Tech entrepreneur Charlotte Maslen wants to help more women turn ideas into apps. Miranda Jessop finds out more...
Within moments of meeting, Charlotte Maslen and I have an instant connection. Fresh from the school run, we discover we are both mothers of three and our youngest children attend the same South West London primary school. And, following her success in creating her very own app, this is exactly the network of likeminded women that Charlotte is now keen to support with her new initiative, The App Creator Program.
Charlotte was pregnant with her second child when she first came up with the idea of a birthing app. “I decided I wanted to try hypnobirthing so I went to download an app only to discover there wasn’t one. I ended up having to borrow some CDs which just seemed crazy in this day and age.”
She enlisted the help of psychologist and ‘hypnatal’ practitioner, Dr Alex McKay who also happened to be her friend. “We worked together to create the best possible app that would help women all over the world achieve a positive birth.”
Although she had worked in digital marketing, Charlotte had no previous experience in app development and was not in the least bit technical. “The initial version was very basic and we did it completely on the cheap; I came up with the design, we made the recordings ourselves and we enlisted a developer in India.”
The result was iHypnobirth and, with an initial outlay of just £400, in eight years the app has made in excess of £50,000. The original version has been updated and Charlotte now has a total of five apps including iHypnoBirthPartner, iHypnoFertility and The Complete Birth App.
Excited by her own success, Charlotte set up The App Creator Program, an online course to take others through the step-by-step process to produce their own apps. “Clients come to me saying that they don’t know where to start and I truly believe that with a little assistance, anyone can turn their app dreams into a reality.”
For a fee of £1,895 (or six monthly instalments of £316), would-be app designers are guided through the process from the first idea to going live, as well as the all-important marketing afterwards.
“Most courses are six months to a year depending on the complexity of the design and we communicate through weekly live calls as well as a shared members’ group. You don’t need to know how to code or any technical knowledge; all you need is a great idea.”
Although everyone is welcome to sign up, she is particularly keen to support women. “Women have such brilliant ideas but, when it comes to tech, they may not always have the confidence to take them further. The market is dominated by apps which have been developed by men – there are endless opportunities for women to develop apps specifically for women.”
Charlotte feels the technology sector is still too male-heavy and it is for this reason that she insists on using an all-woman team. “All my apps are designed and created by women; I just want to prove that women can do this without men.”
Encouraged by Charlotte’s words, I find myself racking my brains for an idea. “If you discover a gap in the market and you have an idea for an app that you really believe in, then make it happen,” Luckily for me, should that light-bulb moment come my way, I only have to look for Charlotte at the school gates to find out if it’s genius or not.