FEMALE + FUNDED: £176k from just ONE LinkedIn post! Olivia Parkes, Founder & CEO of Persi

0:00Liv, how did you raise 176k off the back of one LinkedIn post? Yeah, I mean, I still ask myself that question. Welcome to Strategy and Tragedy, the show all about how to scale and fail in business. I'm your host, Stephanie Melodia, and this show features real world interviews with entrepreneurs who have been there, done that. We're going to be breaking it down, sharing the realities of what it actually takes to build a business behind the scenes, practical lessons learned and lots of inspirational wisdom. If you haven't done so already, please hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you're listening to this.

0:33It takes two seconds. It doesn't cost a thing. Please do that right now. I'm giving you the opportunity. And let's dive into the interview. I think today, do you know what? I don't think it was the post in itself. I think it was what came before that. And one thing I really committed to at the beginning of 20, what are we, 2024, was to really build a community on LinkedIn and be consistent in what I was messaging and find out what my voice was. and I think quite quickly I realised that people were interested in something a bit funny that actually had some transparency and real honesty and a bit of education and that was very much me in a LinkedIn post as well I wanted to get that energy into a post so during that that year's period I built up this community of followers I'd say a lot of them were women people that were interested in what I was doing with Percy why I was doing it and how I was doing it as well as investors because I was really trying to build up that pipeline too so when I did that post that got me that money it was actually about asking for women female angels that were interested in investing and potentially joining my journey and I think what was interesting about that was within a day I had 10 people booked in for a call and I think it was just the fact that they were like oh wow I've seen what she's doing and now she's opening up the chance for someone to come in at a low ticket to just sort of be a part of a journey and once I got on the call Like I said, 24 hours later, I had 176 on the table, which was just for a 50 quid ticket.

1:58Wow. 50K. It's kind of that classic tip of the iceberg, isn't it? Which we see a lot with social media where it's like, oh, this headline. But actually, there is all that legwork that's gone on behind the scenes that we never see. A few more questions. And for our listeners, if you're not already aware of Liv and her business, Percy, bear with us. We'll be getting onto the elevator pitch in a sec. But wanted to dive straight in here on the fundraising piece. so why was it important for you to have women on your cap table why female investors in particular so i think as a female founder i know we shouldn't call ourselves female founders because do you ever hear of male founders no um however um i think i also have to kind of feel there's a lot of power in saying that as well so as a female founder i have found it challenging to get in the right room and also the beginning of my journey which was about three years ago i was also preaching pregnant so i was doing it online trying to hide that bump because assuming that they would go why would i give you your money when you're about to have a baby.

2:52I also pitched five weeks postpartum with my baby downstairs with my husband whilst I was upstairs trying to get investment. So I kind of, I knew the challenges there and I was actually finding it hard to find women in investment and certainly to access angels. So I think for me, when it got to it, I had secured two lead investors who predominantly were men. And I wanted women, not only who understood the challenges of being a female founder, let alone a female angel, but also that would probably be, well, they would be my first adopters that really believed in the product that I was building and wanted to be a part of that journey and feedback on that journey too.

3:27And just to give people the chance to come in at what doesn't need to be a huge ticket. Incredible. It makes so much sense. And of course, the financial empowerment piece to it as well, right? Like if you can get comfortable with investing, get that return as well, then, you know, if that can be redistributed around the women then even better yeah you said about you know finding female investors and just investors in general anyway something that stood out to me with some of the angels that you tagged on linkedin is that most of them don't even have investor listed on their profile so how how did you attract them how did you even know um yeah um so on the post i very much was clear that we had already oversubscribed.

4:09I was raising 350. At that point, I think I had 590 or something, 600 on the table. And I then ring fenced this final amount for female investors. And really, I was looking for women, like I said, interested in joining my journey, either were angel investors or interested in starting that journey and someone that if they were in retail and tech, bonus. Now, all of these women had some kind of value that they brought, but a lot of them actually, I think it's four or five of them were first time angels and one of them which was quite an interesting one was actually um a woman who is a recruiter and has an incredible network and her offer to me was let's have a call and let's see if there's anyone i know that i can introduce you to what's interesting is we just kicked it off she loved what i was doing she followed that journey i spoke about and she was like i just had to talk to you and i love what you're doing with percy and then the next day i got an email and she was like would you be interested in me investing and apparently she'd literally gone home to her husband and she was like i think i want to put money like what do you think so that was awesome and she did introduce me to another angel that did invest incredible and how much i'm sure you did a phenomenal job in um pitching but i wonder how much more effective it is when you think it's like oh this is for an introduction and sort of takes that pressure off yeah yeah exactly so kudos to you this is obviously part of your wider fundraiser you managed to you said you ring fenced that final amount but you had the overall 660 i Ended up closing 660.

