“Female founders should support one another”

If you’ve not experienced it yourself, it’s impossible to imagine just how hard life as the boss of a new company can be. Every single cell in your body is invested in making the new venture work, and the number of hats you must wear on every single day is enough to make most people’s heads spin.

Yet launching a new business in the sweet spot of two rapidly-growing and evolving industries – wellness and technology – makes this challenge even more daunting. Then factor in being a young women in traditionally male-dominated areas and your odds of success shrink while the task of keeping your head above work becomes exponentially harder.

At first Georgie Spurling, founder of ARVRA (Active Recovery Vibration and Resistance Activation), a novel fitness approach that combines active recovery, vibration therapy and resistance training to improve recovery, paints a depressing picture of life as a female founder and chief executive officer.

She mentions dealing with internal issues around confidence and ability, including imposter syndrome, as well as facing seemingly insurmountable external obstacles, such as rarely being taken seriously by older people, especially senior male executives, because of her age, gender, personality and looks.

And even other female execs rarely offer to lend a hand of support or encouragement, she says, with many choosing to pull up the rope once they’ve attained their career goal, rather than looking down and helping other women get that crucial first foot on the ladder.

And while she is the first to admit she is yet to break down the walls that stand around her career and her business aspirations, the drive and determination to overcome any barrier – as she did the life-changing rare heart condition that turned her childhood upside down – means it’s only a matter of time before she, and ARVRA, scale new heights.