Venetia Archer’s on-demand beauty business Ruuby buffs and polishes tens of thousands of nails each year – but when it comes to being an entrepreneur in a climate of rising taxes and a cost of living crisis, her views are unvarnished.

 “It is becoming increasingly difficult to be an entrepreneur and business owner in the UK,” Archer declares. 

 “Given the higher cost of employment, and a pressure on consumer spend, we’ve had to be creative to solve for these limitations. Looking internationally has been a part of that solution.”

 When I first met Archer in 2022, she had a £4 million turnover from her London-only business, and had raised £2.5 million from backers including Henry Lane Fox’s accelerator Founders Factory. Her biggest obstacle at the time had been resuscitating Ruuby after Covid –  revenues plunged to zero for a year, and struggled to recover afterwards. 

 But since then, Archer – who previously worked as a ship hijakings and piracy researcher in Kenya and Somalia – has scaled Ruuby across the UK, achieved its first profitable year in 2023, and launched first in France, and then in Switzerland last year. The Ruuby app has hit 250,000 downloads, and has 50,000 active users, plus 50 hotel partners, including Claridge’s. 

 “Given the incredible impact of Covid on the consumer landscape, we also focussed on scaling via broadening our customer base from solely consumers, to B2B partners in the hospitality and corporate and luxury space,” Archer adds. 

 “We are very very busy on international! The business is primed and ready to take on new markets, and we are working out how to continue to roll out in a cost efficient, scalable way.” Ruuby launches in Geneva this spring, and in Dubai in autumn.

 Archer says scaling challenges come down to prioritising. “In the early start up days, the driving force was always “stay alive”, and do everything possible to prove out the model and ensure liquidity,” she explains. 

 “The challenges now are different. Now we have so many exciting opportunities that come our way, and new features and products we want to build, that it’s more important to ruthlessly prioritise. 

 “While we remain nimble, going down the wrong route – even for a minute – can have a larger knock on effect on the business and speed of execution.”

 Of the £8 billion of UK equity investment in the first half of 2024, fully female-founded teams received just £145 million – just 1.8 per cent of the total — according to Beauhurst research. 

 Ruuby has beaten the odds: Archer has raised £5 million in total, with a £2 million round led by Manchester investor Praetura Ventures at the end of 2024. “Fundraises are a huge highlight for young businesses in so many ways – they unlock new chapters. What we hear less about is the toll that it takes on an emotional level. Your business is pulled to pieces, you’re giving up some control, and the sheer volume of work required to close a round is tremendous – you’re also usually doing it when you’re running very low on cash.”

 At Ruuby’s raise last year, Archer was “very pregnant, and my baby arrived during the close. As a founder you can’t control timing, and that can be especially hard as a woman who is also building a family.”

 Archer reckons there’s huge potential for the beauty industry in the coming years – Ruuby now offers ‘injectables’ alongside its make-up, hairstyling, and massages. “Convenience culture has made its mark in the beauty services industry,” she says. “Our clients now book increasingly last minute – thankfully our tech enables this. Consumers are time poor, and need confidence that their treatment will last, or give results.”

Founder of Ruuby, Venetia Archer