CTO interview: Sara Stephens, the techie who had a cocktail bar
Sara Stephens has held senior positions in the tech teams in global banks, however, she felt that she wanted to embrace the start-up culture. She decided to leave her corporate position and co-found and become a CTO of a start-up with the social agenda- help people over 50 to embrace their well-deserved retirement but also live a better-quality life, help them find jobs they love and develop professional and personal skills. Read the latest interview and learn how tech can solve social goals and improve life quality, but also be a great business case.
A digital community for the over 50s, that’s interesting! How did you come up with the idea?
I can’t take credit for the idea, it belongs to Stuart my co-founder. Our mission is to help and inspire over 50s in their life. There are different pillars.
The idea came from society changes: we’re living for longer, but also younger for longer. We see the 50 mark as a glide for the future. We don’t like retirement that much. It’s necessary to change the way society sees these people. And how over 50s see themselves too.
It’s a great opportunity as it hasn’t been implemented. In the UK there are 20million over 50s. it’s a sizeable pool as a business opportunity while doing good for society.
Stuart has come up with an idea when his father has retired and was declining physically and mentally. He realized focusing on continuous development is needed. We started Rest Less focusing on jobs first: there is a lot of ageism about hiring people in the older demographic. The same happened to my father after he left the armed forces with a degree. When he was interviewed, he heard things like “overqualified”, “this job won’t be enough for you”. I still remember that, so Rest Less is also built around what my relatives have experienced.
I was working in NYC for an investment risk company in IT. I was looking for something more related to start-ups, and Stuart pitched it to me. I loved the idea from the first moment, left the banking behind, and joined him to found Rest Less. We got our first round of funding very quickly. With seed round, we grew our team to 5 people. Later that year we have received another £3 million from our investors which allowed us to grow our team to 10 people. When the Covid pandemic started, it was tough for Rest Less because we were focused on the jobs at that point, and it was hard for everyone to get a job.
So, what did you decide to do?
We decided to branch out. We wanted to be the #1 portal for over-50s globally- a huge punchy goal! The Covid crisis has given us a big push forward. We quickly had to think of ways how to support our members looking for work that can’t be provided. Money is intrinsically linked to jobs and work. Therefore, we started to think about how we can give them tips on saving money, help with energy prices or mortgages. First, we branched out with the money side of things, then towards education and health.
Rest Less is similar to a Forum with different groups. There is an area where members can engage with each other, which makes it a bit like a social network. Members might be asking questions relating to topics such as ‘learning about psychology’.
Rest Less offers over 70k courses from different providers that people can search through.
All content related to “health” is free with some offers on products and services around that, like blood testing. Besides that, we offer careers and life coaches too.
Rest Less is a free platform with a community while offering additional products on the side. If any content is sponsored or paid, we clearly mention it to the members as the trust of our 800,000 members is key.
What is the top challenge in terms of user experience for people who may be less tech-savvy?
I think it is a preconceived idea. Over-50s are the digital pioneers: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, etc. This generational cohort is digitally savvy. However, there is one thing that we had to change in terms of UX. We realized that we need to make the font bigger. What is important when you work with that age group is to be empathetic and not patronizing. There is a misconception that people over 50 don’t know how to use technology.
Our team has 36% of employees who are over 50, across the whole company. The tech team has only one person who is 61, as it is harder for these skills.
Can you please describe your tech stack?
We’re largely a JavaScript stack. Our pensions platform is using React with a Node backend. We have React native apps for Android and iOS with Node APIs on the backend. The main site is built originally on WordPress, which was our MVP, and we started pulling bits out. So today it is part headless, part not. It is still a WordPress but with standalone APIs for some parts. It’s tough bridging the gap between the team’s skills.
It was critical for our success at the beginning using Elementor in WordPress. That allowed the marketing team to build endless numbers of pages without asking engineers.
How did your career bring you to where you are as CTO?
I started as a software engineer, working for consultancy then moving to team lead and technical product ownership. I was still making technical decisions but more on a high level. I wanted to understand more about the business, so I started a cocktail bar from nothing and eventually, it had become a popular TripAdvisor destination. CTO seemed to be a good path to give a go as it combined start-up and technology.
I’ve always been fascinated by technology as a kid. I liked to break things to see how they work.
Do you still have your cocktail bar?
We sold it last year! It was hard, it was my baby. It gave me insights, knowledge, and education on how to start a business from scratch. Me and my partner had never worked in the hospitality industry before, but we gave it a try. We have invested a bit of our own money, bootstrapped it, and it just took off.
Any advice for younger techies?
Something I tell my juniors: ask as many questions as you can. There will never be another time in your career with so few expectations of what you should know. Take advantage of being a junior. Also, it is important to show empathy and really think about the outcomes of where you’re trying to get to. What does a ‘yes’ look like? If you say yes to something, what would be the minimum viable product?
The final piece of advice I give my team: ask yourself continuously if it was your money, what would you spend it on. It makes them think about the decisions.
If you want to connect with Sara, click here.
To learn more about Rest Less, visit their website: restless.co.uk
If you’re a techie working on something exciting or you simply want to have a chat, get in touch with me. I’m currently CTO at Kolleno.com
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