5:29Congratulations. So I used it twice. So you were oversubscribed. So share a little bit more on the wider sort of investment or fundraising journey on that side. Yeah. Do you want me to go back to the beginning? Yeah, let's do it. Let's go back. Okay. Well, like I said, this idea has been iterating. And I've been talking to investors over a period of about three years. And the idea actually started around made to order menswear. So fashion using some kind of tech to get that level of personalization. so we went out and spoke with investors we had a huge amount of interest and then the war hit and our lead time for the clothing went from four weeks to eight to twelve so and also appetite around direct to consumer at that point was plummeting because of the cost to acquire a customer so we knew at that point we needed to pivot so at that time we went very quickly to a b2bc we knew that didn't work because although similar to thread although we didn't make the product we still had to logistically move it around so the margins just weren't there so then I was like right there's something in this the market and investors are interested in personalization I think there's a play on b2b at that point my co-founder at the time was leaving sort of moving away from the business and as I landed on what is now Percy today I wanted to find a solution for retailers I'm a brand consultant I very much go in to a lot of fashion brands as well as other consumer brands and I look at how do we acquire their customers How do we convert those customers and how do we retain them from a loyalty perspective?

6:52And when I was looking at the online journey, ironically, we're looking at levels of personalization that ironically are not personal. And I knew I needed to find a way to increase that conversion rate. Their conversion rates are between, I think it's now 1.9 to 2.4 on average. So the opportunity is there. They just and the traffic is there. They're just not converting them. And it's because consumers are totally overwhelmed. there is all this product being pushed at them either because it's a new collection it's an overstock or like i said you know in terms of personalization you're being shown more of what you've um just bought or something totally irrelevant because someone else also bought the same jeans as you right it's not based on you it's based on when you land on a website what you've previously bought or what you've clicked on on that website it's so overly simplistic it's not not effective exactly so yeah we landed on this concept i fully took over the business at beginning of last year.

7:41And during that time, I unearthed some challenges that meant that I could no longer move forward with that business in terms of fundraising. And one of them was in the fact that our SEIS application that had been made by my co-founder, there was an error made. And it meant that I had 70k rather than 250k. And at the same time, I had my now lead investor, thankfully, come to me on a LinkedIn post I'd put out about, should I pay to pitch? I'd had a conversation with another well-known investor advisor and I was talking about people keep asking me to pay to attend these events I don't have the money should I be paying and he was like no you shouldn't so I put this out my one of the investors came said Liv you should never pay to pitch pitch to me but when I did I said look I've got this challenge he was like I'm gonna see what I can do but he couldn't make it work because ultimately it didn't make sense they invest in SEIS businesses.

8:33So what was the error on the SEIS application? Yeah, we basically, great question. We, he had put in that the investment we had taken from family and friends was SEIS compliant, which it wasn't. There was a couple of small 10k checks, and none of which were SEIS compliant. And then there was also a convertible note, which also doesn't work. So when we contacted HMRC, I got legal advice. They agreed that that investment was not SEIS compliant. But they said because of the way that they are structured very old school they could not track that that had not been used so they couldn't reimburse me so because the concept by that point and also it continued to pivot once I'd closed that previous business was so different from the menswear brand when we applied from the SEIS the menswear fashion brand we're now pure b2b tech I was able to set up a new company I rebranded um I was left with a personal loan a b2b a british business bank um startup loan which I needed to continue to pay which was challenging I I've had no money to to you know get a branding so I got a friend to do on the weekend a very quick branding I've rebranded to Percy which very close to my heart my eldest son is called Percy cute love it I did ask his permission and I got it but it's obviously spelled differently because it's the whole point is you know we as a business are ingrained in personalization so it just made sense love it so yeah that's what happened incredible why did you decide to take out a british business bank loan why was that better than yeah another type of loan or yeah they're really the startup loans have really good interest rates so it makes sense and you can basically as a director take up to 25k so if you have several directors you could each take you know let's say you had two founders at that stage it was just me um i took out the um director's loan of 25k and that was because we believed that was going to get us over the hump to get us the investment and unfortunately it just didn't because that pivot was just not working right okay well great little tip for other founders if you're considering like financing options definitely worth looking at so you have not only gone through like pivots and iterations but honestly your story with percy is phoenix from the ashes so what actually happened here with the co-founder situation how what's that take take us through the transition yeah yeah so as i said my co-founder started to step away from the business as we were pivoting before we landed on what it is now.

