Glowday has a new home. Here's the story behind it — and what comes next.
This has been a long time coming!
I refer to Glowday as “my third child”. And, to be honest, it’s been my most tricky, difficult and delicate child! But, with a lot of care, attention and determination, my child is about to thrive!
On Monday 27th April, Glowday and GlowdayPRO were acquired by GlowTech Software Limited, and I was employed by GlowTech as CEO of the company to build Glowday into the platform I know it can be.
This comes following a series of events that no-one could have predicted and that summarise perfectly why no-one with any sense would ever start a business.
I hope, if you get to the end of this piece, it gives you comfort, hope and determination to stick to whichever path you know, in your gut, is yours!
The (long) Back Story
All stories start with a back story. And this is mine…it’s long…so maybe grab a cuppa first?
I NEVER envisaged working for myself. I was always in awe of those people who just “knew” what to do without being told. That was NOT me. It was one of the reasons I thought teaching was perfect for me. The regularity, the routine, the steadiness, the structure, the specifications, the exam periods. All dictated for you. Neat and tidy.
I was pretty good at it, I think. I loved being in a classroom of teens. I loved science. I was progressing well. Then I had children and reduced my hours to part-time, but still enjoyed it.
In 2015, my husband had the opportunity to help launch a business in Australia. I handed in my notice, packed the family up and off we trotted to Sydney. It’s here I started to consider having Botox. Found a practitioner who whacked a load of toxin in my 11’s and I was converted!
When our stint in Oz was over, we returned to the UK in 2017. I needed a new practitioner. It was during this search that the idea for Glowday was born - the lack of regulation 😳, the inability to book online 🙃 and having no idea how much I was going to pay 🤔. Joby and I set to work creating a business plan, creating the brand, putting together a financial model and eventually trying to figure out how to finance building it. This was before the days of AI…software development is EXPENSIVE.
After one meeting with our first investor, we secured £3.8m in seed funding. Unbelievable!
It was 2019. We built the most phenomenal team. We got to work. Wire frames, content calendars, wire frames, mock ups, schemas, user flows, we even had a TV advert ready.
In January 2020 we launched the Glowday.com blog and treatment guides whilst we completed the development of the profile builders and marketplace. I started my Instagram account - having literally never posted a thing ever. We got some initial traction. We were positive. Life was GOOD! I was confident - overly so. Perhaps annoyingly so?
In March 2020 we got ready to launch Glowday.com. We pushed the release live. We had a good number of clinics join us. A few days later the UK went into its first lockdown due to the COVID pandemic.
Launching a business the week before lockdown
Do NOT recommend
Any business owner during this time was STRESSED…every one except Michelle Mone. We navigated the switch to WFH, homeschooling, furlough, closure of close contact services. We were burning cash and building, we were aware, but ultimately knew we were well capitalised. So our timings might slip, but with some changes to budgets, we’d be ok. Right?
WRONG.
Our initial investor had their own business that needed their full attention and capital. So when it came to us requesting the next tranche of the investment, it wasn’t there. Glowday had gone from having enough runway to take us through the pandemic and out of the other side comfortably, to not having enough to make payroll for the next few months. It was horrendous. Not least because I felt a huge sense of responsibility for my team, but also the practitioners who had joined.
Fundamentally, Glowday was running on borrowed time from 2021 onwards. We shrank the team. I stopped taking a salary early on. I learned to do as much in the business as I possibly could…turns out, that’s most things other than writing code. My mission was to get the business to breakeven whilst trying desperately to find an investor. And I was desperate. I think they could smell it on me!
We stretched the remaining funds to launch GlowdayPRO.
But I completely failed to convince anyone to invest in my business that had pivoted from a marketplace to a SaaS (Software as a service) business. We were too much for Seed funding, but not big enough for Series A funding. We were neither fish nor fowl. So much rejection!
I burnt out…properly burnt out. I was prescribed antidepressants, got myself a therapist and spend a year re-learning who I was - a high-masking, neurospicy, peri-menopausal woman, it seems!
I had come to terms with having a small, sustainable business. I was researching and applying for grant funding to pay for development. Our holiday let enabled me not to take a salary, so I could keep the platform running and growing slowly. I often contemplated closing the business, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was too good to switch off!
And that’s where Glowday and I were in October 2025, when I was approached by a research company to share what I knew about booking systems, patient record systems and the UK aesthetics market.
Fate or serendipity?
I was convinced to do the call by Daisy, who’s birthday was coming up. She essentially earmarked half the fee for her birthday money!
I was met with a blank screen and a voice. I was asked questions for an hour and a half. I shared what I knew. Got paid and thought no more of it.
A week or so later, I got a message from our ex-digital marketer, who asked if he could intro me to his boss, Simon. I wasn’t sure how much help I could be to a guy who’d built a software business for hospitality, but I agreed to the intro.
A week later, I spent a couple of hours on a call with Simon. It turns out Simon sold shares in his company to an investment firm and it’s gone from strength to strength over the last few years. He was now working with the investor, who was wanting to build a platform like Glowday in the aesthetics space. Interesting. I was interested. A little spark had been re-lit. And then everything went quiet.
In between Christmas and New Year, I had an email from Simon asking if I could meet him at his office on Wednesday January 7th. It went well…I thought? I came away motivated and hopeful. For the first time ever, I felt like I wasn’t having to work hard to convince someone about the opportunity Glowday presents. He just got it!
Fate? Or Serendipity? This is the note I wrote in our doodle book that evening.
The next step was to present to the investors.
