This interview is brought to you by Startup Booster. Market your company with rapid, effective promotion across startup and business blogs.
Name: Deirdre McGettrick
Company: ufurnish.com
What are you building, and who benefits most from it?
We are building a search and discovery platform for furniture and furnishings that will be the U.K.’s most trusted and preferred website for home lovers. We have 110+ retail partners, including well-known brands such as John Lewis, Dunelm, and Habitat, as well as independent brands our users love to discover, such as French Bedroom, Dusk, and Furniturebox.
Our proprietary search technology means we can give our users the confidence that they have seen all products from across the market and can filter the results to find that unique item perfect for their home.
What is one of your startup’s most impressive accomplishments?
Our scale of growth since launch has been exponential, which is a credit to the team of passionate experts we have alongside us on the journey and their relentless focus.
What has been the biggest challenge so far, and how did you overcome it?
182 founders interviewed so far. Get interviewed in 10 minutes, via a simple form, for free.
Finding the right people is the biggest challenge, but we are constantly learning. Our team is now made up of over 20 amazing individuals who share our ambition.
What tool or app could you not live without and why?
That would be Slack. We are fully remote and use it to replace many of the ways in which we would communicate and interact if we were physically together in the same space.
What marketing strategies have worked for you?
We invest in both bottom and middle of the funnel across multiple channels, including Google and Facebook. We spend considerable time on offsite and onsite SEO activities, and we also partner with brands, creators, and publishers where we have shared audiences and goals. We are building a brand and business for the long term, so reliance on paid media alone is not in our plan.
What’s the best specific piece of advice you have for other entrepreneurs?
Everything takes longer than you think, so balancing your drive for action with patience is an ongoing skill. I am working hard to perfect that!
What does your company’s trajectory look like over the next five years?
We plan to scale in the U.K. and then look to international markets where we have a good user, retail partner, and product fit. We are extremely ambitious and, luckily, we have supportive investors who share our aspirations.
Want to be interviewed just like this? Fill out this simple form.