10:49And it was for personal reasons, which I totally understood. But unfortunately, what I was left with was then challenges that impacted me and then the future business as well. I mentioned I was left with the loan. I obviously had to close down the business because I couldn't get this lead investor because of my limited SEIS. And at that point, it just didn't make sense to continue. So I had to make that difficult decision of closing the business down. I luckily had an incredible lawyer that supported me on going through that whole process. Can you give them a shout out? I mean, CMS, they're great.

11:20Don't sign them more as an angel. They supported me and then continued to support me, obviously, in the future raises. But without that help, I couldn't have done it. I wouldn't have known where to go. I also sought external advice. A lot of people said, Liv, you're not going to be able to do this. There is a high risk you will not get your SEIS if they think it's too similar, which, of course, it wasn't. But you have to kind of prove that. Yeah. So it's not the case that you can just use your SEIS, close it, you can't keep doing that. So I was going to ask you about that because that was a risk.

11:45I think you said, was it called? phoenixing or something. Oh, okay. Something like that where I believe previously You could take advantage. Yeah, people would use the SAS and obviously I never used it. So it was a different situation. It's just the way it played out. So I was able to get it. So I'm really curious to know, where does the drive come from for you to pick yourself back up again, lick the wounds? Quick one. So sorry to interrupt. I'm sure that you are on the edge of your seat listening to this interview. At least I hope so. I'm so aware of all the other podcasts that are already out there.

12:17So the fact that you've decided to tune in and listen to this one is not lost on me. If you can just go that one step further and hit that follow or subscribe button, doesn't cost a thing, takes two seconds. Now is your chance to do that. It means so much. Really appreciate your support. Thank you so much. Now let's get back to the interview. So I'm really curious to know, like, where does the drive come from for you to like, pick yourself back up again, lick the wounds? You've kind of gone through this business already. you're now kind of left co-founder-less like why why wouldn't you kind of go and get a job and like lick your wounds for a while like what what made you kind of go back at it again gosh a number of things um my dad is like my yoda oh shout out mr barks shout out mr cavill oh oh sorry okay marriage yeah mr cavill so he look he is like a i think it's a four-time founder and i grew up seeing him build a business and sell it very successfully.

13:13What type of business? So it was tech, but it was actually like LAN, local area networking, bringing it over from the US. Actually quite an interesting story. So he worked for a US company. He proposed that they do the same thing that they're doing in the US over here in the UK. They actually fired him. And then he went and did it himself, took them to court, won court, did what he said he was going to do in their business and then 10 years later bought them. my god that's amazing vindication literally so wow he's been surrounded by this entrepreneurial kind of world you know he wasn't there in the week he was home at nine having dinner we were in bed on the weekends he kind of needed to decompress as well so like he wasn't around that much but i still kind of put him on this pedestal and i think it was what was in me that always wanted that so i always say if i could achieve an ounce of what he did i'd love to are you daddy's girl as well do you know what i'm both yeah i don't know but we have this very strong bond over business he kind of only lives and breathes business so it's like his it's how you talk to him so that's why we're so close and he just loves what i'm doing so i think i've always had that and then my husband always jokes that he's like you know you're literally like a dog with a bone you're the most tenacious determined i'll tell you one thing you'll go and do another if someone says no you'll find a way and i just think that's always been in me so i always knew I wanted my own thing I set my consultancy up that was never the end goal it was just to get me somewhere but I never thought I'd have my own like thing and I like it's just incredible how it's worked out oh I'm so happy for you so let's go back to the situation where you um you had this SEIS complication you've got you've taken out a loan yeah I know that you also um you consult a little bit you know to bring in that money so talk to us as well about that that time where you've still got to pay the bills like we've got to be practical here right so what did you do to make money and I think linked to that yeah the jumper story yes so let's go there definitely so you're right look I was fortunate that I've had my consultancy for six years so when we started sort of exploring this idea I was able to dial up and dial down my consultancy in order to make sure I had money to pay bills every month but still build on the side so I was working between two to three days a week and the rest of the time was on what is now Percy and because it's as a consultant and a day rate it is a much higher amount so it covered us I mean my husband works as well you know ultimately my salary is the leading salary so we needed that money we also had two kids at that point and two in nursery and in London it is a killer so you know we need there was no way that we could scale back on that I needed to find a way and there was times where I felt I was being selfish going I want to do the startup when I could have been going and getting a very healthy salary full-time elsewhere.

