Emily Forbes


Emily Forbes is the founder and chief executive officer of Seenit, a platform which allows users to co-create content with employees, fans and journalists. Before founding Seenit in 2014, Forbes worked in film production at Working Title Films.

Early life and education

Forbes attended Chelsea College of Arts, where she studied film. Her father, David Forbes, is a director at Savills. She went on to study visual communication.

Career

Forbes joined Working Title. She worked on production of feature films for five years. Forbes was working as a documentary maker in South Africa when she had the idea to create Seenit. She was filming a protest when she realised that the content created by the hundreds of onlookers was more powerful than what she could capture. In 2014 Forbes founded Seenit, a platform and app that allows users to collaboratively create content with colleagues. It allows organisations to engage with their clients. She won The Next Big Thing at Adtech 2014. She sought funding from the Collider Accelerator, which, alongside a three-month training program, provided her with a business mentor. She received support from BBC Lab UK, Max Warner, Rupert Hambro as well as £40,000 from Creative England.
With Seenit, Forbes won the TechCrunch Disrupt award as well as Forbes 30 Under 30. Seenit has several high-profile users, including Benefit Cosmetics, Bacardi, Vodafone and BBC Earth. Seenit was used by the National Lottery to promote British Athletics, gaining 50% more engagement than their previous content. The app is only accessed by invitation, and clients can push messages to audiences all over the world. They amplify the voices that are most relevant for a company. Seenit has raised £1.5 million and sold £2.3 million of annual subscriptions.
She has spoken about the challenges that women entrepreneurs face. She took part in the Mayor of London's SVC2UK, which included a trade mission of women founders to Silicon Valley.

Awards

With Seenit, Forbes won the TechCrunch Disrupt award as well as Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016. She was included in Business Insider's Coolest UK Women Startup Founders in 2017. She has supported Future Girl Corp, the mentoring and advocacy program launched by Sharmadean Reid and Tabitha Goldstaub.