Louise Croft, the founder of ImpossibleToBuyFor.com isn’t your typical tech start-up CEO. She’s female, twenty-six years old, a ‘digital nomad’ living in Thailand, and can’t code a single line.
Louise decided to create a gift list website that recommends the best presents on Amazon for friends who are notoriously hard to buy for.
“I love shopping on Amazon, but when you’re looking for inspiration it’s seriously lacking”
“So many of my friends and family are impossible to buy for, and I knew I couldn’t be the only one feeling this way, so I figured it was time to fix the problem.”
Despite not being able to code, she built the site in just a few days, with less than £100. She used WordPress, and a range of software tools available online, and has since been building up the range and attracting customers.
“This project has definitely taught me self-belief. All my friends keep asking me who built the site, and I’m like ‘me!’ It’s a really big achievement because I only know some extremely basic web development. I simply used all the fantastic tools that already exist out there on the Internet. Why reinvent the wheel?”
In order to find a wide range of unusual gifts, Louise decided to crowd-source suggestions. As a fashion blogger she started by asking fellow bloggers for a wish list.
“I wanted to site to be crowd sourced so that it wasn’t just my taste. The blogging community has been really supportive so far, giving suggestions and featuring ImpossibleToBuyFor.com on their websites.”
By filtering according to personality such as ‘Foodies’ and ‘Tech Head’ it gives inspiration based on interests instead of just price or gender.
Next, she wants to take on the big brands in the Christmas gifts market, and rock the tech-founder stereotype.
“Having worked around web developers for the past few years, I’m always conscious of being one of the very few women in the room. Everything is geared up to guys, with beer and pizza parties, or gaming meetups.”
According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, of $17.6 billion in angel investment, only 9.4% went to female entrepreneurs (source), and of the Fortune 500 only 26 have women CEOs (source). As a Bath University graduate with a first class business degree, Louise doesn’t want this to hold her back.
“At some point I’ll be looking for investors, and I certainly don’t plan to let my gender affect that”.
ImpossibleToBuyFor.com hopes to capture the money saving market too.
“We don’t add any mark-up, so it means customers get the cheapest possible deal. Plus, by integrating with Amazon Prime you can leave your shopping to the last minute and still get away with it”.
Shop online at: www.impossibletobuyfor.com
Follow on Twitter: @impossible_shop
Contact Louise: [email protected]