15:55This is the thing. And I questioned myself the whole time. Is this fair? Am I being, I kept using the word irresponsible. Am I being irresponsible as a mother that I could be earning something like this and I'm not and I'm putting the pressure on us, the squeeze. Anyway, that was able to support us. But by the end of last year, when I just, like I said, closed down the business, rebranding, I was stitching this MVP together. I knew this was my last chance. I only had a certain amount of time that I could keep paying this loan in order to get this business funded. And within that time, I needed to prove that consumers wanted it and retailers would pay for it.

16:26So I knew I needed to dedicate my whole time to this. And I gave up my consultancy. To be honest, it was the end of a contract. I just didn't look for a new one. But it was in November. We're about to end in December. I have no income. I'm like, it's Christmas. I have two kids. So I needed to also find a way, like we said, to pay those bills. So I was from the first company, the menswear. I was left with about 300, just over 300 merino knitwear. Nice. Jumpers, right? In like five different styles, four different colors. And they were just like boxes in my office upstairs. And I was like, I need to shift these.

17:00It's Christmas, perfect time for gifting. So I basically put some on eBay. Within a week, sold none. So I was like, I'm going to put them on WhatsApp. So I entered every single WhatsApp group I had. I went through the schools. I went through the nurseries. I went through the road WhatsApp groups. Love it. And within a month, I sold 290 merino jumpers. Oh my God. Which was, I had one guy come back six times. He was like, I need more. He's like, have you got any more in that size? I was like, no, but I've got these. I'll take them. I love it. And this really does speak to that real entrepreneurialism that you definitely have in your DNA because the amount of people that would be like, oh, I'm not going to sell in my nursery WhatsApp group.

17:35Fuck it. Like, you've got to do what you've got to do. I love it. I'm so here for it. You mentioned briefly in this story as well about stitching together an MVP and getting that market validation. As a non-technical founder, would love to hear how you stitched together this mvp because i know you've got a really practical way you did that that i think lots of people will take inspiration yeah well um i was on a one of my many accelerators that i've done um this one was called product builder and it was plexel and barclays and on that they really push you through like what are your challenges and how can you test and learn and keep moving and prove in order to raise investment or launch and within that my blocker was investment um because i am non-technical my product is technical so i'm like i just need to raise and then I can build until then I can't do anything and actually there's a guy on there James from Lunas who was like no you don't and I was like well yeah it's AI like what and he was like no you don't there are so many tools out there and he was like we're going to find a way to get an MVP live with no technical ability and here's that push I went home that weekend I was like okay this maybe this could work I basically stitched together um a combination of different platforms that allowed me to do it what we call concierge style so I sent a text to um a couple of friends and within 10 minutes I was oversubscribed and what that MVP was upload three items you own and I will build looks around it including your items with links to purchase so within that time I was oversubscribed in 10 minutes and then I added this paywall and it was very much like a pay what you want let's see if the consumer will pay the retailer pay and remember my customer is the retailer yeah but if the consumer pays it's showing the level of demand and that will unlock the retail love it yeah so i essentially stitched together four different platforms it was tally which was asking the customer what these styles were who they are what their style was what they didn't like and uploading items they owned then i use powerpoint to sort of build these flat lay looks including their items and make sure it visually worked together which again is visually going to work on a person and then i put that into notion with the links to buy and they had a private website and i just branded it and then i added another tally at the end to get their feedback fantastic and it's just within two months we had 43 paying customers we'd got an 88 purchase intent 90 style accuracy so incredible those numbers love it this really speaks to the solving the problem it doesn't matter like what's the pack i mean for certain things it's like okay there are non-negotiables but i do think that a lot of early stage found first time founders can fall into that trap of you know they've got a vision they want it to be this they want it perfect and perfect and you're like this is as long as it's doing the job yes definitely not but you know one of my favorite sayings in startup land is beta now better later yeah right where it's like put it to the test yes and now as well you know you have got like vibe coding it's getting even even better isn't it reed hoffman that says something like if you put a product out and you're proud of it it's too late or something or it's perfect because we're trying to perfect it kind of the whole time so you're right it was a case of it was me at the end of the day doing all this shopping but for the consumer they uploaded things and they got my problems they don't know what I was doing in the background yeah exactly love that but having fundraised fast sorting a little bit enabled you yeah to bring in the tech talent yes exactly so how did you go about assessing the right fit as a non-technical founder yeah so I think because of my previous experience I was kind of quite focused on you you know what, I'm going to do this on my own.

