Sara Roberts

4× Founder Helping HealthTech Scale Without Breaking Founders | Strategic Advisor to Series A+ Ventures | £10M+ ARR Track Record | Speaker | Top 10 Global Thought Leader

The day my dad died from a preventable illness, my work changed direction.

That moment became the anchor for everything that followed, my companies, my values, and my conviction that healthcare must shift from reactive crisis management to proactive, ethical, and fundamentally human systems.

Over 15+ years, I've built and scaled four ventures across three continents, including taking a consumer health brand from £0 to £10M ARR. I've built international supply chains, secured FTSE100 and government contracts, and driven commercial expansion under real constraints.

I've also lost companies - to fraud, and the hidden costs of prioritising velocity over viability.

Those failures clarified something critical: the companies that scale sustainably aren't led by the hardest-working founders. They're led by the most strategically disciplined ones.

WHAT I DO NOW
I lead Well Purposed, a strategic advisory studio helping post–Series A HealthTech, longevity and impact founders build sustainable, profitable scale through:
→ Scale systems that unlock 2–3× growth without fragmenting focus
→ Market readiness for UK/EU/African expansion
→ Founder operating systems that stabilise decision-making
→ Commercial partnerships that accelerate adoption and revenue
→ Team and narrative alignment that sustains execution

The companies we work with don't just grow faster. They grow more sustainably, aligning profit, purpose, and the health of the people building them.

RECOGNITION & ROLES
→ Top 10 Global HealthTech Thought Leader (Thinkers360)
→ Top 20 UK HealthTech Expert (Favikon)
→ Henry Royce BioMaterials Investment Committee
→ WELL Nourishment Global Advisory
→ Queen's Award for Sustainable Development
→ B Corp-certified (previous venture)

WHAT I BELIEVE
→ Governance is the new growth. Compliance isn't your bottleneck. It's your moat.
→ Founders are infrastructure. The pace of the company matches the pulse of its founder.
→ Ethics is a competitive advantage. Trust compounds faster than capital.

LOOKING AHEAD
I write and speak on HealthTech scale, ethical growth, founder resilience, and preventative health systems. I partner with organisations shaping the future of global health and longevity.

I'm selectively exploring executive roles (COO, CSO, MD, or CEO succession) in high-growth HealthTech companies where operational experience, strategic clarity, and a prevention-first mindset can drive both commercial success and meaningful impact.

If your mission is to build a healthier future, we likely have work to do together.

📩 sara@wellpurposed.com
🔗 www.wellpurposed.com

Founder and CEO

Healthy Nibbles makes healthy, sustainable food accessible and transparently earth positive; delivering great food, for a better future at work, home and on-the-go.

The top 3 problems we solve:

Consumer Health: 
People are time-poor, under pressure and unhealthy. Whilst the desire for sustainable healthy food is there and growing, accessing it at the right time, location and price is problematic. Healthy Nibbles are changing the narrative.

Hybrid Working: 
76% of the population choose hybrid working, and businesses struggle to provide food/wellbeing solutions to suit the ebbs and flow of building occupancy along with the necesary support and engagement with home workers. Our curated solutions solve this.

Dynamic Insights: 
Retail reports are expensive, agency reports are arm’s length. Healthy Nibbles deliver real-time, dynamic insights to support product innovation, F&B investment, and media/marketing engagement. 

Reaching over 244m consumers, loved by Three Mobile, Vitality, BBC, Spotify, EY, The Office Group and TfL, Healthy Nibbles deliver:

Wellness Hubs
The future of office catering and wellbeing. Combining the best in self-service convenience, design-led build, healthy food brands across chilled, frozen, and snacks, barista coffee, with an engaging employee wellbeing hub providing round the clock access to wellness and health.

Corporate Gifting 
Employee rewards and corporate gifts working with 60% minority founded brands, delivering gift experiences that inspire and delight.

Healthy Vending Machines
Open up a world of choice with over 1500 SKUs from exciting and up-and-coming healthy brands with full allergy and nutritional breakdown on-screen before purchase.

Insight-as-a-Service
Discover powerful insights behind purchase data to build a case for investment, innovation and media placement.

I’m not a clinician - and that’s exactly why founders hire me.

