Welcome to the INSYNC Insurance podcast. I'm your host, Dawn Cross, and today we'll be discussing starting a business with returning guest Ben O'Brien and Ashley Davies, who are the co-founders of Face's Consent. If you enjoy our podcast, make sure to leave a rating on your favorite podcast directory.
So if I start off, uh, Ben, could you introduce yourself to us and, uh, you know, what you get up to at faces? Okay. So, well, my, my, uh, Ben, I'm co-founder of, uh, faces Consent. Um, my general day-to-day role is, uh, partnerships, uh, search engine optimization and helping work alongside with Azure on the, the brand.
That's brilliant. And Ashley, could you do the same for us? No problem. I'm Ash. Um, I'm the other half of the co-founding Faces Consent and I suppose my, we, we kind of do a bit of everything really, Ben and I do, but we just focus probably myself on more the product and, uh, the operation of the, the team and the service that's provided within Base's consent as.
That's brilliant. What's like your background that kind of led you into creating this company? Do you have a lot of experience? Well, our, our, our background varies actually. Um, our recent background is in, in aesthetics. So before Ashley and I set up bases, we learn, uh, clinics, aesthetic clinics for both chops and dental fillers.
So we. Around about nine clinics across the UK now, but still operate today. And from there, we launched bases off the back, off the back of that, uh, because everybody at the time when we, it was about five years ago, me and as Ashley started doing the, uh, clinics, um, and, and, and, and from and from there we realized that people are still, a lot of people are still using paper, paper consent forth.
So from the back of paper, we thought that we, we'd better make this digital. Kate some kind because Ash, as you know, you quite was quite untied. That's how it came. It was quite, was quite, so my background was in, um, initially I did biomedical sciences at university.
At the time seemed quite, quite well suited to do aesthetics when Ben and I started working together. But as the industry developed, they didn't really quite class that as a, a medic. So there's this like non-med medic war and trying to understand. So part of what we were doing as well was understanding, uh, the audience of, for the aesthetic industry as well.
Um, but as I was. Aesthetics. Yeah, it was quite messy, not the tidies. And to try and understand where, how many pictures you needed to take before and after taking pictures, products, having paper, sticking your before and after photos onto. The image, you know, it wouldn't always, you'd have like your finger blur in one or you know, you'd, you'd spill coffee on it.
So the next time, so when Ben was like working with me, he was just like basically saying I was a mass sod, really, and. That we had to, we had to kind of streamline this. Um, which is when Ben initiated conversations with developers or, or, and I think actually you spoke to other tech companies first, didn't you, Ben?
Similar in the English industry. Yeah. Yeah. So what, what, what I quickly realized was quite a couple of, there was a couple of providers offering a similar service and, but cause we were brand new in the, in the industry, they all wanted like a hundred pound a month to pay for their software. So I rang one provider and said, I haven't got a hundred pounds.
I'll pay you for this software. I've only got a few clients. Can I give you 50 pounds? And he says, no, I want a hundred pound. And I thought, cause it's tech, he can easily just change the numbers, can't you? He could even charge me 50 pounds. Ive signed up with him, but he said no. When I says, don't we about it, I'll create my own.
So then me and actually created our own, which was in bases. So if he would've allowed us to pay him 50 pound a month bases wouldn't have been anywhere. We wouldn't have been started it. So it was, it was the pain that we had in our own clinic allowed us to then go and create our own products, but then it's grown from consent.
We started off with just one consent form. I think it was Dermo Villa Botox, just stage three consent forms. That was the only thing we had, and we knew giving it away for three was the, was the main goal to allow to grow and, uh, get that. But, uh, from there it's gone. It's, it's gone quite, it's gone quite well over the last three years.
That's absolutely amazing. And it's great to hear that essentially you just, you found a need and literally just filled it and now you're writing the success of that as well. Well, we call it, it's not just a, a piece, a piece of software that there's a, this consent form. It's, we class it as an ecosystem.
