So I'm half deaf - and dyslexic. How about that? Nobody's perfect, and I'm proud of my defects.

My creative side is identifying all these great entrepreneurial creative people that come up with great ideas, whether they are in fashion or technology or a new tool to improve ourselves.

My parents sent me from Venezuela to the Convent of Our Lady, a boarding school in Hastings, which was horrible - like Harry Potter without the magic. Sometimes we went into town, and if we were caught chewing gum in our uniform, members of the public would take down our names and report us to the school.

When I was young I would spend more money than I should with my credit card but my father cut it off, so I had to find creative ways of making money.

My mother was a sociologist and an intellectual, and my father was an industrialist with a business in copper and aluminum wire. He was very strict and he wanted me to work in the family business - for him, the worst thing was having a daughter who worked in fashion.

For me, the winning strategy in any start-up business is, 'Think big but start small.'