Recipe for Greatness

Today's guest is Craig Jones who is the co-founder of Cheesies - the delicious cheese-baked snack.

Craig's career has taken him many places, from jumping straight from university to becoming a founder of a bike storage company, going on and working for Innocent and Pieminster. After his time there, he decided it was time to become a founder again and went on to co-create Fiovanna drinks, with his current co-founder, David Folkman. After some time with Fiovanna, they decided it was time to move on to their next challenge, Cheesies!

In this chat we cover a lot from:

Getting and keeping big listings with retailers

Knowing if is a good co-founder fit

Common issues and themes in start-ups in food and drink

Finding those first 100 customers

What is the key data to focus on

Amazon - challenges and opportunities

Books

This really is a great chat with a lot of insight, so please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Craig from Cheesies.

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Today's guest is Jens Knoop who is the founder of Knoops - the world-famous artisan hot chocolate shop.

Jens is a chocolate master and has been obsessed with it from a young age. After a career detour in photography, he came back to his passion in 2013 and opened up his first brick and mortar shop.

I love this conversation because Jens is so passionate about what he does and also self-aware of what his skill set is, and leans it to what he is best at. This story is all about patience, building slowly and then pushing the accelerator when the time is right, and learning from your customers along the journey.

I learned so much in this conversation and so will you.

So please enjoy my conversation with Jens.

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Today's guest is Sameer Vaswani who is the founder of Prodigy Snacks.

Sameer has been an entrepreneur from the age of 22, setting up his first restaurant in Nottinghill. After that, he moved to West Africa and ran a successful confectionary business that he later sold. While he was there his eyes were opened to how damaging the practices were going on in the confectionery & manufacturing world so his mission began to change that with Prodigy Snacks.

In this chat, we talk about Sameer's journey into entrepreneurship, his challenges in creating a product that challenges the status quo of chocolate. Sameer dives into ingredients and explains what is really going into some of the foods we are eating and the impact they can have on our body and the planet. This is a great listen and really opened my eyes to certain issues in food. Now, Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Sameer from Prodigy Snacks.

IN THIS CHAT:
1:00: Parents influence and journey into entrepreneurship
5:30: Opening up a restaurant at 22 and the lessons learned
10:30: Learning lessons and moving past failures
16:30: How and why West Africa influenced him
20:30: Why some ingredients are evil
25:30: Plastic Negative - what it really means and Repurpose Global.
28:30: Manufacturing challenges of creating a new product
33:30: Online vs retail and the change over the years
26:30: DTC challenges and opportunity

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Today's Guest is Cathy Moseley who is the founder of Boundless Activated Snacking.

Cathy worked for 25 years in the city but decided she wanted a change - so she set out to create her own business.

This is such an amazing conversation because we cover a wide range of things. One that stands out for me is that after leaving her career,  Cathy is so open to talking about her failures and how they helped get her to where she is now. 
Cathy gives incredible insight into hacks in how to find a manufacturer, how to succeed in a trial with a major retailer, how to build your direct-to-consumer channel, and real data behind the trends she is seeing.

This was a favourite of mine - Cathy is a bundle of joy to talk to and you can't help but get caught up in her enthusiasm and passion. This is one to listen to so please enjoy my conversation with Cathy from Boundless.

IN THIS CHAT:
Leaving school at 16 - the lessons learnt
Leaving a 25-year career behind to start a business
Street food - lessons learnt
Formation of Boundless
How to evaluate if your heart is your business still
How to find a manufacturer - some great hacks
How to run a successful trial at a major retailer
Getting other retailers on board
Importance of DTC and how to do it well
Gut health - trend analysis with data

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Today on the podcast we have Stephanie Johnson who is the Founder & Co-Ceo of Pollen + Grace. We chat all about her journey from the event industry to set up Pollen + Grace and we explore the different elements of scaling it from her kitchen at home to nationwide listings. We chat about the challenges involved in growing and how to overcome them and so much more. 

It was a joy to chat with Stephanie who you can tell is just loving what she is doing. 

Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Stephanie from Pollen and Grace

IN THIS EPISODE:
1:30: From event industry to setting up Pollen and Grace

4:00: Taking action on your dreams and not waiting around

6:15: Targeting your first customers

7:15: Reaching out for help and the benefits of sharing the journey

11:00: Managing the co-founder relationship

12:30: Taking a direct approach to land retailers

14:30: Climbing the retailer ladder

16:30: Creating and maintaining year on year growth

18:45: Direct-to-consumer vs retail

20:30: The impact of timing on a business' journey

22:40: Internal creativity vs using external agencies

26:20: The importance of team

28:30: Learning from a failure

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Today's guest is Amy Moring who is the co-founder of Hunter & Gather who she founded with her partner, Jeff who is also her partner in life.

Too often we can think about creating a business because that's what we want to do, that's what everyone is doing at the moment, but the question people can stumble on is what is the product. In this conversation, we talk all about starting a business with a mission, a purpose, and from that, your product is formed. It becomes your north star for everything.

Amy deeply understands her business and her community and she shares the approach she took to grow Hunter and Gather year on year at a crazy rate. It is a fantastic chat so sit back, and enjoy my conversation with Amy for Hunter and Gather.