I work 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 clinicians. 
I don’t replace them. 
And I don’t pretend to be something I’m not.

My role is commercial, strategic, and operational. Building the system around validated health and wellbeing innovation so it can scale without losing integrity.

Most of the founders I work with already have: 
– a strong clinical or scientific foundation 
– early validation or traction 
– investor or board pressure increasing

What they don’t yet have is a commercial and operating system that can carry that innovation forward.

That’s where I come in.

⛔ I don’t run clinical trials. 
⛔ I don’t design regulatory pathways. 
⛔ I don’t claim reimbursement expertise.

✅ What I 𝘥𝘰 bring is over 15 years of experience building and scaling companies across nutrition, wellbeing, sustainability, and health, including taking businesses from zero to £10mARR, expanding internationally, and operating under real commercial pressure.

I sit in what I call the 'messy middle': 
– translating clinical reality into board-level decisions 
– protecting long-term trust when growth expectations rise
– helping founders move from intuition-led building to system-led execution

Too often, when growth starts to take shape, founders get overloaded. The impact is often slower decision-making and blurring ownership boundaries. Then the business starts drifting.

My work is to prevent that drift.

If you’re building in preventative health, metabolic health, wearables, B2B2C wellbeing, or corporate wellness, and you’re post-MVP or post-raise, alignment matters more than hype.

I’m not here to sell certainty. I’m here to build something that lasts.

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⭐I’m Sara - a HealthTech strategic advisor, fractional operator, and 4x founder who’s scaled ventures to £10M+ ARR across the UK, Europe and Africa. I help founders navigate complexity, rebuild strategic clarity, and scale sustainably. Founder of Well Purposed.

Your company's pace will always match your pulse. Choose wisely.

I spent years believing that rest was something I'd earn after the next milestone. 

After the funding round.
After the product launch.
After we hit a target.

The problem? The milestones kept moving. And so the rest never came.

What I eventually learned, the hard way, is that recovery isn't a reward for productivity. 

It's a prerequisite for it.

Unstable founder physiology isn't a personal issue. It's a systemic risk.

The strongest founders I work with don't push through exhaustion. They design around their capacity. They protect energy like they protect margin. 

Because the data is clear: depleted founders make worse decisions. 

They miss ethical signals. 
They shortcut governance. 
They burn teams.

Your health isn't separate from your company's health. It's the foundation of it.

This weekend, protect one thing: sleep timing, movement, or genuine rest.

Not because you've earned it. Because your business depends on it

-----
⭐I’m Sara - a HealthTech strategic advisor, fractional operator, and 4x founder who’s scaled ventures to £10M+ ARR across the UK, Europe and Africa. I help founders navigate complexity, rebuild strategic clarity, and scale sustainably. Founder of Well Purposed.

If we were sitting down for a coffee and you asked me where I’d start before talking about growth, I’d probably say this:

Most HealthTech companies don’t stall because the product is bad.
They stall because the evidence can’t keep up with the ambition.

Before partnerships, before scaling plans, before the shiny stuff, I always come back to one simple question:

Does this solve a real health or system problem, and can you prove it?

Traction doesn’t really mean downloads or pilots. It means trust.

Trust from clinicians.
Trust from employers or systems.
Trust from partners who know that once something is adopted, it has to work, not just once, but over time.

This is what I mean by product–market integrity.

It’s not about being perfect.
It’s about being honest, evidence-led, and willing to look at the data even when it’s uncomfortable.

The founders I see scale well tend to:
– fall in love with the data as much as the idea
– build feedback loops early
– treat quality and compliance as part of growth, not admin
– understand that credibility compounds faster than capital

In my role at Well Purposed, I sit alongside clinical and technical experts translating evidence into commercial clarity.

The old “move fast and break things” mindset doesn’t hold up.
What the market rewards now is proof, not promises.

If you’re building in preventative health, wellbeing, metabolic health, wearables, or B2B2C health, and you’re post-MVP or post-raise, this lever matters more than most people realise.

Because if integrity cracks early, everything downstream gets harder.

Next week, I’ll share Lever 2 - why so many HealthTech companies think they’re market-ready… and aren’t.

