23:25You know, you go on and there's no one else there. So how do you do that? Because that's a challenge for lots of startups.

23:31Michelle Kennedy:It's so hard. I'm so glad you mentioned it because getting critical mass, people don't really think about this. Sometimes people come to me and they're like, I want to build an app. i'm like how do you get people to do it there are thousands of apps released to the app store every month thousands and we'll never hear of them they'll never get anywhere and it's not good enough to say well i'm just going to run some ads on meta that won't do it either so i think that you have to have a seeding plan who are the people that you're going to seed this with are they going to evangelize about the product so that they kind of share and do the hard work for you and from there can you get enough momentum that you then start plugging in other marketing strategies and for me it was those 200 women so the people you've spoken to before absolutely you got them all on there day one I was like launches tomorrow do you want to try the beta and they already feel a connection with the business and 200 was enough it was enough to get going and then I was very So you use your research pool to get going.

24:35Michelle Kennedy:They feel an emotional connection to it because they've already answered questions. They already are interested and nosy enough to go and test it. And from there it can grow. So you call that a seeding strategy. Yeah, seeding. I like that expression. Yeah, so you just gently seed with different people and see. And were those women in the UK or in America? Both. So you had both places. Both, but majority in the US. Right. And they got to know each other. Exactly. So they, don't forget also, the US is a really difficult market because every state is almost like a little country or a different country.

25:07Michelle Kennedy:So you have to really understand East Coast versus West Coast versus, you know, the North. So there's a lot of differences. There's a lot of difference and it's just about understanding that. So you got started, but now you've got five million. So do they refer people? Is there a referral? Yeah. So you can refer. So you can tell your friends. Exactly. invite your friends um we have amazing ambassadors who we call mvps most valuable peanuts and they they hold events and they invite people to join they really evangelize about peanut and in exchange and as a appreciation they'll wear peanut t-shirts or tote bags and we give them you know the opportunity to have these um do you have sort of peanut events where you get together we do occasionally do them but often it's the user base that arrange them they do that independently absolutely because it's not scalable for peanut just to do events no but it is scalable but i just wondered if sometimes people like to come together we do we do yeah so that's that's the seeding strategy for those listening you want to get going is a good example and using your research base to do that absolutely and think about who your um desired audience is you know if you are building a SaaS business, go into that business and say, look, I'm building this and can I give it to you?

26:29Michelle Kennedy:Can you trial it for me for free? And that's the best use case that you can get. You get to see it in the wild. So there's always an example of how to get it out there and be able to observe it. And the starting point doesn't need to be building an app. That always makes me anxious when people say they want to. Where should the starting point be? You can build an environment to test something. And it's so, so brilliant now. When you say environment, what do you mean? So it might be, if you wanted to build a community product, for example, you don't have to build a community app. You can build a WhatsApp group.

27:02Michelle Kennedy:It's free. You can test. Can you get people to join that group? Can you get enough engagement going? What are they talking about? You can create these environments in whatever scenario might best suit your business. Just readily available technology to start with. And AI is incredible now. You know, there are no code solutions where you can build something very, very inexpensively and test it before you go into the real depth. Just ask AI to do it. Well, you can get a clickable prototype, get it in people's hands, watch how they use it. It's very easy to do. There are tools like Figma where you can do that.

27:34Michelle Kennedy:There are amazing things that we should all be doing now. So this is all about some bootstrapping something. Absolutely, and go and test it. Not finding huge amounts of money to build something. Exactly. You can start really small. and find that out a lot and learn a lot and take it from there. Exactly. And in fact, that's what we should all be doing. It's so exciting. This wave of AI is potentially going to create a whole lot of new businesses. I'm obsessed with it. You're obsessed? I am. Why? I just think there is so much that is unknown. It is doing so much for us. You know, at Peanut, we had large language models for a very long time and we used our own that we built ourselves.

28:15So you've been using AI for a long time.