I got to work. Preparing financial models, decks, business plans. And headed to London to do my best.
I immediately felt at ease with them. They were lovely people. I felt confident, comfortable and like we were all on the same side. Again, I came away positive, excited and hopeful. I’d wake up each morning in the following weeks and ask myself, “If this doesn’t come off, how will I feel?” and the answer was ALWAYS…“disappointed".
Half of me couldn’t (and still can’t) quite believe someone was going to employ me to build and grow the thing I’ve always wanted to build and grow. And the other half was (and is) confident that there is no-one better for the job! And I think that’s true for most of us when we have opportunities that challenge and fulfil us?
Fast forward a few months, a lot of emails, a lot of hope - and fear of loss - later and on Friday 24th April, the final versions of all the various documents arrived from the lawyers.
Hard won learnings
They say that life keeps delivering the same lessons until you learn. I really think that this was the case for me.
In the thick of it, I felt hard-done-by, entitled to an easier ride, robbed, exhausted, frustrated, anxious and like I was losing the plot. I took EVERYTHING personally. Every rejection. Every practitioner who chose to leave the platform. I placed importance on EVERYTHING and was unable to see what I should be focusing on at times. Everything just felt so unfair. I felt like the punches just kept coming. I had a very woe-is-me perspective.
At the start of this year, I felt a shift. It sounds woo-woo, but I did! I felt that I would have opportunities. That the right things would present themselves to me and I would see them. I could see what I needed to take from the last five years.
Why I did this deal
I believe that I, with you - this incredible community of practitioners - can build something that really supports you and your businesses.
For too long, we built with limited resource, tiny budgets and a tiny team that punched well above its weight.
We now have the thing we've needed for five years: resource!
Real, significant investment behind the platform. Investors who are people first and who have done it before. It gives us the ability to move faster, build more, and actually deliver the features that I have listened to you tell me you need for years!
I'm not going anywhere. Glowday remains my most needy child! I'm still running the business, still making the decisions, still the person who cares most about getting this right. The only thing that's changed is the legal company behind the scenes — and what that unlocks for where we go next.
What this means for you, practically
On a day-to-day basis, you will notice nothing. Your account is the same. Your patient records, consent forms, bookings and billing all continue exactly as they are. The platform you log into looks and works exactly the same.
What you will notice, over the coming months, is that things start to get better.
Today, we offered two of our fabulous “old” developers their jobs back. They signed immediately. We are actively hiring.
I'm not going to overpromise on timelines — because anyone who has ever renovated a clinic knows timelines are fluid! — but I can tell you that the pace of development is going to be speedy. We know what we need to build and how to build it.
When features are ready, you'll hear about them first. Some of you will be our sounding board and beta testers. I can’t thank you enough for this!
At some point, pricing will change. But don’t panic. We know that a solo part time clinician doesn’t need the same software that a multi-practitioner, multi-site clinic needs. Your software (and the price you pay) will be suited to you and your business needs. Just like any good aesthetics treatment plan, it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation.
The bit about data
There's a legal aspect to this transition that I'm required to tell you about, and I'd rather explain it plainly than bury it in a policy update.
GlowTech Software Limited is now the data controller for personal information held on Glowday and GlowdayPRO. What this means in practice: the legal responsibility for how your data is handled has moved to the new company. The way your data is actually stored, protected and used hasn't changed at all. Same security standards. Same approach. Same team.
Our updated Privacy Policy is at glowday.com/privacy-policy — worth a read if that's your thing. Any questions about your data, email support@glowday.com.
A note on trust
I know that when you hear 'new ownership', the instinct is to brace for something unwelcome. A huge price hike. A pivot. A drift away from the values that made you choose Glowday in the first place.
That’s not going to happen. What I can tell you is this: I built Glowday specifically for practitioners like you. Accountable professionals who take patient safety seriously, who want software that understands the clinical context you're working in, and who need something that actually reduces admin rather than adding to it. Who wants a platform that helps them grow their business.
That's what this platform is. That's what it's going to keep being. Just better.
And if you want to share your thoughts on what we should focus on building, here you go!
Thank you for being here. Genuinely.
Hannah
Founder & CEO, Glowday / GlowdayPRO
FAQs
Who has acquired Glowday? Glowday has been acquired via an acquihire deal. The new operating company is GlowTech Software Limited (company number 17103988). Hannah remains CEO and continues to run the business day-to-day.
Is anything changing on my GlowdayPRO account? No. Your account, patient records, consent forms, bookings, billing and all platform functionality continue exactly as before. Nothing requires any action from you.
Are prices going up? Not right now. Your current pricing is unchanged. As new features and functionality are added to the platform over time, pricing will be reviewed — but you will always receive at least 30 days' advance notice before any change takes effect.
Is my patient data safe? Yes. GlowTech Software Limited has become the new data controller for personal data held on Glowday and GlowdayPRO, effective 27th April 2026. The way data is stored, protected and handled is entirely unchanged. Our updated Privacy Policy is at glowday.com/privacy-policy.
Who is my data protection contact? Andy Bambury. You can reach him at support@glowday.com.
Is Glowday being rebranded? No. Glowday and GlowdayPRO remain exactly as they are. The consumer platform stays at glowday.com and the practitioner platform stays at pro.glowday.com.
What's changing about the platform going forward? New features and functionality are in active development. The transition brings significantly more resource behind the platform — meaning faster development and more tools to help you run and grow your clinic. We'll communicate updates to practitioners directly as they're ready.
I have a question that isn't answered here. Email support@glowday.com — we'll get back to you.