Hustle Awards 2026 Special: Katie L. Johnson, winner of The Readers Choice Award

0:01Welcome back to the Serial Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Anna Wood. In today's episode, I'm joined by Katie Johnson, the founder of Casa. She discussed how Casa is becoming the infrastructure for key worker housing in the same way Stripe did for payments, pivoting to find product market fit and winning the Reader's Choice Award at the Hustle Awards 2026. Let's dig in. Hi, Katie. Welcome to the podcast today. How are you?

0:29Katie L. Johnson:I'm great thank you for having me thank you for coming on so as our signature icebreaker question we ask everyone what is your favourite breakfast cereal and why oof do you know I don't eat breakfast cereal too often but I have just recently bought some granola berry granola I'd say that's my go to if I don't have it for breakfast I might have it with some Greek yoghurt yeah so I think I think granola is slowly becoming like the top choice for people now. Yeah. So would you be able to introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your background and your journey? Yeah, sure. So obviously my name is Katie Johnson, founder of CASA.

1:17Katie L. Johnson:I'm 13 years experience in the NHS, in HR, recruitment, people management. and I have a passion for helping people, for streamlining processes, for seeing where things get stuck and I want to make things better for people and essentially I went to UE in Bristol and I studied business and HR and living in Gloucester, there's not that many big companies here that were onboarding kind of like HR like fresh graduates so I found myself taking my first role in the NHS and relocating to London and yeah throughout my whole career I basically saw a recurring problem and that was staff struggling to find housing when they were I mean role and I myself experienced it so obviously I was moving two and a half hours away from home and found myself living on my mum's friend's sofa for the first three weeks because I couldn't find somewhere and I just remember thinking what a welcome to your new roles a big you know a big start big it was a fresh start for me sorry my first big role and yeah and it was a challenge with housing and so throughout my career I was seeing other staff as I'd mentioned struggling and decided to join the NHS Clinical Entrepreneurship Programme to try and put some things right.

3:00Yeah great so you're the founder of Casa so how does it work? You've kind of lightly talked about it but in detail how does it work? What is your mission at the company?

3:10Katie L. Johnson:yeah so you um this podcast is happening at an interesting time in that I'm just about to begin a third pivot so um as with any kind of new ventures and startups sometimes you find yourself um you know not quite getting that product market fit although you may be doing a little bit well it's not as great enough and you it's not scalable and so you just need to make tweaks so my first kind of run at it I was doing really well um but I perhaps was making some mistakes that were causing too much risk and so what I was doing is matching key workers to landlords properties um but there was a bit of uncertainty over kind of who was responsible for certain maintenance and stuff like this and I was putting myself under too much pressure essentially um then I've kind of pivoted then I pivoted into becoming more of a portal so to be more demand led and I was getting in quite richard gray uh organically I was getting inquiries through my platform and but the issue was the inquiries were coming in for nationwide and that's for being a solo founder trying to kind of match people to a combination nationwide um is a bit tricky and not wanting to over promise and explaining to people look we're a startup we're trying to you know work in one geography it um I've now realized that I've had to scale it back again focus on one region and my goal right now is to really hone in on getting a couple of public sector employers so for example you know a local big hospital and then working with at least one or two kind of build to rent developers that have you know brought new kind of accommodation to the market but be it co-living you know or give it studios or flat sharing and essentially I will then match the key worker demand that's coming through to those units saving the key worker time from you know scouring all the various kind of property platforms to try and find something so with the key workers what you find is a lot of them work really long hours and they don't necessarily have the time to be following up and chasing agents or you know trying to book viewings and so I'm giving them a kind of a pure channel or a quicker route to finding a secure accommodation near their workplace to one save them time to one support the employers with um you know their recruitment and retention plans and they're supporting their staff's well-being and the developers you know to get access to high quality um dbs checked in many cases uh tenants and a bit social impact.

6:14Yeah amazing so you said you're now focusing on one region what region is that?

6:20Katie L. Johnson:So the region is I relocated from London back to Gloucester so I'm focusing the southwest area so the region is south west Gloucestershire, south Gloucestershire so Bristol and Gloucester essentially. Looking ahead what is the impact that CASA will have? Right so the impact CASA will have is we will be able to help housing associations that have key worker housing on their portfolio better plan the performance of their sites and optimize the waiting list for their accommodation because we'll be tracking all of the accommodation that are from key workers so that we can plan ahead and make a decision that are evidence-based you know knowing exactly what mix of development needs to be built in terms of new property coming to market.

7:19Katie L. Johnson:Are the requests more for single rooms or studios or are the requests coming through for more family accommodation? And we'll have that data for different regions to be able to help inform developers and investors on the type of property to build in the area. and that goes for NHS England as well in terms of what they'll be focusing on with regards to building key worker housing on surplus NHS land and sites. So it's just about knowing, basically getting the right mix and fit and systemising and making it much fairer across the board with regards to how key workers access the accommodation. Yeah, fantastic.