IN THIS CHAT:

1:30: having ideas and assumptions and testing them with the hard questions

5:00: Having your mission first then creating a product around it

7:45: The mission guides you to your customers and your market

10:45: How to learn new skills and how to play to your strength

15:30: Getting started with Hunter and Gather

19:00: The secret to year-on-year double or triple-digit growth.

24:00: Building an online community

28:30: The importance of talking to your community and listening

30:00: How to have a successful relationship and Business with your partner

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This week on the podcast we have Andy Lawson who is the founder of  FodaBox (Borough Box) - the online marketplace for independent food and drink brands.

I consider Andy to be a direct-to-consumer master. After spending years in the digital marketing area, Andy decided to apply his love for food, particularly from individual artisan producers, and bring them both together to create an online platform for these brands to showcase themselves.

Andy also runs the logistic side of delivery for other brands, so that combined with his experience with borough box means he has had years of experience gaining insight into online trends, mistakes online brands make, and how key knowing your numbers are, and he shares his insight into all of it in this chat. I spent most of the conversation listening and taking notes, I learned so much, and so will you. So please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Andy from Borough Box.

IN THIS CHAT:
1:30: Passion for food
5:30: Leaving a secure job for uncertain food start-up
12:30: Bootstrapping VS investment
14:30: Covid impact & new growth opportunities 
17:50: Getting producers onboarded
20:30: Power of growing organically
21:30: Mistakes start-ups make online
26:40: Driving online sales traffic
31:30: Difference between DTC and Retail
33:30: DTC trend - here to stay?
38:30: Current online trends

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Today's guest is Julianne Ponan who is the founder of Creative Nature, Top 14 Allergen Free Easy to Make Baking Mixes, Snack Bars other delicious treats.

I loved this chat because Julianne was so open and honest. She opens up about her struggle as a young female and business and how she overcame the challenges, learning from failures and coming back stronger and succeeding, her journey to creative nature and building to where it is today and so much more.

This chat is an example that there is no linear graph to success, the road is bumpy, it tests you and you need to have the perseverance to keep going.

Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Julianne from Creative Nature.

IN THIS CHAT:
1:30 - Moving out of the comfort zone
3:15 - Finding meaning in your work
4:15 - Management buy out
5:35 - Building a business around your passion
7:15 - Always finding learnings from mistakes
9:00 - Testing and adapting to feedback
12:00 - learnings from failed fundraising and succeeding the second time
17:00 - How to identify best opportunities to show case your brand
20:00 - Turning negativity into motivation
23:00 - Overcoming challenges of being a young woman in business
26:30 - Dragons Den, insight behind the scenes
31:00 - Imposter syndrome, overcoming the fear of public speaking
35:30 - Challenging yourself once a year

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This week on the podcast we have Charlotte Dauzat, The Co-founder of GATO who make delicious plant-based snacks.

Charlotte has had a career that has taken her across the world working in many different roles, from management consulting to head of marketing. After studying patisserie at the world-famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, charlotte decided to found her own company. 

I love this chat because it is just such an honest chat about the challenges involved in starting a business. You can set off on a path of what you think the business will be, but then as you learn, you adapt and the business can change and evolve with you. We talk about the personal side of the business, the stress it can have finically on you, and the lonely side of being a sole founder and the difference having someone along for the journey can make, personally and on the business. I loved chatting with charlotte and appreciated how honest and open she was.

So please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Charlotte from Gato

IN THIS CHAT:
1:30: Lessons from multiple jobs in multiple locations
2:40: Working as an entrepreneur and getting ideas for business
4:30: Passion for food
6:30: Gato and its creations
10:00: Le Cordon Bleu - lessons from one of the best cookery schools in the world
13:10: Creating Gato out of cookery school
15:30: Coming up against operational challenges and pivoting
17:30: Co-founder Kim and her impact on the business
21:30: Sole-founder VS Co-founder
23:10: Running out of money and Raising money
26:00: Dragons Den
29:30: Lessons from pivoting the business
32:10: Pandemic - the impact

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Today's guest is Rushina Shah, the co-founder of Insane Grain - the healthy snack brand championing Sorghum. 

Rushina's journey is incredible and along the way she has picked up many awards such as; Forbes 30 under 30, grocer's top new talent 2018, NPN's 30 under 30, NatWest great British entrepreneur 2018 finalist, and many others.

We sit down and cover lots in this chat from being a sole founder vs having a co-founder, launching and then rebranding the business, exploring the market before launching to identify a unique opportunity, how to word conversations with supermarket buyers and so much more.

Rushina is amazing and I love chatting with her so please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Rushina from Insane Grain.

IN THIS CHAT:
1:30: Lessons from 5 years as a brand manager at P&G
4:00: Searching for that lightbulb moment
5:30: Researching the market to identify opportunities 
7:30: Manufacturing and the challenges involved in finding a partner
10:30: Lessons from early product testing and rebranding
13:30: Networking leading to opportunities
15:00: The relaunch
16:00: Sole founder vs co-founder
18:30: Launching 8 days before Covid
20:00: Obstacles creating new opportunities
21:30: How to speak to retail buyers
25:30: Getting yourself out there and championing the brand
27:30: Educating people on a new product
31:20: An amazing way to find an investor

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