International Women’s Day, marked globally on the 8th March, is a chance to honour the women who lift communities, industries, and each other. It’s also a call to create environments where women and girls can access the support, resources, and opportunities they need to reach their full potential.
Today, we are pleased to speak with NHS Clinical Entrepreneur (Cohort 7) Dr Fin Williams, Clinical Psychologist and Founder of Rumii.
Welcome Fin tell us a little about yourself and your innovation
By training, I’m a Clinical Psychologist. I spent 20 years working across the NHS and academia, always driven by the same mission: improve access; earlier intervention. That work enabled me to set up new service pathways, support early intervention workforce development, digital transformation and change programmes, and early intervention services for young people.
About three years ago, a few things shifted. Two of my three children were through school and at university, which improved my risk tolerance. Technology was also advancing in a direction that made things possible that simply weren’t before. And professionally, I’d reached a point where I felt that if I was ever going to do something with my entrepreneurial brain (beyond the property development I’d been doing), now was the moment. And then there was the very real fact that within the NHS, we still weren’t able to solve for the fundamental problem: in order to be a proactive health system, you need leading indicators of decline. Not a system that is only able to react when people are ill.
Rumii solves for that problem: visibility. It provides early indicators of mental and physical health decline, enabling individuals to access support earlier and allowing healthcare systems to act proactively, from improving clinical trial retention and medication adherence to increasing efficiency in clinical provision.
How did your journey into innovation begin?
It actually started with a walk with a friend who was working for Crisis as a venture partner. I mentioned my idea to her, and she told me about the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, something I’d never even heard of, despite being in the NHS myself. The deadline was only a couple of weeks away, so I applied.
At the time, the problem so familiar to me was young people’s mental health. 75% of adult mental health difficulties begin before age 24, yet 9 in 10 young people don’t tell anyone they’re struggling. When we did the research directly with young people, we also discovered that many managed their mental health through avoidance, which meant they rarely stayed engaged with the apps available to them. It was this customer discovery journey that made us realise that health detection had to be passive, and support had to be proactive.
Founders rarely pause to acknowledge what they’re proud of, we tend to focus on how far there is still to go, but two things stand out for me. First, I’m proud of our scrappy founding team. They broke through barriers to be able to land on the proprietary methodology to gain continuous sensor data without draining the handset battery more than an Oura ring. They were also building on AI technology that was evolving at pace, so staying aligned with that was critical to why we’re still here. Second, being awarded an Innovate UK grant, an achievement earned by just 5% of teams, is something I’m genuinely proud of.
What impact do you hope your innovation will have?
Our vision is for Rumii to turn the world’s most accessible technology into a leading indicator of, and early intervention in, physical and mental health; connecting people to themselves, to each other, and to healthcare. There is no plan B.
I don’t believe we’re short of women and girls with ground‑breaking ideas that can make a profound difference in the world. What we’re short of is the backing, financial and relational, that allows their talent to translate into real impact for society and the economy.
Is there a woman who inspires you within healthcare or innovation?
I’m incredibly lucky to have extraordinary women in my network who inspire me. From my former NHS boss, Lorna Hogg, to Healthtech Founders like Alex Eavis, Devika Wood, Thuria Wenbar, Reeva Misry, Yasmin Karsan, and our very own Tamsin Holland‑Brown, and so many others who continually raise the bar.
I’m also particularly grateful for the guidance of a female mentor who chairs a major private equity firm. I sought her mentorship because I felt that she had found a way to embrace compassionate leadership traits alongside absolute clarity, boundaries, and high expectations. Its a unique balance and it’s no wonder she’s where she is today. I feel genuinely privileged to learn from her.
What advice would you give to women interested in innovation?
This is tough. I’ve struggled at many points in my journey to feel heard, and carry the conviction in what you’re building when you face people who don’t get it. My advice is: there will always be people who don’t get it. That’s ok, that’s not you. Find the people that do and gather them around you. The more you expose yourself to the ‘no’s’ the more you will feel prepared for them, and the easier it will become to hear. Prepare yourself to hear 100 no’s before you get a yes. And for those that give you ‘maybe’ for months – that’s ok. Keep them in the loop, but treat it like the maybe you heard from your parents when they just didn’t want to say no.