One Year On: Marie Kelly reflects on Versatail’s journey after winning UCFB’s Sports Entrepreneur Competition

One year on from winning UCFB’s landmark Sports Entrepreneur Competition in Manchester, professional cricketer and entrepreneur Marie Kelly has continued to grow her business, Versatail Ltd., while balancing the demands of a professional sporting career.

Launched to support aspiring entrepreneurs looking to break into the sports industry, the competition provided Marie with funding and ongoing support to help accelerate the growth of her business. Twelve months later, Versatail products are being worn by thousands of women and girls across the UK, with the brand continuing to expand into new markets and opportunities.

We caught up with Marie to reflect on the past year, the lessons learned along the way, and her ambitions for the future.

How has the past year gone for the business?

The past year has been crazy busy! Versatail is now being worn by thousands of women and girls so managing running the business and making sales with playing cricket professionally has been super challenging but rewarding at the same time.

What have been the major successes?

A couple of highlights were my caps being stocked and sold at the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground; it was pretty cool playing a match at Lord’s and then afterwards seeing my Versatail caps being worn in the crowd.

We also got a feature in Cosmopolitan which was crazy when their marketing team called!

Additionally, we kitted out all prospective female UCFB students with UCFB-branded Versatail caps which was an awesome full-circle moment.

And, using the prize money from UCFB, I also launched a podcast called Tales with Versatail, where I interviewed successful women from sport and business with inspirational tales to tell, all whilst wearing their Versatail caps!

Any setbacks and how you overcame them?

There haven’t been any major setbacks, really. I think the biggest challenge I’ve found is the lead time for ordering more stock, so it’s just about figuring out the timings of when to commit to a larger spend.

Sampling new products also seems to take forever, so I have had to exercise a lot of patience and understand how supply chains operate.

How has UCFB helped?

UCFB has helped hugely in a number of ways. The initial cash prize meant I could take more of a risk and order more stock in different colours, which otherwise might have taken me years to achieve.

It definitely took a weight off my mind and gave me some breathing space and wiggle room to experiment with some elements of the business.

The support I received and am still receiving is fantastic too; there have been a number of introductions to services like accounting and marketing, or events I might find useful, which has been super helpful.

Oli Moore in particular has been incredibly helpful and I’ve felt really supported through having a constant point of contact with someone checking in if needed.

What are your plans for the next year?

Plans for next year are to simply continue this year’s good work.

We expanded the product offering more this winter with our bobble hats in particular, which are going down really well with football, hockey and rugby clubs.

I am also venturing into the trade show world and entering into some trade partnerships, which is really exciting.

As UCFB continues to support the next generation of innovators through initiatives such as the Sports Entrepreneur Competition, Marie’s journey highlights the opportunities available to students, graduates and industry professionals looking to turn ambitious ideas into successful ventures within the sector.

Got aspirations to forge your own career in Sport? Download the latest UCFB prospectus today.