Interview: Annie O’Toole, founder of online marketplace JUXDIT

Liverpool entrepreneur Annie O’Toole is the founder of JUXDIT.com, a new online marketplace for innovative products financed through crowdfunding.

“I think I’ve always been fascinated with business and innovation,” Annie told me. “Aged 12 I started my first venture. Embarrassingly, I made more money then than when I was a 20-year-old student.”

Annie originally enrolled to study law at Liverpool John Moores University, but realised after two years that the course wasn’t for her.

“My passion is the growth and scale of SMEs,” she explained. “For me, there’s nothing greater than an idea that goes on to disrupt entire industries. There is always another way to look at something, another way to tackle a problem, and innovation allows that to happen. That’s the stuff I get excited about.”

After breaking away from university life, Annie followed her passion and launched JUXDIT.com with the aim of enabling everyday people to access innovation faster than ever before.

Annie continued: “I don’t think there was ever a moment where I thought ‘Right that’s it, I’m going to change the way in which people buy innovation’. It just happened.”

Innovators lose out on sales and the ability to scale internationally, and we miss out on the product

There were struggles along the way, Annie said, as with any venture.

“I built an agency to foot the bill of the e-commerce, so I was never in for an easy ride. JUXDIT.com is solving a problem; innovation is changing lives, but currently accessing it involves trawling sites, navigating minefields of information and then facing the disappointing reality that the item you really want can’t ship to the UK.

“Innovators lose out on sales and the ability to scale internationally, and we miss out on the product that has the potential to change the way in which we live.”

After dropping out of university, Annie said she was initially too scared to tell her parents she’d decided to pursue her startup dreams.

“So I worked as a freelancer,” she said, “Then I slowly managed to hire more staff to work with my clients; an agency was born. Through that agency I was able to access some funding; a startup loan and some money I raised through friends and family.

I’d like to see the Baltic community become more aligned

“Currently the work we do with clients feeds my cashflow, which allows me to have a team that works directly on JUXDIT.com. We’re now starting our seed round of investment, which will allow me to focus my entire team on the e-commerce, so that we can scale and grow into an international brand.”

JUXDIT.com is based in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, an area just outside the city centre brimming with creative enterprises and innovative tech startups. I asked Annie if operating from within the heart of the quarter had impacted the brand and her own entrepreneurial spirit.

She said: “The Baltic has had a huge impact on JUXDIT.com. The community has been great and we’ve grown because of it. Moving forward, I’d like to see the Baltic community become more aligned. I think this area has the potential to be an exceptional place, and there has been some fantastic work done so far.

“I can’t wait to see what happens next for this area. It’s certainly played a key role within my career and the startup of JUXDIT.com.”

Photography: SaneSeven

In 2015, Annie was crowned Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs, an experience she described as “surreal”.

“Before I started JUXDIT.com, I hit a major turning point within my life,” Annie said. “I spent the previous years exceptionally unhappy, [in] the aftermath of an abusive relationship and a lifelong battle with understanding difficulties I faced as a child.

“I was in a dark place, hating the subject I was studying and the way in which I was living, after going through what I believe was a complete mental breakdown, I needed to find myself.”

JUXDIT.com, Annie explained, served as the “light at the end of a long, dark tunnel”, providing a way for her to find happiness in pursuing a passion and looking forward to the future.

“The [Young Entrepreneur of the Year] award, for me, was more than recognition. I can’t put into words how grateful I am to have won such an amazing award.”

The innovation industry is on the edge of something brilliant, it’s about to explode

JUXDIT.com was officially launched in 2015 and, since then, has discovered a soaring demand for its services and the crowdfunded products it showcases - but the company still faces the long-standing challenge of fundraising.

To overcome this, Annie said one of her enterprise’s main priorities is to close its seed round, particularly in light of JUXDIT.com’s plans to expand internationally in 2016.

Over the coming years, Annie’s confident that JUXDIT.com has the potential to do for innovators what online retail platforms Etsy and NOTH have done for creatives.

“The innovation industry is on the edge of something brilliant, it’s about to explode. With wearables, smart homeware and tech becoming an integrated part of people’s lives on a global level, there is a clear gap in the market that needs to be filled, and JUXDIT.com does that.”

“In five years time, JUXDIT.com will be the store that enables global consumers to access the worlds greatest innovation, easier and faster than ever before.”