From a kitchen table and £10,000 in savings to a multi-million-pound ecommerce business – Catherine Longland shares the lessons she’s learned building one of the UK’s fastest-growing parenting brands.

When Catherine Longland couldn’t find genuinely waterproof yet comfortable bedding while navigating bedwetting with her daughter, she decided to create it herself.

Armed with a spreadsheet, a kitchen table and £10,000 of savings, she launched Hygge Sheets in 2021 with one simple goal: solve a problem that thousands of families were facing.

Four years later, that idea has grown into a multi-million-pound business selling across the UK, Europe and North America.

As the first guest in Commerce Voice’s new Women in Commerce series, Catherine reflects on her career, the realities of bootstrapping a business without outside investment, balancing entrepreneurship with motherhood, and why customer feedback has shaped every stage of Hygge Sheets’ growth.

Tell us about your role and career journey so far.

I’m the co-founder of Hygge Sheets, a business my husband Paul and I built to help families navigate bedwetting challenges.

Before becoming a founder, I spent over 20 years in digital marketing, working with both established retailers and fast-growing ecommerce businesses. Those experiences gave me a solid commercial background, but nothing has compared to building a business that’s so closely connected to its customers.

We’ve grown from one simple product into a multi-award-winning brand selling internationally, but what still motivates me most is hearing from the families and carers whose lives we’ve made a little easier. It’s been a journey of constant learning, resilience and adapting as we’ve grown, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What achievement are you most proud of?

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built from scratch. What started as one simple product has grown into a multi-award-winning brand that’s now helping families and carers across multiple countries around the world.

Seeing our products being bought and used by people in different countries is something I’ll never take for granted. When we started Hygge Sheets, we simply wanted to make one difficult stage of parenting a little easier. Today, we’re helping families, carers and adults around the world protect beds, reduce stress and feel more confident navigating bedwetting and incontinence.

Alongside that growth, I’m equally proud of the conversations we’ve helped to create. Bedwetting and incontinence have long been subjects that many people feel embarrassed to talk about, yet they’re incredibly common. If we’ve helped families realise they’re not alone, encouraged more open conversations and played a small part in reducing that stigma, then that’s one of our biggest achievements.

Winning multiple awards has been wonderful recognition of the quality of our products, but the messages we receive from customers saying we’ve made a difficult time feel a little easier are what mean the most. Building a business with purpose, growing it internationally from scratch, and knowing it’s making a real difference to people’s lives is something I’m incredibly proud of.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned during your career?

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that building a business is far more achievable than many people think.

Earlier in my career, I worked with founders who had built successful businesses from scratch. Watching them made me realise they weren’t doing anything magical they were ordinary people who had an idea, worked hard, kept learning and kept going.

Since starting Hygge Sheets, I’ve learned that businesses are built one step at a time. You don’t need all the answers from day one; you just need to keep listening, keep learning and keep moving forward.

I’ve also learned to enjoy the journey. Seeing the business grow is incredibly rewarding, but for me it’s never just been about the numbers. It’s about building something with purpose, meeting inspiring people along the way and knowing you’re making a genuine difference to people’s lives.

Have you faced any challenges as a woman in the industry?

Personally, I haven’t felt that being a woman has held me back. I co-founded Hygge Sheets with my husband, Paul, and we very much run the business as a partnership, each bringing different strengths to the table.

In many ways, being a mum has actually been an advantage. The majority of our customers are parents, so I can genuinely relate to many of the challenges they’re facing. That makes it much easier to connect with our community, understand what they need and create products and content that really resonate. I think that authenticity has been one of the biggest strengths of our business.

What advice would you give to women looking to build a career in commerce or technology?

My biggest piece of advice would be to remember that it’s absolutely possible. Earlier in my career, I worked with founders who inspired me to believe that building a business was within reach, and I hope more women realise that too.

I’m also proud to be part of Buy Women Built, a community that champions brands founded by women and helps raise their profile. Being part of that network has shown me just how many incredible businesses are being built by female founders across a huge range of industries. It’s inspiring, supportive and a great reminder that you’re not doing it alone.

Also don’t wait until you feel you have all the answers. Start, keep learning, ask questions and enjoy the journey. You never know where that first step might lead.

Who has inspired your career?

I’ve been fortunate to learn from lots of different people throughout my career rather than having one single role model. Early on, I worked with founders who built hugely successful businesses from scratch, including John Roberts at AO and Mahmud Kamani at Boohoo. Seeing entrepreneurs like that up close made building a business feel achievable and inspired me to believe I could do it too.

I’ve also learned a huge amount from the managers I’ve worked with throughout my digital marketing career and, of course, from my husband Paul. We have very different backgrounds – mine in digital marketing and his in engineering – and those different ways of thinking have made us a stronger partnership and helped shape how we’ve built Hygge Sheets.

On a personal level, I was quite shy at school, so I never imagined I’d one day be speaking publicly, giving interviews or building a brand. In many ways, this feels like my time to step out of my comfort zone and show what I’m capable of.

What excites you most about the future of commerce?

What excites me most is how quickly commerce continues to evolve.

When I started my career in digital marketing over 20 years ago, the landscape looked completely different to what it does today, and it’s still changing at an incredible pace.

That constant change creates so much opportunity. New technologies, new platforms and changing customer behaviours mean there’s always something new to learn and new ways to reach people. I also quite enjoy the unpredictability of it. Just when you think you’ve figured everything out, something changes, and that’s what keeps it interesting.

For me, that’s one of the best parts of working in commerce. You can never stand still, and I think that’s what makes it such an exciting industry to be part of.

What’s one thing you’d like to see change in the industry?

I’d like to see the industry slow down a little when it comes to rolling out AI.

It’s an incredible technology with huge potential, but at times it feels like companies are rushing to launch AI features before they’re fully tested or genuinely useful, simply because they don’t want to be left behind.

I’d rather see fewer AI tools that solve real problems really well than lots of features that aren’t quite ready. 

Quick Fire

Coffee or tea?
Always a very milky tea first thing, but I do love a flat white too!

Most-used app?
Google Maps.

Favourite AI tool?
ChatGPT but also trying Claude right now too

A brand you admire?
Sauce Shop.

A woman in business everyone should follow?
Sahar Hashemi, Founder of Buy Women Built.

One word to describe the future of commerce?
Unpredictable.