Leeann Monk Ozgul, Co-founder of Elemental Software and Founder of HardYards, from Derry City, Northern Ireland, shared her experience within the business environment during an interview.
From 2013, Leeann was a community development worker. During the interview, Leeann shared that she was “fed up sitting in the same type of meeting discussing the same ideas of what we could do to help our communities have the best chance at life but the ideas never being put into action”. Leeann said “I, Myself was not doing what I was supposed to be doing. I was good at bringing the funding in, running programmes and services within the community that needed the help most but the people that needed the help most were just walking by.” Leeann felt she needed to “do better”.
Leeann then entered a competition which was promoting digital health. Unfortunately, she did not win the competition, but in Leeann’s words “There is always a positive from a negative and whilst we didn’t win, the winner of the completion loved our idea so much that be donated his prize money, and that is what kick started the start of Elemental Software”.
By being asked what made Leeann want to get involved in business, she replied “As a community development worker, I seen a need in the community, to better connect everyone who played a part in community development and health, social workers, nurses, and so on. I saw a need that technology could better connect up those people to give the person at the centre the best chance at life. I saw a need and turned it into a business.”
Within working in Elemental Software, a social prescribing model of care (The Access Group .Co), Leeann was asked how her time was working there. “Working in Elemental Software has always been insightful and impactful and also a rollercoaster with the ups and downs. Growing a start-up into a scale up and growing a successful business is like trying to change the wheel on a car going 90 miles per hour. But when you have seen the highs, and the impact the business was having on people’s lives. The most important thing for me was impacting communities in a positive way and the people that need the help most. Those are the impacts that count.”
In 2021, Elemental Software was acquired by The Access Group. Leeann stayed working for The Access group until April 2025. She decided it was time for her to take a step back to figure out what she wanted to do next. Within this time of deciding what to do, Leeann knew she didn’t want to start up another business but rather help people scale their own digital health and social care businesses. Leeann said, “I wanted to help others fast forward to success, by helping them possibly learn from what I done well and what I didn’t do so well in business.”
This led Leeann to launch her app, HardYards, a scale up consultancy company, which helps people scale their business worldwide. When speaking with Leeann about HardYards, she said “I always promised myself post- Elemental Software that I would look after myself. I only want to work with people I enjoy working with, and most importantly, I want to work with companies that have products that I believe in, and I will help them. I will work alongside the founder and get anything in place that needs to happen, to help that company grow.”
Leeann’s advice for anyone interested in starting their own business, from her own experience, “Don’t be scared to go out and ask people. In my early days at Elemental Software, there was no money. Everything was a budget. There’s a lot of good will out there, people are so willing to help you. My advice is don’t be afraid to ask. If they say no, they say no. Move on to the next.”
