Show Notes
Josephine Philips is the founder of SOJO, the UK's first on-demand clothing alterations and repairs app. She started SOJO by manually cycling garments across London to validate the idea before raising £1.8M in pre-seed funding (backed by Depop's own founder), landed Forbes 30 Under 30, and opened a permanent concession in Selfridges. In this episode, Josephine gets brutally honest about the real journey: finding a tech co-founder early on,, the hiring mistakes that slowed her down, a six-week fundraising sprint that changed everything, and what it actually means to build with the end in mind.
This is a masterclass in doing more with less, moving fast without breaking your team, and why representation in VC funding is still one of the most urgent conversations in entrepreneurship.
What we cover: Finding a tech co-founder as a non-technical founder Navigating the fashion space outside of fast fashion Finding a niche in a typically crowded space The timings and strategy of raising investment The stats around investment for Black Women Hiring and growing a team for your business, not following the status quo How to build a B2B strategy without losing focus How to SOJO x Selfridges Partnership happened The honest truth about representation in VC
If you're building something new or struggling to articulate why your idea matters, this one's for you.
We Are Ladies Who Launch!
CHAPTERS 00:00 Meet Josephine, Sojo Founder 03:17 The Tailoring Niche 07:48 The Problem with Fast Fashion 13:52 Validating The Business Idea 16:59 Finding A Tech Co-Founder 22:24 Launch Traction And Press 23:40 Funding And Getting Investment 29:48 Hiring Growing Pains 33:01 Corporate vs Startup Hiring 34:19 The Right Time For Funding 35:24 More Team Slower Progress 37:09 Focussing On Your B2B Strategy 38:11 Where Is Sojo Today? 39:16 Hiring for Complementary Skills 41:36 Testing Agility in Interviews 43:43 Representation in VC Funding 47:53 6-Week Fundraising Sprint 50:57 Selfridges Partnership Breakdown 54:49 Global Expansion Plans 01:00:33 Build With the End in Mind
🔔 New episodes every Wednesday — subscribe so you never miss a launch.
FOLLOW SOJO SOJO Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sojo.uk/ Josephine Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephine__philips/
FOLLOW US Instagram: www.instagram.com/weareladieswholaunch/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@weareladieswholaunch YouTube: www.youtube.com/@Weareladieswholaunch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Ladies Who Launch
For our 100th episode, we're doing something we've never done before: our first ever round table. Rochelle is joined by Patricia Bright, Sam Faiers and Isobel Lorna for an honest conversation about why we celebrate women on the way up, then criticise them once they actually succeed.
Millie Kendall OBE has spent more than 30 years shaping the British beauty industry. She launched Shu Uemura and Aveda in the UK, co-founded the iconic makeup brand Ruby & Millie with Ruby Hammer, and now leads the British Beauty Council as its founding CEO. In this episode of Ladies Who Launch, she shares the wisdom, mistakes and reinventions behind a career that has spanned the early days of modern beauty brands.
This week on Ladies Who Launch, we're doing something a little different. Instead of sitting down with an incredible woman, we're taking you behind the scenes of the biggest moment of Rochelle's business journey so far: the launch of her skincare brand, Eulah.
Rochelle sits down with Karlee Zhang, founder of Hello Klean, who opens up about her journey from self-funding an idea that nobody had believed in, to having half a million loyal worldwide customers and expanding into luxury retail spaces.
Connie Nam founded Astrid & Miyu from her flat in Notting Hill in 2012, with a £500 website and a bold £2,000-a-month bet on PR she funded from her own savings. Since then, the brand has grown to 30+ international stores and a reported £50 million in turnover.