8:12So we're on the podcast today as you won the Reader's Choice Award at the Hustle Awards 2026. So congratulations on that.

8:21Katie L. Johnson:She's so much. I'm in the office with me. So how did winning the award make you film? What do you think that means for your company? Wow honestly it was a major shock I was in yeah I was definitely in shock but it made me feel really pleased with myself that I've I've been acknowledged as someone hustling hard and worthy of winning the reader's choice award and yeah so it really made me feel proud of myself essentially that yeah others see um the hard work that i'm putting in and it's not gone unnoticed um i can't remember the second part of your question but and what does that mean for the company yeah so for the company obviously and being able to be on a podcast such as this um be featured on linkedin ads it helps kind of raise that kind of credibility piece and trust piece with um with the wider startup networking hopefully I'll be able to speak with other startups and share with them my journey and my challenges and help support them too so hopefully I'll be able to kind of network on the back of it too yeah fantastic so I think the award is as it's reader's choice it's the one that our audience vote for and you can kind of rally people around so it really does show that you have a lot of people around you that are kind of like vouching for you as well yeah I think that's what means a massive lot and yeah over the last kind of three years since I started the business I've been on the NatWest Accelerator I've been in you know Barclays Eagle Lab type Accelerator and I'm in a number of you know startup WhatsApp groups and so yeah to get the support from other kind of startup founders was really um yeah really made me quite happy so looking towards kind of the journey that you've been on what would you say have been some of the biggest challenges on that journey so far and how have you managed to overcome them yeah so I would say the biggest challenge and being a like startup new venture founder is constantly making calls and decisions with no previous kind of experience of how it might pan out so literally trusting like your gut and your instincts and in many cases I've been wrong because I'm just basically trying to build that muscle um so yeah the biggest challenge is kind of living in or with a level of uncertainty constantly um you know when you're in uh when you're when you're working you kind of know what your goals are and you know you've got a job description and you work within a certain remit but when you start a new business suddenly your remit is everything and could be anything and so being able to stay focused and to avoid distractions is really tricky and I think that's probably been the hardest part for me avoiding the distractions because I'm quite naturally a curious person so if an opportunity comes up I'm kind of wanting to explore it a little bit um and unfortunately that then can take away from the you know the the main the main goal so I would say in terms of how I've kind of risk mitigated that you know how I've mitigated that I've had around me um advisors trust that I like genuinely trust their their opinions um and I can touch base with them regularly I can share what I'm doing and whether they think you know this is something that sounds right and the other way is to just constantly try to get into some sort of routine in terms of like self-care whether it's going to the gym whether it's eating better so that yeah overall I'm kind of looking after my mental health because at the end of the day in order to make good decisions you've got to be thinking thinking well so so yeah so I'd say that's that's been my biggest challenge and I think that would that's just a constant thing I think any business owner it's constantly constantly in uncertainty but I think when you're new to it the you know it's it's a real new thing that you're trying to get used to yeah definitely so on the flip side of that what would you say have been some of the biggest highlights so far yeah so the biggest highlights have been one the people I've helped and so you know when somebody's really struggling with housing and you're like look here is somewhere you don't have to struggle anymore the fact that I can see and um be a part of that relief for them that's been like a really big thing for me um you know my first invoices as well for my from my company were paid for by um my local hospital so that was a pretty big thing getting on procurement um and also i've um whilst i've not been a winner i've been a finalist in um Cornwall Slush D and I was um invited to kind of pitch um on their low at their local cinema so like I had my whole pitch deck on this massive cinema screen that was a pretty big hockey light for me quite nerve-wracking pitching in a cinema um and um another thing I was a regional finalist for um Britain's Got Startups as well um and so again that was a highlight for me so I was with some pretty cool companies and met some pretty cool founders so um yeah the journey is ongoing and of course raising some angel investment as well that's a pretty big deal when you've not done that before someone actually trusts you with their money you know to um and believes in you to give you you know give you a kind of leg up yeah definitely so kind of taking that into account what would you say have been some of the biggest lessons that you've learned on the startup journey so far the biggest lessons I've learned I cannot do it all by myself although I kind of knew that that is obviously I've had a go I'm a solo founder so I'm just trying to go however I am trying to build a team but finding the right people to work with that understand the vision and you know get it is a bit of a journey but yeah knowing that you're um and you're not alone because look I've been supported by other kind of the startup ecosystem so knowing that there is support out there you might not see it like I'm sat in an office by myself and you know I don't have people around me but to know that out there there are people that support you um so you're yeah so So not being alone.