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⭐I’m Sara - a HealthTech strategic advisor, fractional operator, and 4x founder who’s scaled ventures to £10M+ ARR across the UK, Europe and Africa. I help founders navigate complexity, rebuild strategic clarity, and scale sustainably. Founder of Well Purposed.

SARA_ROBERTS_4x Founder_ Well Purposed_ Why traction in he

I’ve been working on something quietly over the past few months.

Not another opinion piece.
Not a hustle framework.
Not “wellness” repackaged for founders.

It’s a playbook.

The WELL Founder Playbook. Built for founders scaling under pressure, scrutiny, uncertainty and responsibility.

After 15+ years building and scaling companies across health, wellbeing, and regulated markets, I’ve seen a familiar pattern. Founders are faltering because their 'founder system' isn’t designed to carry the weight of scale.

Burnout.
Ethical drift.
Loss of clarity.
Quiet isolation.

All predictable. And importantly, all preventable.

This playbook focuses on what we rarely talk about openly:

• Physiological leadership
• Cognitive clarity
• Ethical scale
• Commercial discipline
• Identity and boundaries
• Longevity thinking

The purposed is not to slow founders down, by giving them something else to do, but to empower them to last - to complete the marathon!

It’ll be launching later this week.

If you’re building and feeling the weight of it - this one’s for you.

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⭐I’m Sara - a HealthTech strategic advisor, fractional operator, and 4x founder who’s scaled ventures to £10M+ ARR across the UK, Europe and Africa. I help founders navigate complexity, rebuild strategic clarity, and scale sustainably. Founder of Well Purposed.

Most playbooks talk about how to scale the company. Very few talk about what that scale does to the 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿.

The long days. 
The quiet pressure. 
The responsibility that doesn’t switch off. 
The sense that you’re carrying more than anyone really sees.

After years building and scaling in across 3 continents, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat itself. Strong traction on the outside, quiet erosion of the founder on the inside.

Burnout doesn’t arrive suddenly. 
Loss of clarity doesn’t announce itself. 
Ethical pressure creeps in slowly.

Not because founders aren’t resilient, but because no one designs for the 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮.

That’s why I wrote 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸.

It’s not about slowing down or opting out of ambition. 

It’s about building the personal infrastructure required to lead under pressure, protect what matters to you, and stay well enough to last.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱. Link in the comments.

Happy Friday.

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⭐I’m Sara - a HealthTech strategic advisor, fractional operator, and 4x founder who’s scaled ventures to £10M+ ARR across the UK, Europe and Africa. I help founders navigate complexity, rebuild strategic clarity, and scale sustainably. Founder of Well Purposed.

I don’t often pause to reflect publicly, but this one felt worth sharing.

I was invited to take part in a Thinkers360 Thought Leader Interview, exploring my work at the intersection of HealthTech, leadership, and design thinking, and the ideas that have shaped how I build and advise today.

Over the past 15+ years, I’ve had the privilege (and pressure) of building and scaling ventures across the UK, Europe, and Africa, growing companies to £10M+ ARR, navigating regulated markets, and learning firsthand that innovation only matters if it translates into real-world adoption.

Much of my work has been shaped by lived experience, including losing my father to a preventable illness. That moment fundamentally changed how I think about healthcare, leadership, and responsibility.

In the interview, we talk about:

• Why HealthTech doesn’t fail because of ideas but because of execution and systems
• What it really takes to scale in complex environments
• How founders can lead under pressure
• Why preventative health, longevity, and ethical design are becoming non-negotiable

I’m grateful to Thinkers360 for the opportunity and for recognising my work as part of their Top 50 Global Thought Leaders in HealthTech 2025.

More than anything, I hope the conversation is useful for founders, operators, and leaders trying to turn innovation into impact, without losing themselves in the process.

If you’re building in HealthTech, I’d love to hear:
what’s the hardest part of translating great ideas into reality right now?

https://lnkd.in/ept-FE8x

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⭐I’m Sara - a HealthTech strategic advisor, fractional operator, and 4x founder who’s scaled ventures to £10M+ ARR across the UK, Europe and Africa. I help founders navigate complexity, rebuild strategic clarity, and scale sustainably. Founder of Well Purposed.

