The History of Appointedd

The history of Appointedd: How one frustrated phone call changed everything.

The story we never get tired of telling.

Let’s rewind to Edinburgh, 2011. Picture this: a cramped magazine office, the familiar hum of deadline pressure, and one very determined editor with a to-do list that never seemed to get shorter.

Every morning, Leah Hutcheon would drive to work thinking: “Right, I need to book that salon appointment…” and every evening, she’d drive home with the same sinking realisation: “oh no, I didn’t book it. Again.”

By the time she remembered, it was always 8pm, 10pm or midnight, long after any salon had stopped answering their phones. Here’s what really struck her: we lived in a world where everything else moved online. Shopping, banking, entertainment, even dating. Yet somehow small businesses were still stuck behind a ringing phone line.

That’s where the Appointedd story begins.

The frustration that sparked a revolution

As a magazine editor, Leah was no stranger to long days and even longer to-do lists. She juggled interviews, layout edits, photo approvals, and the constant drumbeat of publishing deadlines. But somehow, booking a simple salon appointment had become the most impossible task on her list.

The pattern was maddening: call during lunch, reach voicemail, leave a message, miss the callback while in a meeting, call again, repeat. Most businesses only answered their phones during the exact hours she was stuck at her desk. Every appointment felt like it required sacrificing a lunch break, playing phone tag for days, and summoning a small miracle.

Then on one particularly frustrating afternoon, Leah had a thought. The kind of thought that changes everything:

“Why isn’t there a better way to book… literally everything?”

She looked around for solutions. Online booking systems existed, but they were either clunky, expensive, or designed for specific industries. Nothing felt intuitive. Nothing worked the way modern life actually functioned.

There wasn’t a better way.

So she decided to build one.

When no one else would build it… Leah did

Leah didn’t set out to become a tech entrepreneur. She simply wanted scheduling software she could license, something elegant, flexible and that already existed. She reached out to developers, software companies, and anyone who might have cracked this problem.

No luck. No deals. No one interested in solving what seemed like such an obvious gap in the market.

So Leah did what any determined problem-solver would do. She found a developer, rolled up her sleeves, and started building the first prototype. Late nights. Iteration after iteration. A growing conviction that this wasn’t just her problem, it was everyone’s problem.

Then came the turning point: The Scottish Edge Awards.

Standing on stage, pitching her idea, Leah won £30,000 in funding. That was the moment when this project transformed into a company, something with the power that could change how businesses and customers connected.

That was the ‘”okay… we’re really doing this” moment.

The early days. Small team, serious momentum

From a tiny office in Edinburgh with just two people and a whole lot of coffee, Appointedd started taking shape fast. But this wasn’t going to be just another online booking tool.

Leah had lived the pain points, and she was determined that Appointedd would solve them properly.

It handled time zones without breaking a sweat. No more mental gymnastics trying to figure out if 2pm GMT was convenient for your client in New York.

You could embed it anywhere. Your website, Facebook page, blog, or wherever your customers already spent time.

It came with everything baked in: CRM, automated communications, reporting, and analytics. No Frankensteining five different tools together.

It flexed around your business instead of forcing you into rigid workflows.

In short, it solved real-world chaos with real-world practicality. Software that actually saves you time instead of creating new headaches.

The growth era.  From Edinburgh to everywhere

As word spread, something remarkable started happening. Businesses weren’t just signing up, they were relieved. Finally, someone had built what they’d been searching for.

Funding rounds followed.

The team grew from two to five, to ten, to 20.

The roadmap got ambitious, fast.

Features that seemed impossible six months earlier were suddenly on the platform and helping customers.

Before long, Appointedd was powering bookings in 167 countries.

Hairdressers in Sydney, consultants in Singapore, wellness centres in California, and retailers in London. All using the same platform that started with one woman’s frustration.

We were helping teams ditch admin overload and proving that scheduling doesn’t have to be a headache, it can be a genuine competitive advantage.

When the big players came knocking

Then the enterprise world noticed.

Charlotte Tilbury needed to orchestrate beauty consultations across flagship stores.

Mamas & Papas wanted to transform their in-store experience.

Liberty London needed something powerful enough for their iconic brand and complex operations.

Moss needed enterprise-grade reliability with boutique-level flexibility.

These weren’t just businesses looking for a simple booking widget. They needed something robust, customisable, and unshakeably reliable.

So we built it.

Then we scaled it.

Then we scaled it again.

Each new challenge made the platform stronger. Every enterprise deployment unlocked new possibilities.

What began as a solution for solo practitioners grew into infrastructure powering some of the world’s most recognised brands.

Built on values, not just code

As Appointedd scaled, something important stayed exactly the same: the culture.

This was never going to be a “move fast and burn out” startup.

Leah had built Appointedd to solve a work-life balance problem, after all - why would the company itself recreate that chaos?

A 35-hour work week became standard. Not a perk but a principle.

Flexible working was built into the DNA, long before 2020 made it trendy.

Employee share options meant the team building Appointedd actually owned a piece of what they were creating.

Becoming a Certified B Corporation cemented what the team already believed: build a successful business while doing right by people and the planet. In fact, it works better that way.

Where we stand today

Fast forward to now. Appointedd handles millions of bookings every year across almost every industry you can imagine. Those bookings generate insights that help our customers make smarter, faster decisions about how to serve their customers.

Whether it’s orchestrating multi-location experiences, powering global enterprise operations running or creating seamless customer journeys, Appointedd has become a scheduling engine trusted worldwide.

But we haven’t lost the spark that started it all.

We’re still solving that same core problem. We’re just doing it at a completely different scale.

The moral of the story

Big ideas don’t always arrive with fireworks. Sometimes they show up disguised as a small, everyday annoyance. The kind that makes you mutter, “there has to be a better way”.

That’s how Appointedd began. One woman’s frustration transformed into a platform that powers businesses around the world.

From two people in a small Edinburgh office to a thriving business transforming how millions of people book appointments.

And honestly?

We’re just getting warmed up.

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