Founders Focus: The Learnings

Continuing on from Part I, The Beginnings, in Part II we speak to MASAJ Founders, Scarlet Amies and Alice Vaughan all about how they've grown from operating out of a shipping container to now bringing bodywork to two beautiful London Studios and what they've learnt along the way. They discuss the struggles experienced in getting to this point, the incredible team that they have grown and their big visions for the future of MASAJ. 

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What struggles did you face at this point of expansion?

AV: That first sprint of scaling really meant growing every facet of the business and often there was a push and pull, it was all ‘Where do we put our central resource? How many people do we need to hire to achieve this? How do we position ourselves in a way that feels true to the brand that we want to be, and is accessible for our clients?’ And even though I think we often reflect on that period as one of the more challenging times that we've faced, it very much made us and made the brand. We learned a hell of a lot from that perspective, on what is a realistic offering and what will work. 

The challenges that we faced as Founders in terms of some of the big decisions that we had to make at that point were decisions that I was anticipating having to make 10 years down the line, not in the first 12 months – we had to scale back a lot of our ambition, and unfortunately let go of some staff in December of that year - and after a year full of hope we went into real crisis mode. 

SA: It is still the hardest thing that I’ve done in my career to date and truthfully I find it really hard to think and talk about - but it’s without a doubt the most learning I’ve undertaken over one period of time. I also think it's a ‘coming of age’ thing that comes with running a business, you do have to learn to scale gracefully and fail fast. I feel like it’s part of the learning, and it’s made us ever so careful and cautious now. Data driven, patient but still ambitious. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wouldn’t change it. 

AV: No, I think with a lot of hindsight, it allowed us to discover who we are as Founders and gave us a much greater understanding of what it's like to be an entrepreneur and a business Founder. It's so surprising how many businesses go through exactly the same thing, which is that you simply don't have the knowledge yet to understand how quickly and how aggressively you need to be scaling.

What kept you going and motivated throughout these difficult periods? 

SA: Well, I was very grateful that I had a Co-Founder to go through the highs and lows with because you don’t want to be in that position alone. But the main thing that pushed me and has always and will always motivate me, is that I knew that this is an offering that people want and need – I truly believe that bodywork can change your life, really fundamentally within my soul believe it. So when it’s really hard, that’s what keeps me going. I know it can be scaled and I know that we can make people feel good, on a daily basis. That is what this is all about.

AV: And you know, we got guidance and help from some really amazing people who didn't bullshit with us. We had people sit us down and go, yeah, this business is fantastic and it's salvageable – but you have to do these things to get there. But then the pandemic hit, and then came the next load of learnings. 

How did you navigate through a pandemic, being a brand built on touch?

AV: Honestly, I think the whole thing felt so tough because we had been through this really difficult time and grafted our way out of it, and then the rug was pulled from under our feet. It felt like there was so little we could do, but we just didn’t stop, we had to find a way to sustain the business, so we started a products business. Both of our flats became warehouses and we shifted our minds to how we could use this time effectively and get creative. 

We were also working with an amazing Graphic Designer at the time, called Sophie Bansal, who was really instrumental in getting creative, producing beautiful things and also being another creative brain who could help us do something positive for the brand in a worrying time. So we really focused on products over that period – we sold our candles, oil blends and things like self-care kits - and were amazed at the response and support from our long-standing customers

SA: We also really took advantage of that time to deep dive into the brand that we had built - and refine it; reviewing the brand guidelines, our manifesto, and building a new website alongside it. But we did really feel like the pandemic held us back from expanding the way that we had envisioned, so as the pandemic related restrictions eased off we started to look at our next steps.

We had an opportunity to take advantage of the commercial market and look around to see if we could get ourselves on the High Street, a bit more front and centre – and so Charlotte Road, our first bricks and mortar Studios in Shoreditch, was born. And really from there it's been pretty good news on the whole, it's been a lot of work, but we’ve been able to get back on track.

So what’s the journey looked like since opening the Shoreditch Studios?

SA: My job is very much about brand awareness, strategy and growth - so seeing the success of Shoreditch validated the concept of MASAJ. It’s been all about perfecting the offering and expanding on it. All those years of struggle and the years of putting ourselves on the line was worth it. 

AV: Also the pandemic put a lot of things into perspective for us. When it comes to challenges now it feels so much more easily managed because we have experience, we have perspective and we have many more experienced people working with us.

SA: I think this is where the two of us and our skill-sets in our careers thus far really came through. It was time for Al’s background in community and operations and her really amazing data mind to come into itself, because we finally had data to use. So then we were able to do both, where we could get really ambitious and drive things forward as well as confidently steady the ship. I think ever since then we’ve been on this great sprint and that’s come from raising investment, but also from bringing on amazing, amazing people, learning how to hire well and listening to the teams of experts around us. 

“We believe so strongly in the very core of our business, and that means that opportunity extends outwards in many different directions. It's so exciting to look to a future and to have many different paths of opportunity, rather than one singular goal.”

- Alice Vaughan, Founder of MASAJ

Photographer: Bennie Curnow

Now the brand is growing so rapidly, what’s the process of building & leading a team been like?

SA: The role as a Founder is of course strategising, being in charge of brand and culture, but so much of it is about hiring really well - hiring experts who are better than you in that area. It’s also about not being afraid of people being better than you and realising when it’s time to hand certain elements of the business over to others. You have to find the right people who want to do it, to grow with us and whole-heartedly believe in what we’re doing – it means that handing things over and entrusting them with it becomes a whole lot easier. 