So anything you want to use, anything how, however you want to run your business within the aesthetics industry, you can do through. So there's, there's like, there's dozens of features, isn't it? There actually what? That you can, that you can do. When we're having the, when we're having the conversation together, I always, like, Ben gives me like a WhatsApp message at 11 o'clock at night or midnight and goes, have you seen this competitor?
And I'm, I'm always petrified. And they're like, they're not, they, they can't be a competitor. There's not anyone who has created the full ecosystem, I think because. Aesthetics in the UK market five years ago when we started was relatively new. Um, the past two, three years since basically Covid, um, after Covid has become a lot more popular and.
We, we have a probably built the only platform that is completely dedicated and tailored to an aesthetic practitioner, uh, ranging from the sharps bins, the insurance that we do, obviously in partnership with you guys, uh, the pharmacies connecting to prescribers. Most people are either just a booking platform or they're a consenter, but actually, Or, or, or they're a pharmacy.
But to bring it all together, it is the, the monster that we've, we've built over the past three years. Really, it must be really beneficial for. You know, if I was a practitioner, just to have everything essentially in one place as well and not have to worry about, okay, I need a subscription to this for that, and then, you know, I need to go to this pharmacy and, and all the rest of it.
When actually you can just all in one pop and then, yeah, that's one less thing to worry about whilst you're worrying about a ton of other things, especially if you run your own business. Yeah, and I suppose the good thing about Face is I was looking through some of our user data the other day and it, our users don't just, they, they use it for many different things.
So some of our users will just use it for the pharmacy, they'll just use it to look for a train academy, or they'll just use it for their consent forms. But obviously a lot, most of our users, they use it for all the features, but sometimes they just want to come from one or two features and they use the platforms alongside.
So it's, it has something for everybody in, in the beauty and the aesthetics industry. That's awesome. So obviously we're here to talk about how you guys have started this business. I know you say as well, you run some clinics, but could you tell me a bit more about the journey? You know, was it quite straightforward?
Was there a lot of setbacks? Like especially. Probably be good for anyone listening who is maybe going through their own business building journey. And obviously it's not always easy and linear and might be quite nice to hear from a, from your guys' perspective, you've done your own bit of a. Aesthetic nurse in yourself, haven't you, Ben?
I think sometimes because when we first started and the app was expensive to run and initially before it gained traction, it was just used for ourself. It was fine. But then when we realized that actually there's, people need a software that does it all, we were funding this ourself through the aesthetics that we were doing.
Um, sometimes we were doing, I think we were like working every day. I think we did 28 20. Six or 27 locations. We traveled around the UK to different salons to do aesthetic clinics, um, to in, in all from Newcastle, up on time, all the way down to Kent, um, as far west as Cardiff. And um, I actually got like an, an abscess.
Because of like all the driving around. And, and Ben had to ha was doing my packing. So you have to pack the wound. Yeah. So he had to, when it midway we were having to do like a pit stop, like emergency first aid for Ben to pack. Uh, so you could call that a setback, not Ben's not the highlight of my career or Ben's career really, but, uh, an experience won't it Ben?
Yeah. I wasn't the only one to do that. We had singing.
So we had to had a, a weeping wound that was, was doing. So we, we made ourselves quite ill really to try and make this, this software work for people and, and for ourselves really. And, and we, we are very passionate about it, but it's not as straightforward as it, um, as it might look nowadays. Yeah. So it started off very small.
We kept it very lean at the beginning and now, and I. Why this worked so well is one reason was it was free to use and two is because we used it ourselves. So we created a business that we understood and what, and, and we used the product, we used our own business and Ashley's cousin has got a successful business as well in, in Marcine, and he used it in his own products as well.
So when we launched spaces, we, we didn't even care if anyone else used it or not. We needed. And then when we created, we saw all the pains and pitfalls of the issues we were having our own aesthetic business. We thought, oh, we better add that to faces. And then we just showed other practitioners and they went, oh, can we use it too?
