An interview with Voulla Fronis, Founder of Gellibn

Voulla began her career in the hair fashion industry where she progressed into managing and developing teams within the industry, then conducting workshops and seminars on technical skill improvement and inspiration internationally.

Upon her travels, she was exposed to a lot of new products in the trade and this led Voulla and her husband to start their own product distribution business. They ran this business for a number of years until they decided to get into the retail food industry.

Voulla has had experience in a wide variety of industries, from wholesale to retail, and has been exposed to different business environments that have all been formative in how she approaches her work. In any business Voulla has been involved with, her passion has always been the “people” side of things, and being able to develop and train the employees and seeing them achieve their goals.

Tell us a bit more about your background.

"I have always wanted to create a way / a solution, to help business owners manage their employees in a fun, logical and interactive way where they maintain a culture of teamwork, synergy, and fulfilment in their workspace, and now I have, with Gellibn!"

How did your entrepreneurial journey begin?

"My entrepreneurial journey began early in my career in the hair fashion industry, where I then moved into wholesale product distribution and one of the key things that brought me success was working with and supporting my clients/customers (who were small to medium size business owners) with other aspects of their business, including business structure and employee management. I found that this added value to their business and helped them achieve a lot of their business goals. In return, their success was also my success. I then moved on to the retail industry for few years and running a business of around 100 employees. I believe in any business where you have a workforce, one of the key elements and contributors to your success is your employees, your people. The challenge is always maintaining a synergy in the workspace, where employees understand your expectations and they know “where they stand” in relation to their work performance. This is why I have created Gellibn."

Introduce your product and give us your elevator pitch!

"The Gellibn app is a platform that business owners and managers can use to give their employees feedback about their work on a day-to-day basis instead of having to wait for weeks or months until they get an opportunity to discuss their performance. The same goes for positive reinforcement, Gellibn enables you to praise your employee’s work in a timely manner. Being able to give feedback is an essential ingredient in any business, it can reinforce positive behaviour, correct any negative performance and ensure a strong culture remains in a team. Productive feedback means giving it frequently and this is why the Gellibn app is a great tool as it enables you to provide feedback “on the go”. It’s a “game changer”. An easy, enjoyable way to manage staff performance so that Business owners can focus on other things that are also important to them, have more free time and peace of mind that any staff performance issues they may have are taken care of."

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced?

"Getting my “head around” the process of the steps I had to take to achieve the vision I had in mind and managing those between running another business and staying on top of these."

What was one of the most interesting (or useful) things you learned this year?

"I found the whole journey of creating Gellibn interesting! I learned a whole new industry process of going from an idea to a functioning product/app and all the steps involved in achieving this."

What advice would you give to someone trying to follow your footsteps?

"Anything is possible, if you can dream it, you can create it and if you’re passionate about what you do or what you want to achieve, you will always find a way. Don’t let the “fear’’ of the “unknown” prevent you from chasing your goal."

Something you do weekly that you love

"I try to fit exercise in my weekly routine. Pilates is something that I do at least twice a week, I find it beneficial not only physically but mentally as well."

What’s next for your project?

"Refining and developing the features and customising it further for specific industries. I have a few things in mind and a lot will come down to the feedback I receive from the users. I’m also looking at developing other “arms” of the app for assisting business owners further."

Click here to discover more about Gellibn.