Open article: Thought Leader and Influencer Interview with Sara Roberts, HealthTech Entrepreneur and Founder, Well Purposed by thinkers360.com

Thought Leader and Influencer Interview with Sara Roberts, HealthTech Entrepreneur and Founder, Well Purposed

Paleo Ridge

Paleo Ridge are currently the most accredited Raw Dog Food manufacturer in the UK, we work tirelessly to implement and uphold standards that set us apart from the rest.
We have also been Voted Best Raw Dog Food in the UK as well as most trusted brand, most friendly to new customers and best food for large and small breed
We have sought and gained, independent globally recognised accreditation:

OF&G Organic approved
ISO 9001 approved
Ethical pet award approved
DEFRA approved (Defra licence no 15/103/8003/ABP/PTF)
No other raw dog food company holds the ISO 9001 accreditation. This is a globally recognised standard that focuses on quality management across every aspect of our business. We are independently audited against very strict standards. Audits are unannounced. This ensure we uphold the highest of standards, every day.

We are one of the only raw companies to hold Organic certification. This shows that we have implemented every process required to correctly source, store and process organic produce. We can also demonstrate where we have used our Organic produce, down to the last KG. Audits are unannounced, again ensuring we conform to the required standards, every single day.

Defra approval is mandatory for every raw dog food company in the UK. Defra visit infrequently and always announce their visits a few weeks in advance. Independent, unannounced audits are mandatory for these extra accreditations. This ensure we meet their very high standards, every single day. The standards laid down by DEFRA are very basic compared to our other accreditations.

Non Executive Chairman

Candle Shack Limited

Candle Shack develops and manufactures high quality candles and candle components for large contract customers and smaller independent producers. Its range includes fragrances, waxes, wicks, glassware and bespoke branded packaging.
The business develops and supplies high-quality components for candle-making to a customer base of more than 34,000 throughout Europe. As well as artisan candle makers, Candle Shack operates a state-of-the art contract manufacturing service, supplying candles to a range of large brands, including Fornasetti.
Candle Shack also provides many customers with support, training, accreditation and testing of their candles.
The business serves customers all over the UK and Europe, with a strong reputation for quality and excellent customer service.

The IFT

Interim business leadership. Turnaround, restructuring , transformation, international, consumer, retail, wholesale, manufacturing

Accredited member

Dümmen Orange

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Dümmen Orange is the leading global breeder and propagator of ornamental flowers and plants, offering an impressive portfolio of cut flowers, pot plants, bedding plants, perennials, tropical plants, bulbs, and tubers to growers, wholesalers, and retailers around the world. Our headquarters are based in the Netherlands, and we employ over 6.600 people worldwide. Our turnover is roughly $400 million.

Member of the Executive Committee

DIAL Global

DIAL is a diversity & inclusion accelerator that powers business growth through specialist knowledge, advice and expertise.
 
We help organisations understand why diversity is critical, diagnose where they are on the D&I journey and demonstrate how to drive faster change at all levels.

Member of the advisory board DIAL Global (Diverse, Inclusive, Aspirational Leadership)

The Country Range Group

The assignment is to help the team to deliver a post-covid strategy and to address a number of operational matters. As a result the structure and governance will change and the role is expected to finish end of 2022.

Interim Chairman

Aviko

This assignment was originally for 6 months, and has been extended twice and has run for about 15 months until end of February 2020 Both short term results as change agenda are exceeding expectations as a record financial result in history of the company has been achieved as well as the largest investment ever , a change in the top structure and a pan for acquisitions. 

Aviko has been creating value from potatoes for over 50 years. Since its incorporation in 1962, it expanded to become a European market leader in fresh, frozen and dried potato products. 

Today Aviko is one of the four largest potato processors in the world, operating in more than 110 countries.  Aviko is backed by the financial strength of the Dutch parent company Royal Cosun, with its annual turnover of € 2 billion. This allows us to invest in our continued growth.

At Aviko, we believe that sustainable success can be achieved if the product provides added value for each link in the chain. This creates a win-win situation for everyone associated with our raw material - the potato. We do this by focusing on environmental factors, trends and the wishes of the end user, among others. The final result: innovative products with benefits for us all.

