What was your lightbulb moment?
My sister Katy [who lives in Hong Kong] was over visiting me in London and she had a really gorgeous pair of shoes on. I asked where she got them from, and she said she had them made. I thought “this is great, I would love to be able to do that – this could make a good online business”.
What were the early days of the business like?
We took a week to write our business plan. We met up in Dubai and wrote it, then we went away to execute it. We had lots to do – we had to find a footwear production supplier, a shoe designer, a technical agency who could implement it and a PR agency to help us understand the fashion space. All these things took quite a lot of time.
We had our first order within half an hour of launching the business – we were really excited and then realised it was for a material swatch [samples of fabric].
How important is a good website?
It is like your shop front. When we first built ours we built the shoe designer section in Flash, but it didn’t work on iOS platforms. When we launched that didn’t matter but it was incredible how quickly the adoption of [iOS] platforms came about.
We rebuilt the website last year so it now works across platforms and it is in 3D. Because of where we sit in the market it is really important that our website reflects that luxury aspect of the business from the start. People need to feel confident in us.
What’s the rest of the market like in the UK?
When we launched the business nobody else was doing it. That was a bit scary and challenging. Since then we have seen more and more people having a go at it, particularly in the luxury space. Recently businesses like Prada and Jimmy Choo have given a nod to customisation.
Do you enjoy your job?
I love my job and I am really passionate about it. My sister and I both liked shoes before we started the business but I would never have said we were shoe crazy. We came at it more as businesswomen and by seeing there was a need there.
What’s been your proudest moment with the business?
We did an interesting collaboration with Jasper Garvida, a designer who won season three of Project Catwalk [a reality TV series]. He asked us if we would like to do some shoes for him – it was amazing because I got a front row ticket for his catwalk show. It was a really big thing for me.
Another collaboration was with Save the Children – we had six celebrities who designed their dream shoes with us and they were all auctioned off. I was still running my business from home so I had Erin O’Conner, Mollie King, Hayley Atwell and other celebrities over at my house.
Did running the business from home hold you back?
I think the customers that used to come to my home really loved the idea that they were having that personal service. There’s something lovely about that feeling that you are being welcomed into someone’s home. We got to the point when I had 10 people in the house at the same time and it became a bit crazy.
How did you fund the business?
We funded it ourselves to start with. My sister and I put in everything that we could. We then took out a bank loan which was secured against my house – that’s a massive undertaking, not something you do lightly.
Then we thought, if we want to take it the the next level we need to get some more serious funding. We decided to go out for external funding and we were fortunate enough to secure funding at the end of 2013 from a VC. We are also backed by the British Business Bank, they have a fund called the Aspire fund, for women-led businesses.
Now that we have everything in place we are looking to crowdfund to raise £200,000. It’s about starting to spend a little bit more money on marketing. We have 25 days left of our Seedrs campaign and we are about 45% funded, which is great. We have never really done much around paid search so we would like to put more budget into that.
What’s been the most difficult aspect of running the business?
I guess when we started the business I didn’t realise I would have to spend so much time on the finances. Managing cashflow is very very challenging, and there have been several crunch points in the business when you think “are we going to make it?” We always get through it so you have to continue with your belief in the business.
What are your current favourite shoes?
We just launched a design your own boots service and I have designed a lovely pair for spring. People now wear boots all year round but it is quite hard to find a really nice looking spring or summer boot. My pair are a really lovely neutral snakeskin with a beautiful pale blue lighter panel.
Julia Elliott Brown is the co-founder of Upper Street
