London Brief Interviews #4 — Louise Doherty

Louise Doherty —Founder and CEO of PlanSnap (Techstars ‘17), before that worked with the BBC, ASOS, Yo!Sushi. Louise won The Grocer’s Top New Talent award in 2015 for work including creating the world’s first beer recommendation bot on Twitter.

What do you do at the moment?

I’m the CEO and founder of PlanSnap — an app that lets you make any plan in just a few taps, even if your friends don’t have the app. We’re backed by AB InBev, the owner of Budweiser, and we were selected as one of 1000 companies for ten spaces on top business accelerator Techstars. We crowdfunding on Crowdcube at the moment so most of my day is talking to investors about our plans for world domination!

What/who inspires you?

Women who are at the top of their game running technology companies. The strength, skill and resilience to do something like reach an IPO, like founder of Enterprise Jungle Emma Sinclair did at the age of 30, is hugely inspiring.

Could you share your inspirational quote or motto?

You can always ask. My parents drilled this into me as a kid and then I used it mostly in relation to sweets. It often feels like it’s pointless to ask if you think the answer is going to be no, but you’d be amazed at how wrong you can be. And how helpful it can be to your goals to hear yes 50% more than you expected.

What would you suggest to those who just started or are dreaming about being an entrepreneur?

Just get on with it! Nothing can really prepare you (besides some savings, perhaps) and the perfect day will never come. You’ll only ever know if you’re any good at running businesses or if your idea can really become something until you start.

Idea

London Brief Interviews is a biweekly series of success snapshots of entrepreneurs, founders, managers, experts and influencers from the London tech scene. Curated by London Brief. Who should we interview? Let us know at londonbrief@netguru.co.

Piotr Wrzosiński

On behalf of the London Brief Team