From seeds to store: How the Start-up culture is creating jobs for graduates
Olivia struggled to find work in the NHS after graduating, so started Supp, an evidence-based supplement brand, from her flat in Kelham Island. Find out how she grew the business from seed to store.
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What has been the journey to starting a business?
Heading into graduation, I had my heart set on the Scientist Training Programme (STP) after loving my work with the Julia Garnham Centre. I made it to the final round of interviews but wasn't selected, which left me feeling incredibly disheartened. At the same time, after spending a lot of hours in the lab for my dissertation, I’d started to realise that traditional, long-term lab life might not actually be the right fit for me anyway.
Feeling pretty lost, I applied for endless roles, constantly being told I interviewed well but just lacked the specific experience of other candidates. To pay the bills, I fell into cafe, bar, and event work. I loved the skills I built there, but I knew it wasn’t my forever job. Eventually, I decided enough was enough and that it was time to create my own path.
How did you develop your business idea?
Alongside my boyfriend Toby, a web designer and SEO strategist, I began researching different industries before we ultimately landed on supplements. We kept noticing the exact same recurring problem: brands were promising miracles without providing any of the actual research, trials, or evidence to back them up. Did I ever picture myself selling supplements? Absolutely not! But I did always picture myself using my degree to help people, and this was the perfect opportunity to bring some much-needed transparency to the market.
How did you create a community for your customer base?
We co-founded Supp, a self-funded wellness brand. Along with our range of evidence-led, UK-made supplements (covering Heart & Circulation, Hair, Skin & Nails, Sleep & Energy, and Immunity), we wanted to build a space that offers genuine, free support. We created a whole hub of free wellness resources, including healthy recipes, workout guides (covering yoga, pilates, everyday mobility, and physio advice), and detailed blogs. I write most of these blogs myself, focusing heavily on the actual science.
These include deep-dives into specific ingredients, breaking down clinical trials, and explaining exactly how things work in the body, so people can understand exactly how the thing they're putting in their body is working and the realistic results they can expect. Because I remember how tough it was right after university, we also focus heavily on giving back. Whether that’s sponsoring people taking on incredible physical challenges and fundraisers for charity, providing them with the supplement support they need to power through and hit their goals, or offering work experience to current students (so far we've worked with physio, media, and marketing students). It’s steady, self-funded progress, but it’s taught me that the important thing is to say yes and just go for it, even when others don't quite understand your path.
What does your day-to-day look like as a co-founder?
Since we are completely self-funded, I wear a lot of different hats to keep the business moving forward. My main focus is balancing the operational side of a new Start-up with making sure our products and content stay true to that evidence-led approach. My daily responsibilities include:
- Product R&D: Using the analytical and research skills from my degree to dig into clinical trials, thoroughly vet ingredients, and help develop our product range to ensure everything we sell has a genuine purpose.
- Science Communication: Writing our website content and ingredient deep-dives. So many brands are misleading, so I focus on ensuring our customers know the exact science behind what they are taking, why, and what the realistic outcomes are.
- Operations & Outreach: Managing our day-to-day finances, social media, PR, and marketing outreach.
- Logistics & Support: Acting as the main point of contact for both our warehouse team and our customers.
How did your student experience at Sheffield influence your future career?
My placement at the Julia Garnham Centre was easily one of the highlights of my degree. The team there does such amazing work, and I genuinely looked forward to every shift. While the focus of the work is heavy (dealing with cancer diagnostics) knowing that the work we did directly helped patients get seen and treated quicker gave me a massive sense of purpose. It was actually this experience that made me want to apply for the STP in the first place. Even though that specific path didn't work out, I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.
What were the most important skills that you learnt during your degree?
