If you like to treat yourself to the odd manicure or facial every now and then, you've probably

heard of Ruby, the digital beauty platform, bringing an array of services right to your door

via a network of more than 600 professionally vetted experienced therapists.

Ruby has delivered over 150,000 treatments since its inception with 1,000 beauty freelancers in

its network.

And today, I'm thrilled to be joined by the company's founder, Venetia Archer.

She is a pioneer in the beauty world, was one of Forbes's 30 under 30,

and sits on the advisory board to the British Beauty Council Sustainable Beauty Coalition.

She's here to chat more about her business journey, including the highs and lows,

and the advice should give any aspiring entrepreneurs out there. Venetia, welcome. Hi, thank you for having me. It's lovely to have

you. So let's start by talking about what happened in the years leading up to 2015 when you founded

Ruby. What was the idea? Where did it come from and what made you want to start it?

So I have always wanted to run my own business. I'd constantly be thinking of different ideas,

different concepts. And actually at the time, my former career, which always surprises people,

is that I was a geopolitical risk analyst,

and I was looking at Somali piracy, I was spending time in Kenya, like really a whole world

away from the world of beauty. I loved it. It was exciting. It was, you know, really interesting

time for me to experience in my 20s. I'd sort of moved back to London and I was

thinking what's next for me? And I had all of these different ideas and I'd always had the idea

for a beauty services platform because it was so impossible to book treatments. You call around

all the salons, no one was available. You never had

time. If you're a last minute sort of a gal like me, it was clear that there was a gap in the

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