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Wednesday, 3 June 2026

In the latest instalment of our Alumni Spotlight series, we speak to Hannah Joyce, the founder of Flexera and a graduate of the MSc Work and Organisational Behaviour and BA French and Psychology at University of Limerick.   

Hannah shares her advice for future students and discusses how her time in UL set the coordinates for her professional career. 

Tell us about yourself? 

I'm Hannah, founder of Flexera — a premium connected reformer Pilates company. We sell and rent foldable reformers alongside a companion Studio App, and we operate across Ireland, the UK, and the EU.  

I started the business because I genuinely believed there was a smarter, more accessible way to bring studio-quality Pilates into people's homes — and I wanted to build it.  

Outside of Flexera I'm interested in brand, culture, and the psychology of how people make decisions, which honestly traces right back to my time at UL. 

Why did you choose to study French and Psychology at UL? 

I've always been drawn to understanding people — what motivates them, how they behave, what shapes their choices. Psychology felt like the most direct path into that. French was a passion alongside it; I loved the idea of being able to move through the world with another language and another cultural lens. Combining the two felt like it opened more doors than either would alone. 

And what led you to progress to the MSc Work and Organisational Behaviour? 

After the undergraduate I wanted to go deeper into how psychology operates in real-world contexts — specifically in organisations and workplaces. The MSc felt like a natural bridge between academic theory and applied practice.  

I was interested in leadership, culture, how people perform under pressure, how teams function. Those questions felt very alive to me, and I wanted to study them properly before going into the working world.

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What did you enjoy about the courses? 

I loved the combination of rigour and real-world relevance. Psychology trains you to question assumptions, look for evidence, and think carefully about causation — skills that sound academic but turn out to be genuinely useful in business.  

The organisational behaviour modules in particular gave me frameworks I still reach for constantly: how to structure a team, how to think about incentives, how to navigate change. It didn't feel like theory for theory's sake. 

Why did you choose University of Limerick? 

Honestly, a mix of things — some practical, some instinctive. I'm from Mayo, and Galway felt too close to home to really feel like I was spreading my wings. Cork felt too far in the other direction. Limerick hit that sweet spot geographically — far enough to feel like a fresh start and meet a completely new group of people, but close enough that getting home when I needed to wasn't a big deal. 

But the campus itself was also a huge draw. I remember visiting and being struck by how self-contained it felt — like its own little world. There was a real energy to it, and the sports facilities in particular caught my attention. I had grand plans for how much I'd use them. I'll be honest — I didn't quite live up to those ambitions — but the facilities are genuinely excellent and I know plenty of people who made brilliant use of them.  

UL has that kind of all-in infrastructure that makes you feel like you could do anything there. 

As a University of Limerick student, you had the opportunity to learn from some of the top academic talent, in state-of-the-art facilities. What was your experience like? 

It was excellent. The lecturers brought genuine expertise and — importantly — a real willingness to engage with students as future practitioners rather than just exam-takers. The facilities supported that too; it never felt like a place that was just going through the motions. There was an ambition to the environment that I think rubbed off on the student body. You were surrounded by people who were taking their futures seriously. 

Tell us about your career journey so far? 

After my MSc I moved into learning and development in London in a consulting firm, which was a great grounding in commercial thinking, negotiation, and how large organisations actually function. It gave me a lot — but entrepreneurship had always been in the back of my mind.  

Eventually I took the leap and founded Flexera. We started from a genuine gap I saw in the market: reformer Pilates was exploding in popularity, but the equipment was expensive, bulky, and inaccessible for home use. We built a foldable reformer and a connected app to go with it, and the response has been really strong.  

We're now operating across three markets and are in the process of raising investment. It's been a steep learning curve — strategy, finance, operations, marketing — but I wouldn't trade it. 

How did your degrees help you get to where you are now in your career? 

In a very practical sense, the undergraduate was the prerequisite for the Masters — so in that way it was foundational just by existing. But the MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour was what directly opened the door to my first role, which was in learning and development (L&D). That turned out to be more significant than I realised at the time, because L&D became the industry my first startup was built around. So in a very literal sense, the academic path I took at UL set the coordinates for everything that followed professionally. 

Beyond that, the psychology training has proven quietly invaluable in ways I didn't anticipate. Understanding behaviour — what motivates people, how they make decisions, what makes a team function — turns out to be core to building a company. It shapes how I think about customers, about hiring, about culture. It's less visible than a specific skill, but it runs through everything.

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What advice would you give to anyone considering studying at UL? 

Go. And when you get there, let yourself be surprised by it. 

I'm still extremely close with the friends I made on my very first day in Kilmurry student accommodation — that says everything about the kind of connections you can form there.  

UL has a way of building a real community, and that community stays with you long after you graduate. 

I'd also say this, because I think it needs to be said: university isn't an easy time for everyone, and I definitely struggled at points. There were moments where I felt lost or wondered if I was on the right path.  

Looking back now, it all makes sense — the hard parts included — but in the middle of it, it didn't always feel that way. So give it your best, be present for it, but don't be too hard on yourself if it's not seamless.  

It's a stepping stone, not a final destination. Most of what it gives you, you won't fully understand until you're on the other side of it. 

At UL we encourage our students to Stay Curious. What keeps you curious and how important has curiosity been throughout your career? 

Curiosity is probably the trait I'd protect most in myself. It's what keeps you learning after the formal education stops — which, in a fast-moving industry, is non-negotiable.  

What keeps me curious is the constant intersection of disciplines in what I do: the science of behaviour, the aesthetics of brand, the mechanics of business model design, the culture of wellness. None of those things sit still.  

The moment you think you understand your customer, they've moved on. Staying curious is really just staying honest about how much you don't know yet. 

What are your plans for the future? 

The immediate focus is on closing our investment and using that to accelerate growth — particularly on the rental side of the business, which has a really compelling recurring revenue model.  

Longer term, I want Flexera to be the defining connected fitness brand for Pilates globally — not just a hardware company, but a platform that sits at the centre of how people engage with this type of movement. There's a real category leadership opportunity here, and we intend to take it. 

If you’re curious about learning more on our journey, feel free to follow us on Instagram @joinflexera.