The analytical skills and attention to detail I developed at the centre are exactly what gave me the confidence to handle the scientific side of my own business today. I would absolutely recommend the placement to any current biomedical science student. I was a part of Biomed Netball and joined the UOS Korfball team in my final year (my only regret is not joining Korfball sooner!). Doing sports at uni was massive for my mental health and work-life balance. A biomed degree is pretty intense, so having that regular outlet to just let loose, train, and have a laugh at socials was exactly what I needed. From a career perspective, it really helped develop my people skills, teamwork, and ability to communicate with all kinds of different personalities. Above all, it was just a lovely bunch of people and a brilliant way to build a community of friends. I highly recommend anyone joining a sport at uni - it does wonders for your student experience!
How did your course prepare your for starting your own business?
While some people look at what I’m doing now and tell me I’ve wasted my biomedical science degree, I strongly believe it’s the exact thing that put me on this path. No, I’m not in the NHS. No, I’m not working in a lab. And if I'm being completely transparent, I don't have a perfectly stable, traditional career right now, but that's exactly what I'm aiming to build with Supp.
Olivia Buckley
Founder of Supp
Sheffield prepared me for this journey in ways that go way beyond a piece of paper: If university taught me anything, especially through the long hours on my dissertation, it's how to deal with problems when things don't go to plan. It taught me how to ask questions, even when I'm not entirely sure what I'm even supposed to be asking.
In the Start-up world, where you have to figure out everything from scratch, that mindset is everything. Between my placement at the Julia Garnham Centre and being part of Biomed Netball and Korfball, I learned how to talk to a huge variety of different people. Whether it was working professionally in a sensitive clinical environment or just letting loose and working as a team on the court, it built the communication skills I use every single day now when dealing with warehouses, PR contacts, and customers. Of course, the obvious skills are the backbone of the business.
Supp wouldn't exist without my degree. Sheffield taught me how to read complex clinical trials and look at data critically. Because of that, I can confidently do all the R&D for our products, vet ingredients, and write our website blogs so people can actually understand exactly how the thing they're putting in their body works. My time at Sheffield also taught me a lot about resilience. Missing out on the STP and realising the lab wasn't for me felt like a massive setback at the time, but it forced me to grow. It’s also the reason why we offer work experience to current students now; I remember exactly how tough and unstable that post-grad transition feels, and I want to use what I'm building to help others through it. Everyone has to start somewhere, and Sheffield gave me the tools to just say yes and go for it.
What are the best aspects of living in Sheffield as a student?
I absolutely loved living in Sheffield. One of the best things about it is how walkable everything is. The uni buildings are close together, the shops are easily accessible, and getting to places like Meadowhall or IKEA is dead easy. But what really makes Sheffield special is the green space. Having Endcliffe Park and Weston Park right on your doorstep is lovely, but being so close to the actual Peak District is a massive bonus.
On my course, I always loved the hands-on aspects of the lab work, even if I eventually realised a lab career wasn't my long-term calling. I was also incredibly lucky with my tutor group. We all got on brilliantly and actually attended our meetings (I know a lot of other groups used to skip theirs), but we genuinely enjoyed the catch-up, and our tutor was lovely.
What advice would you give to students interested in pursuing a career in entrepreneurship?
Since I created my own career path out of a tough situation, my advice is a bit different from the standard graduate route. If you want to start your own business or do something unconventional, this is what I’ve learnt:
- Don't let people get in your head: When you decide to do something different, a lot of people won’t understand it. They might question why you're doing it, or try to put you off because it isn't a traditional, stable job. Block out the noise. If you genuinely believe in your idea, you have to trust your gut.
- Be prepared to work hard and accept mistakes: Building something yourself is a massive learning curve and takes a lot of hours. You have to be okay with the fact that some things just aren't going to work out on the first try. You have to learn to laugh it off, pivot, and keep moving forward.
- Just go for it: The biggest hurdle is often just starting. You can spend forever researching and overthinking, but at some point, you just have to say yes and take the leap. Even if it doesn't work out exactly how you planned, you can always go into a different career later down the line. But at least you’ll never look back and wonder what if? You can proudly say you gave it a proper go.
