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Retail & Consumer

Helen Hardy

Founder of Foudys - UK based

Founder of Foudys - the world's first women's football retail site, started from a bedroom in Manchester with just £200.

Helen Hardy, founder of Foudys

What Foudys does

Helen Hardy started Foudys as a side hustle in her Gorton bedroom because she couldn't buy a women's football shirt with her favourite player's name on it. With just £200, she built the world's first online retailer dedicated to women's football shirts. The business grew from a bedroom operation into a world-leading sports retailer with a store on Manchester's Deansgate. Alongside Foudys, Helen founded Manchester Laces, the first inclusive women's and non-binary football club, and The Inclusive Football Collective. She was named on the BBC Woman's Hour Power List 2023 and continues to campaign for better visibility and access in women's football.

Visit Foudys

Source: the company's own website and published interviews. We only publish details the founder has shared publicly.

Superpower: Creating Space

"If the thing you want doesn't exist yet, build it yourself - and bring other people with you."

What a young person can learn from this

  • A real business in retail & consumer started with a specific problem, not a perfect plan.
  • Creating Space is a skill you can practise, not something you are born with.
  • How entrepreneurial mindset shows up in a real business.
  • How product & service development shows up in a real business.
  • How branding & marketing shows up in a real business.

Try this

Talk about it: Where would the first ten customers come from if you started this tomorrow?

Then do it: Plan how you would sell ten of something this month, with no advertising budget.

Use the Marketing Plan Builder

Where to go next

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