In this candid conversation, Laura Harnett, founder of Seep and a former angel investor, shares her journey of creating a sustainable business during the lockdown.

Motivated by a desire to reduce household waste and a gap in the market for eco-friendly cleaning tools, Laura turned her vision into reality with Seep, Europe’s first eco-cleaning tool B-Corp. She opens up about the challenges of securing investment in an unglamorous category, the importance of supporting female founders, and how overcoming breast cancer transformed her outlook on life and business. Laura also reflects on the impact of the Cartier Fellowship, offers advice for aspiring entrepreneurs—especially those starting later in life—and shares her approach to balancing the demands of being a founder and a mother.

Nicolle: Can you share what motivated you to create Seep during the lockdown and how your experience as a former angel investor influenced your approach to starting your own business?

Laura: Like a lot of people in lockdown, I became more aware of the things we were throwing and had the time to look around for ways to reduce our household’s waste. I switched to refillable grocery staples, loo roll and fruit & veg and milk deliveries. Then when it came to cleaning products, I could find eco-friendly sprays and detergents but I couldn’t find plastic-free sponges and cloths to use with them. I couldn’t understand why it was the only supermarket aisle that didn’t have any sustainable alternatives. What was even more surprising was that I think most people don’t realise that microfibre cloths and yellow and green sponges are made out of plastic.

They release microplastics every time they are used and add to the landfill problem. I am a former director of Selfridges and was a (small-scale) angel investor for 3 years choosing to support female-founded businesses. The corporate background influenced my approach to founding Seep by giving me lots of experience in how to build and manage teams, make good decisions and generally be able to look further ahead and anticipate what we needed to do next. Investing in start-ups gave me a unique insight into how to run a small business on a shoestring, make decisions and hustle. It also allowed me to build a great network of other founders who have been enormously helpful as we’ve started ourselves and grown.

Nicolle: As the only eco-cleaning tool B-Corp in Europe, what unique challenges did you face in securing investment and retail listings, and how did you overcome them?

Laura: We’ve had so many challenges. On the investment side, the main issue is that cleaning tools aren’t a very sexy category. It doesn’t tick the fast-growth tech model and for some investors, it sounds too mundane. I’ve had to prove to investors that this category can be innovative and exciting to persuade them. The best way to do this has been to show our traction from sales numbers and our community.

Retail listings have also been hard to secure because we’re the first in our category to do something different. We’re having to explain what’s wrong with the traditional products while also convincing retailers that ours are better. We’ve had to think hard about our formats, our packaging and our pricing to hit the right proposition as well as show what we’ve been able to do by selling online directly. In that way, we’ve proved to them that there is a market and customers are willing to pay a bit of a premium. It’s always a risk for retailers to take a punt and it’s our job to reduce that risk for them.

Nicolle: You mentioned that only 2% of investment available goes to female founders. What changes do you believe need to be made in the investment landscape to better support women entrepreneurs?

Laura: That 2% number feels fairly well understood now in the female investor community and perhaps among early-stage investors but it’s amazing how many people still don’t realise how huge the gap is in funding. I think it’s great that there are so many networks and accelerators out there that support, coach and connect women and key players, but the biggest thing that we need access to is simply cold hard cash, not just coaching.  More funding needs to be made available to female-founded businesses like the Invest in Women Taskforce in the UK (when hopefully it starts dispersing money) and there needs to be a concerted effort to make the investment committees more diverse. Women disproportionately back female founders so balancing out the gender gap in investor teams will hopefully improve that 2% number.

Nicolle: How has your experience of overcoming breast cancer shaped your perspective on business and life, and how does it influence your role as a founder and mother?

Laura: Quite simply, I lost all fear of failure. I knew that if I overcame breast cancer then I could do anything. It also meant that I became much more conscious of what I was putting in my body and also exposed myself to within the home. This meant that I stopped using harsh chemicals and became more aware of the impact that microplastics have on your health. Removing microplastics as much as possible from my life, and my family’s lives, was a key motivator in looking at the cleaning category for an alternative to the plastic cloths and sponges and one of the reasons for founding Seep.

Nicolle: What does being part of the Cartier Fellowship mean to you, and how do you believe it can help amplify your impact as a female founder in the eco-friendly market?

Laura: It is an enormous honour as only 33 women globally became fellows this year and I’m just one of three in Europe. It is incredibly inspiring to be able to learn from and share knowledge with other female founders across the world and access the huge resources that Cartier’s network has.

Cartier does an incredible job at raising the profile of female-founded businesses and they also put their money where their mouth is by giving us each a grant, access to low-interest loans plus the best coaching and business support where we need it. Just 2% of the investment available goes to women and if this changed it could unlock $20bn globally and make a huge difference to many lives.

Nicolle: What advice would you offer to budding entrepreneurs, particularly those who may be starting their businesses later in life, based on your own experiences and challenges?

Laura: I always felt that start-ups were just for young people. But then I read a Harvard Business Review article that completely debunked that myth. It said that the older you are up to your 60s, the more likely you are to be successful as an entrepreneur, and that overall, evidence shows that successful entrepreneurs tend to be middle-aged.

It makes sense because founding a business later on in life means that you have a strong network, more confidence, a bit of cash to get started and more experience to help you navigate a start-up.

Nicolle: Can you walk us through a typical day in your life as a founder and mother, and how you maintain a work-life balance while managing your business and family priorities?

Laura: In terms of priorities my kids and business are first, I come third and my husband has to come in fourth!  It is difficult to balance work, life and my family. I also think that trying to find the optimum work-life balance is a bit of a myth and as a founder, I’ve beaten myself up endlessly about it. I get up with the kids at 6.45 am most mornings, head into the office on my bike for around 9, work all day without much of a break and then head home at 6 or 7 pm to cook dinner, help with homework and then get the laptop out again once they’re in bed. I’m a few years into the journey now and I’ve learnt a few things along the way that work best for me and keep me on the right side of burnout.

For me those general rules are not to work at the weekends, exercising at least 3 times per week and trying to eat regularly. There have been times when I’ve neglected all 3 and you just can’t perform at work or be a good mum. There are always trade-offs though. There was a recent example when I was due to go on stage at an important pitch event and 10 minutes before I was due to do it, I got a call from the school to say that my daughter had banged her head in the playground and she needed stitches. I had to let the event organisers know that I couldn't do it and speed off to the school to pick her up. That was an easy decision to make but there are times when I feel more conflicted about whether I am making the right choice for the kids, myself or business.” 

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Nicolle Knapova is a little bit of everything. She is a freelance translator, content creator and social media executive for The C Word Mag. She loves indie music and is always browsing through Spotify to find the next amazing artist to obsess over. Her love for storytelling means she’s always writing something and she’s not afraid of any genre. Her biggest dream is to be a published author. If she’s not writing her fan fiction, she’s writing her poetry and sharing it on her Instagram @elisecaverly.