EXCLUSIVE: Start-up stories - Karen Darby at Call Britannia

Can you make money and help others at the same time? In an exclusive interview, Gina Dyer meets social entrepreneur Karen Darby, who is about to launch a business that will create 10,000 jobs for unemployed people in the UK's most deprived areas.

Self confessed 'start up queen' Karen Darby set up her first company in 1983 at the tender age of 22 and went on to found SimplySwitch, a consumer price comparison service which she sold to the Daily Mail & General Trust in 2006 for a reported £22m. Her latest start up, Call Britannia is a social enterprise that aims to create 10,000 jobs for unemployed people in some of the UK's most deprived areas.

"I always knew I'd have my own business", says Darby, with the characteristic determination often found in successful business people. However, unlike those entrepreneurs who focus on growing and developing a core business over scores of years, Darby lives for those early stages of a start up and has always built her companies with a clearly defined exit strategy.

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