Happy Sunday!
Welcome back to Founders Feature, a weekly newsletter all about the journeys of young startup founders.
For this week's edition, I interviewed Tash Grossman, Founder of Slip, a digital receipt app based in the UK.
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Here’s what Slip is all about:
🏠 The Basics
The Problem:
The problem is twofold: When customers go into a store, the post-purchase experience ends with either receiving a paper receipt which is usually quickly disposed of and therefore terrible for the environment, or involves spelling out their email address to the cashier to receive an email receipt, and subsequently receiving tonnes of marketing emails. From the retailers’ perspective, they have a total lack of visibility over who the customers shopping in-store are, and therefore can’t create a consistent omnichannel store experience for their customers.
The Solution:
Slip is a smartphone app that gives you a QR code that acts as your data passport. At the point of a transaction where a receipt would typically be printed, you present that QR code, the retailer scans it, and you automatically get sent a digital receipt to the app, reducing the paper waste and making the post-purchase process smoother for both parties. Slip creates a method to effectively capture in-store customer data in a way that works for retailers but is consumer-friendly.
The Team:
I lead the team on all things commercial, marketing and fundraising and we are now a team of 6. I studied business at the University of Birmingham and then worked in Management Consulting at KPMG and then Gate One. Before starting Slip I managed the Incubator at Gate One.
🚀 The Journey
How did you come up with your startup/solution?
I was on a date with my now boyfriend, and we quickly stopped by Zara so that I could return a pair of jeans I had bought the week before. We ended up queueing for almost an hour, only for the cashier to reject the return because I didn’t have the receipt anymore. I was so frustrated by that event, that when we left the store that day I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that there had to be a better way for shops to handle situations like this. I also didn’t want anyone else embarrassing themselves on a date like I just had. After some brainstorming, I eventually came up with the idea for Slip.
Why is this the right time for this problem to be solved?
There are a few reasons why now is the right time. Firstly, from a consumer perspective, sustainability has never been more important, and shockingly around 90% of people don’t know that receipts aren’t recyclable. Education around such a small thing can make such an impactful difference. Receipts are normally printed on thermal paper which has BPA, a plastic chemical, in it and therefore can’t be recycled. Beyond that, the amount of water used and CO2 emitted in producing those receipts is huge. In the UK around 330 receipts are printed every second.
Secondly, coming out of Covid, the role of the store has become increasingly important to retailers. E-commerce had a spike during the pandemic, but people are now desperate to go back to in-store shopping. However, because the role of the store is changing for retailers, it’s more important now than ever to understand who is coming into your store and how you can make the experience better and more personalised for them.
What is a recent success you are proud of?
Moving into our office was a huge milestone for us to reach. The day we got the keys I felt so proud of myself that I brought this from the initial idea in Zara to a funded business with a team that needs an office. It was a great representation of how far we’ve already come.
What is a recent challenge you have faced?
Work-Life balance is continuously difficult. It’s not even about the physical time spent working, because if you’re a productive worker you can get lots done in pretty normal working hours, but it’s much more the mental exhaustion of always having to be on. Being a founder is all-consuming, but in a positive way, and yet it is difficult to sometimes sacrifice things like seeing friends because you simply need to sit and do absolutely nothing for a moment. I definitely struggle with that from a balance perspective.
What do you wish you knew before you started and is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight?
I wish I had known better how resilient I was going to need to become to be a successful founder. You build a lot of resilience when you’re fundraising. Resilience is something you can only really pick up over time, but I would have liked to be more mentally prepared for it. I’ve come out so much stronger than before though.
🧠 The Lessons
What is the best advice you have been given recently?
Do what makes you happy, because you only regret the things you don’t do.
This is a mantra I try to live by, because you only have one life, and life is too short to not take the chances you’re given and try your best. Somebody once asked me what was genuinely the worst thing that could happen if I started Slip, and the reality is, the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work out, and I feel a little embarrassed telling someone about it. And when I realised that, I decided I had to go for it.
What advice would you give to other young founders?
Don’t underestimate the power of mentors and advisors. You don’t know everything, and if you pretend you do, you likely won’t get very far. You have to be humble enough to recognise that you don’t know it all and seek the knowledge and expertise from people around you that can help you get to a better place.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
Your network is everything. You are nothing without a network and you should do everything you can to build the best network possible. Not only will it help you, but you’ll also learn so much from it.
✨ The Inspiration
Who inspires you?
My grandpa gave me the spark and desire to work hard and take my career seriously. My first exposure to the corporate world was being a little girl visiting my grandpa’s office and spinning around on his chair answering the phone for him. I always wanted to be like my grandpa, so I’d definitely say he inspires me.
What book do you think everyone should read?
Lean In - Sheryl Sandberg
Inspired - Marty Cagan