Deirdre McGettrick is the Founder and CEO of ufurnish.com the UK’s market-leading search and comparison website for home furniture and furnishings. The website brings together 100+ leading retailers and over one million of their products, all in one place. The idea for ufurnish.com was born out of her frustration whilst trying to turn her dream home into a reality. The business is already experiencing rapid growth on the back of a successful £1.8m seed investment round with Deirdre winning the New Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2020 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards. Deirdre is currently also working on a significant Series A investment round to further accelerate the business growth and make ufurnish.com the destination website for everyone to search, discover, compare and shop furniture for their homes.
What was your first job?
My first job was working in my family shop, covering when my dad went for lunch, running errands and serving customers. I guess it was free labour but I was well fed in return! It never felt like work however and this is where my passion for home interiors and design was born working with curtain fabrics.
What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date?
The decision I am most proud of was following my heart to leave my law job and go travelling. Travelling gave me such a broad outlook on life and the confidence to not only be myself but trust in myself and pursue my dreams.
In three words or less, how do you define success?
Purpose, achievement and happiness.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Find the quickest way around naysayers who block you or don’t believe.
How do you motivate yourself and your staff?
I believe motivation all comes down to your self-worth. If you can see the impact of your work, the sense of pride from your input driving the output drives people to repeat that process. Therefore, ensuring everyone understands through clear communication the impact of their role and how it helps us as a collective achieve our goals is key. Acknowledging great work is so important within a team, saying thank you can go a long way.
How do you relax?
Walking, catching up with friends and family (who don’t let you talk about work) and listening to music. The power of music, such as Ludovico Eniaudi to make you sit back and breathe never ceases to amaze me.
What’s your motto?
“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”, Oscar Wilde
What are your aspirations for the future of the business?
ufurnish.com is a market leading search and discovery engine, that is revolutionising the £26bn UK furniture industry just like Booking.com, Skyscanner or Rightmove in their sector verticals. On one website consumers can search, discover, compare and shop from 100+ furniture retailers across the entire market. We are consumer and data driven and our ambition is to be the world’s leading website for people when shopping for their homes, as well as for our retail partners, as they accelerate their growth online.