W.hen Lucy Goff gave birth to her daughter in 2012, she contracted life-threatening septicemia and her body began to fail. After six weeks in intensive care fighting the condition, medication saved his life, but his body was left exhausted and fragile. In a bid to restore her health to what it was, the Selfridges PR executive flew to a clinic in Geneva, where she met longevity expert and Oxford academic, Professor Paul Clayton, who prescribed her pharmaceutical-grade, peer-reviewed supplements made up of carefully dosed ingredients. Goff's body had been shaking for months. However, within weeks, she began to feel like herself again, returned to work, and never looked back.
The experience inspired Goff to leave her communications career behind to found Lyma, the supplement, laser and skin care company, which now makes it easier for millions of people around the world to access the patented, carefully formulated products Goff discovered in Geneva that helped her achieve a better quality of life after her terrifying health crisis. In just seven years, the one-man startup has become a global business worth around £171 million, and Goff, who left school without any qualifications, says the wellness brand is just getting started.
I remortgaged my house to get the money to manufacture the 10,000 products needed to launch Lyma. I must have written to almost 100 venture capital funds in the UK and US with what I thought was a really good business plan, but they all said no. All of these men told me I didn't know what I was talking about because I had never been in the business before. Everyone said no one would pay £150 a month for an extra. It was only when we sold out in the first week after launch that I realized we were on to something. Then everyone wanted to chat to us, but instead I accepted a £2m investment from Pembroke. I wanted to choose a partner who believed in me from the beginning.
My brother-in-law gave me the book. Who moved my cheese? by Spencer Johnson when I started looking for investors to obtain financing. It's about knowing when to stop moving forward on a certain path. I think in the beginning I wasted a lot of time pitching to investors who just didn't see the vision, who couldn't imagine what was inside the business plan. I wish I hadn't wasted my time on that. I should have moved on faster and self-funded. It would have saved me a good two years.
Jo Malone is a businesswoman that I greatly admire.. She took a candle that you would have previously bought in a supermarket and put it in a different package, added a scent to it and turned it into a lifestyle statement and status symbol for the home. It was great. Similarly, I wanted Lyma to take the supplements out of the kitchen cabinet and put them in a beautiful hammered copper container. It is not enough to have the best formula.
I made a mistake with a copper supplier when Lyma was first launched.. We bought a lot of boats that came back and the quality was not good enough. It was not fit for purpose. They had to be thrown away and returned to the supplier. I still have one of the first unsound copper vessels on my desk as a reminder that quality is not a negotiation and that you really can overcome anything, even things that at the time seemed like the end of the world. Every mistake teaches you an invaluable lesson. Every rejection has made success more meaningful.
You wouldn't cross the street when there was a huge truck speeding towards you. Likewise, I don't take risks with my money. If you've worked your whole life to get somewhere, why would you do that? Therefore, I do not invest in stocks or shares. I'm the kind of person who would be very happy to have a five percent return and not risk anything. I didn't see remortgaging my house as a risk because I knew that, in the worst case scenario, I could sell all the shares I owned.
I knew my life had changed when the company was first valued at £100m.. I will always remember that moment and the realization that I had created something that had incredible value. I grew up in a modest family. My father was a lawyer and my mother was a magistrate and housewife. I had five brothers and we didn't have a flash life. We entertained ourselves with board games and television, rather than anything extravagant.
It's safe to say I'm not a scientist.. I left school with no qualifications and went through clearing to enter a polytechnic university. School wasn't something that suited the way my brain works. I couldn't ingest anything in a biology lesson, but I can easily understand a story a scientist tells me. Lyma works with an incredible group of laser scientists, geneticists, surgeons, dermatologists and longevity professors, who all have a role to play in the engineering of our lasers. They are experts in their fields. I contribute to the look and feel of the products and the brand, which is within my skills.
Letting go of the people who were with me when we launched the business has been difficult. I treat Lyma almost like it's a family business, so that's been the hardest part for me. You can't marry everyone; You're not going to work together forever. The people who got it right at the initial stage of the business might not be right for the next stage. Still, personally, I find it quite disturbing, but that's the sad reality of growing as a company.
The best purchase I made was my first Chanel 2.55 bag. It's quite trivial, but it makes me very happy. I bought it for my 40th birthday. I have these possessions that look nice but also make me feel something. Like a Cartier love bracelet that makes me think of when I had my son. It makes me feel punished. You can't take away the enjoyment of shopping or the thrills of life, or they will lose their meaning. Then you simply become a computer.
Lucy Goff is a supporter of the FFinc Forward Faster Accelerator 100, a UK-based business accelerator program designed to help women-founded businesses scale their growth faster, which launched in September 2025. For more information, go to finc.co
