Founder of the Week: Maya Moufarek

• Maya Moufarek is the former founding CMO of Pharmacy2U, one of the largest online pharmacy’s in the UK.
• With professional experience at both Amex and Google, Maya helped shift Pharmacy2U from a small, regional business into a national brand with over half a million subscribers.
• Since then, Moufarek has gone to run MarketingCube.co, and she also does additional work as a board member and angel investor on various other projects.

 

 

Tell Us About Yourself and Pharmacy2U

 

I’m Maya Moufarek, formerly founding CMO of Pharmacy2U, where we built what is now the UK’s third-largest pharmacy. With previous experience at Google and Amex, I helped transform Pharmacy2U from an unknown regional direct mail business into a national brand serving half a million subscribers. We achieved growth equivalent to opening a brick-and-mortar pharmacy every 2.5 days, earning us Amazon’s Growing Business of the Year award and a place on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100.

Today, I run MarketingCube.co, providing fractional CMO services to VC-backed startups. I’m also a board member and active angel investor passionate about supporting diverse founders solving meaningful problems.

 

What Inspired You to Start Pharmacy2U? What Problem Were You Aiming To Solve?

 

We identified a massive underserved market; around half the British population relies on repeat prescriptions, but the process remained antiquated. Patients endured inconvenient pharmacy queues and poor service while the NHS overspent. Though healthcare lagged behind other sectors in digital transformation, NHS infrastructure finally enabled seamless prescription services. 

We set out to bridge this gap by merging consumer digital expertise with pharmaceutical services. Our proposition was elegantly simple: remove the friction customers face when renewing prescriptions while helping the NHS save 15% on an £8 billion annual cost line, delivering better outcomes for everyone.

 

 

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far? How Did You Overcome It?

 

Our biggest challenge was having just an 18-month runway to prove our model in this new category. We had to build everything: the digital customer experience, GTM operations, and brand trust while keeping detractors at bay.

We overcame this by being ruthlessly focused. I took ownership of the full customer funnel from awareness to retention, aligning product and marketing teams. This allowed us to move fast and iterate quickly.

We couldn’t rely on typical digital channels since no search volume existed for our offering. We went back to basics with an omnichannel approach: TV ads targeting our 40+ demographic during cheaper daytime slots, advertising in GP surgeries, and targeted direct mail campaigns.

Ultimately, we proved our model’s sustainability, leading to a £40 million raise and PE sale.

 

Can You Describe A Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Pharmacy2U?

 

The pivotal moment was when we sat in acquisition meetings with potential trade buyers and realised the quality of their questions reflected fundamental limitations in their thinking. Walking out of those meetings, I told my partners I could not see myself joining forces with this potential buyer. That moment crystallised our vision: we weren’t just building a business to flip, we were creating something genuinely transformative. It reinforced our commitment to finding investors who understood our mission rather than just seeing us as another asset. This clarity ultimately led us to the right private equity partner who valued our innovation.

 

How Do You Define Success? 

 

For Your Business: Success means creating measurable impact. But beyond scale, it’s about meaningful outcomes: saving the NHS money, improving patient treatment adherence, and building a sustainable business model that proves digital transformation in healthcare works – this is what it was at Pharmacy2U. Success is when your innovation becomes the new standard while delivering real value to customers. 

 

As A Founder: True success means creating work I’m deeply proud of while remaining fully engaged as a mother, daughter, friend, and partner. This integration isn’t easy, but it’s essential. It shapes how I structure my current portfolio career, the clients I choose, and the boundaries I maintain. When my professional work aligns with my values and my personal relationships thrive, that’s when I know I’m succeeding. Everything else is just metrics.

 

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Considering Launching Their Own Startup?

 

Start with a problem you genuinely understand and care about – your unfair competitive advantage comes from why YOU can solve this better than anyone else. Don’t underestimate the power of narrative; investors and customers need to immediately grasp your problem space and why it needs to be solved now. Focus on building something that creates real value rather than chasing trends. Most importantly, find people who believe in your vision and don’t waste time on those who don’t. The startup journey is hard enough without convincing skeptics along the way.

 

What’s Next For Pharmacy2U? Are There Any Exciting Developments We Should Keep An Eye Out For?

 

Through MarketingCube.co, I’m working with an incredibly diverse portfolio of VC-backed ventures across B2B SaaS, healthtech, fintech, and consumer brands. The exciting development is seeing how fractional expertise is revolutionising how startups access senior talent. Rather than hiring one expensive CxO, founders can get specialised expertise exactly when they need it. I’m also deepening my angel investing, particularly in companies where I can provide both capital and marketing expertise. The future is about building a more flexible, efficient startup ecosystem.

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

 

Founder’s Five with Maya Moufarek

 

A massive component of what makes a business, especially startups, successful is the team behind the project. So, beyond the business itself, it’s important to understand what makes a founder tick.

With that in mind, here’s the exclusive Founder’s Five with Maya Moufarek.

 

1. Favourite Business Tool?

Wispr Flow allows me to dictate all my messages removing the need to type – I am doing it right now! Making creating any written content on the go a breeze. The voice recognition is close to perfection and it structures the message too!

 

2. One Lesson You’ve Learned the Hard Way?

Being a founder can be lonely and not everyone from your existing network will be able to empathise with your journey. Do dedicate time to expand your network and build a community. Actively cultivating relationships with other founders through meet-ups, accelerators, or online communities provides essential perspective, practical insights, and support when needed most.

 

3. A Future Trend You’re Watching?

The biggest AI opportunities won’t come from building AI technology itself, but from using AI to solve real problems. This mirrors cloud computing – the biggest winners weren’t companies building data centers, but those using cloud services to create valuable applications like Uber, Netflix, and Zoom. AI applications will follow the same pattern.

 

4. One Quote You Live By?

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

 

5. A book/podcast you recommend?

“Obsessed” by Emily Heyward. She makes brand building accessible to any audience and shows how brands form deep emotional connections by standing for something people care about. Essential reading for any founder who thinks a brand is just logos and colours.

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.