Dr Jan Smith has spent much of the past 15 years coming up with ways of providing mental health support to people working in healthcare.
During Covid, with workers suddenly faced with unimaginably harrowing circumstances, the need for those services exploded exponentially.
“I wanted to do something to help,” she said.
Initially setting up free drop-in sessions for healthcare workers, she went on to write a couple of well-received books on the subject, and NHS England soon asked her to start running workshops for staff.
But the same message kept on coming back from the staff.
“We asked them what was going to help them manage their mental health while they were on a shift, and they said an app. So we said ‘grand, we’ll build an app’!”
There was just one problem – Jan’s technical know-how was limited, to say the least.
“On-off is the extent of my tech ability,” she said.
But driven by the urgency of the situation, she ploughed on and launched a first version of the app, called MindYourself, in September 2022. It came at a cost.
“If I’m honest I got total burnout, which is ironic,” she said. “I was really desperate for help and was doing this very much on my own. I searched Google for any support in my region, and the first thing that popped up was the Female Founders programme – and the closing day was the next day.”
It was the break that Jan needed.
Designed specifically to support female entrepreneurs, Female Founders is an incubator programme run by Bruntwood SciTech and is part of a broad range of support offered by its dedicated Innovation Services team.
The six-month programme available at Leeds’ Platform and the Tech Incubator at Circle Square in Manchester will soon be expanded into other locations.
It provides £20,000 worth of free specialist business support for female-led startups, including 70 hours of 1:1 mentoring with successful CEOs, access to professional services experts across marketing, legal, accounting, funding support and IP, peer-to-peer sessions, networking opportunities, and six months of free desk space.
Jan applied and was interviewed by Deb Hetherington, Head of Innovation for Bruntwood SciTech.
“I reassured her that although I was crying in the interview, this was not going to be symptomatic of my relationship with her,” Jan joked.
“Deb said we’d love to have you on the programme, and the relief for me was immense. I didn’t know the help that I needed, and I think that’s where the Female Founders programme was fantastic. I came in thinking I knew what I needed, but quickly realised that was not what I needed.”
After an initial needs analysis to understand more about MindYourself, a roadmap was devised and a journey scoped out.
“They had wisdom and experience in areas that I just didn’t, and were really generous in sharing with me,” said Jan.
Much of the help centred on connecting Jan with contacts who could help her to realise MindYourself’s vision.
“I 100% believed in the product, but looking back I didn’t believe in myself,” she said. “That was holding me back. I thought I was a clinician, not a tech person.
“They gave me contacts that could decipher the tech language so I could openly and honestly say to somebody: what does that actually mean?
“They also helped me to understand the market landscape, and where I needed to pitch and who I needed to talk to in order to help me find the right customers that would help my business to grow quickly.”
Jan was given a mentor from day one and sought great support from the wider tech community in Leeds.
“We were given a pack with information about the partners and I thought, I am going to milk them for everything that they can give me.
“It’s more reflective of the Leeds tech community as a whole, to be honest. No-one has ever said no to me when I’ve asked. They totally believe in what we’re trying to achieve. So when I did pitch meetings with clients, it didn’t just feel like it was me – I could feel the impact of all those mentors in the background.”
The power of the collective is one of the programme’s strongest advantages, said Katherine Megson, Innovation Programme Manager for Bruntwood SciTech in Leeds.
“Everyone on the programme became mentors as well because they just wanted everyone to succeed,” she said. “Having that collective power of people who wanted to lift each other up was just fantastic.”
So far, Founders on the programme have been successful in securing £250,000 worth of investment, plus grants, awards, increased lead generation for their businesses, and the creation of new job roles.
A distinctive feature of the programme is its focus on female founders.
Tech Nation has previously reported that 77% of tech director roles are filled by men, while only 26% of the tech workforce are women.
And a women-led high-growth enterprise taskforce report published in February 2024 found that just 18% of the UK’s high-growth enterprises have a woman in their founding team. For every £1 of private equity investment in the UK, only 2p goes to female-founded businesses.
Why was this important for Jan, who with five brothers was well used to dealing with men and working in male-dominated industries?
“The fact it was female was hugely beneficial,” she said.
“I am more than comfortable in male company. However in this landscape what really opened my eyes was the disparity between the huge amount of financial support that my male colleagues would get, even when they just had an idea and no product, and the support I was getting. I was really surprised and naive.
“People were happy to help if I networked – went out for a drink for instance – but I’ve got a family, I’m a mum, and I don’t want to have to choose between my work and my family, and nor should I.
“So on the surface although it seemed like an equal playing field, it really wasn’t.”
The support provided by Bruntwood SciTech – which is now underway with its second cohort of the Female Founders programme – has been transformative for Jan.
MindYourself, described by Jan as a gateway app to enable people to have affordable and successful mental health support whenever they need it, is currently at 2,000 users but has a plan in place to reach 300,000 within two years, supported by investment through the contacts she has made on the programme.
The user base now includes non-healthcare industries, too, with four airlines currently using the app and a further three in the pipeline. University and veterinary medicine workers are also being trialled.
It’s the kind of success story that is being multiplied across Bruntwood SciTech’s city centre innovation hubs and campuses as it continues to build on and amplify the business support it can offer to the startups, scale ups and large businesses within its community – now as the largest property provider dedicated specifically to help support the growth of the UK’s science, tech and innovation-led businesses.
Later this year it will be launching the West Village workspace for innovation-led businesses in Leeds city centre which is already now home to global insurtech firm QBE and Australian fintech firm PEXA, while Manchester Tech Incubator and Base at Manchester Science Park have availability in prime locations in the heart of the city’s Oxford Road Corridor knowledge quarter – the largest clinical academic campus in Europe.
Bruntwood SciTech has also just announced new Manchester developments at King’s House and 117-119 Portland Street, alongside their new hub aimed at digital and tech businesses, No. 3 Circle Square, set to open in Spring 2025.
“When I started in this role we had five female founders in the building, and now we’ve got 17,” said Katherine Megson. “We are changing the dial and having more women in tech. It’s a great legacy to have.”
As she embarks on the growth stage of her business, Jan can reflect on how far she has come – and how much she owes to the Female Founders programme.
“It doesn’t matter where you are on your journey – you could be at the very beginning or well established,” she said. “The support is tailored for you.
“If you want a group of very spirited females to champion you and push you ahead and challenge you, then the programme is definitely for you.”
Bruntwood SciTech is the UK’s largest property provider dedicated to serving the growth of the UK’s knowledge economy to become a global science and technology superpower. Their flexible office and specialist lab space for science, tech and innovation-led businesses spans nine campus locations and 31 city centre innovation hubs across Manchester, Cheshire, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and Cambridge, and supports more than 1,100 startups, scaleups and global businesses. To learn more about what Bruntwood SciTech has to offer and current availability, visit the website here.
