I Wish Someone Told Me: Katherine Stennett

We all have those moments when we think to ourselves, “I wish someone told me this.” We want to get ahead, so we are getting in touch with the brilliant minds and fascinating entrepreneurs that work in the UK to get their thoughts on life, work and success.

Katherine Stennett is an entrepreneur that recently founded the app Caper. It delivers grocery shopping in London within 60 minutes and aims to disrupt the way we buy food. Her past work has kept her involved in the London startup scene and she’s seen plenty of ideas come to life as part of accelerator programmes. We wanted to hear her thoughts on spotting genuine disruptors in a sea of noise and achieving success.

I wish someone told me how important it is to talk to your customers. It helps us to constantly challenge our assumptions.

What’s the telltale sign that something will become a disruptor, rather than a mere gimmick?

I would say the key to spotting something that will have longevity is to look at the core of the problem. Are they actually tackling an issue that people need solving or is it merely something ‘nice to have’? What evidence can they provide to back it up? Traction is useful but having a thorough understanding of exactly who their customer is, and what needs they are meeting for them is at the core of disruption.

From a technological point of view, have they built something entirely new, or are they facilitating a new way of doings things that is easily replicable? Some of the most successful disruptors have achieved phenomenal traction just by simplifying a process or product that already existed. In some industries, this can be as powerful as pure invention in terms of innovation.

In essence, I would say a combination of new, defensible technologies that are applied to tackle large scale ‘real’ problems are the ones that are going to truly disrupt.

What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you about achieving success?

I wish someone told me how important it is to talk to your customers. It helps us to constantly challenge our assumptions.

Sounds obvious, but you should be talking to them at every stage of development. The Mom Test is an invaluable resource if you want to be able to do this effectively.