Is entrepreneurship in your DNA?

Melissa Fretwell had the great pleasure chatting to fellow female founder Gabriella Bord about life running DNA - the content agency with the content platform - and la vida en españa. Think more gentle easing into the Iberia ways than Brits larging it abroad. They've compared notes on the slower pace and family-focused lifestyles in Malaga and Valencia versus the UK, and the real opportunity one foot in each country brings.

"DNA is a creative collective and software company - we do agency work, strategy, content, design, and we've built a unified content platform. This is our edge: we can create a complete content ecosystem for clients. We create the content, then host it. We can plug into any part of your content workflow, or own the entire journey from creation to distribution.

We saw something broken and we wanted to fix it. We knew it was broken because we've been working agency-side and in-house with brands for years. We've seen what actually happens.

The problem? Version control across email chains no one can find. Feedback on Slack. Approvals on WhatsApp. Files in Dropbox, WeTransfer links that expire, assets scattered across Google Drive. It's frustrating as hell. Teams spend more time searching for files than doing actual creative work.

We actually acquired the platform back from The Economist group in 2022. It started as PR software - a central repository where media and brands could access assets. But we saw its real potential: becoming the infrastructure for all content operations. That this isn't about replacing your team or automating away the creative process. It's about giving creative and marketing teams their time back. It's about infrastructure that disappears so the work can shine. 

We're not trying to be everything to everyone. We're building for people who understand that content operations shouldn't be the hard part. Creation should be the hard part. Distribution, collaboration, version control, approvals - that should just work.

So imagine WeTransfer, Dropbox, SharePoint, PR software, Frame.io all merged into one simple source of truth for brands. A space where everyone can comment, give feedback, and the final version gets approved. No more expired links. No more 'which version is this?' and then published at the click of a button.” 

Pausing for a moment, we all know how much time we spend looking for stuff and there’s nothing worse than that “sorry your link has expired message”. So this is genuinely useful and never underestimate the power of usefulness. 

Gabriella continues;“It's been quite a journey. We get to work with global brands like Bacardi, Vodafone, easyJet, Aira. We're mainly a referral business from the UK, but part of my move to Spain was to prove we can do business anywhere in the world, across multiple sectors."

"On a personal level, I lean into exercise a lot. I walk loads, I run 2-3 times a week - it sets me up for the day. I've always been someone who starts with a jolt, that immediate 'ready for battle' energy. But I've learned we need to transition away from this warrior mindset and adopt something more sustainable and balanced.

Business resilience has been drilled into me over 15 years of running my own businesses. I started when I was 25, and bootstrapping teaches you discipline - you can't fake traction or burn through someone else's money to find product-market fit. I'm still in build mode because you're never where you want to be.

I'm really direct and honest, whether that's with people on my team or with clients. That stands me in good stead for the hard times. And not everything has been a roaring success - I've had two previous ventures that didn't work out, I've had some incredibly uncomfortable conversations. I know what failure looks like.

It's really tough out there. People are losing their jobs and the creative industry is hard, especially with AI and tech moving at such a rapid pace. Whether they're fully embedded into big global businesses or not, it's still affecting everyday people working in this industry.

I'm very ambitious, but I'm never chasing money, if that makes sense. I'm good at going slow and not pushing so hard when that's what's needed. I try to stay grounded, be honest, feel grateful for where I'm at, and look after myself and my energy levels. When things go wrong, I look at them as opportunities to learn from.

And I'm very clear about my values. We've signed up to Businesses for Peace, we're part of Tech for Palestine. This isn't virtue signaling - it guides every decision we make, from clients to investors to who's on the team. I recently turned down a networking event with 40 potential clients because only five aligned with what we stand for. That's non-negotiable."

"In Marbella, there's this dual carriageway called the A7 that everyone uses - it's my equivalent of the North Circular. In summer, it gets absolutely gridlocked. You're just stuck in traffic.

There's this huge billboard from a real estate company that says: 'You're stuck in traffic, but you're in paradise.' Seeing that whilst sitting in the world's longest traffic jam somehow changes my mood. I'm not angry anymore. Simple, relatable, human. That's great marketing.

We also get to see a lot of interesting creative work from clients using our platform. Bacardi and its portfolio of brands has some best-in-class work that really makes their media centre stand out - a combination of well-produced imagery and on-point influencers. They're really finger on the pulse and show how well they know their audience.

Another great example is Aira. When I present Aira's brand hub, people are immediately impressed. The technology just looks so cool and the UX looks great. Aira and Bacardi are two great examples of clients that look incredible - and there's a beautiful halo effect for us."

"There's loads of exciting stuff. The fact that we work really closely with our clients - both as their agency partner and platform provider - means the product evolves based on real needs, not assumptions. There's a constant stream of feedback, and we're constantly refining the user journeys.

What makes us really unique in this market is that we've successfully combined some of the best tools and functionality out there into one platform. From here on out, it's about enhancing and improving everything we're already doing really well.

One big piece we're refining improving at the moment is improving how brands can use the platform for multi-market and localised content. Global brands need to move fast across different regions, with different languages, different assets - and the infrastructure needs to support that without creating chaos.

But here's what I'm most excited about: we're democratising this for SMEs and small creative teams. Right now, enterprise content operations tools are priced for enterprise budgets. There's a massive gap in the market for everyone else - the freelancers, the small agencies, the in-house teams at growing companies who need this infrastructure but can't justify expensive contracts, but want enterprise-grade software.

So we’re going through our first fundraising experience, moving with purpose and intention. We're very clear about who we want to work with - investors who understand both the opportunity and the values that underpin everything we do.

My business partner Sargina is a real ideas person. She'll have creative bursts and come up with concepts that five years later we'll see someone else has done - which is annoying but gives us so much confidence in her thinking.

Our latest project, DNA Labs, is a perfect example. We've been using AI purposefully in the platform, and we realised there's a gap in the market for founders who need validation, not just tools. We tell you if your idea is good or not. We've built out our own models, so we know how to get the best results. It's AI-powered but human-assisted - the output is checked before it goes to anyone.

We're starting to test with founders now and aiming to launch in Q1 next year. If you're an ideapreneur sitting on a brilliant idea, or you're tired of paying enterprise prices for content operations that should be accessible to everyone, let's talk."

And with that we're out of time. Gabriella is off to another product meeting to indulge her love of modules and iterating. Get in touch with her at gabriella@dna.online to find out more about DNA Labs or the DNA platform.

For anyone who wants to get their origin story told in the most compelling of ways, drop Melissa a line melissa.fretwell@whitecamino.com.