21:01I'd very much landed on it was my idea. I validated it. I felt very passionate about it. And I think I also, I just didn't want to have to rely on someone else. I knew I could rely on myself. And so many times over my journey, I've been told, you know, you need a technical co-founder, you're not going to raise without a CTO as a co-founder. And I'd kind of dabble with the idea, but I was struggling to be able to find someone that I knew would be in my head, in my mind, and there wasn't going to be the founder fallout situation because founder fallout is actually a higher risk in being a solo founder.

21:32So I'd made the decision to do it on my own and I was looking to bring on a CTO in year two. So I didn't need to raise as much money. I would have had to have raised a lot more. Like I said, I was originally raising 350. And what I did was I surrounded myself with advisors and mentors within those gaps, within data, within AI, within personalization, within Shopify that could advise me and educate me on what I needed now. I also, during that accelerator I mentioned with Plexa and Barclays, I met an agency called the Tech Deb and they helped me on a proof of concept. And then I felt knew enough about me and my vision to be the right agency to work with for that first year.

22:12And also the CEO would step in as a kind of fractional CTO whilst I needed them and also help me hire that team that I mentioned in year two. Nice. But as I overfunded, what that unlocked was actually now I can bring someone on day one. And in the meantime, I'd actually connected with someone called Matthew Deakins, Matt Deakins in December through a friend. We were working in the same co-founder space. My friend was like, this is going to be this guy there. You know, he's lovely. He's a fractional CPO. Just chat to him. He might be able to help you on your pilot. So we had lunch that time. And then the next time we went, we spoke again.

22:44And then he was like, I can help you out. I'm not going to charge you. I'll help you out. There's some free things. So he started helping me out on bits for the pilot. and during that period I was fundraising and things were going crazy and I would we both kind of turned up one day and we were both like we think there's something in this it was like we were literally like dating I'm not I'm not joking do you feel it too I think there's something in it and I was like okay so why don't we I was like I don't want to over promise you anything because I don't know where this is going to go with the investment I can't afford you but like would you be interested so we did a trial period where he was like helping me for like three months kind of pretending he was in the company awesome and then it got to the point where I was like you you've literally downloaded my head and my heart about Percy.

23:22You speak before, like whilst I'm thinking. And I was like, everything I needed is right in front of me. It's green flags everywhere. And then I got this extra money and I was like, it's like you were delivered to me. Perfect. Stars, stars align it when you know, you know, right. Whether it's romance or co-found. Yeah. But like help it. On the co-found thing as well, I think you mentioned about, you know, like being able to rely on yourself and, you know, it is no mean feat being a solo founder that fundraising is a whole thing in of itself the business or there's so many different facets to it I want to kind of broach the subject of trust especially with the previous co-founder you know going through some some challenges there how has that affected you you know the once bitten twice shy has it made you kind of more cautious are you kind of more guilty until proven innocent yeah how's that affected you it's a tricky one because I've always been someone that trusts first yeah and then rather than like you need to earn my trust I'm also I mean as you can probably tell I'm an oversharer I'm an open book like what you see is what you get so I've always been like aware of that but also not wanting to change it now technically I could kind of then have responded to that previous situation gone right now I'm really going to hold my cards close to my chest and I have been advised by both my dad and my chairman like you need to be careful Liv but I think at the same time I don't want to bring that baggage onto the next relationship yeah but I think what I do need to be aware of is listening to my gut and there were moments during that experience where I did not listen to my gut that I think actually would have protected me a bit more yeah and I think with the situation with Matt I didn't jump head first even though I kind of knew immediately yeah I didn't ask him out as they say yeah I kept being like we're in a situation shit those strings attach like if you need to go you can go and then it was a case of I would like propose really he's the one yeah exactly exactly and we we one thing we have really um promised ourselves because of my background and he's you know also got stories himself in similar situations and we start every conversation when it's a difficult one with in the spirit of our transparency and then go into it because i know that then either he knows as well we're not coming at it like a threat or like at this or like you did the you did it's a case of this is the situation this is how i think we can deal with it or like this is how i feel yeah do you do you understand that and like so far it's really worked for us like we have such an open relationship there is that trust yeah but what's interesting is trust has become a huge part of the business yeah because what we're dealing with is trust from a consumer trust on their data trust on what we're showing them is based on what they want not because we are trying to advertise or push product in front of them because a retailer is paying us like that is a huge part of percy it's one of our core values love that and i think that you know that's ultimately what brand is you know people think brand is logo and your kind of scheme and all the rest of it but it's building trust and the way that you build trust is by fulfilling the promises that you make over and over and i think um you know obviously lovely core value to have whatever your business is but i think especially with the ai component as well yeah there probably is some kind of skepticism and there is cynicism around there is yeah and i think So one thing we've done, we're B2B SaaS, right?

