In this latest instalment of Women in Commerce, we spoke to Vic Peppiatt and Sarah Daniel, Co-CEOs and Co-Founders of Hey Savi.
Vic is a third-time founder who previously co-founded and exited AI marketing technology company Phrasee, while Sarah’s career has taken her from events and senior marketing roles to becoming Global CEO of Prominate. Together, they launched Hey Savi, an agentic commerce platform helping women find and shop fashion across more than 10,000 brands.
During the chat, Vic and Sarah discuss the importance of grit, resilience, visibility and backing yourself. They also share their experiences of female leadership and fundraising, why greater representation is still needed across the industry and how AI is removing barriers and reshaping the future of commerce.
Tell us about your role and career journey so far.
Sarah Daniel: I am one of the co-founders of Hey Savi, an AI-powered fashion search engine for women. However, I started my career in events – literally putting pens and note pads out on conference tables! One day I was given the chance to run an event for the NHS to raise money for the spinal injuries unit. It was such a success that I was immediately hooked on the chaos of large scale management. From there I pivoted several times into senior marketing roles, launching the last three Harry Potter movies at retail for Warner Bros, where I lead the global operations team for a promotional marketing company. I worked my way up the ladder to become the Global CEO of Prominate, a promotional materials company. I started as the Client Services Director, then after a year was promoted to COO, and finally CEO.
Vic Peppiatt: I’m a 3rd time founder, 2nd time tech founder. I co-founded and ran The Pink Group, a creative agency, for 11 years. In 2015 I co-founded Phrasee, we use AI to generate and optimise short form marketing language eg. push notifications and email subject lines. We worked with large global brands that included eBay, Netflix and Facebook. We went on to exit the business in 2022, giving early investors a 33x return (66x for angels through SEIS).
In June 2026, my brilliant co-founder Sarah Daniel and I launched Hey Savi. We’re an agentic commerce platform for women’s fashion, turning a screenshot of an outfit you love into a shoppable result across 10,000+ brands with no sponsored content pushing you toward whoever paid the most. We launched in partnership with PayPal and Debenhams became the first UK retailer offering full end-to-end AI shopping with in-app checkout through the platform.
What achievement are you most proud of?
Sarah Daniel: I moved into the Global CEO role of my last company 2 months before Covid-19 hit. I had a game plan that went out the window in a matter of weeks. When competitors folded, I scaled. I restructured the business from global to local and scaled across 75 markets and 100 offices. Within 3 years of doing that role I led the business through Covid-19, Brexit, the war in Ukraine and supply chain challenges. I learned that I am exactly the person you call in a crisis!
Vic Peppiatt: Exiting Phrasee and seeing our early investors walk away with such a great return still sits at the top for me. That kind of outcome doesn’t happen by accident, and knowing the people who backed us early got rewarded for that belief means a lot.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned during your career?
Sarah Daniel: Back yourself. If there is one person you can 100% rely on in life, it should be you. I move very intentionally and mean everything that I say and do, it means that when things go wrong – because they will – you can own it and look yourself in the mirror because you moved with integrity.
Vic Peppiatt: It’s all about grit, determination and resilience. Grit gets you further than talent. Building a company is mostly about staying in the room after everyone else gives up. Determination and resilience aren’t nice-to-haves – they’re the actual job!
Have you faced any challenges as a woman in the industry?
Sarah Daniel: In my last role I led a company with 100 CEO’s, 15 shareholders and 5 board directors – all men, and honestly, there are pros and cons to being a woman in that environment. I could be more direct than I believe a man in my position could be, because, to them, the threat wasn’t there. However, there is perceived fragility to being a woman, which is frustrating. I learned to carefully curate my responses to certain situations to ensure that I wasn’t received as emotional, when I was by far the least emotional person in the room.
Vic Peppiatt: Yes, mostly in the fundraising room. Hey Savi solves a real, everyday problem for women: the endless, frustrating search for something you saw and loved but can’t find, in your size, at your price point, without wading through ads and dead ends. Women instantly get it because they’ve lived it. Pitching that same problem to a room full of men who’ve never experienced it is a different conversation. You end up explaining the pain point before you can even get to the solution, and that’s time and energy a founder pitching a problem investors already recognise doesn’t have to spend. It’s one of the quieter reasons representation matters so much in this industry. The people building the tech and the people funding it need to actually understand the problem, not just take your word for it.
What advice would you give to women looking to build a career in commerce or technology?
Sarah Daniel: Stay visible. Unfortunately it is still true that we need to work 10 times harder than men for the same opportunities, but hard work alone won’t cut it. Make time for the people around you, learn your strengths so you know where you can bring value and influence.
Vic Peppiatt: Don’t wait to feel ready – you’ll never feel it. Pay attention to when you feel uneasy and try and embrace it. I’ve learned to treat that feeling as a signal that I’m growing, not a warning to pull back. If everything feels comfortable and easy, you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough. Some of the best moves in my career have come from sitting with that discomfort instead of running from it.
Who has inspired or influenced your career?
Sarah Daniel: Sophia Amoruso, watching her from a young age have an idea and build a billion dollar company was incredibly inspiring. I’ve regularly been the youngest woman in the room in my career, often leading people much older than me. Reading her book and seeing how she faced that really left an impact on me.
Vic Peppiatt: I’ve been lucky to have several mentors throughout my career but two really stand out for me. Felicity Kelly, when I was running The Pink Group, and Adam Stambleck, when I was at Phrasee. Both taught me so much about business, about staying focused, keeping calm and never losing sight of the prize. About having grit, determination and resilience.
What excites you most about the future of commerce?
Sarah Daniel: With AI at the point of inflection that it is, the potential is limitless. It’s removed barriers that we had before, you don’t need to be a coding expert to move quickly and make a real impact.
Vic Peppiatt: Commerce is shifting from something you search for to something that comes to you already understood, your size, your budget, your taste. We built Hey Savi around that shift, and we are live in the market,whilst a lot of competitors are still writing their strategy decks. That tells you how early we still are.
What’s one thing you’d like to see change in the industry?
Sarah Daniel: More women in positions of true leadership, not notional roles.
Vic Peppiatt: Transparency. So much of ecommerce runs on sponsored placement dressed up as recommendation, and shoppers rarely know the difference. I’d like to see the industry move toward tools that are honest about how a result got in front of you, rather than treating that as a competitive secret.
Quick fire
Coffee or tea?
Sarah Daniel: Neither – Diet Coke!
Vic Peppiatt: Coffee
Most-used app?
Sarah Daniel: The tube map – I get lost a lot!
Vic Peppiatt: Whatsapp
Favourite AI tool?
Sarah Daniel: Claude
Vic Peppiatt: Claude
A brand you admire?
Sarah Daniel: Fenty. Rhianna has captured the essence of all women, whilst still feeling personal.
Vic Peppiatt: Absolute Collagen. A mother and daughter, female founded team.
A woman in business everyone should follow?
Sarah Daniel: I’m a big fan of Whitney Wolfe.
Vic Peppiatt: Sara Blakely
One word to describe the future of commerce?
Sarah Daniel: Limitless.
Vic Peppiatt: Agentic