CEO Aviko Group / Cosun executive board interim

Brakes Group

Brakes is the leading broadline provider of a comprehensive range of foodstuffs across all product and temperature categories. In 2015, Brakes supplied approximately 18,000 SKUs, including approximately 4,000 own-brand SKUs, to over 100,000 customer sites around the UK. Customers range from small independent pubs and restaurants to large public sector organisations and corporate accounts.    https://www.brake.co.uk http://www.brakesgroup.com/about-us/

Interim CEO UK

A K Stoddart

Stoddart's is a leading Scottish beef processing company that plays an integral part in the journey of Scottish beef from farm to fork.

Quality is assured because every step of the journey from animal husbandry and procurement to order fulfilment, is rigorously monitored and certificated.

Our mission, which is heartfelt, is to procure, process and supply premium quality meat products to our valued customers at the right time, to the right standard and at the right price – every time.

We've built a knowledge of beef processing that enables us to deliver the exact cut in the exact quantity whenever our customers want it. 
At the same time we’re always up to speed with industry and market trends. This allows us to innovate with product and assist our customers achieve their objectives.

Equally our supply partners benefit through innovations in Customer Relationship Management. We're also committed to innovation behind the scenes. When we say we’re forward thinking we really are.

We're always looking over the hill forecasting what the future holds for the industry. Our commitment to continuous improvement is evident in all areas of our operation.

Chairman of the Board

Acoura

Acoura is the UK's fastest growing provider of risk services for the food and drink supply chain. 

Operating in 28 countries across six continents, every year we conduct over 32,000 audits and inspections whilst providing consulting and related services to companies worth in excess of £6 billion.

Whether dealing with farms, fisheries, food processors, restaurants or retailers we are one of the only service providers able to offer a complete range of compliance solutions aimed at reducing risk to your business whilst protecting your brand.

From certification to advisory services, training and innovative online solutions, Acoura work in partnership with our customers to tailor a service which addresses the exact issues they face.

Strategic Advisor to the Acoura Board.

Transformation, restructuring, turnaround and growth. Both in traditional as well as DIGITAL environments.

1 CEO of the leading Foodservice company in the UK, £2 billion sales figure. 
2 CEO $4 billion food business, 15.000 people, 42 sites, UK market leader. Strong focus towards sustainability programmes and innovation. Number 2 Food+Drink company in the UK. http://www.occstrategy.nl/uk-food-drink-150-index
3 CEO of Europe's nr 2 and Global nr 4 Potato Processing company.
4 CEO of global number 2 branded razor blade company (SuperMax), 2nd only to P+G/GILETTE, focus on emerging markets. India, Middle-East, Africa. 
5 Succesful leader of 4 major turnarounds. Dilemma management: productivity AND investment for growth.
6 Member of the executive board of # 3 FMCG company in the Netherlands (turnover 9 billion Euro). 
7 Turnaround of portfolio of 3 food companies and carve out from the (Finnish) public company (Raisio Plc.) to strategic and private equity buyers. 
8 Non executive experience board member (lid RvC) of Zeelandia for 2 years, a privately owned global food (# 5 player worldwide)
Two successful E-commerce businesses (Paleo Ridge and CandleShack) and wholesale cooperative (Country range foods)
9 International experience: worked in over 20 countries, lived in 5 countries.
10 Representing 3 US public companies in Europe.
11 Passion for innovation, new products and processes.
12 Developed and introduced SOP in 2 companies.
13 Initiated CSR programmes as early as 1992.
14 lead a global leader in breeding and propagation of flowers and plants from private equity ownership to a consortium of creditors. 

 Succesful restructuring of:

1 Chiquita's European sales and marketing after EU banana import regime.
2 European operations RCI (travel division of Cendant) after 9/11 
3 Turnaround after refinancing Farm Frites company.
4 Finished turnaround of one of the largest food companies and number 2 supplier to the British retail at Vion.
5 Developed and introduced SOP in two companies at Farm Frites and Vion.
6 Strategic re-orientation at SuperMax.
7 New strategic direction Brakes UK following sale to Sysco. 
8 Agreed funding for Cosun’s largest investment in history of the company. (Aviko Group).

https://www.consultclarity.org/board-members/7-questions-with-ton-christiaanse

http://managementscope.nl/manager/ton-christiaanse

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Sara Roberts

Anthony Christiaanse (Interim) CEO/Chairman

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The Battle

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sara Roberts's LinkedIn Performance

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