28:17Michelle Kennedy:Yes, before it was fashionable in a buzzword, we had our own in order to, for safety. So we were using it to moderate the site, to help us predict the likelihood of you being a good or a bad actor on the platform to really keep the community safe. And that was amazing. So is that your police force? Almost, but I can't do it as quickly as the new LLMs that are out there. I mean, they're just amazing. So you now use them, do you? Absolutely, as much as I can, because I think that there are just so many exciting advancements. And do you use them for other purposes? I always want to know who AI is recommending for the best mum app.

28:55Michelle Kennedy:It's Peanut. Don't worry. But I always want to check. Yeah, of course. Of course. It is just an incredible tool. What would you do if it said someone else? Oh, I'd be very upset. I would be very upset. You'd have to convince it. That's it. You've made some changes. How dare you? No, clearly AI is very intelligent. that's all I can say so it recommends peanut exactly the best moment yeah that's it yeah okay well that's good to know it is it's amazing I only know this by the way because a user messaged me on peanut saying I found out about peanut through chat GPT right and I thought that's strange so I tested well I heard the other day that meta had taken the contents of two of my books and put them into their AI engine to help people find jobs I wasn't sure how I felt about that because i did write the books to help people progress and find jobs yeah it did feel a bit sort of abusive no no comment on anything to do with copyright and and that area i think it's a difficult space very difficult very difficult so that i mean that's still to be played out but um no very interesting now you you mentioned that some of your experiences when you were going out to raise money were less than ideal in terms of your pitches and the questions and the responses you receive.

30:12You have actually done something about this haven't you Michelle?

30:15Michelle Kennedy:Yes. What have you done and tell us you know why it's good? Despite massive massive progress and there has been progress we must accept that we do now have more women who are working at senior levels in BC who have check writing capability absolutely and we do have more female founders absolutely in fact we talk about things female founders we never spoke about that before that wasn't even really a title that anyone had so we do know that that has advanced but women still receive less than two percent of venture raised two percent and we're 50 of the population it's a real problem and when i was first raising for peanut people would talk about doing a friends and family round yes i've heard that expression i was like what is that yeah and it's around where you meant to You're meant to go and ask your friends and family to write you small checks to get your business off the ground.

31:09Michelle Kennedy:Well, I had zero friends and family who could casually write 25 to 50k checks to get my business off the ground. Yeah, I can imagine that's true of most people. Right. That was just not something that I had in my network and or in my friends and family network anyway. and furthermore the people that i could see who were doing these friends and family rounds were you know these young generally men in the u.s who who kind of had this extensive ability to do it um and that for me so young young american men who had good financial networks in in the u.s yeah and you know came from families where that was normal or could be done and um that for me is the exact point at which it's a problem.

31:55Michelle Kennedy:The very start. Because if you have access to capital that early, you can start to play around, test things, get going before you take venture or whatever it might be. But if you don't, what do you do? How do you get your business going? So I was very fortunate that Bumble eventually IPO'd and we had a very good return from that. And you were a shareholder. I was. and so I was very fortunate to participate and one of the first things I said was, brilliant, now I can actually do something about redressing the balance. So you used the money that you made from your Bumble IPO to start your own business?

32:36Michelle Kennedy:Yes, to start this part, it's called, it's a micro fund. So explain this. It's called Peanut Start Her. So this is another business? It's exactly, it's just adjacent to Peanut and basically Start Her. Start Her. And we invest small checks, micro checks. Think of us as like your rich auntie that you didn't have. So you're friends and family. We are your friends and family. You're the auntie that you never had. That's it. We are your rich auntie who can write you a 20K check or a 25K check to keep you going. To get started. Get started. And more than that, because most importantly, it's not just about that first check.

33:13Michelle Kennedy:It's about access to a network. I wish I knew when I was younger how important a network is. I never understood networking. No one ever explained it to me. I didn't know why it was important. And so I've got a group of women and we look at these businesses that come in and we decide which one we're going to invest in and then we open our networks. So that might be PR, marketing, VC, and we make referrals to all these different people in our network to help. That's interesting. So how much money is in the Aunty Peanuts fund? Aunty Peanuts. Well, it's variable. It's variable. Is it like a venture capitalist do funding rounds?

