Sophia Shafiee: from studying Classics to building an e-commerce brand

Like a lot of grads, when Jumpstart Alum Sophia first left uni she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do, but was looking for something meaningful yet exciting.

“I’d recently graduated from Oxford with a degree in Classics, and was figuring out what I wanted to do, exploring my options, but knew I wanted to be at the forefront of things, where I could be given lots of early responsibility, and really see the impact of my own work. Jumpstart then came up on one of the job boards I was looking at, and it really intrigued me, and I just knew I had to apply.

Aside from participating in my school’s Young Enterprise Company Programme, where I set up and ran a business with a team of like-minded students, I wasn’t overly familiar with the startup world, but Jumpstart really caught my attention, especially the prospect of seeing how businesses are grown from the ground-up and being personally involved in the process, and having the opportunity to shape my own career path in a way that I’d never thought would have been be possible before”. 

Sophia then applied and took part in Jumpstart’s July 2021 cohort, before joining Kair. One of her highlights of the programme was the training, which we provide to all of our grads to help you put your best foot forward at interviews, and thrive in your startup role. 

“It was extremely stimulating and dynamic, providing a comprehensive grounding in the skills necessary to thrive in the startup world through a range of interesting real-life scenarios and interaction patterns.

This was invaluable to me in my interviews, and has proven invaluable too in my role”.

Sophia is now working as Marketing and Operations Assistant at Kair, which creates premium clothing care to help your favourite clothes last longer. 

“We’re on a mission to shake up the traditional spin, to put clothing care first so our most-loved garments can live on and on as sustainably as possible, and also make laundry day a lot more joyful!”

Sophia Shafiee, Marketing and Ops Assistant at Kair and Jumpstart Alumni

One thing Sophia particularly loves about her role at Kair is the company culture. She summarised what she thinks makes good company culture as: 

“A company which is collaborative, inclusive and kind, as well as one which believes in pushing boundaries and inspiring change. At Kair we like to say we care about everything we do – it’s more than just a name – which means we put integrity above all, and are passionate about doing the right thing”.