What was your original idea and what inspired it?

I was born in Benwell, so I’m local to the north east. I’ve had a varied career. I worked at the Freeman hospital, I then did a law degree, and from there left Newcastle and worked in the Legal/Commercial Depts in blue-chip tech companies for 30 years.

In about 2019, I was living in the South, but my parents got ill in the north east. I was up and down the M1, trying to provide support for them so they could stay their own home. My brother and I were working together, but we couldn’t manage it. It was the little problems which we couldn’t keep up with. For example, my dad would call and say the TV was broken, but it wasn’t actually broken, he was just confused. But I couldn’t explain that to him over the phone. 

I was becoming very stressed. I called it ‘the triangle of hell’- my personal and professional lives were suffering, and I didn’t feel like I could meet my parents’ needs. My parents were in a retirement complex, with one bedroom, so there was nowhere for me to sleep when I visited – I slept on the living room floor so I was sleep deprived too. 

I woke up one day and knew I needed to change something. I googled to find someone who could just pop and see them for little things (if they needed food for example). Help was available through social care of course. But I wanted the kind of help that was more immediate and practical, and I couldn’t find anything.

I had an idea to create a compassionate concierge. I wanted people to be able to find help for their elderly relatives quickly and easily, for things which wouldn’t require social care (like their TVs breaking!). I also wanted it to be easy for people to sign-up, on both sides – those who need the service and those who provide it, who we have termed “Myfolksers”. I wanted the work to be attractive to people, so I knew it would need to be well-paid, flexible and open to everyone (I’m proud to say that I have maintained this! All you need to be a MyFolkser is to be compassionate and DBS checked).

The name for the service came to me immediately- I knew I wanted to call it ‘MyFolks’. I don’t have an entrepreneurial background, so I was unsure how to proceed with my idea. At this stage, I was still working full-time at exec level and I didn’t plan on leaving my job. But I wanted to pursue the idea.

I got involved with Founders’ Fridays, established by Paul Lancaster, to float the idea with some people. I decided that I wanted to launch the service in the north east, just because it felt more manageable. I also got involved with the Innovation Super Network in 2019. Their accelerator program was for the aging sphere, because it is well recognised that we are being challenged by our population that is aging but not aging well. They were really interested in the concept, and so I got onto the accelerator program! Then it felt like it could really happen.

The pandemic meant I had to pause the project for a while. But post-lockdown, I realised I had to prioritise it. There was so much demand for health and social care that couldn’t be met.  Late in 2022, I decided it was time to do it.

At what point did you need a software partner, and why did you choose Wubbleyou?

I knew from the beginning that I needed a software partner, as I have no technical expertise. One Founders’ Friday, Paul Lancaster made my introduction to Wubbleyou, and we arranged a meeting. 

I met Mark and we had a good scope of what the project might look like. He really got into my head about it. He engaged in a pre-sales activity at a level which I really appreciated, and I trusted him. I realised then that if I got the opportunity to build the app, I would definitely choose Wubbleyou to develop the software, based on what I had seen him do. 

A mutual connection introduced me to Capita. They were interested in what the future would look like for communities, and they have a strong corporate social responsibility agenda. So MyFolks fitted, and we’ve established a Collaboration Agreement. This partnership accelerated the project, and I could then work with Wubbleyou. 

I told Capita that I wanted to work with Wubbleyou, as I trusted Mark very early on. Capita hadn’t heard of Wubbleyou, and understandably wanted to explore their credentials. I had asked myself the same question in the beginning! What helped was their contract with Department for Education. I saw that they had been through due diligence. I knew they had authenticity and had worked with large projects. This meant we knew we could trust them, and luckily, Capita endorsed my choice after a couple of discovery sessions.

What did Wubbleyou do for you?

Firstly, Mark and the Wubbleyou team brought Capita along from the very start of the journey. This meant that everyone got aligned on how we were scoping the project.. The ideation of the product was done together, and it became a three-way collaboration.

Secondly, whilst I could see the big picture of the build, I needed help to see the layers and steps underneath. Vincent (Business Analyst) helped me to envisage it. I could see it at high level, and he asked me questions which made me think about developing the app at a low level, which was so helpful.

Thirdly (and perhaps most importantly), Wubbleyou understood the importance of pace. They built a really high quality clickable prototype in a couple of months from a standing start; we were able to test this and this allowed the development to progress at the pace we needed.

This also meant we could go to market early and get feedback. We were able to approach The Voice, who are a group of people working with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing. They have an interest in testing the viability of solutions designed to benefit elders and others. They provided us with invaluable insights, which helped us to understand the user-journey thoroughly, and reduce any risks.

Mark’s team put a huge amount into learning how the product would work in practice.

How has the partnership helped you achieve your strategy/goals?

We needed the app to be the company we envisaged! Without the app, MyFolks wouldn’t exist. The pace of the app development meant that we were first on the market with a digital concierge app and Wubbleyou helped ensure that the app is accessible, intuitive and secure.

What barriers or challenges did Wubbleyou help you to overcome?

Some of the testers raised concerns about protection of personal data. But luckily, we could reassure them that the security was built-in and had been checked rigorously.

One of the lessons we learnt at the end was about the use language around the site, and the tone. As we prepared to launch we realised the language was too stark. We both learnt the value of agreeing the tone! We helped each other with that, and it’s something we can both take forward in the future.

Because we were launching so quickly, to minimise risk we adopted a two-phase approach. Firstly, we launched the customer portal, where people could register and book visits. We managed the back end manually. 2 months later, Wubbleyou completed the MyFolkser portal, which allowed those providing the service to make their bookings. The two-phased approach allowed us to start. The full end-to-end solution was launched in November.

There were of course some challenges when it went live. But the strength of our relationship meant that we could sort it out together. Good things came out of the lessons learnt. We were able to challenge and push each other, in a very safe way. It was very much a collaboration.

What results did Wubbleyou help you to generate?

We got product launched within 6 months from a standing start. That was no mean feat! Because of that, we have had users and MyFolksers on the platform early on, and the product is already revenue generating.

In addition, we attended the NICA awards in December, and we won the People’s Choice Award. I was delighted! For the product to be award-winning already is something I couldn’t have hoped for. Mark also came to support us at the awards, which was lovely.