33:58Have you done that? No, no, it's not. So it's a bit sort of. It's much more reactive, I would say, to the opportunities.

34:06Michelle Kennedy:Do you think you're doing that? Maybe one day. I think that might be an interesting thing to explore. Yeah, maybe one day. Because with your network and experience. Exactly. Maybe one day. of venture fun i would love to do that you know we need to see more um exciting businesses and being showcased by women because women make incredible businesses which are um highly revenue generative but also solve problems not exclusively because my first boss was a wonderful entrepreneur called anita roddick who started the body shop and i wrote her because I wanted to work for her and learn from her as a student.

34:46And she was kind enough to give me a job with her husband, Gordon. And yeah, amazing entrepreneur. And yeah, so and it's obvious to me that that's the case. And also that half the population being women are probably not as well served as they could be if more women ran businesses and started businesses and were supported in doing so.

35:05Michelle Kennedy:It's about kind of encouraging young women to think that they can and they should. But also, we have to be realistic. There are many moments of time that women might want to take that leap to start that journey to be an entrepreneur. And at that moment in time, they have children, mortgage, bills, responsibilities, and it feels impossible. And so I think there is a lot of work to be done around the fact that actually so many women who are in that kind of familial life stage actually have these incredible business opportunities and ideas and we should be able to support them. Those are real sort of challenges, aren't they?

35:45Michelle Kennedy:They are, absolutely. How did you navigate them yourself and how would you advise other women at that life stage who want to start a business to approach it? It was really hard. And I was really fortunate. So I would never pretend otherwise. I had saved a lot of money in order to have a war chest to start this business I did not go in with nothing and think I'm just going to do it from nothing I had I could bootstrap my first you know four months so I had done that the second thing is I had to de-risk so I had to stay on the board of the companies to get have some income it's quite passive and so it was great exactly Exactly.

36:24Michelle Kennedy:So I'd stayed on the board of Bumble and Bidoo. So I had this small amount of money where I could have that income. And that was really important to me. And the third thing was, if it all went to the wall, I could go back in and, you know, carry on doing what I was doing before. But I remember reading at the time. That's an important thing to remember, because that's true of everyone in a way. You know, you take a risk with starting something, but there are always other options if it doesn't work. You know, I spoke to someone yesterday and he said to me, sometimes the biggest risk is taking no risk at all.

36:57I think that is always the biggest risk. Yeah, and I was like, it's true.

37:01Michelle Kennedy:Sometimes you get so paralysed by the thought of what if it doesn't, but what if it does? Yeah, the what if it does doesn't get enough attention. Yeah. In our culture, I feel. Totally, and actually it is a very British thing. I think in America the what if it does is much more celebrated and applauded, and I think we need a little bit more of that optimism here. yeah that sort of have a go hero approach let's have a go what's the worst yeah what's the worst yeah go back to doing something similar to what you did before and exactly and the world keeps turning michelle you just explained that you were able to use some of the equity that you had in badu um to start your next venture peanut um can you just roll back the clock a little bit and explain to me why you joined that business and what advantages if any there are of joining a small business like that would have been when you started?

37:54Michelle Kennedy:Yeah, I think it's really important to decide what you want to do. But you can't underestimate how important it is to join a smaller team. In a small team, you get to touch everything. You can absolutely insert yourself into conversations and meetings and decisions that you might not be able to in a huge organisation. It doesn't suit everyone. But if you really do have that hunger to learn, if you are curious, if you want to build in the future. But for me being in, you know, one of the earlier employees in Bidu and then being there for, you know, the inception of Bumble, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now.

38:33Michelle Kennedy:And so there were definitely people at the time who were probably raised eyebrow, but that's the route that I was going to take. I was working in biotech, so it was very different organisation and stability and structure. but for me, it was just so exciting to get to be in the room. Even if I didn't get to do anything at the start and it was just listening, it just so happened that I listened and then asked and then did a bit more of that. So what you're saying, someone listening, is if you think in the future, you might like to have a go at being an entrepreneur or starting a business, a really good way of training and learning is joining a smaller business where you're right in the thick of it.

