In Their Words: Taking the leap into entrepreneurship

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BroadMinded member Emilie Bellett on the journey from private equity to launching her own company, Vestpod

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Last year I launched Vestpod (www.vestpod.com) with the mission to help women get smarter about money. In a cool and friendly weekly newsletter, we help women to better understand their personal finances so they can reach their financial goals.

 

It’s really tough to find someone trustworthy to talk to about money. As women, we often have to navigate an increasingly daunting world of money-related dilemmas, only to find ourselves stranded in a sea of overwhelming advice. We have so many goals we want to achieve but don’t quite have the right guidance to get there.

 

I used to work in private equity, and have over seven years’ experience working at Lehman Brothers and Trilantic Capital Partners. Whilst my job in finance was great (interesting work, fabulous colleagues, a good salary and the bonus of travelling abroad), I always knew that I wanted to build something meaningful.

 

I decided to quit my job, something I never had imagined. It was not easy to make the jump and start my own business, but I feel it was the right decision. I haven’t looked back since then. Being an entrepreneur hasn’t been easy; I have made mistakes along the way, but I am trying to get better at it. My first business, Seed Recruit, did not work for different reasons but I learned a lot from it: raising money, building and marketing a product, hiring a team and managing people.

 

For Vestpod even more, I needed to build a solution to change people’s lives. I’m a strong believer in the power of shared experiences and fostering camaraderie between women, so I wanted to combine them both and use technology to empower it.

 

It is never the right time to launch a business. The hardest part is getting started. You can research the market as much as you like, iterate on your idea or product, but you have to get it out there. Stop procrastinating. You will never know if it works until you launch something and show it to others. Ideas are one thing but execution is everything.

 

Vestpod is an early-stage business and we have decided to launch with a newsletter and a blog. As it grows and evolves, I am looking to expand the business to achieve our mission and empower 1 million women financially across the globe, while constantly being open to change.

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The most important lesson I have learned is that you should not have regrets. You can definitely live the life you want and be passionate about what you are doing. So try to dream big, learn and grow. Try to put less emphasis on what people say or think and decide on your career and life path.