“Delusion drives success” - Sumaiaya Hossain’s Story of Starting Froppy

This Delusion also known as self belief. Third year UoL electrical engineering student Summaiya Hussain shares her story of success and how she kickstarted her business whilst also being a full time university student.

From STEM to Business: How Sumaiaya Started Up

Before Summaiya’s own business was sparked - there was a whole other story. She has always pursued her passion of engineering through technology as she acknowledged how it shapes peoples daily lives, influencing her project manufacturing a smart mirror for fitness and wellbeing. 

At 21, Sumaiya had already experienced numerous internships for global financial and service companies where she was technical project manager and worked across the soft engineering sector. Major WiB Moment. 

During summer 2024 however, Sumaiya decided to take a different route and took a risk after rejecting an offer for an internship to instead focus upon her passion of pursuing her own business venture. 

She told us how taking this “risk” was vital to allocate time for her passion of starting something that really mattered to her.

Despite other voices doubting Sumaiya’s vision stating she must “focus on her degree” as it was “too early to start” something so big - Sumaiya still powered through with her plans and was not discouraged. It definitely takes strong will power to overcome the doubts of others, but this is a pivotal point to pursuing a dream.

Froppy: What is it?

With help from the UoL enterprise team regarding business support and advice, as well as winning the enterprise fund Sumaiya’s vision then came to life. This is a business named ‘Froppy’ and it is based on fitness and wellbeing through creating a welcoming environment and community which offers inclusive pilates and yoga classes.

From frog mats to friendly faces all around, it is such a safe space for those wanting to focus more on their fitness less intensely. Froppy fosters the importance of mental as well as physical health but in a unique, quirky and refreshing way that transcends traditional fitness. 

Located near Liverpool city centre, Froppy offers classes of all levels as well as monthly events alongside other local businesses. This welcoming environment aims to combat the loneliness often felt on the fitness journey, whilst also creating a vibrant community to highlight the vitality of wellbeing. Frop till you drop and give it a go!

Discouragement, doubts and overcoming those daunting days

It is easy to say go and pursue your passions, but actually doing this is much more daunting than it seems. Sumaiya stated how being a young female can feel extremely daunting at times especially in workplaces where you feel undermined by someone more superior. 

During the startup of Froppy she also felt a lack of reassurance which created loneliness. Comparison also became consuming for Sumaiya at times as it’s evident within the world of business that there are always people doing bigger and better projects. 

To counter these challenges faced, she shared with WiB that “it is so important to find people like you. You must be more vocal about starting a new business and don’t be shy”. Finding inspiration from other young female entrepreneurs was also vital for Sumaiya as this helped her keep moving forward. 

She also stated the importance of assertiveness as “being serious doesn’t have to be scary”. Taking a risk, putting yourself out there and having those delusional dreams are essential to making it happen.  

Forget the failures that occur along the way, as they are only bumps in the road as you’ll still reach the desired destination.

So if Sumaiya can teach us anything - it is to put your passions into practice. And most of all, be a little delulu! 

Photography by Valeria Jacabo Salzar