39:13Michelle Kennedy:We've all been there where you've interviewed someone who's worked at a really big company and you ask them what they've been doing and their experience is so narrow and you know that might be fine if they're on a certain trajectory but narrow experience means that you might be very deep and narrow in your experience but that's not what I'm looking for I'm looking for someone who can get involved and learn quickly and adapt and it does mean that in a smaller company you can do those things i know if you've worked for a smaller business you will have done everything um and that is really exciting there are certain risks involved with smaller businesses of course i mean you know their viability i suppose you don't know what that's going to look like but again for me that's just part of the journey and it's exciting and i must just say it again it's not forever if you join a business and it doesn't work out go to the next one you You know, that's fine.

40:15Michelle Kennedy:There are plenty of huge businesses that we don't talk about anymore because they've disappeared. So I don't think that that's exclusive to a small business. It's just being adaptable and being willing to just get stuck into something else. I think seeing a career is a series of learning opportunities as well. Definitely. It's really interesting. When I was younger, I definitely only appreciated, like, here are the professions, chose one. And I thought that would be my entire life. And it wasn't until I was doing it that I was like, I don't love this enough to do this all the time that I started thinking about what could be next.

40:53Right. And I mean, that's true of so many people. Absolutely. And there's always something next.

40:58Michelle Kennedy:There's always something next. And if there isn't, you can always go back. Yeah. I think the great thing is if you are in a small business and it's sort of maybe not flying as well as you would hope, I mean, you can actually have an idea or make a contribution to improve that as well. You can be in the sort of... Yes, and you will be heard because actually it's welcome. Your input is welcome and it's invited. And that I think is incredibly exciting. I think it's important to be in an environment where ideas are appreciated, championed and followed through. I wouldn't be able to work in a situation where I wasn't able to discuss with everyone in my team.

41:40Michelle Kennedy:an idea and feel like everyone was contributing that just wouldn't suit me ever so you ask them actively for their always we we talk all the time you know we're constantly what's the question you ask um what should we do about this what should we do yeah what should we do about it this didn't work what should we do about it and it's it makes it a collective problem um and everyone's got ideas and everyone has a different vantage point you know you might be a gamer your vantage point and solution will be totally different to mine. Amazing. So you're going to get a whole variety of inputs. And it's your responsibility as the CEO to make sure that happens, I'm hearing.

42:19Michelle Kennedy:To get it. Otherwise you're not doing a job really. Well, what am I there to do? If not to make sure that we've got the best, my only role I see is to keep the lights on and to make sure I've got the best, best possible team who then have the freedom to build and run. CEO's job, keep the lights on and have the best possible team. That's it, right? And, you know, there are many, many times during this journey where I'm like, what if this, you know, all goes wrong tomorrow? And one of my very, very good girlfriends from law school said to me, well, then I'll still look at you and think you're amazing, you're my hero, and you stepped out of doing what we were doing and something else.

42:57So you started out at law school.

42:59Michelle Kennedy:I did, I was a lawyer. So you were a lawyer first. Yeah, I was. Do you know how many lawyers have become entrepreneurs? I mean, it's not a natural progression, I would say. No, I'm not aware of many. Yeah, there aren't many. Because we're trained in a totally different way. That's what I was wondering. Yeah, we're trained to avoid risk. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. It's quite a weird... I was just talking to a colleague in our legal team about a risk that he'd seen that had grown. Yeah, it's quite a weird... I mean, when I was walking into your office, I was so excited because I was like, God, I used to love walking down here.

43:28Michelle Kennedy:You know, it always felt very special. Well, for people listening, we're in Chancery Lane, which is the sort of legal centre. The hub. behind the royal courts of justice. It was always, for me, it was such a thrill. And it is still thrilling. I still felt it when I was walking down here. It was an amazing feeling. So you enjoyed being a lawyer? I think I loved a lot of the ceremony and the kind of discipline around it. And I'm so happy that I did what I did and the trajectory I had, because it taught me things that I, you know, couldn't have hoped to learn elsewhere. But that's another really interesting thing, is that you can have one career and then something very different and enjoy and be successful.

