Brighton businesswoman named in '35 Women Under 35' list

A Brighton entrepreneur with two successful tech start-ups under her belt, has won her place in Management Today's '˜35 Women Under 35'.

Jess Stephens, who in her 20s held a management role in Money Supermarket is now chief marketing officer at Brighton-based start-up TrustedHousesitters.

Her role is to expand the business, now the biggest house and pet sitting company in the world.

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Ms Stephens said: “My entrepreneurial drive has been an accelerator in my career. Starting in my early 20s, my roots were in eCommerce marketing where I swiftly realised that the glass ceiling was not only present, but it would take years to even reach it if my career took a conventional route.”

Ms Stephens quit to take on her first startup, Local Daily Deals, which she sold to FTSE 250 company MoneySupermarket after just six months.

She said: “With the learning from this, and after heading up the marketing department for two years post-acquisition, I was ready to start another business. Using mobile technology including GPS and beacons I created a SaaS marketing platform which allowed retailers and malls to trigger real-time messages based on micro-location.”

After nearly two years, several customers and significant revenues, Ms Stephens sold the company to SmartFocus in a cash and shares deal worth more than ten times the revenue.

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At SmartFocus, she pivoted the organisation from a mid-market email software provider to a data-driven marketing cloud, increasing their net worth fourfold.

Asked about her plans for the future, Ms Stephens, who is a keen pet lover, is committed to using her business skills to help pets all around the world to be cared for at home by free, trusted sitters when their owners travel.

Ms Stephens said: “Now I plan to turn TrustedHousesitters into the next unicorn, taking on the VC backed businesses of Silicon Valley. The company is founded on a great principle and solves a real-world issue by enabling pet owners to travel more. With more than 60 per cent of western homes owning a pet, this is a business about to tip.”

Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 list features ambitious entrepreneurs who are growing businesses, creating jobs and scaling the ladder.

This year's list, in association with Accenture, will be published on Management Today here: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/35under35 on Tuesday 4 July.

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