Karen Barrett,
CEO and Founder
What sparked
the idea for Unbiased?
the idea for Unbiased?
We put the spotlight on Karen Barrett, Founder and CEO of Unbiased. Here’s her incredible story of how Unbiased started, how it’s grown and her proudest achievements so far.
My parents instilled a ‘give it a go’ attitude from a young age
Looking back, I can see how I developed the outlook and self-discipline to make a go of my own business but it wasn’t a clear-cut path.
My parents instilled a ‘give it a go’ attitude from a young age. Although I didn’t excel in any one subject at school, I later realised that having a broad knowledge of many areas was a benefit to me as a business owner.
After leaving Newcastle University, I applied for lots of different jobs before landing a one-year contract as a Sales Development Executive at Mortgage Express, at that time owned by Lloyds TSB. It was a great time to join and as part of a small team I could challenge how things were done and make a difference.
From Mortgage Express I moved to a Marketing Manager role at Abbey, where I gained valuable experience of working at a blue-chip company. I learned a lot by being in an organisation of that size, not least how to operate in a more political, corporate environment. However, I began to realise that a smaller, more agile environment suited me better in terms of making an impact, and getting fast results. The seeds of running my own business were being sown, though little did I know what was just around the corner.
I was faced with the worst thing possible – my child almost died
My son was born with a serious heart defect in 2009. It went undiagnosed for four weeks, so by the time the problem was identified, he was extremely sick. He was rushed to London’s Royal Brompton hospital and had his first open-heart surgery at four weeks old and the second at 10 weeks. It was a difficult time and because of the seriousness of his case, I stayed at the hospital for those first two months.
“I found myself
to be
completely
unprepared.”
to be
completely
unprepared.”
In the middle of worrying whether he was going to be OK, I was also anxious about practical things such as: Do I have health insurance? Will I be able to go back to work? If so, when is that likely to be? Will I need to stop working permanently, to care for him? If so, how will we manage financially as a family? I was faced with an unexpected situation and found myself to be completely unprepared.
I had nothing to lose
After two months, my son was discharged from hospital. He’s a teenager now and very well. He goes for annual check-ups and may need a couple more operations in the future, but if so they’ll be minor, so we’ve had a great outcome for which we are extremely grateful.
Coming through the worst thing imaginable, I remember thinking: ‘I’ve got nothing to lose.’ I knew corporate life wasn’t for me. I liked doing my own thing and felt I was good at it. What happened just took away the worry I had about actually doing it.
My own experience made me think: ‘There must be millions of other people who find themselves in this situation’. The concept of an easy-to-use, free, online service that can be accessed 24/7 from anywhere and which used technology to match people with the best, trusted professional advisers, suddenly made total sense.
Sometimes the only way forward is to take tough decisions
When Unbiased launched in 2009, it had been sensible to outsource the tech and data functions to an external provider. But in a few years we’d grown and I thought:
Unbiased was a third
of its current size as
recently as 2018
of its current size as
recently as 2018
‘If we’re truly a tech company, there’s no way we can do this. It’s so important and integral to our business - especially managing what we do in terms of product development, technology and data. We have to bring it in-house.’ We had to close down the entire system for six months, so that we could rebuild it. It was scary because we were worried all our customers would suffer and ultimately leave. That was probably my biggest challenge, but it was also the best decision I’ve ever made.
“Half of our senior leadership team are female and across the business there's a high level of diversity.”
Karen Barrett
I know more about my business than anyone else
Only 9% of funding goes to women so from the offset the odds are stacked against female-founded businesses in raising money to grow. Everything we know about business tells us that investment in women means more innovation, economic growth and social benefit for the nation. After all, who better to cater to the female half of the population than women?
When we did our formal Series A fundraising round in January 2020, I was aware of the stats, so ensured I worked with people who’d been through the process before and knew how to negotiate with investors to obtain the best result for us as a business. We spent a long time making sure we had a high-quality business plan, financial forecast, and that the business was trading well as we went out to market. Preparation was key in not only securing funding but also selecting the right investor partner who’d work well with us post-deal. We achieved five offers, which was a great result. After selecting one and completing due diligence, we raised £5.6m to invest into the growth of the business, enabling us to bring our service to more customers than ever before.
It was an incredible boost to have my faith in the business validated, and a real vote of confidence in the business opportunity.
We’re hiring smart, passionate people
Half of our senior leadership are female and across the business there’s a high level of diversity. We were a diverse group at leadership level from the beginning and as we’ve grown, that’s cascaded through. There’s no bias in how we hire, although I’m conscious we can always do more. We’re trying to promote financial advice to people who don’t know they need it, and the overall population is diverse. If we as a team are also diverse, it means we have a greater range of viewpoints to help us understand our customers - consumers and professional advisers.
Who wants to be overlooked or have no impact?
I always make a point of giving credit where it’s due. If someone in our team has a great idea, it’s important to say: ‘Well done, you!’ That’s come as a direct result of my own experience. Who wants to be overlooked, or have no impact? It’s joyless and I don’t want to be that sort of leader.
I recently made it to the final of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in the Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year category, the Great British Business Woman of the Year and Unbiased has just been included in the JP Morgan Private Bank Top 200 Female-Powered businesses. We expanded our team throughout the pandemic and it’s so rewarding to have recognition of what the whole team at Unbiased has achieved together.
“Women need to play an active part in managing their money and about where to save and spend”
If I could wave a magic wand
People need independent, trusted financial advice for all sorts of reasons. ‘I want to ensure that my mum is cared for in her old age,’ ‘I want to make sure I have the funds to make sure that my children are privately educated’ or ‘I want to make sure I can retire comfortably.’
However, if I could wave a wand to change one thing, it would be to persuade more women to start managing their own finances. Married women or those in a partnership often take time out of the workplace to have children and it’s not uncommon for them to stop pension payments because they can’t afford them. But with higher rates of divorce, it’s not a given that things are going to end up how they expected, so they could be putting themselves in a very precarious position. Women need to play an active part in managing their money and making choices about where to save and spend.
What next for Unbiased?
We’ve achieved so much since we launched Unbiased in 2009 and I’m so proud of everything the team has accomplished. However, my vision for making financial advice accessible to all still stands firm. There are so many people who are underserved when it comes to financial services and the ageing demographic in the UK means far more will need advice. People are living longer, meaning making savvy decisions around retirement can have a lasting impact. As Unbiased continues to grow and evolve, our objective remains to connect people to great advice and help them make confident, sound decisions for their future.