In 2020 we were proud to announce a partnership with the Business Growth Fund, who invested £3m into the expansion and further development of 365 Response. In the short time since taking this investment, we have made substantial leaps in growth and thrived in the unforeseen pandemic environment.
Sarah Fatchett is a veritable female CEO and renowned leader, who has taken 365 Response on an impressive journey from humble beginnings in her garage, to a 60-strong organisation, creating valuable time and cost efficiencies for the NHS and Local Authorities. Most importantly, at the heart of the business, is changing the lives of service users and patients, nationwide, by making difficult transport easy.
The Guardian recently published an article about financing for small businesses, including expert advice from four entrepreneurs, who shared their experiences. The collaborative article featured comments from Sarah, alongside Molly Johnson-Jones from Recruitment Platform, Flexa, Christian Townsley, one of the Co-Founders of North Brewing and Vicky Matthews from Virtual PA Service, Pink Spaghetti.
Sarah and the 365 Response Directors worked hard to secure financial backing from an investor that had similar values and they were keen to scale-up quickly, to support the high demand for critical transport software. Commenting in the article, Sarah said:
“Raising finance is a really positive thing to do as a business owner because it helps you to think differently. [You need to] be really clear about what you want to do, what you want to spend the money on, and why you want to spend it.”
Vicky Matthews from Pink Spaghetti shared similar comments:
“I’m really glad we took the plunge.” She continued, “I think sometimes it’s easy to see having to borrow money as a negative thing. But, for us, it was an enabler – it helped us get to where we wanted to be more quickly.”
Sarah discussed how the pandemic had impacted 365 Response and how she wanted to use technology to provide support to the sectors that were so in need of technological advancements, at a time when it was needed most.
To find out more about financing a small business and the investment process, you can read the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/getting-back-on-track/2021/feb/19/its-about-telling-your-story-four-things-i-wish-id-known-about-financing-my-small-business