• What career did you envisage for yourself when you in the Sixth Form at Downe House?

I studied Design & Technology, Physics, Maths and Economics at AS/A-Level and always wanted to do something that married the creative industry with maths/physics but there wasn’t really a degree for that.  At the time, Electronic Engineering (which was ended up being my degree) seemed like a good option as it was a mix between Physics and Maths with a practical application and a nod to the digital age, which I have always been fascinated by.

• When did you start the business?

  I started to develop Stitched.co.uk in September 2016.  It was a crossroads for me in terms of next steps in my career.  I was either going to continue to progress in the interior design company I was working at (I had been there and worked my way up over 5 years) or this was a moment for me to forge a new path and merge the tech world with the design world.  In the end it was very easy for me to make the final leap.

• What is your previous background?

My background was originally in the traditionally male dominated environment of electronic engineering and I then worked in the reverse demographic of the very female led interior design world and it was quite natural to decide to connect these two paths that formed part of my journey.

I studied Electronic Engineering at Bristol University and then went on to work in technology at Investment Banks Lehman Brothers and Nomura.  I learnt a lot over these years but for me I was still craving something creative so I decided to retrain as an Interior Designer.  I feel very fortunate to have trained in 2 very different disciplines as without this I think setting up an Augmented Reality Home Décor tech Startup might not have happened.

• Describe a typical day for you

We are a small team (including a friend from Downe House Cordelia Walsh who studied at Bristol with me) and a typical day for us is currently in the London Business School Incubator in Baker Street.  As we are such a new company our days are never the same - we run around London meeting exciting minds across many disciplines.

• What has been the biggest challenge with your business?

It is ALL really challenging which is what makes it so exciting - it depends on the type things we are working on.  Probably some of the technological pieces that we do are hard to understand - we are combining 3D customisation, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality technologies.

• Where do you hope to be in five years’ time?

At the moment home decor products are often designed, mass produced, photographed and then stored in warehouses but this is incredibly wasteful from an environmental perspective. This is why 3D customisation is the future of shopping, things are customised unique to each customer before anything is actually made.  We believe it’s time for a new generation of sustainable, well made products.  We have a vision where things are designed globally and made locally.  

• Website: www.stitched.co.uk  
• General inquiries: info@stitched.co.uk
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/madebystitched