Charlotte Lucy Hall began her career at a large FT100 company and over the last 15 years, has gained experience in marketing, branding and events.
She has always enjoyed fast-paced environments, where she found her feet when joining Superscript, a B2B insurtech start-up, as one of its first employees. Exposed to the world of start-ups, Charlotte believes to be an area of impactful work. Through this Charlotte experienced first-hand the problems with reference and background checking, leading her to create Zinc, alongside her partner Luke, where she is dedicated to fostering a culture that embraces empathy, creativity, and a shared vision for the future.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
I started my career in recruitment in Australia where I got to experience first-hand the woes of background checks and hiring. I then transitioned to a career in marketing for several years where I found a passion for events. My next step was joining an insurtech startup as one of their first employees, and that’s when I knew I had found my calling.
I always had entrepreneurial aspirations to start something new and make a meaningful impact in some way. I was drawn to the scrappy nature of startups, where work is valued and testing is encouraged. You make strong bonds with the few people you’re working with and feel a genuine desire to see change. It’s easy to feel like you’re pushing work around but I always wanted to make a difference.
Charlotte, what motivated you to pursue funding for Zinc while pregnant, and how did you manage the unique challenges this situation presented?
Securing funding – in any scenario – is hard work. And I can say conclusively that being pregnant didn’t make it any easier!
But Luke [my partner and co-founder] and I are ambitious people and we didn’t want to have to put either plan on hold. We wanted our business to grow, and we wanted to start a family. It was just a coincidence that they both happened at the same time. We made it work though.
Can you walk us through when you decided it was the right time to disclose your pregnancy to potential investors, and what were your main concerns regarding this disclosure?
We found out we were pregnant whilst going through the due diligence process. We wanted to get the timing right—ensuring full transparency but also respecting our private lives, especially since the first trimester can be a worrying time.
All through the process, you’re nervous about rocking the boat—you feel on edge about everything, from pitch design to the words and phrases you use as part of the exploratory meetings. It can sometimes feel like investors are looking for any reasons they can find NOT to invest, and our pregnancy felt like another potential stumbling block.
In the end, with a tumultuous economic climate, financial collapses and the fact that our pregnancy was at such an early stage, we decided that the safest option was to hold back the news until a little further into the pregnancy.
When I reached my second trimester, we thought it would be the right time. In the end, we needn’t have worried as our investors were extremely supportive and incredibly reassuring. It was then we really realised we had made the right decision choosing such forward-thinking investors.
What strategies did you use to cope with the physical and emotional demands of pregnancy while simultaneously leading a funding round in a challenging post-SVB funding landscape?
It’s not an exaggeration to say those months were some of the hardest I’ve been through in my career—and I couldn’t have done it without Luke, who was especially supportive as a partner in both the business and personal sense!
The Zinc team was fantastic too. It made me realise how well we’d done in bringing together a company of talented, empathetic individuals.
Everyone pulled together, with the team ready to step in on marketing activity whether I was pulled into another funding call, or heading out to a hospital appointment.
I also made a special effort to look after my mental and emotional wellbeing; I found huge benefits in sound baths, gentle yoga and meditation. And as much as I love being in the office, and amongst the team, I spent a little more time working from home—which meant I could reduce travel-stress and better manage my time.
Finally, one of the benefits we offer the Zinc team is access to external business coaching through a company called MoreHappi—I found this very helpful, sharpening my focus and keeping me running in the right direction, especially during periods when I felt overwhelmed.
How did you address and navigate the potential biases and expectations investors might have had, given your background and the fact that you were not from an Oxbridge or FANG company?
Like many startups, we got a lot of rejections. It happens, and you have to deal with it.
Luke and I spent time honing our pitch – we could quickly and simply explain why we were so excited about Zinc, and why they should be too.
Our backgrounds meant we went into each meeting on the backfoot, but we were prepared. We had answers to everything. And it helped that Zinc not only has product-market fit, but we’ve shown year-on-year growth, more than doubling in size every year. Those facts alone helped to demonstrate the potential for real ROI.
What are some key lessons you learned about balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship that you believe could benefit other women in similar situations?
The first lesson I learned was that we don’t talk about this enough.
When I was reading around it, there was so little out there about what it means to be a mother and to run a business. I don’t think this has improved either; in fact, trying to look for a balance between being a parent and being a boss is still frowned upon.
Society expects women to be able to do both—and while it’s perfectly possible, the reality is that it’s hard. It takes commitment, a clear vision and really open communication—whether this be with your team members, investors or partners.
We should be encouraging females to share their lived experiences and talk not only about their successes but their challenges too. With more voices, more women will feel empowered to chase both professional and personal dreams.
In your view, what are the most critical resources or support systems needed for mothers who run businesses, and how can the entrepreneurial ecosystem better cater to these needs?
If we’re going to help mothers in the workplace reach their full potential, we need flexibility right from the start.
A one-size fits all approach to working life doesn’t work. Even with shared parental responsibility, having flexible working hours and flexible arrangements would be hugely helpful, not just in helping returning mothers to phase back into work, but as their family grows up too.
I’ve also found networking groups to be so helpful, and being part of a community of other mum-entrepreneurs has been brilliant for support and collaboration.
Also, whilst this is not possible for everyone, living near support is also really helpful. As a founder, you’re going to have late nights and early mornings—and I’ve had to call on family for help when needed.
What advice would you give to other women who are considering starting or growing their businesses while navigating pregnancy or early motherhood?
First: when you feel comfortable to do so, be open with your team—it helped knowing that my team understood why I needed to take a break or when I wasn’t feeling my best.
Second: don’t forget to take care of yourself. You have to avoid burnout at all costs; so make sure you’re delegating and sharing work. Do whatever you can to build a supportive network of friends and family. Sometimes it’s as simple as having someone to chat to after a long day.
Third: plan everything. Well… where you can anyway! Pregnancy and childcare can throw up a lot of surprises, but think as early as possible about how much leave you want, who will be covering your work, and when you’ll return to work. With planning, it’s possible to turn this time away into a positive for both yourself and the business and bring in a new set of skills from your maternity cover!
Finally, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. You can’t do everything. Just make sure that you enjoy it… whilst the tiredness is real, you’re growing a human being and a business—what you’re doing is amazing.
Looking back, what do you consider your biggest achievement during Zinc’s funding round, and how has it shaped your perspective on leadership and resilience?
We survived! In fact, we thrived.
Over the last year, Luke and I raised £5M in funding for Zinc, we had a baby, and we moved house. We’ve got to be proud of that. It’s also given us a huge reserve of resilience—if we can do that, and come out the other end stronger, then we can do anything. And as founders, we know we’re going to hit setbacks again. But we also know now that we can overcome them.
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