In honor of International Women’s Day 2022, we wanted to celebrate an inspirational leader, our very own CEO, Imogen Wethered.
This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) theme, #BreaktheBias, is a call to arms. “Whether deliberate or unconscious,” the IWD’s official website site says, “bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead. Knowing that bias exists isn’t enough, action is needed to level the playing field.”
According to a recent study conducted by Heidrick and Struggles, in the first half of 2021, a meager 13% of CEOs identified as female. Sadly, the world of business is still rife with gender bias, meaning women often need to work twice as hard, for twice as long, to gain the same recognition as their male counterparts. For that reason, it’s particularly impressive that Wethered co-founded Qudini at 23, shortly after graduating from Bristol University in 2012.
How It All Began
On a whim, Wethered decided to attend a hackathon sponsored by O2 in a Shoreditch warehouse. “I only went to the hackathon because I had basic knowledge of Photoshop so I could try mocking up user interface designs,” she later told The Guardian (one of many national newspapers she’s since been featured in). Ultimately, her instincts were spot on. Wethered and co-founder Fraser Hardy won the hackathon.
Following their win, Telefónica invited them to join their prestigious accelerator program (Wayra). It was here, meeting Telefónica’s retail and banking clientele, that they realized Qudini’s real-world potential and started to build their virtual queue-management software to radically transform how the industry approached the customer journey. The following year, they would also enroll into the John Lewis JLAB accelerator.
Both accelerators would prove to be incredibly successful. John Lewis trialed Qudini’s queue management system in one of their London stores. Telefónica Global even chose Qudini as their go-to supplier for queue management solutions.
Scaling-Up
Fast forward a few short years and by the end of 2018, Wethered and Hardy had rapidly scaled Qudini up. 16 million customers were already using Qudini’s platform to schedule appointments and to queue virtually rather than physically. Unquestionably, their stratospheric growth had steered them into the big leagues. They were now collaborating with countless top brands from across the world–Samsung, TUI, and even the British National Health Center (NHS), to name but a few.
Even the pandemic, which caused difficulties for many businesses around the world, couldn’t derail Wethered and Hardy’s mission to revolutionize the customer experience. In fact, Qudini was already in prime position to make a difference in a socially-distanced world.
In 2020, Wethered told Business Insider, “Queues were an iconic consequence of World War II rationing schemes but with the smartphone technology now available to us three-quarters of a century later, it feels unnecessary that they should become an iconic part of the coronavirus pandemic.”
To give one example, Wethered foresaw that long queues presented a real health concern for British grocery retailers. Consequently, she worked closely with leading retailers like Tesco to implement multiple social distancing solutions including click and collect pickup. As coronavirus infection rates soared, drive-thru customers could now check-in from their phone using a QR code or weblink to get a store associate to come and safely put their groceries into their car boot.
Recognition and Accolades
Fortunately, Wethered’s trailblazing hasn’t gone unnoticed. From a nomination in the Rising Star category at the Everywoman in Technology awards to featuring on Business Insider’s list of “100 People Transforming Business in Europe”, Wethered has garnered much attention for her sharp entrepreneurial instincts. Deservedly, in 2018, she even featured on Forbes 30 under 30 list.
This International Women’s Day, we’re taking a look back at Wethered’s achievements as CEO of Qudini. She’s one of the many great female entrepreneurs helping to lead by example to #BreaktheBias.
Want to learn more about how Qudini is changing the game for leading retailers around the globe? Visit our Case Studies page and find out.