Yeah, that's fine. So we opened it for free and then they kind of spread word and mouth. Then, uh, we spent no money on marketing and it hasn't been needed to our, our bulk of our traction's been great customer service. Everyone's got my personal number. We have 68,000 users on our. So every single one of 'em has my personal number.
I plaster my personal number all over Facebook for people to ha if they've got a message they need to contact me with. But our competitors don't do that. You might send them me an email and back in a couple weeks send us a WhatsApp, Ashley. You'll hear straight back or straight away. And because we have that customer service so well, so well nailed then we believe that that's why people use this and cause we've got great feature at the same time.
But in the initial time, it was, it, it costs a lot of money to run. So at the moment it costs, it was cost nearly a hundred grand a month basis. Uh, lucky we were bringing in just as much. So, um, we raised to manage investment. We raised second round of money, so we've raised money along the way to help it grow.
But we have 17 developers. We have 13 customer service. So it's kind of a monster that's always growing. Mm-hmm. And, but yeah, so, but in terms of if you're, if you're trying to start a business, it's best to start a business in an English where, you know, um, well we, me and actually started the assets. We didn't know much we know about that.
Then all I knew is, all I knew is my mom had Botox and then, but we kind of learned that at the beginning. But what we, cause we ran an alcohol business before that. And what we did was we just took the concept of that business and moved it into aesthetics and we kind of replicated the, uh, the, the structure of our alcohol drink business into the aesthetics business.
And that's why that kind of worked. Um, and then, and then from there, we learned about spaces, but we didn't really have much knowledge about that at the beginning. That was only kind of tech stuff, but it probably, yeah, it probably helped in it, Ben, really, that we were, we were so blissfully unaware about aesthetics and what was required, because I think we'd then be no training necessarily to guide people.
There is more now, but five years ago there wasn't, we were. Very new to the industry. So as we were build, building our business, we were learning and taking in and realizing how much more you needed. Whereas what you tend to find, or what we did find at the time with a lot of competitors is they haven't got a background in aesthetics or they are, say a somebody who's been doing aesthetics a while and they don't have any tech knowledge.
So, They're trying to translate medical jargon and uh, aesthetics, industry terminology, and trying to give that to a developer who understands code like the matrix is very difficult. Or you find a tech guru who has not a clue. About the aesthetics world doesn't understand. What do filler is, try to explain to them what lidocaine is or a prescription.
It, it, it's over the top. Whereas what we were fortunate to have, because of the backgrounds that we, Ben and I both had with our previous businesses, um, uh, and certain members of the team who work with us, we were actually able to understand how. A business needed to operate, but then also understand how we can create that and put as many simple steps in place from a technical point of view so that you could marry the two up without it actually becoming this big spaghetti mess.
However, actually, I suppose if you did look at at faces now, you would call it a monster and it needs to stripping him back. But, um, yeah, we, we were quite good at doing that. Uh, throughout really the process of building faces to now. No, that's brilliant. And I love how obviously you basically have drawn on your own experiences and pain points and all the rest of it to then know that you basically just knew what they kind of needed instead of someone guessing, okay, so we'll just do this maybe, and it would kind of be beneficial, whereas you're like right on the money.
Yeah, we listened. We took on a lot of user feedback, so we would ask our users all the time, which features would you like to see next? Mm-hmm. And then every time they'd put, give us a feature, we just build it. And then, and then it kind of like worked on there. But I think what really worked was just being cons consistent every day.
Turning up. I think that's what you need to, to, to, to win in business. I think it's a case of just doing it every day. We work about 12, 12 hours every day, six days a week on this, on this. So, and that's what, that's what's needed. Just keep going and going and going alone until a better look happens at the same time.
Mm-hmm. No, that sounds amazing. So I guess my last question for today would be, you know, what kind of advice would you have for anyone looking to start up an app or start a business to, um, you know, get going or achieve their dreams? Well, for me it would be get involved in something that, you know, uh, and, and you, and you underst.
