PROJECT #BEYOUROWN WOMAN:​ DEIRDRE MC GETTRICK

Co-founded by Deirdre Mc Gettrick, ufurnish.com has launched an innovative, market-leading search engine, reinventing the way furniture and furnishings is searched, discovered, compared and shopped online.

Bringing together hundreds of thousands of products from 100+ of Britain’s best furniture retailers, ufurnish.com is connecting consumers to larger and smaller furniture retailers, all on one website. Consumers can easily search and shop known and unknown retailers within the furniture market, eliminating the fear of missing out on undiscovered items.

A note from Deirdre

I had a happy childhood growing up in a small village on the West Coast of Ireland called Ballymote. My parents were the motivators behind my determination to succeed. My mother was a huge driving force in building my self-belief, telling me I could do anything I wanted. My father owned a general drapery shop in the village. I spent most of my childhood with him, organising the shop, serving customers and suggesting ways to grow the business. This is where I learned my love of business and wanting to be my own boss.

I moved to Limerick to study Law & Accounting at university. In my spare time, I became much more worldly, working in a pub as a naive and somewhat sheltered 18-year-old. After graduating I moved into the world of Investment Banking, helping companies to raise money for acquisitions. The work was fast-paced and super interesting. I learned loads and was regularly challenged, working on jumbo financing deals. I worked hard and rose quickly, managing my own portfolio of corporate clients which led to a very proud moment when I won my first deal without the help of my manager. 

There were low points along the way. Unfortunately, women are still a minority in banking and I remember one particular meeting when a fund manager walked into the room and introduced himself to all my male colleagues but not to me (the only woman in the room). We were all standing around in a circle and I couldn’t believe he had ignored me. I threw my hand out to shake hands with him saying “hi, I’m Deirdre”, he reciprocated and embarrassingly mumbled something about not seeing me. 

Having experienced rejection and dejection enabled me to build up my confidence and not worry about other people’s opinions. I have achieved a lot to date in my life from education, to work achievements, to travel. I have the ability, passion and life experience to succeed and achieve success. I feel like it is my obligation to do so, how else could I encourage my niece or future daughters to follow their dreams if I didn’t? Therefore I have taken the leap and launched the Kuldea business. Ultimately the skills I learned from all my work experience set me up to establish and run my own company. Inspired to create my business after struggling to find the perfect furniture products for my home, I knew I had to follow my dreams, take a risk and go for it, because for the naysayers out there, I know what I am capable of…

To BEYOUROWN woman means pursuing your goals and passions regardless of whether others approve. To help and inspire other females to be themselves and follow their dreams through leading by example. Having the confidence to stand out from the crowd, to be your true self and inspire others to do the same. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”.