Discover how Olabimpe Oladimeji built CostNav and Blooming Bud Innovations to empower creative entrepreneurs with financial clarity and technology.
Innovation in technology often begins with formal training or venture-backed startups. For Olabimpe Oladimeji, however, the journey began in a far more familiar place: a kitchen.
Before becoming a technology founder, Olabimpe Oladimeji ran a cake business. Like many creative entrepreneurs, she balanced artistry with the practical demands of running a business. Orders were written down manually, ingredient prices fluctuated, and determining accurate pricing was often difficult.
While the work was fulfilling, one challenge continued to surface. Without reliable systems to track expenses and calculate costs, it was difficult to measure whether the business was truly profitable. The experience highlighted a broader issue that many small creative businesses face.
Over time, Olabimpe noticed that the same challenge appeared across many creative industries. Bakers, florists, artisans, and independent food producers often relied on handwritten notes, spreadsheets, or intuition to manage their finances. Despite their creativity and dedication, many lacked access to digital tools specifically designed for their work.
This realization would eventually shape the direction of her career.
From Creative Entrepreneur to Technology Builder
Olabimpe’s path into technology did not follow a traditional route. Instead of beginning in software engineering or computer science, her interest in digital product development grew from solving practical business problems.
Relocating to the United Kingdom brought new context to challenges she had already been navigating, the financial pressures facing small creative businesses, the absence of tools built for them, and the question of how technology could close that gap. It was in this environment that her understanding of product management and digital development became not just an intellectual interest but a practical necessity
Through courses, professional communities, and independent study, Olabimpe built a deeper understanding of how technology products are designed and built. What she found was not entirely new territory. Running a small business had already required her to observe what customers needed, test ideas under real pressure, and adapt quickly when something was not working. The frameworks had different names, the discipline was the same, she had been doing product thinking long before she had the language for it.
As her knowledge grew, Olabimpe began sharing what she had learned with other creative entrepreneurs facing the same challenges she had navigated; bakers, creatives, makers, and small business owners who were running real businesses but had never been given the tools or frameworks to run them with confidence.
This experience eventually contributed to the formation of Blooming Bud Innovations Limited, an organization focused on building digital solutions and creating learning opportunities within technology and entrepreneurship.
Building Communities in Technology
In addition to product development, Olabimpe became involved in building communities that bring technology thinking directly to creative entrepreneurs already running their own businesses.
Among these initiatives are communities that focus on mentorship, practical training, and collaborative learning. These communities are built around a single practical mission: teaching creative entrepreneurs, how to understand and apply Agile methodology to run their enterprises with greater structure, confidence and commercial clarity.
The programmes bring the discipline and structure of technology thinking into the creative businesses these entrepreneurs were already building. For many members, it is the first time anyone has shown them that the frameworks used by the world’s most successful companies are just as relevant to a home bakery or an artisan food business as they are to a corporate organisation.
Olabimpe has often emphasized the importance of accessible learning environments. Her goal has been to make technology knowledge easier to approach for individuals who may not come from traditional technical backgrounds.
Addressing Financial Visibility for Creative Businesses
One of the ideas that emerged from Olabimpe’s earlier experience as a baker was the need for clearer financial visibility for small creative enterprises. Creative businesses often operate differently from traditional retail companies. A baker preparing a custom cake, for example, must consider ingredients, preparation time, packaging materials, and energy costs. Similar cost structures appear in many artisan industries.
Without reliable tools to track these variables, business owners may struggle to determine accurate pricing or understand profit margins.
Recognizing this gap, Olabimpe began working on digital tools intended to simplify financial tracking and cost calculation for creative entrepreneurs. The goal was to create systems that reflect the realities of small-scale creative production rather than relying on generic accounting approaches.
That work led to the development of CostNav, a financial management platform built specifically for bakers, artisan food producers and creative entrepreneurs, giving them the tools to cost their products accurately, track ingredient prices in real time, and see their actual margins for the first time.
In the United Kingdom alone, thousands of small food and craft businesses operate independently. Many rely on simple record-keeping methods such as notebooks or spreadsheets. Improving financial visibility for these businesses has become an area of growing interest within the broader small-business technology ecosystem.
Recognition and Industry Engagement
As her work in technology and community development expanded, Olabimpe’s contributions began receiving broader recognition.
In 2025, she was named a finalist in the Best Tech Startup category at the UK Small Business Awards. The recognition highlighted the emergence of founders whose backgrounds differ from the traditional venture-capital startup pathway.
Olabimpe is also involved in several professional networks, including communities that highlight the achievements of women working in technology. Participation in these groups allows members to exchange knowledge, share experiences, and support emerging professionals.
In addition to product development, Olabimpe speaks at technology and entrepreneurship platforms, where she addresses topics including digital product development, inclusive innovation, and building technology for underrepresented markets.
Olabimpe Oladimeji’s work with CostNav and Blooming Bud Innovations has earned significant recognition. Most notably, both organizations were awarded Best Tech Innovation for Small Businesses in the United Kingdom of 2026 at the Evergreen Awards. This accolade highlights Olabimpe’s transformative approach to providing financial clarity and technology solutions for creative entrepreneurs, affirming her impact on the small business and tech communities.
Expanding Possibilities in the Creative Economy
Today, Olabimpe continues working at the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship, and technology.
Her journey reflects a broader shift in the technology landscape, where innovation increasingly emerges from individuals solving real-world problems within their own industries. Rather than beginning with abstract technical concepts, these solutions often originate from lived experience.
For creative entrepreneurs, the challenge of balancing artistic work with business management remains common. Efforts to develop accessible tools and educational communities are helping address some of these long-standing challenges.
Olabimpe Oladimeji’s story illustrates how personal experience can influence the direction of technological innovation. What began as a practical question about managing a small baking business eventually developed into a wider exploration of how technology can better support creative industries.
For Olabimpe Oladimeji, the work is not finished, it is only just beginning.
Additional information about Olabimpe Oladimeji’s professional background and ongoing initiatives can be found through the following publicly available sources:
