Denise Stephenson

TechTags

Denise Stephenson is the founder and Inventor of TechTags, a fashion-tech startup transforming retail through smart garment tags that merge technology, security, sustainability and fashion.

With over a decade of experience in HR tech transformation projects, an academic background in psychology and consumer behaviour, and first-hand experience as a fashion brand owner, Denise brings together both worlds tech and fashion to tackle one of retail’s biggest challenges: Returns Fraud.

Her entrepreneurship journey began with a pressing challenge she faced as a retailer: the complexities of returns. From this first-hand frustration, she developed TechTags to tackle fraud and to bridge the gap between consumers and retailers creating a transparent, real-time, profit-saving solution.

Denise has built TechTags from the ground up, navigating the realities of limited resources, applications grants and pitching to investors. Her story is one of resilience, pivots and persistence moving from rejection to recognition and from “no’s” to runner-up spots in national innovation awards.

She speaks candidly about the unpolished side of entrepreneurship: innovating as a first mover, building resilience when the no’s outweigh the yes’s, pivoting with purpose and the emotional side of fundraising.

Denise is passionate about sharing her journey in real time not from the safety of hindsight, but from inside the trenches, where resilience and resourcefulness are tested daily.