AV: It’s hiring the generalists which is very difficult, which is one reason why we really focus on internal development. People who really understand and believe in the brand and are motivated, are way more valuable to us than someone who happens to be excellent at one thing. We believe the right person can be up-skilled and you can start to create a web, an ecology, within the business - where people compliment one another and are able to communicate well and share the weight of their work and challenges.

I also think that to be an effective Founder & team leader you have to always be open to learning, developing and recognising there are different and better ways to do things. Internal culture and strategy is Scarlet’s bread and butter and she’s excellent at bringing in inspiration from other brands, she’s also a relentless podcast consumer and business book fanatic – not a week goes by where she hasn't recommended to me, like - five podcasts to listen to. 

But ultimately I think the real success comes from our innate ‘human first’ approach.

How do you apply your ‘human first’ approach to managing your team?

SA: I think it's about simplifying things, like, we're just a bunch of humans that are growing something, and we're going to have to spend quite a lot of hours in our life doing it, so constantly asking - how do we do that in an enjoyable way and where everybody feels held and heard? For me it’s all about holding people and hearing them - if you can do that well you’re onto something. It starts with us as Founders, if we can be honest when we’re struggling, ask for help when we need it, and also celebrate when we’re on fire - then others will feel they can too. 

It’s also about being transparent - this is where we spend so much of our time, it needs to be a great environment to be in. That’s why we have a flexible working policy, you know, go and have a massage in the middle of the day if you need to, do whatever you need to do to make work better for you, and that facilitates you showing up in the best way possible for the brand.

AV: It’s also about letting our team know that they are trusted, and creating an internal culture where it feels safe to be vulnerable. You know, to let someone know that you’re having a bad day and understand that that’s completely normal, because we’re not working with machines, every single element of our business is an individual person - every single thing is down to humans. And prioritising those moments, for example, we as a central team of eight, took three days out at the start of February to get out of London and spend time being together - and that was so beneficial for not just us as individuals, but also for the team as a whole.

SA: All of this is so integral and is something we will constantly look to evolve as we grow. And all this is not to say we’re not working hard, you know we’re very driven and busy – there’s accountability, every single person in our team knows that they've got things that they need to uphold and speak for - and what we want is for them to feel empowered to do that. But we feel if you give people the chance to enjoy life outside of work, and work to their own rhythm, you keep people motivated and interested in what we're all working towards.

How do you look after yourselves to make sure you’re setting the right precedent?

SA: I’m not going to sugar coat it, when you’re a Founder you have to work extraordinary hours. You work evenings, you work weekends – but I have some big non-negotiables, like, I go to the gym everyday. I’m also a Mother, so I have to put boundaries in place for that – my wife and I have an agreement that anything outside of traditional working hours is shared parenting so I always navigate that around work. I also feel very strongly that my daughter sees me at bath time and bedtime, so I’ll often go home for that and then fit in a few hours of work afterwards if necessary. 

AV: For me it’s been quite a long journey into not feeling guilty, because I worked for so long in industries and companies where you had to be available all the time and if you weren’t, you weren’t a good employee and it was selfish to take time away from your job. I think the big one for me is just recognising when I need to switch off. For example, I have a real thing about cooking every evening and that being a time where I have an hour just to myself to be creative and listen to music or a podcast. 

You know we also all have those days where we just don’t feel like being around people or in front of a screen and we just need to be outside by ourselves - and now I’m really able to recognise that I should just go and do it, because I will be better when I come back to my desk, and I’ll be better for the people around me if I do listen to that voice. It also really helps to have people around you that can also back up that voice - and not having any judgement pointed in your direction when you say you need some time off. And it’s more than that, having people that advocate for it - we really advocate for each other as Founders, but also for the rest of our team - and that’s so important.

Do you feel that your approach differs as Female Founders?

AV: We've learnt a lot over the last few years about how to project ourselves as leaders and our aspirations for the business. That involves a few really specific things, one is the language that we use and that we imprint within the business – for example, we never use the terminology ‘small business’ and always say ‘start-up’. We’ve found that if you have two businesses the same size, one headed up by female founders, one headed up by male founders, the male business is more likely to be described as a start-up and the female business most likely to be described as a small business. We’re also particularly careful with language we use because there are lots of connotations of massage associated with the sex industry, so it's even more important that we use language really specifically, with real intention and purpose.

SA: That’s why we avoid words like ‘parlour’, ‘masseuse’, and typically use the word ‘bodywork’ instead of ‘massage’. It’s really important for us to not only be taken seriously as a brand and female founders, but also as an industry as a whole - and for people to understand that bodywork is so much more than a once in a while luxury, but actually something that can be completely transformative for your well being. 

Finally, what’s your vision for the future of MASAJ?

SA: Sky’s the limit. We believe that MASAJ can be on many major high streets, in all pockets of London - and beyond. We fundamentally believe that people who are living busy city lives deserve somewhere that's a sanctuary away from their daily grind, somewhere that they can go to feel peace, and somewhere they can go to feel held – and we won't stop until we've got there. And, of course, then there’s the small task of revolutionising the industry we’ve got to address - we’ve got a lot of work to do to make serious standard changes in the world we operate in. 

AV: We believe so strongly in the very core of our business, and that means that opportunity extends outwards in many different directions. It's so exciting to look to a future and to have many different paths of opportunity, rather than one singular goal – it’s really freeing creatively and motivating entrepreneurially.

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We hope you enjoyed getting to know our story and our incredible Founders a little bit more – stay tuned for more to come from our Founders and Happy International Women's Day to all women folk!