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Our Story
As part of my MBA, I started looking into loneliness as a research area, and it turned out to be something I knew more about than I'd cared to admit.
I trained as an accountant because I'd always enjoyed maths and numbers, but I never really felt connected to the industry itself, and the day to day often felt repetitive rather than engaging. Three years of studying for my professional exams alongside working full time left little room to get to know colleagues beyond the occasional after work drinks, and once studying got in the way of those, nothing replaced them. I found myself increasingly bored and lonelier than I'd ever experienced, to the point where I considered walking away altogether.
I stayed in the industry for another couple of years hoping things would improve but they never really did. I stopped drinking, and although I still went along to nights out, I never really felt part of them. I kept working in silos, rarely engaged by the work in front of me, constantly told I didn't 'come across as an accountant', and more often than not ate lunch alone, which over time became the norm.
During COVID I started writing letters to my grandparents, and we simply carried on afterwards. Those letters became something I loved receiving, they gave me a real sense of connection after a long day at work and, without realising it, helped fill a gap. When my grandparents passed away and the letters stopped, that feeling returned, and it made me realise how much small, intentional moments of connection can matter.
That's what sent me into the research properly. I found 20 participants for an eight week experiment, partnered with a loneliness charity to help make sense of the data. Half the group were matched by life stage and given prompts and conversation starters, the other half were matched by mutual interests only and left to get on with it. Loneliness scores fell by 15% per person on average, with a 77% response rate among the life stage group.
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