26:33So normally B2B SaaS, the consumer's not aware of them. They're just plugged in in the back and they're experiencing whatever the solution is. But one thing that Percy has is a sort of front end brand presence. So as a consumer, you land on a retailer's website. You get the option to shop using Percy. We're not sending you away. You're still sitting on the website. And you know that you're shopping with Percy. We get to know you. We ask you a couple of questions. You upload items. You then might hopefully purchase items. Then if you go to another retailer, you're like, oh, Percy's here. Great.

27:01They know me. They know there's other items I've uploaded. They know what I've told them. So we're building that relationship. I want to get it to the stage where a consumer is frankly pissed off when they land on a retailer and it's not powered by Percy because they know that we will give them the best experience. We have their best interests at heart. and only putting something in front of them based on what they need and what matches them. Love that. What a great vision to have and such a wonderful North Star metric that keeps you and as your business scales, as I'm sure it will, will kind of unite everyone to focus on that quality, on the delivery.

27:32And I just love that framing. You know, it's like the way that we frame things and how you communicate as a leader as well. It's like we want to get to a point where customers are pissed off that we don't have, where they feel the difference. yeah I love that I want to just kind of come back for a sec on the topic of gut instinct again right because I feel like yeah that that was a big juicy one I wanted to get into um what have been some other situations or can you deep dive a little bit into like when you didn't trust your gut and I know you've got some other stories on that yeah well there was I think one was the SCIS there's there was something during that period where I kept asking for the certificate something was telling me that there was something not quite right with it and it wasn't that it was being held back from me I think it was the case that I didn't know where it was for a long time but for some reason something in my gut was saying there's a problem here you need to address this it could hinder moving forward and I remember like so clearly I was on holiday with my family for my husband's 40th and I got the message and the attachment and it was like here you go and I like opened it and immediately I saw and I was like why does it say this and then I was like I I just knew I should.

28:40Yeah. And I probably could have if I had got it, I think six months before HMRC said they could have overturned it because it had been such a long period that because we got it two and a half years before. There's no point. What if I know sliding doors? I don't think like that. It's immediately like eradicate that from our mind. It's it's so interesting because I'm such a big, you know, I'm such a huge proponent of like gut instincts in the case for it. And I had a like a neuroscience friend who told me that actually during fetal development, our guts are shot through with with neural cells, with clusters.

29:14So they cluster in like three main places, our head, our heart and gut, basically. And there's this research that's happening now, which is exploring like that second brain and how if we're receiving, there's like there's a reason we're feeling the way we are. there's a there's a reason and um not to be not to be super sexist about this because it isn't just like men and women in that binary but there is definitely something to be said for like the female intuition I think because now there's something trending on like yeah yeah yeah exactly and I think the problem is is it's the acting on it right like I've been in so many of those situations as well and it's like even though I can feel it and I sense it because it's not hard evidence it's not even giving enough to me personally yes to act on it yeah but like now having been through these experiences that you have gone through do you feel more confident now i know that's a leading question yeah but to when there is something off yes just kind of be like yeah i need to trust this i think to listen to myself a bit more and to trust myself because i think one thing i do find i sometimes find it hard to make decisions and i can be quite influenced by other people coming in with opinions i'll make my own but i want to listen to i don't ever want to make a decision on my own i don't know if you know human design but yeah okay so i'm a reflector which is what the one percent and i therefore i'm a sponge and i absorb a lot of what everyone else thinks and therefore i struggle sometimes to find my own opinion and find my own self-identity and who i am and how i sort of you know present in the world i guess so i also have to be careful that a i'm not too influenced by other people but also when it is my gut i'm like should i shouldn't i Like I question myself a lot.

