Carmen Busquets

My parents sent me from Venezuela to the Convent of Our Lady, a boarding school in Hastings, which was horrible - like Harry Potter without the magic. Sometimes we went into town, and if we were caught chewing gum in our uniform, members of the public would take down our names and report us to the school.

When I was young I would spend more money than I should with my credit card but my father cut it off, so I had to find creative ways of making money.

My creative side is identifying all these great entrepreneurial creative people that come up with great ideas, whether they are in fashion or technology or a new tool to improve ourselves.

I rarely have time for lunch, so tend to have a big breakfast and big dinner.

I was always into fashion, and used to go on spending sprees when I was a university student in Miami. My father would be furious, but I would always say, 'It was an emergency! I had a party to go to!'

My mother was a sociologist and an intellectual, and my father was an industrialist with a business in copper and aluminum wire. He was very strict and he wanted me to work in the family business - for him, the worst thing was having a daughter who worked in fashion.

Why give a million dollars to someone if they have not proved that they can make a million dollars?

For me, the winning strategy in any start-up business is, 'Think big but start small.'

Investors are impatient and they are also desperate for the 'next big thing,' and they are not paying attention to the fact that the 'next big thing' can be an economic crisis that they have created by being very irresponsible with their power.

So I'm half deaf - and dyslexic. How about that? Nobody's perfect, and I'm proud of my defects.

Sometimes I make it to parties and sometimes I don't. Social life is always something you can go back to.

I have a funny accent in every language.

I've lived with someone and probably will again, but I don't want children and I have known that since I was little. My parents thought I would change my mind. My boyfriends always think I'm going to change my mind, but it never happened. I fall in love with my businesses.

I look for individuality in the artisans I work with for CoutureLab; a loving relationship with the product and care in the construction, along with the story behind it, make couture desirable to consumers looking for something that cannot be mass-produced.

Customers want to buy something which is not expensive because of a label but which is costly because of the time taken to produce it.

People need patience. It takes time to build a brand.