‘We had a chance encounter at a train station – and have worked together ever since’

Louise Marsh and Sarah Wrixon are the women behind the innovative Fyio app – and they have a chance encounter to thank for it

Two female tech founders have lifted the lid on their train station meet-cute, and how the chance meeting transformed their lives. Louise Marsh and Sarah Wrixon are the dynamic duo behind the ground breaking Fyio app. And their partnership began, with a chance encounter at a London railway station.

Louise, 54, was at Paddington train station when she spotted a fellow passenger struggling to find his ticket on his phone. She stepped forward to help and made a passing remark about unreliable apps. The passenger was with his daughter, Sarah Wrixon, 60, a seasoned public relations entrepreneur and founder of two PR companies, including Salix & Co, which she still oversees today.

“Lou and I met by happenstance,” Sarah recalled. “My dad had been to stay and he said he’d be perfectly fine to get himself on the Tube to Paddington – but it was clear to me it wasn’t going to be fine.”

“I was meant to be at a conference but decided to take him myself, and as we were queuing to get through the barrier, Dad was trying to find his ticket on his app.”

“Suddenly, this voice pipes up saying: ‘An app’s got to work first time – I know, I’m building one.’” Sarah asked Louise what she was building. She explained she was creating a digital filing cabinet, then asked Sarah what she did.

“I told her I run a PR company. She said: ‘I need some of that’ and thrust a card in my hand, and then kindly saw my dad onto the train. By the time I’d got back to the office, she’d found me on LinkedIn and that was that – we’ve been working together ever since.”

For Louise, Fyio had grown out of years working in the life insurance industry. She said: “I’d see the distress caused by disorganised documents sprawled across drawers or tucked away in the under-stair cupboard.

“But it was when my husband left the armed forces after 25 years’ service that the distress caused by disorganised paperwork started in our own home. ‘Where’s my…’ started driving me mad.

“I wanted to create something that would change that and help him organise and take control of his paperwork and his new life.”

However, beginning from nothing felt overwhelming. She admitted: “I didn’t come from a tech background at all. I had to really do my research and work out how I was going to make this whole thing happen.”

Sarah, armed with her commercial expertise, became a sounding board and strategist following their unexpected encounter in 2019.

“Once we started working closely together, we worked through the vision, values and philosophy of the brand,” she said.

“We took quite a considered approach to not go too fast, which at that point was difficult because the tech world was on fire and everyone, investors especially, wanted things to happen at a gazillion miles per hour. But we stuck to our guns.”

She continued: “If people were to trust an app to help them organise and protect their everyday paperwork and important personal documents, we had to be certain we were doing that properly and that the security was absolutely watertight.”

Both women are frank about the hurdles they’ve encountered breaking into a male-dominated industry at this stage of their lives. Sarah explained: “There aren’t that many that look like us, let’s put it that way. It’s been challenging – we don’t fit any kind of stereotype – but here we are with something incredibly exciting that’s going to change the paperwork paradigm.”

Louise added: “The fact that we’re two women, and we’re not young women, but we’ve taken on something and delivered a next-generation solution that’s being used by thousands of people and growing exponentially – I’m personally very proud of what we’ve done so far.”

After the brand reached full development, the pair officially became co-founders. Fyio now boasts users spanning from late teenagers through to people in their eighties, with Sarah’s dad amongst them.

The digital ‘filing cabinet’ is organised into categories for various document types including work, education, and beyond. Educational, healthcare, and pet records can be uploaded swiftly, shared safely, and can be set to automatically expire after a selected timeframe.

“The real ultimate vision is that Fyio would be a word almost in the English language – a bit like how WhatsApp is to instant messaging,” Sarah said.

She still chuckles at the recollection of their first encounter. “If Dad had managed to find his ticket straight away, who knows? We might never have met.”