founder notes.
Founder Notes, by Claudia

I built a business.
I'm still figuring out
the rest.

I'm Claudia. I started my first business with £700, a kitchen stove and absolutely no idea where it would take me. More than a decade later, I have quite a few stories to tell, and plenty I'm still learning.

Come along for the journey ↗Here's my story ↓
Real stories✳Lessons learnt✳Ideas worth sharing✳Behind the scenes
01 / How it started

Two students.
£700. A kitchen stove.

While studying Computer Science, I started Imperial Candles with Alex, who is now my husband. We made candles with hidden jewellery inside, packed orders ourselves and learned how to run a business by actually running one.

That little idea grew into a brand that reached customers across the UK, took us onto BBC Dragons' Den, into retail stores and into the wonderfully chaotic world of live selling on TikTok. We built teams, worked with suppliers, manufactured products and made a lot of decisions along the way.

But there's another side to that story. Growth doesn't automatically mean clarity. I've learned some of my biggest lessons from what went wrong, the numbers I should have understood sooner and the moments when I had to rethink everything.

I'm proud of what we've built. I'm just as interested in talking honestly about what it took.
02 / What I'll share

Things I wish I'd
known sooner.

This is where my founder diary meets the practical things I actually use. No perfect morning routines required.

NOTE / 01

Building, growing & starting again

Stories from Imperial Candles, the highs of growing a brand, the expensive mistakes and the courage it takes to change direction.

↗
NOTE / 02

AI, systems & business experiments

What I'm learning while building Tallyvo, plus the tools and experiments I use to make work less overwhelming.

↗
NOTE / 03

More than a founder

Creativity, plans, books, personal goals and what happens when you try to build a meaningful life alongside a business.

↗
03 / Why Founder Notes exists

The bits that don't
fit on LinkedIn.

I love talking about business. But after years of seeing how polished founder stories can become, I wanted a place to write about the bits that rarely make the announcement post.

Why did I create a software company after spending years making candles? Because I knew exactly what it felt like to have orders coming in, stock moving, a team to manage and still not have a clear picture of what was really making money. That experience became Tallyvo.

And Founder Notes? That's my space to connect the dots, share what I'm trying, admit what I haven't figured out and hopefully make someone else's journey a little easier.

Get the next note ↗
A note from Claudia

I'm not writing this from the finish line.

I'm still building. Still learning new things about business, AI and myself. Some weeks I'll have a useful lesson to share. Other weeks it might just be a very honest story.

Either way, I hope it feels like a conversation with another founder, not a lecture.

Claudia x
The Founder Notes newsletter

Let's figure things
out together.

A weekly note from me on the realities of running a business, building something new, using AI in real life and finding your way through it all. The honest version, not just the highlights.

Say hello for updates ↗
The newsletter is coming soon
CFrom the desk of Claudia
04 / The person behind the pages

Hi, I'm Claudia.

I'm a founder who started building a business while studying Computer Science, and someone who's been learning entrepreneurship the hands-on way since my early twenties.

I co-founded Imperial Candles with Alex. What began as making candles at home turned into more than a decade of manufacturing, e-commerce, retail, TikTok LIVE and plenty of unexpected chapters, including BBC Dragons' Den.

These days I'm also building Tallyvo, a platform inspired by the operational headaches I experienced as a product-business founder. It's the second business I wish I'd had during the first.

I'm curious about AI, tools, creativity, good ideas and what it really takes to keep moving forward. Founder Notes is my little corner of the internet to share all of it, one note at a time.

Let's stay in touch ↗