Georgie Carter

Founder of Pepped - lifecycle marketing for DTC health & wellness businesses | The Telegraph Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch

👋 Hi, I’m Georgie — Founder of Pepped, a lifecycle marketing agency that helps DTC lifestyle, health, and wellness brands scale sustainably by turning one-time buyers into loyal, repeat customers.

With over a decade of experience in email, SMS, and WhatsApp marketing, I’ve helped dozens of brands boost customer retention, increase LTV, and grow revenue — all without relying on endless paid acquisition.

At Pepped, we build data-driven lifecycle marketing strategies that:
💌 Convert browsers into buyers through high-performing welcome and post-purchase flows
🔁 Turn customers into repeat purchasers with personalised retention journeys
📊 Drive consistent, measurable growth through testing, optimisation, and performance insights

Our clients see meaningful lifts in repeat purchase rates, customer loyalty, and retention-driven revenue — because we focus on what really matters: keeping your customers coming back.

Recognised by The Telegraph as one of the Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch, I’m passionate about helping DTC brands achieve sustainable, profitable growth through smarter lifecycle marketing.

👉 Download The DTC Customer Retention Playbook (https://growth.peppedup.co.uk/retention-guide-2024-2977) or subscribe to The Pepped Periodical for practical tips, frameworks, and data-backed insights on boosting customer retention.

CEO & Founder

Pepped is a boutique lifecycle marketing agency that helps growing health and wellness businesses attract, convert and retain more customers.

We work with businesses in the UK and US who are disrupting the fitness, health and wellness industry, from Unicorn status global brands such as Houzz and Hims to scale-ups such as Alexia Clark LLC and Jennis (Dame Jessica Ennis-Hills's fitness app)

Pepped is a collective of experienced marketing specialists who put health and wellness at the very heart of what they do.

► We specialise in the following areas; lifecycle marketing, CRM, email marketing, customer journey mapping, lead acquisition, content creation, content strategy, sales funnel optimisation, copywriting, website design, customer retention, customer engagement, customer loyalty and referral strategy.

Optometrist & Founder, Ocushield | Workplace Eye Wellness Expert | Featured on Dragons Den, Forbes & USA Today | B Corp Certified | King's Award Recipient

Whilst studying Optometry at university, I launched the development of the initial product offering at Ocushield - medically registered blue light filtering technology that allow screen based users to have fresher feeling eyes and improved sleep latency after screen use. 

I'm currently focussed on our online eye screening solution, which takes 4 mins to complete and is accessible for employees and patients via a web based URL (no app needed). Serving policy holders and employees at Benenden Health, BHSF, AON, AIG Insurance and more... 

Having received a development grant from City University of London, I built Ocushield into an internationally distributed, MHRA/FDA medically registered product that transformed hundreds of thousands of peoples eye health and quality of life.

From boot strapping Ocushield (to six figures in revenue before taking on external funding, total raised £1.5m) to getting featured on Dragons' Den (and winning over Peter Jones & Tej Lalvani in the process), Forbes, The Guardian & USA Today - talking about the impacts of screen time on eye health and sleep, it’s been an entrepreneurial journey full of ups and downs and yes a lot of lessons.

At Ocushield, we've generated total revenues in excess of £10m and have helped over 300,000 eyes in over 147 countries with our products to protect their eyes.

We envision a world where everyone understands the value of their eyes, feels empowered to protect them, and has access to tools, products, and services that support lifelong eye health.

Dhruvin Patel

I turn 34 today 👀
And honestly? 34 looks nothing like I thought it would.

Mid 20s, I had a spreadsheet with 1,500 emails and a blue light blocking screen filter prototype nobody had heard of.

Late 20s, I was on Dragons' Den trying not to look as nervous as I felt.

At 34, Ocushield has a team I'm proud of, and problems I couldn't have imagined back in that dorm room.

But here's what I didn't expect.

The bigger the business got, the lonelier some of the decisions became.

Nobody tells you that part.

Year 1, everything is shared survival. You're figuring it out together.
By year 10?

The decisions that matter most often sit with you alone (even if you have support around you)

People. Strategy. Direction. Risk.

And the only thing that's made that easier over time is this:

Getting very clear on what you're actually building and why.

Not the revenue target. Not the exit number.

The actual reason you get up and do it.

For me that's always come back to the same thing.

Helping people protect something they take for granted until it's gone.

Their vision. Their health. Their ability to do their best work.

34 feels like the beginning of something, not the middle.

And I'm genuinely grateful for everyone who's been part of the journey so far.

