Clare Roberts OBE is one of the UK’s most successful female founders – but she feared she had early-onset dementia when she developed ‘brain fog’.
The CEO of Kids Planet Day Nurseries is part of the rare ‘Superscaler’ community of UK women who have founded a business that has topped £50m in revenue.
She founded the business with her dad, John, in 2008 when she was struggling to find flexible childcare for her daughter and decided there must be a better way.
Today, Lymm-based Kids Planet has grown to more than 300 nurseries and is now the second-biggest nursery provider in the UK, with responsibility for more than 40,000 children. It has a turnover of £200m+.
However, the mother-of-three feared the worst when she experienced difficulty with her speech in her early 40s.
“It was probably around 2020 and I thought I had early onset dementia,” she told The Naked Founder podcast.
“I couldn’t get my words out. I started to have what everyone describes as ‘brain fog’. I was probably 42 which is quite young really.”
Roberts has shared her experience to raise awareness of the symptoms of the menopause.
As well as being a mum to her own three daughters, she’s an unofficial mum to 40,000 children, which is the number of children Kids Planet is responsible for.
“It sounds really strange but the earlier days were miles more stressful than it is today and that’s because we’ve got so many people around us who do aspects of our job much better than we did when we originally started,” she said.
“The support structure is so much better. I never imagined we’d get to the size we are now.
“When you’re a CEO and a founder you’re always working because you care.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable to let people go days and not respond to things. I’m always working but I’m not.”
Roberts has grown Kids Planet into the UK’s second-biggest nursery provider.
She sold a minority stake to BGF in 2016 and a majority stake to Freeman Capital in 2021.
Her sister, Lucy Kaczmarska, is the company’s chief operating officer and Roberts had some advice about working with family.
“When Lucy and I are at work we’re friends but colleagues,” she said. “We don’t always 100 per cent agree on everything, but we are very respectful to each other. When we’re out of work we’re sisters and we have great fun.”
Despite her success, Roberts said one of the biggest compliments people can give her is to say she’s ‘normal’.
“Just because you’ve founded a business or you’re a CEO does not mean you’re God or unapproachable,” she told The Naked Founder podcast.
“You should be able to talk to everyone. Whoever you are in the organisation, I treat everyone with equal respect.”
Roberts told The Naked Founder podcast that she’s not a fan of women-only awards or women-only events.
She regularly runs 30km a week and highlighted the importance of running for her mental health and wellbeing.
In the week that Andy Burnham became the UK’s latest Prime Minister, Roberts said she hoped politics could be done differently.
“One of the things we don’t do in politics is you should be looking at people who have got expertise in certain fields to do those top jobs,” she said.
The Naked Founder is sponsored by Financielle and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
You can listen to the episode here