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Last updated on April 16, 2026
After watching their mother struggle to return to work, the Miller sisters built ivee – a platform helping professionals identify and learn AI skills that actually move careers forward.
Amelia Miller was a trader at Goldman Sachs. Her sister Lydia was a CVC investor at Deloitte Ventures. By most measures, they were exactly where they were supposed to be. Then they quit to start ivee.
Amelia and Lydia had watched their mother, a high-achieving accountant, try to return to work after raising her three daughters. The roles she was offered were far below her experience level. In the UK there’s roughly a 42% drop in mothers’ average monthly earnings in the years after first birth (ONS).
In 2023, ivee was born, and as Amelia recalls it was “the scariest decision I’ve ever made, and easily the most rewarding.” Just 18 months after launching MVP, they walked away from Dragon’s Den with four offers, helped upskill over 70k members, and raised a $1m Seed round at the start of March.
Why the AI Skills Gap Is Overwhelming Professionals
ivee launched as a job platform for women returning to work after career breaks. But Amelia and Lydia spotted a bigger shift happening around them.
“Roles were changing faster than CVs could keep up,” Amelia explains. AI tools were hitting the labour market faster than workers or employers could adapt – and the AI skills gap was widening fast.
“Nobody knows what’s worth learning, what’s noise, or where to focus their time. People are jumping between random newsletters, subreddit threads, TikTok explainers, Twitter bros… and it’s completely overwhelming,” she says.
Today, ivee helps individuals and teams figure out the best AI skills to learn for their specific role and industry, build verified skills profiles, and get hired or promoted on the back of them. The platform now attracts more than 42,000 monthly organic visitors.
The Pivot From Job Platform to AI Upskilling
Expanding from job platform to AI upskilling hub wasn’t straightforward. Amelia recalls, “it meant rethinking the product, the messaging, the positioning, the tech roadmap – everything. Features, copy, PR, pricing, customer segments – all of it had to be carefully rebuilt while still running a live business.”
But for Amelia, the alternative was worse. “The number one killer of early-stage startups is being too emotionally attached to your first idea. We were never willing to fall into that trap. Listening to the market is uncomfortable. Expansion is messy. But stubbornness is far more dangerous than change.”
Companies use ivee to close the AI skills gap across their teams and hire AI-fluent talent from ivee’s network.
How ivee Won Over the Dragons
That willingness to adapt paid off. After securing a £220k raise in March 2024, the Miller sisters appeared on Dragons’ Den with two hours’ notice and walked away with four offers – closing investment from both Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden in what Amelia describes as a record-breaking negotiation. “It was a genuine pinch-me moment,” she says.
But Amelia points to a quieter motivation behind it all. “The messages from individuals who feel lost in the AI shift. The founders telling us ivee finally gave their team clarity. The people who say, ‘I didn’t feel so alone once I found this community.’ That’s the stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning.”
How to Build an AI Community from Scratch
That loyal community wasn’t bought – it was built. ivee focused on organic content marketing, SEO, and PR from day one, giving them a deep understanding of their users and what messaging actually resonates.
“Paid ads don’t fix unclear messaging. They don’t fix weak positioning. And they definitely don’t fix a product people don’t fully understand yet,” Amelia says. “Buying customers too early slows that learning down.”
Amelia also spoke about the importance of solving an actual pain point before raising. “So many founders chase VC funding from day one and then build a product afterwards. Do it the other way around. Be scrappy. Build on a shoestring. Talk to users obsessively. Figure out what people actually want – not what looks good in a pitch deck.”
“If we’d raised £1m before building ivee, that £1m would have gone straight down the drain. Our product changed dramatically in the first six months.”
Learning AI Skills Is Now a Career Essential
For Amelia and Lydia, the opportunity ahead is significant. From generative AI skills to AI marketing skills, the gap between professionals who’ve upskilled and those who haven’t is growing – and showing no signs of slowing.
ivee was built to close that gap. While the platform started with a focus on women returning to work, it’s expanding to serve professionals across the board and making a real difference. As Amelia reflects, “entrepreneurship strips you right back. There’s nowhere to hide. But it’s also the first time I’ve felt truly aligned with what I’m building.”
At the beginning of March, ivee raised a $1m Seed round backed by entrepreneur and podcaster Steven Bartlett and Social Impact Enterprises, as it expands its focus to help jobseekers get to grips with AI tools.
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