Former head of search for Europe at Yahoo Salim Mitha and ex-MD of European Lifestyle at Lastminute.com Lopo Champalimaud set up wellness directory Wahanda.com in February 2008. They raised £1.4m from top-notch investors a year later and tell us why they are fast becoming the go-to site for wellness treatments and therapies in the UK and US.

What’s the concept?
Wahanda.com is a directory of more than 10,000 spas, salons, gyms, studios, therapists and wellness businesses. The community ensures the best providers bubble to the top. We then connect users to the business. Find, share, connect. Basic listings are free and we charge for premium profiles. Anything sold on the site we take a commission, including Wahanda vouchers, which can be redeemed in almost 500 locations.

Why’s it unique?
This depth of content has never been concentrated in one place, which makes it really powerful. The industry is not entirely comfortable with the internet, but we keep things super simple. As a result, lots of practitioners are ditching websites for Wahanda. The sites in the space at the moment include ones that are only focused on spas and are not directories; the leading one sells vouchers for 300 locations, whereas we have 4,500.

Where are you now?
We’re on track and were named one of the top 10 beauty sites in Elle magazine. In terms of the vision though we’re less than 20% of where we want to be. We’re getting around 150,000 unique users a month typically, but three to four times that in December as we’re running our Advent Calendar, giving away a prize each day with £10,000 worth of spa breaks, prizes and other offers.

Where will you be in two years?
Hopefully in more countries. We’re trying to build a brand and want Wahanda to be synonymous with wellbeing.

Who’s backed you?
Ambient Sounds Investments, a fund founded by the former Skype technology team; Stefan Glaenzer, an angel investor and the former chairman of Last.fm Wolf Hengst, the former president and COO of Four Seasons; Brent Hoberman of MyDeco and PROfounders Capital; and Jonnie Goodwin of Jefferies and PROfounders Capital.

How much did you get?
£1.4m.

When did you raise it?
February 2009.

How long before the cheque cleared?
We were going to acquire a business in November but at the last minute they decided not to sell, which turned out to be the best thing. We went back to the investors and they thought it was a great opportunity, so having got commitments in December we closed the funding round soon after.

What did it teach you?
It’s important to have investors you like and respect, and who bring value to the table. There’s a lot of money out there and it’s a time consuming process. You can learn a lot from rejection. It makes you think about what you’re doing and we made the business stronger. The other thing was we didn’t go to them and say ‘we want your money’, we asked if they’d look at our five-page summary and tell us what they thought, which is a really good way to assess interest.

How has the money improved the business?
The dynamic between the investors at board meetings is great. Brent brings leisure, hospitality and technology experience. ASI are strong on engineering and technology. And Wolf knows leisure inside out.

Tell us something that would help another entrepreneur keep an investor happy?
Communication is key. We provide monthly and quarterly reports, with an appraisal of what we’re thinking. Investors want to be helpful, so when we think they can be we get in touch. Nobody likes a bad surprise. Present any problems and what you feel the solutions are and then have a productive debate.

Why should we keep an eye on you?
What we’re building is really exciting. The market is immensely fragmented and dominated by single owner operations. But people spend twice as much on spa treatments ($60bn) as they do film and music combined.