Festival of Business: global ambition from the kitchen Both women started their firm as mothers of young children, from home, as the title of their book suggests. Tucker's get-up-and-go attitude stems from having been diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 23. It wasn't malignant but for the next five years she watched it "not grow" through countless tests and hospital visits, which was hugely distressing. Tucker has the all-clear from doctors now and says it gave her an added energy and enthusiasm to pursue the things she really wanted to do in life; of which one was starting a business. But this business - too easily dismissed by some backers as a "mummy's hobby" - means business. In the past couple of weeks, high-profile funder Fidelity has signed up, following the likes of European fund Index and American backer Greylock. The business has just hired its first director of human resources, too, to help it handle rapid growth. Tucker claims she can still remember all of her employees' names but admits it has become too complicated to administer everyone's payslips and keep on top of employment law. With the business growing so quickly, internal processes, reporting lines and seating arrangements frequently change, she says - all of which have the potential to upset staff if they are not communicated properly. We've got to the stage where we've got 100 people. Now an HR director is required. We [now] have values books and inductions," she says. The firm is unlikely ever to expand to 1,000 people in the UK, she says, as the domestic marketplace is now fairly saturated. Tucker would rather spread "sideways" and start up in Europe or America. "I have global ambition but I want to do it smartly," she says. We're in a marketplace. We don't have 80pc margins. But she is under pressure to grow faster and bigger now that so many investors are on board. "We've got that bug and we drive it hard," she says. Tucker, a former ad sales manager in the publishing business, explains that notonthehighstreet.com takes a 25pc cut from any item sold by one of its 3,000 sellers on the site. Sellers pay a £500 joining fee, and in 2010, their combined turnover was £15m. Sellers have to be approved before they can join the site, which gets 40 new applications a day, she says. The model works fine, for now, but Tucker is pragmatic that one day she and Cornish, who own a majority stake in the firm, could sell the business. Things won't stay the same forever. "The VCs are not here to grow old with us, we know that," she says. It might be [that we sell it] because it needs that growth or partnership. Whatever happens, the company is on a path that would please the policy-makers at Number 10. The Government's mantra in recent months has been to encourage more entrepreneurs to get Britain making and selling things again, to export abroad and to generate growth amid tough trading conditions. No longer is notonthehighstreet.com a start-up but nor is it a big corporate. It is one of thousands of British firms that pump billions of pounds into the economy. The country's 22,000 mid-sized businesses, with turnovers of between £15m and £800m, account for 32pc of private sector GDP. Tucker recalls the "lack of external support" available six years ago when setting up shop, such as not being told how to access government loans. Things have got better now, she says, but she urges the Government and entrepreneurs to work together more to offer support for start-ups. She praises Seedcamp, a web tech fund, which should be established in all sectors to help rookie business owners through their first steps. "I'm a firm believer in less talking about it and just doing it," she says. Join the Festival of Business Network at www.telegraph.co.uk/fobnetwork