How working for Virgin and Richard Branson inspired me to launch my own business

Anyone who has worked for one of the many Virgin Group companies, can not help but feel totally inspired by Richard and his massive achievements over the last 40 years.  From records to mobile technology, aviation and now space, there are few industry sectors that, to date, remain unconquered by the iconic Virgin brand.

Having trained as a solicitor, and as a self confessed anorak, I landed my dream job a few years ago when I started working at Virgin Atlantic as one of the in-house lawyers.  The energy and camaraderie around the company were like nothing I had ever experienced before.  This passion for what we were doing came from the top, and we all referred to “Richard” with great affection – as if he was one of the gang.

I remember on a couple of occasions, he wandered into my office.   Having been warned by other work colleagues that this might happen, I had hoped to pass myself of as a suave, cool and collected member of his legal team – half LA Law and half Ally McBeal.  Instead, I sat there totally star struck and open mouthed and was hardly able to string a sentence together as chatted on whilst picking up different models from my aircraft collection.   I’m sure he left my office hoping that my negotiating skills were a huge improvement on my social abilities.

Working for Virgin had a profound impact on me, not least as I met my future husband there, but when I left the company I had a strong desire to create something of my own.  This opportunity came up last year when I was living in the Highlands of Scotland and I met my neighbour and now business partner.  Mo and I both have young children and having previously been involved in business, we started talking about new ideas and ventures.

It was around the same time that I had my will drawn up.  I realised that although I could make financial and legal provisions, there was nowhere or no way or recording information about how I would like to be remembered or my life to be celebrated - major events, private moments, memoirs, photos or songs that have been of great significance  to me.  We also realized that the issue of “digital estate” (on-line accounts and content including email, photos, iTunes, games, blogs etc) was becoming a huge issue and that the app should address this.

Neither Mo or I had any kind of technical background so at the outset of our project we had a massive challenge on our hands.  However, I did think back to Richard over 25 years ago, trying to book an air ticket and being unsuccessful.  If he could start up an airline with no aviation background then my challenge looked pretty small fry in comparison.  

We did a huge amount of research both in terms of app functionality and content and once we had come up with a brief, we started meeting with app developers.  We had a particularly surreal meeting with one agency where we felt we were old enough to be their mothers.  They swaggered in wearing skinny jeans looking like Franz Ferdinand and appeared pretty startled when they spotted us sitting there sipping our lattes in our pastel coloured cardigans.

It was such a massive achievement for us both when the app was available to download – I couldn’t quite believe it sitting there looking at iTunes that all our efforts had paid off.   We have been building awareness about the app through social media, app review sites and we were delighted to be featured on the Scottish news.  This was my first television experience and I have to say I was hugely uncomfortable in front of the camera.   My husband, who had advised Richard on many occasions in his role as Communications Director, gave me some great advice but on the day I was nervous and way out of my comfort zone.  My speech sounded all weird and robotic.  And the more I tried to sound more normal, the more I feared I was going to end up with a cameo in the new Transformer film.  

Much of my inspiration for taking the leap in launching my own business has definitely come from my days working at Virgin.  As you-know-who-would say “Screw it – Let’s Do It”.

Link to download app http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/legacy-organiser/id428518774?mt=8

Link to Virgin's Website http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/blog/app-innovator-on-acting-upon-inspiration