Founder of ‘PA in your pocket’ app hopes to help working families in Maidenhead

The founder of a ‘PA in your pocket’ app says she hopes to help working families in Maidenhead through its evolving technology.

Catherine Ann Reid developed the concept of Doqit around nine years ago when she was ‘completely drowning in life admin’.

The Furze Platt mother was juggling her freelance work while running a home and caring for her daughter, Chloe, who has complex additional needs.

“I’m a pretty organised person, yet I still couldn’t find information when it came to completing my tax return. I thought there must be something out there that could help,” she said.

“I started to speak to people to ask them what they are using. What helps you stay on top of your personal household admin?

“People were using a mix of lever arch files, cloud storage, sticky notes, carrying it in their head so no one had a comprehensive answer, but everyone had a story.”

Catherine Ann, 62, heard about overpaid car insurance, expired warranties, and mobile phone contracts that had rolled over, and said the ‘financial leakage’ from late payments or not reviewing upcoming insurance policies could be more than £1,400 a year.

“What research told me was that the size of life admin has exploded, and the impact of that is an emotional cost, time cost and financial cost, so the mental load is greater than ever,” she said.

“The amount of time wasted – people spend hours looking for things. Leave it to the last minute, and you’re never going to give yourself a good deal.

“We now live in a subscription economy. There are endless streaming services. You can get toothbrushes, toilet roll and tampons on subscription. How do people stay on top of that?

“We have more legislation regulations, all of which come with paperwork. People are living longer, and young people are staying with their parents longer.

“People are organising not only their own household paperwork but their children and parents, creating this explosion of life admin, and the tools and the systems that were built originally to support it haven’t kept up at the same speed.”

Originally from Ayrshire, Scotland, Catherine Ann has been based in Maidenhead for nearly three decades and quit her freelance work to focus on developing an app during the pandemic.

COVID was a ‘game-changer’ for two reasons, she said, as consumer behaviours changed with more people placing ‘trust and reliance’ on technology, and the speed at which technology was moving during that time.

“It created the perfect storm.”

Doqit has been available on both the App Store and Google Play since early 2025.

The app gives families and employees a single place to manage all their documents and deadlines with a smart reminder system to ensure important dates aren’t missed.

“Over 30 years working in the media communication industry exposed me to how larger businesses operated, but setting up a tech startup is a completely different kettle of fish,” Catherine Ann said.

She has since featured in a Female Founders Rise campaign, won the FinTech Scotland Challenge 2024 and was a finalist in the UK StartUp Awards 2025.

In December 2025, Doqit launched new AI scanning and secure sharing features.

“We work closely with our users to make sure we are building a product that fits real life,” Catherine Ann said.

“It does the remembering for you so that future obligations don’t fall through the net.”

Nearly 3,000 downloads later, she said the secret to success is listening to what users want.

“Whilst I understand the problem inside out, how I make it benefit my family doesn’t necessarily mean that it works for other people, so the most important thing we do is speak to our users every single week,” said Catherine Ann.

“We always listen. There's no such thing as a bad idea. But how the product evolves must add value for the end user and retain our core value of simplicity. The moment it becomes too cumbersome, people won’t want to use it.

“It’s constantly evolving, we're constantly listening.”