Speak to as many people as possible. Don't, don't shy away or hide your idea. Think if someone's gonna steal it. The reality is they're not going to steal it. They, they haven't got time. So just tell everyone, get your ideas. Get, get, try and get an MVP off. Get something very simple started and even if it's just a basic webpage, share your idea.
Get people using it, you'll get some feedback. Then build from there. Then if you need to try and raise some money, uh, and to help grow your product. Cause it does get. Then, and the last point will be just be consistent. Work on it Every single day there's gonna be setbacks, but we gotta keep going. Ash.
Yeah, I think, uh, definitely keep it simple. I think when we first start, we, Ben mentioned earlier the other day, we, where we are with the app now and our next feature that's going to go live, It was one of the first conversations we ever had three years ago. Um, so actually, you know, trying to think too far ahead is great for vision, for actually making, making progress, keep it very simple and break it down into the steps.
And the, my, my over bit is, don't. Don't easily get pushed over and don't easily let a barrier or a blocker mean that it's game over. So many times you come up against, oh, you can't do this, or this didn't quite work, and it's very easy to just go, ah, let's not do that. Then there is always a way. Or, or a way around or a way over the top, or keep finding that and keep working with people to problem solve and try and make it easier for people.
Don't try and make it more complicated. Running a business is complicated. I think you mentioned before, Dawn, like you've got all these things going on. So don't try and answer everybody's questions, like keep it simple and just do one at a time. Uh, and if you do come across the hurdle, make sure you, make sure you do find a, find a way to solve that.
That's brilliant. You mentioned as, well see there's a next feature coming out. Are you allowed to tell me what it is? Well, of course, yeah. So we're going to be launching a booking, a booking diary, so faces is gonna be a full blown marketplace. Mm-hmm. So if you think, you know, booking.com for hotels, think of that for the aesthetics and the beauty industry.
So you'll be able to upload your clinic, upload your personal profile, your aesthetics profile, and then we'll send you new clients, the booking with. So be have to search local area. That's what's gonna, that's what's gonna be, uh, massive. Plus we believe, and I'm gonna take it. So then we'll take it worldwide.
Wow, that's amazing. We're really excited about that because where we think a lot of people go wrong is they try and build a booking system with no clients. Mm-hmm. And then they promise people to pay a monthly subscription and we'll get your. It's not possible faces, we've, we've done it the other way where we are saying, imagine now if you, if you went on booking.com and you only saw three hotels, you'd be a bit miffed.
You'd be like, oh, that's, that's not worth it. Imagine logging onto the booking.com of faces and you can see 68,000 practitioners across the uk, which is what we have, who you can pick. This is the best opportunity we have, especially in a saturated market, to offer our customers now who are our users, the ability to give them free clients and build where we can get clients to them.
Um, which basically is kind of like a way we can support them for supporting us. Well, that sounds absolutely brilliant. So, uh, yeah, thank you so much for coming on today to discuss a bit more, um, we were saying as well, so it's been about a year since we last spoke about faces and it's already just grown and grown and it's so amazing to see how much difference a year has made as well catch have been, you remember how many users we had this time last year?
What, what it was? No, no. I was gonna say, I'd have to listen back and it was probably about 15,000 I think. I can't remember a number off the top of my head, to be honest. Yeah. We'll have to, uh, we'll have to catch up again next year. Why don't we, yeah, no, we'll have, see how it goes there. Yeah, just like a, a yearly check-in.
Oh, depends. Might be on a next That's true.
Maybe. That'd be nice. Brilliant. Thank you so much. Cheer.
Thank you to my guests today, Ben O'Brien and Ashley Davies. Were talking about starting your own business and their journey whilst building faces consent. If you're starting a business or reviewing a cover, get in touch. Discuss your insurance needs today by emailing
[email protected]. I have been your host on Cross in Tune in soon for another.
Is one of the UK's fastest growing insurance providers offering comprehensive cover for SMS and the self-employed across the uk. Our expert team can tailor your insurance to meet your individual business needs and compare prices from our Lloyds of London approved partners. We offer a five star service and have been FIFO Platinum trusted winners four years in a row.
