Sofia Fenichell is a self-confessed lover of words. She is a former technology analyst turned serial entrepreneur. As a senior account manager at DDB Needham, she has worked on General Mills and PepsiCo. Sofia was a highly regarded technology analyst working for Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and UBS, and voted the number one buyside analyst across all sectors by Institutional Investors. After retiring from her career in finance to raise her children, she became a serial technology entrepreneur launching video apps Rockpack and WonderPL that were heavily featured by Apple. Sofia is currently CEO and founder of Mrs Wordsmith, a UK startup transforming how children learn new words. ‘The Storyteller’s Illustrated Dictionary’ is an Amazon bestseller and the company recently raised $11m (€9.7m) from investors to expand into the US and China, with plans to create a digital component and cover different languages.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“there have been challenges along the way. They have mostly been related to hiring and building a team which is something that has been new to me. And I’m only maybe three years in and now just learning how to do that”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration Book by Ed Catmull
- Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility Book by Patty McCord
- Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World Book by Maryanne Wolf
Favourite Quote:
- “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.”
- “All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”
- “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” William Hutchison Murray”
Recommended Online Resources:
Google – Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“think hard about what you are going to do and why and to make sure you love it even if it fails because there is no guarantee of success. It is always a longer journey than you think it is going to be so you have to love it. If you love what you do that passion will carry you through. It doesn’t mean you are going to be right but it will keep you in the game”…[Listen for More]
More About Sofia Fenichell:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.” Nikos Kazantzakis
Other Quotes From the Chat with Sofia Fenichell:
- “when people ask me for advice on fundraising, I always say that the market is fairly efficient and if you have a really good idea and it resonates with people and they trust in your ability to execute on it you will raise the money. And you are not raising the money you need to rethink can you execute or is your idea good enough”
- “I want to teach a billion children more words”
- “I really think that this business has had wings of its own. From the second that I had the idea to today we’ve had a huge tailwind behind us. The day after I had the idea, I looked for the name MrsWordsmith.com and the.com was available for £8.99. And that kind of good look has always followed us. I think that we had so much clarity on what we want to achieve is a company and it has resonated with so many people that people have come out of the woodwork to help us as well”
- “the tailwind has been very strong and we could have accelerated or grown at two or three times the rate if I hadn’t made so many mistakes… The positive news in that is that because we made mistakes early, I think the learning from them has been so significant that we will accelerate our growth and impact from here. Some of those mistakes actually led us to change the business model in a way that was very, very positive in the long run. So if we didn’t make them then we might not have done that.”
- “I think that you need to know your market better than anyone”
- “you need to do research into all aspects of your business”
- “business model research is very important. Thinking about what is a sustainable business plan is something I spent a lot of time on and I think it is what made it easier to raise money. I had a very clear idea of how we were going to make money and how that could scale globally”
- “hiring faster doesn’t get you where you need to go faster”
- “if you have a great idea and you create a very high-quality product and you are very clever about how you distribute it you will succeed”
- “people underestimate. If you analyse the market correctly and identify the gaps and then apply yourself topically to solving them and with creativity you can unlock big business opportunities”
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