Care Nerd and Entrepreneur

By: Will Donnelly  Class of: 2015 College: Van Mildert College  Subject: History
Location: London

Your Durham Inspiration

Do you remember why you first chose to study at Durham?

In all honestly, I didn't put a huge amount of thought into my university decision, nor had I even visited the city before arriving starting as a student at Durham University. At the time, I think I landed on Durham because I was excited by the opportunity of moving to the north of England, and I had heard incredible things about the university's history department. Then, if I'm being completely honest, I also had a lot of friends going to Newcastle Uni, which definitely swayed my final decision.

Thankfully for me, my lack of preparation worked out incredibly well, as I had the most amazing time at Durham University, and feel very lucky to have lived in the city for 3-years.

What work or moment were you most proud of at Durham?

One of the best things I did during my time at Durham was launch my first business, Fever Events, alongside one of my closest friends. Together, we grew Fever from a free 100-person event in Fabios to the University’s most successful student events business, with multiple weekly nightclub brands. We sold the business in 2021 and the money I earned helped me get Lottie off the ground.  

A lot of business owners and founders today are very quick to criticise education and university in general. It’s not for everyone, which I totally understand and respect, but for me, it was an incredible experience which has gone to positively shape so much of my 20s and a lot of my thinking with Lottie. I will always be the first person to highlight how special a place Durham is and how lucky I was to experience 3 years in this beautiful city.

What are your fondest memories from your time here?

One of the best things I did during my time at Durham was launch my first business, Fever Events, alongside one of my closest friends. Together, we grew Fever from a free 100-person event in Fabios to the University’s most successful student events business, with multiple weekly nightclub brands. We sold the business in 2021 and the money I earned helped me get Lottie off the ground.

How has Durham inspired you to get where you are today?

I really do believe my time at Durham University, both academic and non-academic, has had such an influence on my early career and the person I am today. I joined Durham University in 2012 as part of Van Mildert College and graduated with a 2:1 in History. While I loved my degree, I can’t stress enough that the academic side of university was just one of many factors that made my time in Durham so special. I look back at my time in Durham so fondly because of the friends I made and the experiences I had outside of studying. 

Of course, I also learnt a lot from my degree! The skills I gained in being able to research an entirely new subject and craft a balanced essay have proven unbelievably useful. The history department always pushed us to look at things from a different lens and to offer new perspectives, based on our research and findings. This mindset has helped me so much with Lottie, especially during the early stages and product ideation. While Lottie is a new concept for the social care industry, it’s a business model that has been incredibly successful in other more established industries, and I’ve taken huge inspiration from other marketplace brands, including the likes of Airbnb, Cazoo and Plum Guide.

You

What have you been up to since you left Durham?

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Lottie, a digital marketplace that helps families find their loved ones the best care home and at a fair price. The company is backed by leading Venture Capital Funds including Accel and Kindred, as well as global tech executives including Tom Blomfield (Founder of Monzo Bank) and Dave Wascha (CTO of Zoopla). Lottie is a free service that helps families find their loved ones the best care home and at a fair price. Families can either use the digital marketplace to connect directly with our vetted care homes, or they can seek further assistance via our free care concierge service, which gives care seekers access to expert support from the moment they start their care home search, right up until move-in day. Lottie’s mission is to elevate later life. For me, this breaks down into three key things: Empowering care seekers, helping build the later living sector of the future, and my personal favourite, to make care homes cool!

As of October 2023, Lottie has raised a $21M (£16.35M) Series A funding round led by Accel, with participation from previous investor General Catalyst. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $31M (£25M). Lottie will use the investment to confront the growing social care crisis and elevate the standard of later living by further investing in its suite of technology products that significantly improves the care seeker experience. The company will expand its 50-strong team based in London, with the aim of doubling headcount in 2024. 

What are you doing that is most meaningful to you now?

I think Lottie’s big USP is that we’re hyper focused on quality over quantity. Unlike other marketplaces in the industry, the care homes listed on Lottie are handpicked and have been vetted by our team of care experts based on their care quality, home culture and ethical practices. From outstanding care ratings and 5* customer reviews to luxury facilities and thriving home experiences, Lottie partners with the UK’s best care homes that offer an enhanced resident experience and home culture like no other. This means that care seekers no longer have to spend hours trawling through hundreds of websites, but instead can connect with the UK’s best care homes in seconds. 

Lottie’s progress so far has exceeded all my expectations and more. To date, Lottie has supported tens of thousands of families navigating the stressful care system and helped hundreds of elderly people begin their next chapter in their dream Lottie care home. My favourite stat is that less than 0.5% of Lottie care seekers have regretted their care home decision, in comparison to the industry average of 44%. Clearly, we’re doing something right! 

I founded Lottie because we felt families in the UK deserved better when faced with the decision of care, but to also inject some much-needed fun and positivity into the unloved social care sector. While the last 12-months have been anything but easy, I couldn’t be prouder of what we have achieved since launching in August 2021.

Pass It On

What would be your top piece of advice for current students and/or recent graduates?

I’m not sure it’s necessarily the advice people want to hear, but I really do believe consistent hard work and patience are incredibly important traits of any aspiring entrepreneur. In contrast, I think in today’s world, there’s an unrealistic expectation on young adults to achieve so much in their early 20s, when in reality, it’s a brilliant time to explore, fail lots and learn from what you're good at and passionate about. While at Lottie, we’ve achieved a lot in 12 months, in all honestly, the initial business success was the making of the 3 co-founders, who had very different experience and technical skillsets, which were developed over 10+ year periods. Ultimately, all three of us would openly admit that it’s our past failures and consistent hard work over the years that have allowed us to achieve what we have done at Lottie. 

For example, despite personally wanting to start a business straight out of university, I am so thankful I didn’t but instead spent 5-years at CBRE gaining real-life working experience, which no doubt has contributed enormously to the success of Lottie, but equally tackling the tough challenges along the way that come with growing a business.