We are excited to announce Tessa Clarke as this week’s Inspirational Woman in Business; Tessa is the Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO, the food sharing app which has seen 1 million people join since they launched 3 years ago, with 1.6 million portions of food shared. Before OLIO, Tessa was a Managaing Director at Wonga and Dyson; she also now sits on the board of Contentive, a B2B media and information company helping individuals excel in the digital world.
Tessa Clarke - Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO
1. Best piece of advice you’ve been given -
When I founded OLIO, I left behind the corporate world for entrepreneurial life. And along the way I’ve gathered a treasure trove of invaluable advice, much of which was quite counter to what I had previously been led to believe. For example, the importance of “doing stuff that doesn’t scale”, and testing, iterating and learning as quickly as possible. I also frequently recall Ben Horowitz’s words in “The hard thing about hard things” where he explains that there is no such thing as a silver bullet – just an awful lot of lead bullets. This is so true in start-up life as you’re seeking the holy grail of exponential growth!
2. Worst piece of advice you’ve been given -
Someone once said that all that matters is the skills you have. And I’m afraid that as I look at the world around us, this simply isn’t true! It’s super important to recognise the power structures at play in the world around us, and then come up with a strategy to succeed within them.
3. What would you tell your younger self?
I spent most of my childhood desperately trying to ‘fit in’ and ‘be normal’ (I was brought up on a pretty isolated farm, far removed from the lives of my peers at school). And yet as I get older, I realise that it is precisely our differences that make us all so valuable and unique. So I wish I had had the confidence to embrace my differences rather than suppress them.
4. What excites you most about the future of your industry?
It feels like *finally* in 2019 we might have woken up to the fact that sustainability isn’t a side-show, but is mission critical if we want any chance whatsoever to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis, and to ensure that civilisation as we know it continues to thrive.
5. Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
Since founding OLIO I’ve found feedback from our users incredibly inspiring – especially in those very bleak moments of the entrepreneurial journey. I also frequently find myself spurred on with renewed vigour when I contemplate the world that my children – who are 4 and 6 years old – are due to inherit.