30:51Yeah. So I think you're right. I think through these experiences, I am becoming more confident in knowing who I am and being able to listen to other people. But like I say, filter and be able to sort of sit in my own like truth. But it's going to continue to be a learning curve. Absolutely. It's one of those things that it's just like, there's no shortcuts to custom, is there? Like you just, you get those experiences and you're learning from it. What's the future for Percy? I mean, like you've got your fundraise, you've got Matt. So you've got like real husband, real husband. What's next? It sounds so exciting.

31:22Yeah, look, it is. We're only two months post-fundraise. I'd say postpartum. I mean, technically, right? So we have been in the weeds. We're readjusting. And actually today we relaunched a brand refresh and our new website, which is really exciting. Link in the show notes. Go check it out. Definitely. Look, my previous branding, I think I mentioned, a friend of mine did it over the weekend, didn't charge me anything. and I loved it. But as soon as you removed the burgundy background, which of course you'd have to on a retailer site, you were left with this red logo, which on a retailer looks like a for sale or an alert sign.

31:58And then you turn it black and it just didn't have the personality. And yeah, so I knew I needed to find a brand or a logo that could live in someone else's world, have a presence, but not take over, but also live on its own. And that's what I feel really confident we've landed on. It is ingrained in personalization. Every letter has a different personality and there's so many fun things that we'll look to kind of extrapolate as, you know, the brand becomes more known. But yeah, like I said, we've updated our website and then the next stage for us is going to be launching our pilot partnership.

32:29So Q4, we're looking to launch the first product. I'm speaking as of next Monday with retailers. We're focusing first on Shopify because of the quick plug and play aspect that will allow us to just test and learn and iterate and make it super low cost. How are you monetizing that? Are you taking like a commission of purchases? Exactly. Yeah. So a commission of sale. We really believe in the product. We believe that we will increase conversion, increase basket size. And we're backing that with how we then monetize the business. And what's your growth strategies as well with these partners? Yeah.

33:00So, I mean, look, initially we're focusing, like I said, on Shopify because most fashion retailers are on there and it makes sense to focus on one platform first to build and learn rather than build across all. And then you're kind of juggling. so initially we're focusing on Shopify we will be working with smaller retailers as we build out and then I think it's going to be going what's our next platform you know is it a centra is it a sap is it um Salesforce like what what are we looking at next but also you know dare I say it Percy is agnostic so it we're addressing fashion first because we know that there is a problem there it makes sense for my background and my network but essentially you could be doing up your house and let's say you're doing up your bathroom and you have your bath and you have your tiles yeah you want to update it we can recommend the right blinds the right paint the right taps based on your style and what you already have and you know what strategically i think the fashion industry is such a great place you know to start only from the problem perspective in terms of like the overwhelm of choice and the whole returns and the time spent and the list goes on and on but even from just kind of like that brand perception yeah uh point of view because moving out into like interiors all these other categories you know they do look to fashion like fashion is that trendsetter the leader isn't it personal taste and style yeah what are some on a more negative kind of um vein what are um some risks that around the corner because it all sounds very exciting yeah yeah also kind of assuming that by going into something like spotify it makes it sorry i'm a podcaster so i'm allowed to say spotify it's fine i didn't even realize i did that um i presume that you know that makes it so much more frictionless for the root because it's just like it's already there in shopify um but then what so conversely sounds great what are some risks that you're looking out for over the next few months yeah i mean the first one is obviously getting the product right our main focus for the next 12 months is product market fit and it will unlock that next layer of investment which you know i I don't want to think about right now because I overfunded, I'm not squeezed.

35:04But at the same time, if we want to grow, I always say like, let's find product market fit and then work out where we're putting that rocket. And then we can go and raise. So the first thing for us is product. And within that, it's getting the right integration, making sure it is plug and play. It is surfacing the right products and the accuracy of the recommendations are there. And what additional layer of, you know, rules that we need to input or how else do we train it? so we make sure that it is delivering what we are promising. So that has got to be our first. Are there any competitors? There are competitors in this space.