44:07Michelle Kennedy:Definitely. But you're an exemplar of this, having been a successful lawyer and then moving into the digital venture space. My mum will still tell you I'm a lawyer. That's her proudest moment. So you better not tell her any different. Hopefully she won't be upset by this podcast. That's still her proudest moment. But it's true. It's you, there's not one route and that's the only route. I think maybe, what is that about mums being pleased when people become lawyers? Because it's a job that's pretty secure, I suppose. There's always going to be litigation, isn't there? Yeah, I think. Lawyers are always going to be needed.

44:42Michelle Kennedy:I think for my mum, actually, it was that kind of have a profession. Exactly. And that felt like a, you know, a profession. Whether it's medicine or the law or accounting. Accounting or teaching. They were the options she gave me, actually. So I went with. Well, there's a lot to be said for that. I went with lawyers. Yeah, those are ongoing demands for those things. Totally. But they are different from being an entrepreneur and stepping out into a somewhat unknown space like you've done. Totally different. But I learned a lot. You know, when I joined Badoo, I joined as their counsel. I joined as GC.

45:13Oh, did you? So you went there as their in-house lawyer?

45:16Michelle Kennedy:Absolutely. Absolutely. And I just am so nosy and asked so many questions and became responsible for setting up so much functionality outside of legal that I started working with the founder and became his right hand. And that's how I kind of progressed through it. And I learned so much from him. And I'm so grateful and fortunate to have been in that position. So that's interesting because the risk aspect might be different, but the curiosity bit is really connected. Absolutely. A good attorney is very curious. Well, because also you have license to be. You're the lawyer, so everyone tells you everything.

45:53Michelle Kennedy:They feel they have to. They're like, let me confess, it's like being a priest. Oh, is it? Yeah, a little bit. I've never been a priest. I can only imagine. But no, I've never been a lawyer or a priest, so I'm fascinated. But I think it's sort of this curiosity is so critical, isn't it, to coming up with new ideas. Absolutely. And using it to try and solve problems. And innovation, you know, there is what you asked me earlier about AI, and I said I'm obsessed with it, and I am. But there is one downside to it, which is there is an element of lacking. You start to reduce your curiosity a little bit.

46:27Michelle Kennedy:I'll give you an example. You're searching for something. And, you know, our immediate reflex is to go for Google and you do a search. And when you're looking for the answer, you start reading around the area. So something triggers where you're like, oh, that's interesting. I must come back and read more about that. But that wasn't what I was looking for right now. And obviously, the evolution of AI is it's so advanced. You don't have to do any reading around. It just gets right to the heart of the answer. And so we have to be alert to that as curious people, that we can't dull that curiosity.

47:02Michelle Kennedy:We have to find it in other ways. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you just sort of channeled down a particular route, that doesn't work. It is a risk. For the curious inquirer. It is a risk. That's interesting. And Google are doing that more and more, aren't they, with their AI summaries? Absolutely. AI overview. Yeah, and even if you don't Google and you go straight to perplexity or chat GPT or whatever you use, you're spoon-fed an answer. You can go and be curious and read around the links that they might serve you, but ultimately you don't. So, Michelle, I'd like to get a sort of overview from you about what's next for Peanut.

47:38So where are you headed with this? What do you want to do?

47:41Michelle Kennedy:Well, domination. world domination so how's that look where do you begin we launch in germany later this year which is really exciting it's like market it's our first language first european market outside of uk and ireland i should say um so we have a new language and that's very exciting and obviously again ai makes that germany um it's a big exciting market we get quite a lot of demand actually for the product in Germany. So we've already got some customers. Exactly. So that's quite interesting, exciting. And I think AI has really opened up our ability to get into new markets more quickly from a translation and localisation perspective.

