Hellen Bowey is the CEO and founder of Alcove, a virtual care company supporting independent living.
The company has more than 20,000 users of its services, which include a virtual care agency, a care phone for the digitally excluded, and a “digital orientation clock”.
In this week’s Founder in Five Q&A, Bowey explains why early-stage funding won’t answer all your problems, shares a common founder mistake, and explains why gambling apps should be regulated like cigarettes.
1. What advice would you give to a first-time founder?
Hellen Bowey: It’s key not to assume raising seed/early stage or going out to investors will answer all of your early problems. It’s important to bootstrap as much as you can, use other sources of capital like grants, prizes and take in as minimal capital as you can in the early stages.
You will thank yourself when you look at your cap table three years later… and you might still just own your own company rather than having a ‘job’!
2. What’s a common mistake that you see founders make?
HB: Not focusing heavily on their business model, like how they’re actually going to make money, and how to generate revenue in a sustainable, repeatable way for a few early customers. This is opposed to platform/feature obsession and the ‘if I build it they will come’ mentality.
3. What’s a fact about yourself that people might find surprising?
HB: Funnily enough, I am a massive pessimist! I’m sure those who know me would say this is in direct contrast to my personality, but then that’s me all over.
4. Is there a technology that the world would be better without?
HB: Gambling apps. How they are not regulated like cigarettes is beyond me. I find the advertising and the tech that sits behind it is exploiting and bringing financial harm to the palms of users and their families – it is despicable.
5. What’s the most misunderstood technology?
HB: It has to be care technology! I have never worked in a sector with so much misconception, fear and risk aversion (when there are so many massive benefits compared to NOT having any). On the other side, there’s often a massive over-appreciation for something being ‘innovative’ that is not at all. Craziness.
Founder in Five – a UKTN Q&A series with the entrepreneurs behind the UK’s innovative tech startups, scaleups and unicorns – is published every Friday.
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