Here's to whatever comes next 🥂

P.S - I really enjoy the LI fam I've built here across the last decade or so, secretly my favourite social media platform. Ok, not so secret after all.

Optometrist & SeeEO | Dragons’ Den & King’s Award Winner

The best decision I made for Ocushield was saying NO to a retailer offering us £500k in orders....

Most founders would have jumped at it. I nearly did.

Nobody warns you about the pressure that looks like opportunity.

Here's what that moment looked like.

The retailer was credible. 
The numbers looked real. 
Everyone around me said take it.

But when I ran the actual numbers...

Margins were too thin. Capacity wasn't there. And a failed delivery at that scale would have cost us far more than £500k.

Saying yes felt like momentum. 
Saying no felt like madness.

I said no... 😅 

That decision bought us 12 months to get operations, margins and supply chain right.

When the next big retailer came along, we were ready.

The deals that nearly broke us were never the ones that fell through.

They were the ones we almost said yes to.

Not every opportunity is the right opportunity.

Knowing the difference is probably the hardest skill in business.

And the one nobody teaches you.

Year 1 of Ocushield, I was scrappy and fast.
Year 5, I nearly killed it by being too careful.


Nobody warns you about this.

CB Insights analysed hundreds of business failures and found that 42% didn't fail because of competition or bad products.

They failed because they stopped listening to the market.

They got comfortable with what was working.

And missed what was shifting.

Forbes research suggests that most businesses don't stall in year 1.

They stall between years 3 and 5.

Right when things feel stable.
Right when you've got something to protect.
Right when "let's wait and see" starts to feel like strategy.

I felt this at Ocushield.

Year 1, every decision was fast.
We had no choice... Limited cash, limited time, limited options.

Scrappiness wasn't a mindset.
It was a survival mechanism.

But by year 5?

We had something to lose.

And that changed how we moved.

Decisions slowed down.
Risk felt bigger.
Safe started to feel responsible.

Until I realised: the businesses that outlast everyone aren't the ones that protect what they built.

They're the ones that stay curious about what comes next.

Year 1 energy isn't just for startups.

It's a choice.

Every single year.

I built a 7-figure business starting with 1,500 emails on a spreadsheet.

No CRM, no funnels, no marketing playbook.

Just a student trying to validate an idea.

At the time, I was testing eyes in clinic during the day at university...

And sending supplier emails and researching products at night.

Every time someone showed interest in person, I asked for their email.

Nothing sophisticated.

Just 1,500 real people who cared, sitting on a spreadsheet.

(no GDPR practice in sight back then 😅)

When my first Ocushield screen filter prototype was ready...

I didn't hunt investors.

Instead, I emailed that list and asked them to pre-order.

A fellow student built the website for me. Big up Rishi.

That first wave of orders fully funded the first production run.

No outside capital.

After that?

I was packing boxes from my dorm room, then from my parents' house.

They weren't thrilled cos boxes was everywhere!

All while I was about to finish my degree and had started selling products online.

But it taught me a much bigger lesson.

You don't need permission to start.

You don't need huge capital to validate an idea.

What you actually need is:

1/ A real problem worth solving
2/ The confidence to speak to people about it
3/ The patience to keep them engaged

That's it.

I started doing this in 2015, before going full time in 2018.

And honestly? 

This model still works today.

If you start building your audience now...

For whatever product or service you want to offer the world...

When you're ready to launch,

You won't be begging for attention.

You'll be opening the doors.

Ever catch yourself worrying about opinions from people you'd never actually ask for advice?

It's strange when you think about it...

We lose sleep over criticism from someone we wouldn't even swap places with.

One idea that changed how I think about this:

Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from.

Simple but powerful.

Cos a lot of hesitation isn't about capability.

It's about noise.

And the moment you filter that noise properly, a few things happen.

1/ You choose your signal

Not all opinions deserve equal weight.
The ones that matter usually come from people who've built, tried, failed and learned.

2/ You trust your own thinking more

Confidence isn't arrogance.
It's clarity about which voices deserve a seat at the table.

3/ You move faster

Self-doubt slows decisions.
Clarity speeds them up.

And over time, that compounds.

I'm still working on this myself.

But every time I reduce the noise, progress gets easier.

We charge our phones before they hit 5%.


But we ignore our own signs of running low.

Eyes stinging?
“Keep pushing.”

Brain fog?
“Must be stress.”

Headaches at your laptop?
“Probably dehydration.”

Here’s the problem.

