Life+ Collective is a community for founders and operators of consumer companies that are building products and services that positively impact our everyday lives.
It all started as a monthly dinner to bring consumer founders together. The idea was to put founders around a table, all of whom were at similar stages of company development, in order to build connections and talk about common problems.
We bought things online during Covid-19, and built a speaker series aimed at B2C/DTC founders to talk about everything from alternative funding, startup legals, founder mindset, product and delightful customer journeys.
This week, we launched a £140k grant programme for pre-seed consumer-tech founders from underrepresented backgrounds.
How did you come up with the idea for the organisation?
When I started working with startups, it was my job to help companies launch consumer products and experiences. I noticed straight away that the majority of support for early-stage tech companies was targeted at B2B, rather than direct-to-consumer products. We founded Life+ as I wanted to create something that offered the same opportunities for networking and operational advice to B2C/DTC founders and operators.
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How has the organisation — and the need for the work you do — changed during the pandemic?
Our goal is to provide information, support from experts, and better connectivity, to our community members. To do this, we switched from being completely in person, and focusing on conversations in a small group of 10-12, to being wholly online, and switching to a one-to-many model.
After the past year’s health crisis, and increasing awareness of social injustices and challenges, we’ve seen so many more people interested in entrepreneurship and building things that bring happiness to their users and balance purpose and profit. We want to make sure that the option to build companies in this area is open to the widest range of people possible. There is still a hidden cost to starting a company, so this grant is designed to help founders bring their ideas to life or level up an existing idea they’ve been working on.
What can we hope to see from Life+ in the future?
We hope to run more events for founders alongside running the grant, so if you’re interested in joining, please don’t hesitate to get in touch through our website lifepluscollective.com
