Seedrun

Can you give a brief introduction about yourself?

 I’m Alice, I’m the CEO/Co-founder of a startup called Lineup Polo. It is a platform for organising polo tournaments. As an international polo player, I knew the industry and the high levels of demand. We’ve been running for three and a half years. I was previously in Management Consulting and banking.

How did the idea for your startup come about?

I had the idea when I was 16 at school. I did it as my end of year project then dissertation at uni. Two years later I thought to myself, I have to actually do this. I approached Rosanna, my co-founder and have only looked back a handful of times!

What's the most unique aspect of your solution or business model?

I would say that it's the tournament scheduling algorithm. We didn't go into it knowing that there was a gap in the Sports Tech space. But we saw there was no technology in Polo and came across this specific need after we started.

What’s the most challenging aspect of building your startup?

Definitely fundraising. It's quite a steep learning curve finding out whether your business is applicable for VC funding or Angels, or how you want to go about it.

What's the most valuable lesson you've learned as a founder?

As a Founder, you are constantly having to fundraise or focus on sales / revenue. I would love to be able to just focus on the product and clients, but you need to make sure the company has enough cash to survive.

How do you manage work-life balance, especially with the demands of a startup?

I've never had to do an all-nighter at Uni or work ridiculous hours, I've always managed my time quite well. But I've also got horses, and so that gives some structure because you can’t just ignore them!

What’s the next big milestone for your startup?

We're coming up to the English/UK season. The biggest milestone is we'll be rolling out our live scoring capability. We've got the first digital polo team partnership coming out and so we’ll be following them as a team, getting all of their match data and statistics on the app. So that's our next big focus, and then charging teams for the live scoring of matches.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs or startups?

Lots of people say that they just want to start a business and they'll work in an industry and find the gap. But I think it's more important that a product or idea comes to you first, rather than just searching for it. It’s easy to see it through rose tinted glasses but you need to weigh up whether there’s genuine demand for it.

Any ideas on how we could improve Seed Run?

I think it's great. I really enjoy the atmosphere in here. This office is lovely and I enjoyed the speeches at the start, everyone's really open and welcome. I think for me, because I'm from the countryside, it would be great to run in the park among the trees and greenery.   