Female Founder Friday: In conversation with Lillie Jamieson, Co-Founder of Send It To Alex and Creator of AppAlly

It’s not every day you meet a founder who’s building products from lived experience and sheer determination while simultaneously juggling motherhood and start-up life. Today’s chat is with Lillie Jamieson, whose journey from executive assistant to neuro-inclusion advocate led to Send It To Alex—an employment support service for neurominority talent—and now AppAlly, a technology spin-out on a mission to scale practical workplace accessibility.

FC: How are you?
LJ: I’m very well, thank you—and in full mum-mode today, so expect the odd background soundtrack from the kids’ club! It’s a good reminder that start-up life doesn’t happen in a vacuum. For me, the business journey and the family journey run side by side, and sometimes they overlap in unpredictable ways. It can be chaotic, but it’s also grounding because it reminds me who I’m building all this for.

FC: Let’s start with your professional background—give us the whistle-stop tour.
LJ: I worked for years in support roles—PA and EA—mainly around tech and private equity, backing founders and CEOs and helping them execute their vision. I really enjoyed being close to the action and learning from leaders at the top of their game, but as I got older, I found it increasingly difficult to move out of those roles into something more strategic. Around 30, I decided to go to university, which was both exhilarating and daunting. As I approached motherhood, I realised a conventional corporate ladder didn’t feel like the right fit anymore. That was a turning point where I started to think more seriously about creating my own path.

FC: Was there a catalyst for founding Send It To Alex?
LJ: Absolutely—my sister losing her job was the moment everything crystallised. She was dismissed because of misunderstood neurodivergent traits, and as a single mum of three, it was devastating to see how quickly the system failed her. At first, Send It To Alex was simply a safe, flexible space where she could work and feel valued. I was still employed at the time and running it on the side, but over time, the mission widened. We realised there was a huge gap for both individuals needing support and employers who wanted to do better but didn’t know how. What started as something deeply personal became a service that challenges barriers in workplaces every day.

FC: You were later diagnosed as autistic yourself. How did that shape things?
LJ: Massively. Watching my daughter grow up was the mirror that made me notice patterns in myself—things like sensory boundaries, communication differences, and how I process the world. Pursuing assessment and getting a diagnosis didn’t suddenly give me all the answers, but it gave me language for experiences I’d had all my life. That clarity fed straight back into the mission of Send It To Alex and now AppAlly: support has to be designed around individuals, not stereotypes. The phrase I often repeat is: “When you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person.” It’s about recognising diversity even within neurodiversity.

FC: Where does AppAlly come in?
LJ: Send It To Alex is hands-on and highly personal—great for impact, but not always scalable. AppAlly is the next layer, built from everything we’ve learned so far, and harnessing machine learning and AI systems to provide support at scale. We’ve built a platform that not only helps employees identify their challenges and get the right support, but that empowers managers to track the success of that support over time.

It’s about giving individuals, employers and organisations rapid, tailored insight into needs, barriers and practical solutions. More than that, it brings visibility and accountability to accessibility performance, which is often missing. We’re piloting the program with a number of early testers right now, and started fundraising – we’re currently closing our first equity investment, which is a milestone moment. It’s exciting, and a little daunting, but ultimately it means we can scale the impact far beyond what a service-based model alone could achieve.

FC: Fundraising as an autistic female founder and mother—what’s that really like?
LJ: The early signs are encouraging, but I’m realistic. It’s challenging, and as a woman and as an autistic founder, there are moments where you feel you need to prove yourself more. But I’ve made a conscious decision to keep it human-first. If the mission is about accessibility and inclusion, then the way we fundraise has to reflect that too.

FC: What advice would you give young female founders reading this?
LJ: I’d say—work yourself out before you work your business out. That means really paying attention to your own needs—sleep, food, boundaries, downtime—and actually honouring them, even when the pressure is on. It sounds simple, but it’s easy to forget when you’re in the whirlwind of a start-up. If you’re running on empty, your business will feel it too. And don’t just think about your product as a system—think about your life as a system. Build your support network with the same care and intention that you build your company. That’s what gives you resilience for the long haul.

FC: Anything we should keep an eye out for next?
LJ: Definitely! We’ve got some really exciting things in motion—closing the first AppAlly investment, rolling out product updates as we validate with employers, and continuing to grow Send It To Alex to support even more people into work that truly fits them. The bigger picture is about proving that accessibility can be practical, scalable, and measurable. So yes—watch this space!

It’s hard not to come away energised by Lillie’s blend of honesty and action. From protecting space for her family to pushing for real accountability in accessibility, she’s building tools that reflect real people’s needs—hers, her sister’s, and countless others who’ve been misunderstood by legacy systems. If you’re passionate about inclusive workplaces or simply want to follow a founder turning lived experience into lasting change, connect with Lillie below.

Website: https://www.appally.com/
Personal Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lillie-jamieson-/
Company Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/appally/

Author: Gideon Stott, Digital Marketing Executive at FounderCatalyst