15:43Katie L. Johnson:Another big lesson, don't be impulsive. So I don't know if it's because I'm a little bit neurodivergent, a little bit ADHD, a little bit on the spectrum, whatever it is. But I'm one of those people, if I get an idea and I think it's good, I'm just taking action. So trying to pause that is a big lesson for me. slowing down um what else has been a big lesson um many i think every day is like a big lesson yeah i think i hear that from so many founders there's feedback there's feedback from every direction yeah on the decisions you're making but um yeah the biggest lesson i would say is also trusting yourself and um yeah following through there's many opinions out there and you know when you're speaking to like potential investors and advisors the opinions they may give you may differ from what you believe to be true or the theory that you're trying to test and so yeah lesson there is you don't have to believe everybody's opinions but to formulate kind of your own decision and believe in yourself and your gut.

17:05Yeah great so being a first-time founder and a solo founder at the same time what was that like kind of moving into more of a kind of entrepreneurial mindset?

17:16Katie L. Johnson:So I think I've always kind of probably had a bit of an entrepreneurial mindset but it took me a very long time to kind of bring it out to the surface so I've had the idea for like very early in my NHS career probably like literally about 14 years ago I started thinking about the idea so I think I may have just been way too nervous to have started then um so in terms of the mindset shift that I've needed it's been linked to how can I say again just kind of trusting the unknown and kind of sticking to your gut in the face of uncertainty and kind of having a bit of a warrior mentality that I know what I'm doing keeping kind of the golden thread and knowing and keeping in mind the social impact in what the end goal is and just constantly kind of working towards keeping myself on track towards that end goal.

18:32Katie L. Johnson:Yeah, I don't know if I answer that question properly then. Yes, definitely. Essentially, I think it's just like entrepreneurship, it's spiritual, it's just right, there's no kind of black and white way, it's all kind of dependent on one your your your perspective on the world and how you think that you can make it better and the way that you go and but also your network who you know that you can lean upon to help you get there okay so if you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice before launching what would it be it would have been to write a more thorough business plan and to really consider every single risk and to have not just blindly started you know just get off the ground start making revenue I think I would have slowed that part down and one really reviewed the contracts that I was signing and getting into and whether that's getting some official legal advice or you know working with but when you're a startup founder you can you know you got this financial constraint so you just kind of just go for it and get the money in but I think I should have gone or moved a bit slower before speeding up um yeah and I probably wouldn't have put all of my um all of my like my money as well straight away because I wouldn't have been in such a rush to get going yeah I think the life of a founder is like just juggling so many risks at once that it's kind of like you've either got to go for it or kind of slow down and get everything looked at make sure it's okay but I think especially as a first-time founder you do kind of just think well I'm just gonna do it well what could go wrong I've got a whole host I've got a whole list of the things that can go on now and the journey was enjoyable yeah that's all that matters so what do you think the future holds for the business and yourself do you have any big plans in the pipeline that you can talk about so I am I'm bringing together a group of housing associations that have key worker housing on their platform I'm sorry on in their portfolio of housing stock so we're going to be mapping out a way to share data and work together and and have that kind of intelligence between us all so that's a pretty big deal I'm in conversations with a couple of NHS trusts as well alongside those housing associations to strengthen kind of relationship working and I'm also in negotiation with or contract negotiation with a paying kind of partnership so of service accommodation because that's a big thing for me and that's the infrastructure I believe is kind of missing in the market for key worker housing it's the flexibility of short and long stay um and um and optimizing or like I mentioned earlier making sense of like the requests that are coming through so that we can predict and know what needs to be available so I'm going back to kind of that kind of market education piece right now in order now that I've got the right kind of contacts and partners that I'm speaking to kind of going back to probably how and where I should have started in the first place to kind of make right my wrongs yes and then hopefully um scale and grow from there yeah it was a good place to be at least like you know what went wrong you can kind of go back and almost start again like you already said it's kind of your third pivot now so you're kind of really getting to terms with the business the abundances in the uh in all the different challenges yeah yeah perfect so to round off the episode is there anything that you wanted to add or plug at the end of it well I'd say a massive thank you to you for hosting these things and and and this event obviously I wouldn't be on this podcast I wouldn't have won this award I wouldn't be feeling proud of myself for winning this award so thank you for um for setting this up and for having me on on here again and um I guess is this my kind of can I be like pitching here I'm like yeah if you're an association or you're an employer and you're needing help for your staff get in contact with me because I'd love to speak to you and um and yeah onwards and upwards I think the more people the more employers I work with the more housing association workers the more kind of intelligence the collective intelligence we can bring together that's not currently out there in the open market but together we can kind of work together to to make decisions better when it comes to property development in the right locations amazing well thank you so much for coming on the podcast today katie it's been great to sleep with you and learn more about casa and once again congratulations on winning the reader's choice award at the house of the world 2026 thank you so much thanks family bye if you like this episode be sure to subscribe to the podcast and check out startup magazine socials to stay up to date on the latest startups news