48:20Michelle Kennedy:So that's exciting. And we have a book which comes out in September, which is called It Takes a Village. And it takes a village. I know that expression. Yeah. Why don't you complete it? It takes a village to raise a child is the expression. But it also takes a village to raise a mother. We spend a lot of time on Peanut looking at the stories of women, how they've made it work, how they find their village, and particularly in that first year of baby. So will I ever sleep again? Will I ever feel like myself again? Is it normal? All of those feelings coupled with I feel lonely or I don't want to admit how I'm feeling or whatever it might be.

48:56Michelle Kennedy:So this is lots of different women's stories of how they've made it work, coupled with experts, so therapists, gynecologists, doulas, giving kind of their thoughts on it too. So it's a really, really amazing, essential read for that kind of first year. I mean, in this digital age, why did you do a book? Because what we're still looking for, and this is, it was a question that I asked when we were first approached about it. why are we doing a book? Because Peanut already has all of those women sharing those stories every day. Yes, that's sort of what I'm wondering. A book feels like a bit of an old legacy idea.

49:33Michelle Kennedy:What does the book do? So the book highlights these stories in a different way. So it's not real time as it's happening. These are women's stories as they reflect, maybe because you're a single mom, maybe because culturally you live with your in-laws and extended family, maybe because you're new to the UK or new to the US or wherever it might be. And so it's really a curated highlight of those different examples so that every woman feels they can see her own situation there and find that kind of relevance. And you can do that on Peanut every day, of course. But to have that curated kind of list that you can take with you and examples that you can take with you with the overlay of experts, I think, is the difference here.

50:13So you said we, but are you the author of the book?

50:17Michelle Kennedy:It's all the women's stories. It's all the women. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's all the women from Peanut. But who does it say by Peanut? It says Peanut, yeah. Okay. And the community of Peanut. So how do we find this book? How do people pre-order this book if they want to, Michelle? Yes, please go. Please tell me. Please go and pre-order our book. You can go onto Amazon or onto Waterstones and you can look for It Takes a Village by Peanut. It Takes a Village by Peanut. So Peanut is a best-selling author. Thank you. So do I. We need that. Well, I like doing books. And I think there's something about them.

50:53I was slightly mischievous in asking why are you doing it? Because we do it too. But I think they hold information and you can put your best ideas in a book or your best stories, as you were saying, that will help and inspire and inform other people.

51:06Michelle Kennedy:It's something about curation. It's something about being able to dip in and out of it and hold that moment of, oh, I must go back and refer to that, that I think is really important. And if like me, when I was having my son, I must have read every book going. And there was nothing in there that told me how to be a mum, actually. It told me, you know, this is the development. Yeah, we go to school, we get all this education, and no one tells us how to be parents, really. You have no clue. I didn't know what I was doing. That's kind of an important job. It's arguably the most important in the world, right?

51:46Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's interesting because I'm aware that 80 % of managers in the UK receive no formal training. Wow. You could probably say 100 % of parents receive no formal training. We get no formal training. Isn't that an odd thing?

52:00Michelle Kennedy:It's so strange. And therefore, if you have something which will guide you, not to tell you how to do it, but to give you examples of what has worked for other people and to give you advice from experts who can say, you know, scientifically, this is hormonally how you're feeling and this is why. And this too shall pass. For example, that actually would have been really, really life changing for me. I really struggled when I had Finn. And I would have really appreciated someone saying it's actually very, very normal. and here's what's going to happen next and then you're going to be through it.

52:33Michelle Kennedy:And you can find that on peanut. Exactly. Right. Well, I can see that that's hugely valuable to people. It really is quite life-changing. And I can see why AI would recommend it as the best act. Thank you. I mean, I remember we have six children. I remember when the first one was born and was sort of screaming all night, thinking, how long does this last? Because I've got to go to work tomorrow and I'm not getting any sleep. I mean, I remember driving Finn around in the car. There's no one to ask. You don't know what you're doing. Is that like, you know, he didn't even like being in the car seat, but I felt like he would get some kind of emotion.

