Aimée-Louise Carton is the co-founder and CEO of KeepAppy, the app and social enterprise that acts as a gym for your mental health. Her company was born out of her suicide attempt and subsequent recovery. She is described as having “started a mental health revolution”.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Aimée-Louise’s Grandfather
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I think adversity can be incredible… I really think that the thing that I overcame the most was the stigma around mental health, I still have to fight that every day but I am thinking of one example in particular which is a member of my family who I am incredibly close to who honestly doesn’t believe that mental health and mental illness is a real issue. They think that we should just get over ourselves. That if you are having a bad day that’s just because it’s your own fault, you’re being dramatic, you’re being overemotional. And it took a long, long time for me to be able to persuade that person even though they were there when I was going through my recovery during my suicide attempt, they were there when I was going through all of the agony, all of the recovery, all of those components, they still didn’t believe that mental illness was a real thing. Then when I started my company it was the same argument that mental health wasn’t real, that mental illness wasn’t real. Why am I setting up a company in an industry that isn’t real? That was very much the perception of this family member. And I had to fight tooth and nail to prove to them that this was an area worthy of business, that this was an area that consumers were unsatisfied with, that the market needs more engagement”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Book by Robert T. KiyosakiFavourite Quote:
“Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.” Professor Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
Recommended Online Resources:
- Canva – Create beautiful designs with your team Use Canva’s drag and drop feature and layouts to design, share and print business cards, logos, presentations and more
- Medium where words matter. Medium deliver’s the best stories and ideas on the topics you care about most straight to your homepage, app, or inbox.
- LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“just keep talking. The idea that an entrepreneur hides what they are developing even when they are in stealth mode… Well maybe if they are in stealth mode and it is a really niche industry with highly invasive competitors… But really just keep talking, keep asking people what they think, how they would do it, what they would recommend. Because the more you talk about it the better you will get at pitching, the better you will understand your own business, the better you will understand the sales process, the better you will understand your users. There is no harm in constantly communicating your idea, your goals, what you think it will be”…[Listen for More]
More About Aimée-Louise Carton:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be human, you’d be a game show host.” Gabriel Heather
Other Quotes From the Chat with Aimée-Louise Carton:
- “the best thing you can do is talk to your users, talk to your customers, talk to the people who are going to be buying your product because at the end of the day they are the most valuable component of the sales chain – they are the most valuable component of whatever you are building”
- “I think the key to success is getting the right people on your side… Just getting the right champions and people that believe in you and help you out”
- “I don’t think there is any secrets just hard work”
- “we set up little group chats, we set up little group funnels. We are constantly trying to get them to help us build a better product because the way we see it is that our users are helping us build this, this is a community effort to create community change with mental health”
- “there is such a shame around asking for help, people see it as a bad thing. That actually it’s such a good thing, it opens you up to so many different opportunities and enables you to see such a wider world”
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