Tallie Hopkins & Dr Jo Carlile - Founders - Pear

A stationer and a psychologist walk into a bar.

It sounds like the start of a joke, but for Tallie Hopkins and Dr Jo Carlile, it was the beginning of an idea that could change how people find mental health support. Two very different career paths. One shared frustration. And a conversation that sparked a business.

Tallie began her career as a buyer at Sainsbury’s, eventually specialising in fish. (And no, that didn’t mean early mornings at the fish market. In big retail, fish buying happens behind spreadsheets, not slabs of ice. And the occasional taste test.)

She later joined her family’s stationery business, Coleman’s, in the Midlands. When COVID hit, she brought the business online, reviving sales through e-commerce while protecting the tradition and legacy that had shaped it for decades.

Jo has built her career as a clinical psychologist, working in the NHS and in private practice, sitting across from people in moments of deep vulnerability.

Together they founded Pear, a platform that makes it easier for people to find the right therapist and for therapists to focus on helping clients instead of hunting for them.

The idea began with Tallie’s own struggle to find a good-fit therapist. Through networks like Female Founders Rise she met Jo, and the conversation quickly shifted from should we do this? to we have to do this.

Over breakfast, we spoke about:

- The challenge of finding the right therapist in a world that blends in-person and online options. Virtual therapy has widened access, but Jo sees enduring value in face-to-face connection.

- Why a market where “everyone” could be a customer is actually a harder place to win, and how narrowing the focus helps with fundraising and acquisition.

- Building the revenue model around providers, not users. Pear charges therapists to operate from the platform, keeping access free for clients and driving retention.

- Avoiding the trap of turning every problem into a tech problem. Sometimes the issue is not the platform but the lack of quality support itself.

It was a reminder that not every startup story is about disruption for its own sake. Sometimes it is about making the human part of the process work better, because that is the part that matters most.