Favourite Things – Rachel Carrell

Each week Reaction Weekend brings you Favourite Things – interviews with interesting people about the skills, hobbies, pleasures and pastimes that make them who they are.

Rachel Carrell is the CEO and founder of Koru Kids, a fast-growing tech company dedicated to building the world’s best childcare services operating in London, Bristol, Brighton and Birmingham. Rachel, a mother of a three-year-old and six-year-old, decided to set up Koru Kids after noticing how difficult and costly it was to arrange childcare. Rachel has received numerous awards, including ‘Inspirational Mother of the Year’ and ‘Best Businesswoman in Tech’, and was elected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in recognition of her work.

These are a few of her favourite things...

Chop Shop

After extensive research, I have discovered that the best cafe in the world is Chop Shop, which you can find down an alleyway in a tiny town called Arrowtown in the mountains of Southern New Zealand, close to where I grew up. Chop Shop is tiny too, with an incredible view and menu of ‘fusion’ food, the typical and wonderful modern Kiwi mash-up of global cuisines. I remember when I first heard about it – my older sister told me the food was so good she’d licked the plate when no one was looking. The whole Arrowtown area is spectacular – it’s like the wine bits of France, crossed with the Swiss Alps. In non-pandemic times we go every year, and I can’t wait to get back.

Chicken salt

In New Zealand, it’s standard to have chicken salt on your chips, and if I were the Queen, I would make it a thing in England, too. Chicken salt is what it sounds like: salt that tastes a bit like chicken. In my house, we import it from New Zealand and put it on chips and roast potatoes. Which brand is best is hotly debated. There are two possible answers: Anchor (favoured by the Kiwis) and The Chicken Salt Company (favoured by Australians). Both are delicious.

Queens Wood

Near where I live in London is an ancient wood, full of gnarled old trees, woodpeckers and abandoned dens. It’s here that I first saw young kids attending ‘forest nursery’ and later joined weekend sessions with my kids. Watching them thriving in the woods under the expert eye of forest educators planted the seed (pun very much intended) which later would result in my company, Koru Kids. This way, people could set up their own childminding businesses, focusing on getting out of the house to local parks and woods with the kids. 

The Power of Now

When a friend first recommended that I read the book ‘The Power of Now’, by Eckhart Tolle, as an antidote to the stress of being a startup founder, I recoiled at the suggestion. I thought from the title that it would be a trite self-help book. But I gave it a go, and it isn’t. In a nutshell, the message is about embracing each moment of our lives rather than focusing on the past or future – which is tricky for an entrepreneur always trying to think ahead! The book grabbed me so much that even before I finished it, I set up a Whatsapp group to explore its ideas with friends. It’s no exaggeration to say it’s changed my life, and I’m now thinking about how we could help bring these ideas to kids to help with their anxiety and worry. 

Yoto Player

If my family had a ‘Product of the Year’, this would be it. It’s a brilliant little story-playing speaker, clock and radio for kids. It’s virtually indestructible (ours has fallen down the stairs many times) and incredibly user-friendly. My 3-year-old son loves his Yoto: he goes to sleep listening to stories on it every night, it tells him when it’s morning time, and he carries it around the house during the day. We play children’s podcasts via the app on long car trips, and on energetic nights we put on Yoto Radio for a kitchen disco. The content curation is top-notch, and you can easily add your own recordings too – so the grandparents have recorded stories for my kids, which has been a lovely connection during this year of not seeing them.