Debbie Wosskow

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Debbie Wosskow OBE is a multi exit entrepreneur, Chair, Non Executive Director and Business Advisor from Sheffield, UK. She is the former CEO of Love Home Swap, a subscription-based home exchange business, which she sold for $53m to Wyndham Destination Networks in July 2017. Debbie co-founded AllBright, a club and community that celebrates and connects women at work. Wosskow is also an influential advocate of the sharing economy and is the former Chair of Sharing Economy UK. [1] In 2015 she led the independent government review ‘Unlocking the Sharing Economy’ - also known as the Wosskow Report. She is a Member of the Mayor of London's Business Advisory Board and sits on the Board of the Women’s Fiction Prize. In 2016, she was awarded an OBE for services to business. [2]

Contents

Early life

Wosskow was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in February 1974. [3] and later moved to Leeds at the age of ten. Wosskow’s father ran his own law firm and her mother owned a printing and packaging business. When she was 15, Wosskow won a Young Enterprise award for a business that sold scrunchies. Wosskow read Philosophy and Theology at the University of Oxford, before completing an MA. Her first job after university was at Oliver Wyman, an American management consultancy firm. [1]

Entrepreneurial success

By the age of 25 Wosskow had co-founded Mantra PR with Lawrence Dore. [1] In 2001 she was selected as one of Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35, while Mantra was sold to the Loewy Group for several million dollars in 2007. [4] [1] In 2008 Wosskow co-founded Maidthorn Partners, an investment and advisory firm aimed particularly at assisting media and tech companies. [5]

In 2011 Wosskow launched Love Home Swap, which is now the world’s leading home-swapping platform. [6] After an unsatisfactory hotel-based holiday with her two young children, Wosskow watched The Holiday, starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, and was inspired to create a business that would enable subscribers from across the world to exchange their homes. [5] An investment of £7.5m from Wyndham Worldwide, along with the acquisition of 1stHomeExchange and HomeForExchange, have helped Love Home Swap to grow exponentially – its website now features more than 100,000 homes from 150 countries. [7]

In 2017 Wosskow sold Love Home Swap to Wyndham for $53 million. [8]

Supporting female entrepreneurs and AllBright

As an Angel Investor, Wosskow has frequently backed female-founded companies and is outspoken about the need to improve gender imbalances in entrepreneurial activity as a way of creating greater equality and unlocking new sources of economic growth. [9] In 2018, she teamed up with Anna Jones, then CEO of Hearst Magazines, UK, to co-found AllBright, an education and networking organisation designed to provide a platform, skills and connections to working women across the UK. AllBright comprises Members’ clubs, Academy and Live Events to celebrate and connect working women.

Advocate of the sharing economy

In 2014 the British government commissioned Wosskow to compile a 60,000-word report, entitled ‘Unlocking the Sharing Economy,’ for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. [10] [5]

In 2016 Wosskow launched Sharing Economy UK, “a self-appointed and member-funded trade body” that seeks “to support and monitor businesses working within the nascent industry”. [11] SEUK’s members include Airbnb, Zipcar and Liftshare. [11] As chair of SEUK Wosskow is also working with Oxford University and PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop the world’s first trustmark for the sharing economy. [9]

Wosskow also currently sits on the Mayor of London's Business Advisory Board. [12]

Championing midlife women and The Better Menopause

Following a health scare in July 2022, which saw Wosskow hospitalised and treated with eight months of antibiotics, she was told by doctors that she had also entered perimenopause. After being medically advised to take probiotics, she was unable to find anything on the market to repair both her gut microbiome and balance fluctuating hormones. After extensive research, she teamed up with AllBright business partner Anna Jones again to form The Better Menopause. With a team including Dr Shahzadi Harper as resident doctor and Nutritional Therapist Joanna Lyall the business launched science-driven supplements Better Gut, a probiotic for women in perimenopause and menopause, followed by Better Night for insomnia, anxiety and sleep disturbance. [13] [14]

Podcast

Wosskow launched Grit & Grace with Debbie Wosskow in January 2024 as a movement to change the narrative around midlife; interviewing celebrity guests and experts to challenge the stigma around women during this stage of life, by celebrating wisdom, humour, resilience and reinventions.

Invest In Women Taskforce

Wosskow is co-chair of The Invest in Women Taskforce, alongside Hannah Bernard, head of business banking at Barclays. Taskforce is an industry-led, government backed initiative with a mission to make the UK the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur. [15]

Wosskow was instrumental in leading Taskforce to exceed its initial ambitious goal of creating one of the world’s largest investment pools of £250m for female-led and mixed businesses. Backed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in its mission to unlock future economic growth: if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men, it would deliver a potential £250 billion boost to the UK economy. [16]

The Invest in Women Taskforce investment pool will be deployed via female investment decision-makers across the UK, recognising that female investors are twice as likely to invest in female-led and mixed businesses, breaking down the systemic barriers faced by women entrepreneurs and investors alike.

Advisory, trustee and board positions

Wosskow has been a Non Executive Director for broadcaster Channel 4 since December 2023. She is a Senior Advisor at management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Wosskow is Board Trustee and Chair of Development Board at The Women's Prize for Fiction.


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Love Home Swap is a subscription-based, peer-to-peer holiday home exchange or home swapping website. Members of the website swap homes with each other, either simultaneously or using a points system. The company is based in London, United Kingdom. Love Home Swap was acquired by Travel + Leisure Co. in August 2017. In March of 2023, HomeExchange.com purchased Love Home Swap.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Russell, Josh; Seery, Natalie (11 July 2016). "Love Home Swap's Debbie Wosskow is Sharing the Love". Elite Business Magazine. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  2. ↑ Quinn, James (10 June 2016). "City financiers knighted among business leaders recognised in Queen's Birthday Honours". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  3. ↑ Burton, Charlie (27 September 2017). "Startup tips from Love Home Swap founder Debbie Wosskow". Wired UK . Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  4. ↑ Glazarev, Edward (28 October 2013). "Airbnb is just the start: Love Home Swap offers another way for travelers to save big bucks". New York Daily News. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Law, Katie (2 February 2015). "We've never had our clients using houses for brothels or, God forbid, burning them to the ground". Evening Standard . Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  6. ↑ Smith, Oliver (17 December 2015). "How To Boss It Like… Debbie Wosskow, CEO Love Home Swap". The Memo. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  7. ↑ Smith, Rebecca (14 December 2015). "Love Home Swap acquires rival in boost to global ambitions". Management Today. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  8. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid. "Wyndham buys Love Home Swap for $53M | TechCrunch" . Retrieved 10 August 2017.
  9. 1 2 Maja, Ti (1 April 2016). "Trust in the sharing economy". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  10. ↑ Wosskow, Debbie (November 2014). "Unlocking the sharing economy: An independent review" (PDF). gov.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  11. 1 2 Burn-Callander, Rebecca (3 June 2015). "UK sharing economy will take a decade to hit its stride". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  12. ↑ Barber, Lynsey (28 November 2016). "The London mayor's ploughed £2.5m into startups since Brexit". City A.M. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  13. ↑ Wosskow, Debbie (6 September 2024) "I suffered total burnout at 48 – but now I'm healthier than ever at 50" Retrieved 19 January 2024
  14. ↑ Wosskow, Debbie (13 July 2024) "I thought I was having a heart attack - it was burnout" The Times. Retrieved 19 January 2025
  15. ↑ Clawson, Trevor (20 September 2024) "£250 Million Boost For Female Founders Backed By U.K. Chancellor"
  16. ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-everyone-can-do-something-for-womens-equality
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