It's Just Business

In this episode, I speak to Giles Harrison, a co-founder of Sculpd, a home-pottery craft kit business. Born in lockdown and now selling internationally, Sculpd is taking pottery further than it’s ever been before. Developing a modern approach to home crafts has been a core focus of the business.

Since launching, they have sold over 100,000 air dry pottery kits to over 60 countries. Sculpd is now at the forefront of driving an increase in the UK’s growing DIY movement.

Giles talks about how they managed to launch in one week and grow the business without any investment or outside funding and continue to expand through cash flow.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Dean Rogers, founder of Rogue Productions, a theatre company that makes games, or a game company that makes theatre, depending on who you ask... Either way, they’re all about letting audiences play! They make award-winning escape games, immersive theatre, treasure hunts, experiential events, interactive plays.

Dean is a pioneer of immersive entertainment. He has been behind some of London’s biggest immersive successes and some of his previous work includes the hit immersive theft experience Heist which he co-created with difference Engine, Time Run and The Crystal Maze Live Experience.

In this episode, I talk with Tom Lionetti-Maguire, the founder of Little Lion Entertainment, an immersive experience business that created the Crystal Maze experience.

Tom and I spoke about how his acting background helped him discover his competitive socialising business idea. Tom talks about how he managed to launch his business with £1m presale tickets on the IndieGogo crowdfunding platform. This allowed Tom to launch and have a successful first year without spending any money on marketing!

Since launching, Tom has expanded to Manchester and putting on other experience shows. We also discuss why people love being active and passive.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Dave Hamlet, a co-founder of Zoom 1hr, an on-demand ordering platform and delivery service.

Dave talks about how his experience in the army and working in sales influenced his journey to building Zoom 1hr with his co-founder, Kevin. Having worked in large FMCG brands like Gatorade and Monster, he took his learnings from these big corporates to help him build Zoom 1hr.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Param Kanabar the CEO of NOQ. NOQ is a food and drink ordering app solution to solve the pain of long queues. Param thought about the idea while at a festival in Portugal. Param and his co-founders have bootstrapped the business and managed to launch in the midst of COVID. Param talks about his service-for-equity deal with a software development house and his plans for 2021 after their Seedrs fundraising.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Murat Feimoglu, co-founder of HairFare, a hair & beauty chair rental marketplace platform. Murat and his co-founder identified that a lack of technology and innovation in the hair and beauty industry left a fragmented way for hairdressers and beauty specialists to find new locations to work. HairFare also provides a better way for shop owners to market their underutilised space and chairs by listing them on the platform.

Murat talks about launching his business during COVID and using a PR agency to gain awareness. We also discuss the business model of HairFare and how big the freelancer hairdresser market is in the UK.

We also discuss how HairFare managed their Seedrs fundraising and the involvement required. This was a really interesting interview with Murat, I highly suggest giving it a listen to find out more about HairFare.

In this episode, I talk with Martha Swift, the owner of Primrose Bakery, a London-based cake shop. Martha founded the business more than 14 years ago and over that time grew the business to three locations.

After expanding the business to multiple locations, Martha eventually realised she was becoming further removed from what she loved doing most - baking and being closer to customers, so she decided to go back to basics and scale back the business and as a result enjoys being a business owner once again.

We discuss how tough it is to run a business when you are so attached and want to ensure high quality and the challenges of managing multiple locations.

Martha also discusses she uses WhatsApp to connect with customers easier.

This was a great interview with a seasoned entrepreneur, Martha shares her story filled with passion, sweat flour, and joy.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Elin Roberts and Christopher Kong, co-founders of Better Nature, a conscious food-tech company. Better Nature is trying to introduce the wonders of tempeh to the world. Tempeh is made from fermented soybeans and high in protein. It originates from Indonesia, but Better Nature has been busy in the kitchen seasoning and cooking it up to make it more appealing to markets outside of Asia.

Chris and Elin talk about their journey developing the idea and launching their online business, which has seen tremendous growth in 2020, its first trading year.

With a strong team and mission-driven brand, Better Nature looks poised to continue its success. They talk about their mouth-watering open rate of 35% in their monthly newsletter. We discuss their use of Google Ads and how they think about branding.

This was a delightful episode as I spoke to the two founders full of passion and clarity about their brand.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Leo Johnson, a co-founder of Dodo Pubs, a pub group and brand. Dodo pubs is a chain of quirky, casual and warm neighbourhood pubs in South East England.

Leo talks about how he and his co-founder, Chris, got together and built their local neighbourhood pub brand group over the past 12 years, from their first pub in Oxford, England.

Leo talks about how importance standard operations procedures (SOPs), systems and processes were to scale their business. Leo also talks about the average cost to launch and open a new pub location.

We also discuss the impacts of COVID-19 and how it has forced him and his co-founder to think about efficiency and profitability.

Leo also talks about what they learnt from opening a gastropub and increasing customer expectations that come with that.

In this podcast episode, I chat with Peter Crawford and Daniel Blatchford, co-founders of Sip Champagnes.

Sip Champagnes is an e-commerce champagne business. Peter and Dan launched Sip in July 2020 with a global ambition to deliver highly curated artisanal champagnes to peoples doors.