Hi, I'm Polly 👋
The story behind hipeup
I've spent 19 years learning one thing: people perform better when they feel seen.
From elite sport to boardrooms, I've worked with people under pressure, and watched what happens when the environment around them either builds belief or continually erodes it. hipeup exists to help leaders build the good version, and hold it on to it.
It started with a spark of an idea.
April 2025. BizX. A room full of extraordinary speakers talking about scaling, strategy and investment.
I asked Simon Squibb live on stage:
How do we help the children who don't have entrepreneurial dining tables?
The dining table is an analogy. For the environment. For the conversations that build belief and resilience in a person before the world tells them who they are.
The question wouldn't leave me.
A year later I woke at 2am with complete clarity. By 7am I'd bought the domain.
Hipeup wasn't born from a business plan. It was born from a question that needed an answer.
More than just a theory
I've spent my entire adult life working across elite equestrian sport, business coaching, corporate leadership, community work and youth development. I'm a Qualified coach - but my real credibility is lived.
I know what it costs to perform under pressure because I've done it. Through personal loss. Reinvention. Starting over more than once.
Hipeup isn't borrowed from a textbook. It's built on a simple, proven truth:
People perform better when they feel human.
19 yrs
Lived experience
Multiple
industries, countries and age groups
UKCC
qualified coach and founding methodology
I grew up in a family that carried real weight. The loss of my father. My mother's own childhood. Things that could have written a very different story.
But my mother built an environment of belief around me. That phrase wasn't just something she said - it was something we lived.
That's why the youth arm of Hipeup exists. Not every child gets that environment. Our mission - from nursery to boardroom and beyond - is to build environments of belief, resilience and genuine human connection. Starting at the very beginning.
It's why every Bronze Award Programme funds a HIPE UP Community Youth Session.
When you invest in your team - a young person feels seen, safe and valued too.
"Be what you dream to be."
Find out where your team stands
Take the free SSV Assessment.
Your results tell you exactly where the gap is, and what it's costing you.