Know Your Customer, Then Build: Childs Farm

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Childs Farm founder Joanna Jensen to explore how deep customer understanding, strong relationships and relentless persistence helped turn a personal problem into a major British skincare brand. Inspired by her daughter's eczema-prone skin, Joanna developed products she believed could better serve families like hers, testing early samples with parents before fighting to get Childs Farm onto the shelves of retailers including Waitrose and Boots. She shares how genuine customer recommendations transformed the business, why suppliers should be treated as part of your team and what founders need to understand before taking investment and eventually selling their company. Whether you're developing a consumer product, trying to win your first major retailer or preparing to scale a growing brand, this episode offers practical founder lessons on customer research, word of mouth, relationships, investment and building a business around a problem you genuinely understand. In this episode: Turning a personal problem into an opportunity to challenge an established category Testing early products with real customers before going to market How persistence helped Childs Farm break into Waitrose and Boots Creating a point of difference through clinical and user trials The customer Facebook post that helped transform the business Building a marketing strategy around standout packaging, sampling and word of mouth Why genuine customer advocacy can be more powerful than paid influence Treating manufacturers and suppliers as an extension of your team How a strong supplier relationship helped Childs Farm through a major funding crisis What changes when you take money from external investors Navigating the decision to sell a deeply personal business Why Joanna's most important founder advice is to know your customer inside out Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about. Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business. Looking to start or grow your own business? Find out more at virginstartup.org Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.