35:36Look, there's a number of competitors in the D to C space. You've got the likes of Daydream. I don't know if you heard. So it's Julie Bornstein. She was one of the founders of Stitch Fix. And then also The Yes that was bought a couple of years ago by Pinterest. That was a swipe right, swipe left in terms of fashion. So she is like very experienced in this space. She has created Daydream, which is also similar to Hey Savvy. I don't know if you heard of Hey Savvy, which is born in the UK as well and they're focused on search. So take a picture of your top, find me this top or a cheaper version and they're challenging the Googles and the sort of bigger players out there in terms of how people shop.

36:11They have to acquire their customers, right? So they're not directly competitive but what they are doing is paving the way of a new way for consumers to shop which is great for us. Finally. Yeah. And then in terms of the B2B there are other solutions but they're all focused on that silo data I mentioned. they're only using the data of when you've shopped on a retailer's website and where you've clicked they don't have that what we call wider context of who a consumer is what they do and don't own and what they're shopping for and the data monetization play that you've got further down the line as well right like 100 opportunity 100 one thing i'm always really clear is that i'm also not looking to i'm not going to be selling my customers data like again it comes back to the trust of what you tell us we're not sharing we're just using it to help you have a better experience and the retailer get the right product in front of the right customer.

36:58To serve you. But I do think there is a play where, you know, we then go to the retailers and say, out of your shoppers, 60 % of them have this, but 40 % don't have this, go and make that. So it's more insights and kind of helping them be more strategic in their product development as well that I think could be really useful for them. Makes a lot of sense. Oh, Liv, this sounds absolutely amazing. Love it. My penultimate question, and don't worry, whenever there is a guy in this situation, I do make a conscious effort to ask the men and not just the women balancing motherhood yeah so I know that there are some especially female listeners they are curious to know you started the conversation with like the LinkedIn the the headlines the stuff that we see and I know that for new mums young mums first I'm trying to balance it all it's incredibly challenging so what's the realities for you what does it look like how do you manage yeah how do you cope Look, it's not easy.

37:53And I think, you know, women are expected to kind of do everything. You know, I started this idea or started this journey after having just my first child. And then, as I mentioned, I was pitching whilst pregnant and then having my second. So my two boys. So within that, I also was, you know, taking all these risks in terms of financial risks and preventing us from maybe living a certain life that we could have led. but I've taken them on that journey you know Percy my eldest I asked his permission you know he's like yeah but mummy it's spelled differently so it's fine and he's like mummy are you going to work and you know the other day I was um came downstairs and Woody my youngest was like mummy you're going to work I was like no I'm going out with the girls so he kind of they know that mummy works and also Percy knows that that means we have a nice holiday you know once a year or whatever we can go and take him to the zoo or whatever it is so I think taking them on that journey bringing them into your story is really important and I think we'll hopefully you know set a precedent for them yeah I think look there are ways you like there is never I'm a very glass-off-full kind of person I'm a positive person it's how I get by probably through all these challenges but I think you will find a way and I think as a mother you learn the juggle even more so so yeah you can do that as a founder just throw another ball in there and you're juggling again you know what I mean and don't shy away from that I think you know my final thing to say is I am incredibly lucky to have such a supportive husband you know I am probably the one that is more career focused and when I say focused I just mean like I he always say he works to live I live to work and I think that's a good way of putting it he also works yeah he contributes but it rather than it being the imbalance that I knew growing up we're balanced now it's not the other it's we're balanced much more modern yeah and those boys you know have both parents present you know we don't have help at home the boys are at nursery and we have to juggle the drop-offs and pick-ups and we find a And I think that's because we have this, you know, collaboration together and this synergy and great communication and respect and love.

39:50And I honestly couldn't do it without. And so I am very fortunate. I know that's not always the case, but surround yourself with people that can help you. Absolutely. And I think with kids and especially such young kids as well, like they don't know any different. Right. So I think there is an element of like what pressure we're putting on ourselves, pressure we're putting on each other. Like, yeah, kids, they know they care about their cartoons. The one thing that did make me worry one time, Purse came home and he's in wraparound care, right? So he goes to school between 7.30 and 7.45 and I pick him up before 6.