Barclays Female Founder Accelerator 2023 member
BabyReady
![BabyReady](/media/wuflfbgt/babyready.jpg)
BabyReady is a financial platform designed to make prenatal and childcare costs transparent, help parents to financially prepare for having a baby.
We educate parents about benefits and financial support available for them by providing budgeting tools, creating a money timeline, and also information about governmental support. BabyReady helps parents to open a savings or investment account, boost their deposit with government bonuses and build tax-efficient savings for education and housing.
Why did you apply for the Female Founder Accelerator?
We believe the Barclays Eagle Labs Female Founder Accelerator programme is the best platform for us to create a new professional network, increase visibility, get in touch with other members of the ecosystem and find new opportunities, collaborators and mentors to help us in developing the product further. The programme will help us to ensure our MVP is built as a sustainable solution for a better future for children in the UK.
Do you think there's a need for programmes like this for Female Founders?
Female-led businesses are proven time and time again to generate higher revenues, outperform their male counterparts, and have significantly lower failure rates, according to recent MIT research. At the same time, when it comes to investment, female and minority startup founders have long been underrepresented. Thus, such accelerator programmes are really really needed nowadays to help female founders to build and grow sustainable businesses due to inspiring community, supporting environment and opportunities that open when you access those programmes.
Why did you want to start your business?
I wanted to invest my time and energy into something I love and see my creation grow from an idea into an empire. Additionally, starting my own business meant to me making a meaningful impact on society.
What are you looking to get out of this programme?
I think this programme will help us to achieve our main goals we have for the next 12 months. First, we are working on launching a subscription app this January and building new partnerships with ISA and JISA providers and baby products retailers. Second, we are going through the Due Diligence process, so we are ready to raise £500K investments to build an MVP app in the next six months. Finally, we are looking for new Advisory Board members who could help us with the technical side of the project and introductions to investors.
Which entrepreneur inspires you the most and why?
My father. I have seen him starting his own business and going through the most challenging and brightest times. His entrepreneurial journey, life values and strength of mind are a benchmark for my daily life.
What has been your biggest win in your entrepreneurial journey?
I think my biggest win so far is working together with a brilliant team of experts in their field to make BabyReady Finance a reality. We are now three co-founders and three advisers. My team members are passionate, talented, clever and actually very very funny. We share the same vision and give each other the only thing I can ever hope for, our very best.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Raising investments and building out the IT team to create the MVP product are the biggest challenges we face at the moment. Additionally, we acknowledge the challenge of working out the appropriate cybersecurity and data security for our future tech.
Where did you go for business advice and how did it help you?
I was lucky to start my first business in Glasgow, where we have a tremendous entrepreneurial ecosystem. At first, we were supported by Strathclyde Inspire, our Alma Mater hub for students starting a business. Additionally, we got a lot of support from the Scottish Enterprise and Business Getaway. Then we found out about FinTech Scotland, RBS Accelerator, AccelerateHER and Barclays Eagle Labs. All these communities were enormously helpful in their own way to us. Thanks to our Scottish entrepreneurial ecosystem, we learned a lot and could progress faster in developing our product.
What drives you to make your business a success?
An idea to build a meaningful business and make the future a bit better and easier for new generations.
What advice would you give other founders thinking about starting their own business?
Before going to bed, imagine that you already have a business and you are doing what you dreamed about. Think about what work you will need to do every day: how many people will work for you, how you will pay their salary, at what price you will rent an office, how you will start your marketing campaign on Facebook, etc. Go through all those questions in your mind, try to answer them, and then go to bed.
If you wake up the following day with a bad mood, and an unconscious feeling of anxiety and irritation, you have not grown up to have your own business yet.
But if you suddenly wake up with the wings behind your back and are ready to do everything you thought about the last night, you have already achieved halfway to your success. You should start a business only in absolute agreement with yourself.