53:05I mean, the whole thing was very, very strange time. We used to go for walks up the Edgware Road late at night.

53:11Michelle Kennedy:Yeah, exactly. With a baby in the pram. Exactly. So she'd go to sleep. But I suppose it's very useful what you're offering because one's own parents, I recall, couldn't really remember. You know, I can't really remember all the stages of having small children now. Absolutely. And that's assuming you've got your parents around. You know, for many people, your parents are in different countries or you don't have them anymore or for whatever reason, they're not involved in your life. What do you do? You know, there are certain skills. We've got some great friends whose kids are a little bit older than us.

53:42So I just watch and see what's happening there. Helps me prepare for what's next. What's coming. Yeah, it's good. So you can help people connect and find each other.

53:50Michelle Kennedy:Exactly. Well, that's fantastic. And what a wonderful idea that you've brought into development and wonderful service. And you say it improves the world a little bit every day. I like that mantra. So I'm going to ask you, Michelle, before we wrap up, just two questions. Yeah. And I ask everyone these questions. The first is, what gets you up on a Monday morning? Oh, I love what I do. I thought you were going to say I love Mondays. I do love Mondays. Oh, you're close. You do. You love what you do. That's good. I do. I really love what I do. I love, I, there is something that I framed a few years ago because I, you know, there are tough days.

54:29Michelle Kennedy:And I thought, how lucky am I that I get to do this? This is my actual job. I get to do this. I get to go into work, work with people who are infinitely smarter than me. And we get to build something that has a positive impact on women's lives. Like how lucky am I that I get to do that? And I think framing is everything. So I love what I do. And I do love Mondays, actually. If I might ask what you say, I think framing is everything. That's an interesting thought. What do you mean? I think that sometimes you, by accident, fall into the, oh, I have to go to work. I have to do this. And actually, it's really easy to change it and say, I get to do this.

55:09Michelle Kennedy:We're doing a campaign at the moment and we're working with a brand that I really love and admire. And we were working on this piece of marketing content. I said to my team, how lucky are we that we get to do this? Like for me, I think that is absolutely thrilling. But it goes back to because you're going to have those hard days, you better absolutely love what you do so that you do get up and love Mondays. Yeah, I like that. And then my final question, which is a question from my interview book, why you 101 interview questions you'll never fear again, is where do you see yourself in five years' time?

55:42Michelle Kennedy:Great question. I love Peanut. and so I hope that we're still building and continuing this legacy. It's like the greatest honour of my life to build this business, so I hope that we're still continuing to build there. And, you know, maybe I'll have a go at that fund you mentioned at some point. Yeah, that would be fabulous. That would be nice. Well, I think it would be a good contribution to the sort of UK business landscape. I love that. Yeah, I think that would be good. I'm going to say that you're my first LP. Yeah, well, we'll join you in this. We'll talk after. If we're allowed. And also, I think what you're doing, expanding into other geographies, will be very interesting to follow.

56:21Do you have other countries after Germany in mind?

56:24Michelle Kennedy:Oh, yes. Well, then we have to go across Europe. So we have to do the Spain and France and follow that route. But it's really exciting to me. We generally follow the noise of what's happening in the user base. And so we launched in Mexico as our first out of US-UK market. Right. And that was because women in Mexico were using the US app store to access Peanut. And we could see it. So is there now a Spanish version in development? Exactly. Yes, there is. Because these are widely spoken languages. Absolutely. So it's very exciting. Fantastic. Well, I wish you continued success. Thank you very much.

57:00And I hope you'll come back one day and show us what you've done since. Thank you very much. That would be really interesting. Thanks for coming and speaking.

57:05Michelle Kennedy:Thank you for having me. Real pleasure, Michelle. Thank you, Michelle, for joining me on All About Business. I'm your host, James Reid, chairman and CEO of Reid, a family-run recruitment and philanthropy company. If you'd like to find out more about Reid, Michelle, or Peanut, all links are in the show notes. See you next time.