When Jess Potter and Davey Brown decided to start a family four years ago, they didn't take the decision lightly. Since meeting in 2014, the Cardiff couple had been on a gradual journey of reducing their environmental impact. The idea of adding more humans to the planet seemed at odds with their new lifestyle, and they worried about what their children's future would look like. "But human instinct took over, and we decided we did really want to have our own children", said Jess. "But we would make sure that if we did have them, we would only buy second-hand where we could."
It seemed like a great compromise. But while preparing to welcome their first child into the world, the couple realised just how hard it was not to buy new items for their newborn. "It just made me realise, if I'm finding it this hard, and I'm so committed to not buying new, there must be millions of people who just give up because it's just too challenging. It takes too long, there are too many websites. You just can't find what you're looking for, because everything's so spread out," Jess added.
While going to sleep one night, the expectant mum had a "lightbulb moment". It made sense to "bring it all together" on one platform, so that second-hand shoppers could compare listings on different online marketplaces and find exactly what they were looking for. It would bring much-needed cohesion to the huge yet fragmented second-hand online market, and in turn remove friction and inconvenience for people wanting to buy used items. She told Davey the following morning - and so the idea for Used and Loved was born. You can read all our Cardiff stories here.
