James Townsend is the co-founder and CEO of Mobilise, a London-based digital support network and community for carers.

In this week’s Founder in Five Q&A, Townsend discusses why first time founders should focus on the problems that are important, not glamorous, motivating a team and why health services are ripe for disruption.

Which role was the most important early hire you made?  

James Townsend: My co-founder Suzanne joined the Mobilise team just a few months after we started. She’s a stunning person to work with on a number of levels.

She brings a huge wealth of knowledge and wisdom to the team because of her own experience of caring for her husband. This has been invaluable. But perhaps more importantly the two of us just clicked. We’re very different people but have two things in common: a deep, burning passion to make things so much better for carers, and an instinct to find humour in situations when things are tough….