In screen-heavy work, fatigue rarely arrives as a shutdown.

It shows up as:

Reduced focus.
Slower decisions.
More re-reading.
More mistakes.

Small signals that quietly compound across the day.

And over time?

That cognitive load doesn’t just affect comfort.

It affects performance.

Chronic workplace stress has been shown to impair concentration, decision-making and reaction time, directly impacting day-to-day performance. (Health & Safety Executive UK)

If your eyes are working harder to process information, your brain is too.

Which means energy that could go into:

Problem solving.
Creativity.
Decision-making.
Is instead being used just to see clearly.

We’ve normalised pushing through visual strain as “being committed”.

But in reality?
Recovery protects output.

Taking a break.
Resetting your focus.
Isn’t stepping back from performance.

It’s protecting it.

Still a work in progress for me too…

But worth every effort.

What small signal have you been ignoring lately?

Did you know that you might already have digital eye strain... and not realise it?


Seriously.

If you work on screens all day and get headaches, tired eyes, blurry vision...

Or that moment where you suddenly need to refocus the screen...

That's likely eye strain.

And here's the crazy part...

According to American Optometric Association, up to 65% of people working on screens experience digital eye strain.

So basically... most offices.

Yet companies still talk about DSE like it's just compliance.

Forms, assessments, tick the box.

But during our 2nd webinar of "The Screen Time Effect" series with Posturite Ltd, Katharine Metters said a very important message.

Those regulations exist for a simple reason.

If people are distracted by pain or can't see clearly, they won't work well.

Obvious, right??

But it's easy to underestimate cos people just push through it.

So DSE isn't really about compliance.

It's about something much simpler.

Helping people see comfortably enough to do their job properly.

Funny how that improves productivity too.

Ocushield got featured in a major publication and It changed almost NOTHING.


And that taught me more than the feature ever could.

Nobody warns you about the gap between visibility and traction.

I'd spent months trying to get press coverage.

Convinced that one big feature would be the unlock.

The credibility. The traffic. The sales surge.

And when it finally happened?

We got a spike in website visits for about 48 hours.

A handful of emails. A few kind messages from friends.

Then nothing.

Back to normal by Thursday.

I remember sitting at my desk thinking something had gone wrong.

Had we missed something? Was the article not prominent enough? Did we need a bigger publication?

But the real problem wasn't the coverage.

It was what I believed coverage would do.

I'd confused awareness with demand.

They are not the same thing.

Awareness says: I've heard of you. 
Demand says: I need what you're selling.

Press creates the first. Only a sharp, relevant, well-timed offer creates the second.

What actually moved the needle at Ocushield was never the big moments.

It was the unglamorous stuff.

Emails to the right people at the right time. A product that solved a problem clearly enough to share. Customers who trusted us enough to tell someone else.

The press feature didn't build the business.

But it did teach me something I've never forgotten.

Chasing visibility before you've nailed relevance is just expensive noise.

Get the foundations right first.

The coverage means something when there's something worth covering.

If you consider one thing today, think about…
Your lighting in your home or office. 

One woman spent £50,000 fighting a light bulb.

No joke.

A resident in the UK reportedly spent around £50,000 in legal costs challenging an LED streetlight outside her home because it was so bright it was affecting her sleep and quality of life.

(Reported by BBC News and other UK outlets covering LED streetlight complaints.)

At first glance, that sounds extreme.

£50,000… over a light bulb?

But the story highlights something interesting.

LED lighting has transformed how we light our streets, offices and homes.

More energy efficient.
Longer lasting.
Brighter.
Much brighter.

In fact, modern LEDs can emit significantly higher levels of short wavelength artificial (blue) light, which researchers have linked to disruptions in sleep cycles and circadian rhythms when exposure happens at night.

(Harvard Medical School – Blue light and sleep research.)

Which means something as simple as lighting can have a surprisingly big impact on how we feel.

Sleep quality.
Eye comfort.
Even how alert we feel during the day.

It’s one of the reasons conversations around lighting, screens and eye health are becoming more important.

Because the environments we live and work in today are very different from even 20 years ago.

Screens everywhere.
LED lighting everywhere.
And our eyes are adapting to a world that’s changing very quickly.

That’s why at Ocushield we think about the bigger picture.

Not just screens.

But the entire visual environment people spend their days in.

Sometimes the smallest things… like a light bulb…

Turn out to have the biggest impact.

The 50,000 Light Bulb

I undercharged for Ocushield products for nearly 3 years. I told myself it was a growth strategy. 

It was actually a confidence problem.

Nobody warns you how long that one takes to unlearn.

Research from Price Intelligently found that pricing is the single highest leverage decision a business can make...

Yet most founders spend less than 6 hours on it in the first year.
Less than 6 hours.

On the decision that determines whether the business is sustainable or not.

I was one of them.

Year 1, low prices felt like a competitive advantage. Get the volume. Build the brand. Worry about margins later.

Except later arrived.

And the business was growing but not compounding.

Revenue was up. Stress was up. Margin was flat.

The product was good enough to charge more for. The market was willing to pay more.

I just didn't believe it yet.

Because undercharging isn't really a pricing problem.

It's a self-worth problem dressed up as a strategy.

The moment we adjusted pricing, something unexpected happened.

Customer quality improved. Returns dropped. The conversations we had with buyers changed.

Higher price didn't push people away.

It attracted the right people closer.

Price isn't just a number.

It signals how you see your own product.

And if you don't believe it's worth more, nobody else will either.

The real reason I shop at Aldi has nothing to do with money...


It's about saving mental energy.

After a full day of decision-making at work, the last thing I want is to walk in a supermarket that expects more from my brain. 

And I think that's where Aldi's growth is really coming from.

Cos modern work has made cognitive fatigue normal.

By the time most people finish their day, they've already made hundreds of decisions.

Emails, meetings, slack messages, deadlines...

"What's for dinner?"
"Should I reply now or tomorrow?"

So when you walk into a store with 17 cereal options and 12 types of hummus...

It's not empowering, it's exhausting.

Aldi does 3 very simple things differently.

1/ Fewer choices

Less range means fewer micro decisions.

Which reduces mental load at the exact moment people are most decision-fatigued.

2/ Faster navigation

You don't need to think about where things are.

You just move through the space with minimal friction.

2/ Predictability

You know what to expect.

Which removes uncertainty from the experience.

None of this feels groundbreaking.

But that's the point.

It's not about price. It's about reducing cognitive demand in a world that constantly increases it.

Why does this matter?

Cos whatever industry you're in...

Your customer is likely decision-fatigued before they even interact with you.

Sometimes the best experience you can create is one that asks less from their brain.

Customer Experience

2 founders. Same market crash. One folded. One grew 40%.


The difference wasn't luck.

Harvard Business Review studied companies across multiple recessions and found something striking.

Businesses that cut costs AND continued to invest in new capabilities during downturns outperformed their competitors by over 10% after recovery.

Not the ones who waited it out.
Not the ones who played it safe.

The ones who kept moving while others froze.

I've watched this split happen up close.

And it almost always comes down to one thing:

How fast they updated their story.

Not their product.
Not their funding.
Their story.

The founder who folded kept explaining why things were hard.

Supply chains. Rising costs. Economic uncertainty.

All true. All real.

But the story became the strategy.

And the strategy became: wait for things to improve.

The founder who grew asked a different question:

"Given everything that's changed... what does our customer actually need right now?"

That one question changed their offer.
Their positioning.
Their energy.

During COVID...
Businesses that pivoted quickly...
Reframing what they sold and who they served, 
saw 20 to 40% growth while similar companies declined.

I had my own version of this at Ocushield.

When external pressure hit, the temptation was to pull back.

Protect margins.
Pause experiments.
Wait it out.

But the moments we pushed through and stayed close to customers?

Those were always the ones that compounded later.

Resilience isn't about being tough.

It's about how fast you rewrite the story.

I spent 6 months building a product feature nobody asked for.


We launched it.

Crickets.... And I realised I’d been solving my problem, not theirs.

Nobody warns you how easy it is to confuse the two.

A CBInsights study found that 42% of startups fail because there’s no market need.

Not because the product was bad.

Because the founder assumed they knew what the customer needed without actually checking.

I did this at Ocushield.

We had data. We had instinct. We had internal conviction.

What we didn’t have was enough time actually talking to customers.

So we built what made sense to us.

And shipped something that solved a problem they didn’t have.

The feature wasn’t wrong.

The timing and the assumption behind it were.

The moment we went back to direct conversations… 

not surveys, not analytics, actual conversations, the product decisions got easier.

Because customers don’t hide what they need.

We just stop asking often enough to hear it.

The best product insight I’ve ever received didn’t come from a report.

It came from a 12-minute call with someone who nearly returned their order.

Talk to your customers.

Not quarterly.

Not when something goes wrong.

Constantly.

That’s the only research that never goes out of date.

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The Battle

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