Gym & Coffee is an Ireland-based fitness apparel retailer. Launched in 2017, the popular athleisure merchant focuses on socialising through fitness, using a suite of diverse marketing tools. 

On today's episode, we speak with Diarmuid McSweeney, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing and Community Officer at Gym & Coffee about the phenomenal strategy the brand has used to fuel its incredible 169% rate of growth - leading it to place 10th in the Lightning 50 list of fastest-growing UK brands.

Today, we catch up with trueCABLE, an online network cabling supplier based in Missouri. The brand was created in 2015 with the simple goal of shaking up an outdated industry by delivering the fastest, most reliable low-voltage supplies directly to consumers. Initially selling through Amazon, the business has grown rapidly and now does an increasing percentage of its business via its own Shopify-powered website. 

During the podcast, Jessica Floyd, VP of Marketing & Business Development at trueCABLE, shared her reaction to ranking 18th place on this year’s Lightning 50 USA. She also revealed the key role that original content and tech tools like Brightpearl and Inventory Planner have played in helping the business scale so successfully. 

Today on the podcast we catch up with Snaffling Pig, a UK-based retailer of pork-based products and novelty gifts. The brand launched in 2014 with a starting fund of only £500, and is now an established retailer of the gifting sector, selling food items and gifts direct-to-consumer via its Shopify website and through a number of UK supermarkets. 

We spoke to Founder and CEO of Snaffling Pig, Nick Coleman, who shared his insights on how the brand has charged through the multiple retail challenges of recent years to achieve 100% growth, leading it to take 16th in Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 list of fastest-growing brands. He also discussed how the brand plans to maintain its momentum going forward...

In this episode, we speak to Naturecan, an e-commerce retailer of CBD wellness products based in the North West of the UK. The direct-to-consumer brand is popular on a global scale, with its safe, effective and premium hemp-derived CBD products as well as supplements, vitamins and minerals. 

Andy Duckworth, CEO and Founder at Naturecan, joins the podcast to discuss how the brand achieved an impressive 220% growth rate, landing them 6th in the Lightning 50 list of fastest-growing UK companies and coming top in the Health & Beauty category. 

Today, we catch up with Caden Lane, a Texas-based, female-founded mother and baby brand. The retailer launched as a wholesale brand in 2007 selling door-to-door to bricks-and-mortar stores around the USA, but opened a direct-to-consumer Shopify webstore in 2018 and never looked back. 

Katy Mimario, CEO and Designer at Caden Lane speaks to us about the brand’s incredible 4th placement in the Lightning 50 list of fastest-growing US brands, and the tech tools and strategies she believes led them to win fastest-growing Baby & Toddler brand in the States, with an impressive 132% rate of growth.

Today, we talk to outdoors retailer Passenger Clothing, a UK-based surf and lifestyle apparel brand which prides itself on escapism and sustainability.

CEO of Passenger, John Lane,  joins us to discuss how the business achieved an incredible 363% growth rate - leading them to place third in the Lightning 50 list of the UK’s fastest-growing brands and topping the Fashion & Apparel sector. John also speaks about the importance of sustainability to Passenger’s brand values - and to its future success.

This episode is sponsored by Trustpilot.

Do you want a complete rundown on how reviews can provide your business with measurable ROI? Then check out Trustpilot's webinar “Make your reviews work harder”, on the 23rd November.

More details here: https://marketing.trustpilot.com/makeyourreviewsworkharder

To kick off season 2 of the Lightning 50 growth hacking podcast, we sit down with  beer-enthusiast brand Pinter, who created a device that allows beer-lovers to brew fresh beer in the comfort of their own homes. Lauded as a more sustainable way to enjoy beer than ordering crates of bottles, the brand made Time magazine’s Top 100 Inventions of 2020 - and this year was crowned the winner of Brightpearl’s Lightning 50 list after reporting an incredible 626% growth rate.

In this episode, Caroline speaks to Ralph Broadbent, CEO of Pinter, who shares tons of fascinating insight into how the brand achieved such immense popularity in a couple of years, how it is maintaining growth in such challenging times, and how tech plays into their ongoing strategy.

This episode is sponsored by Trustpilot.

Do you want a complete rundown on how reviews can provide your business with measurable ROI? Then check out Trustpilot's webinar “Make your reviews work harder”, on the 23rd November.

More details here: https://marketing.trustpilot.com/makeyourreviewsworkharder

Sara Arthrell is the CMO at Brightpearl, and she’s joining this special bumper episode of the Podcast to share the insights from the Brightpearl Lightning 50 league table that you can all use to fast track the growth in your eCommerce store.

Lightning 50 is Brightpearl’s list of top eCommerce brands both in the US and the UK, ranked according to revenue growth in the last twelve months. Winners from last year include brands like Holland & Cooper, Candy Kittens, and Biscuiteers.

Last year’s winners from the UK earned more than 340,000,000 and the average growth for online retailers was at 518%.

Today, Sara joins the podcast to share the tools these high growth brands are using to support and drive  scale. Tune in to hear the tech secrets online firms are using to fuel success and drive growth rates of 500% growth within a year.

Proudly independent, this small team of self-proclaimed 80s and 90s nerds launched the uber popular retro t-shirt brand TruffleShuffle. The company has gained steam from doubling down on old-school obsessions that keep them creating the quirkiest, coolest exclusive T-Shirts which has seen them achieve 235% YOY growth.

Today, Pat Wood, the Managing Director of the business, joins the podcast to talk through the factors behind the brand’s outstanding success, from expanded product offerings and customer service innovations to its own bespoke technology platform. 

The popular fitness brand Powerhoop sells weighted hula hoops, and the business was not going to be left out of the loop as it stormed into second place on last year’s Lightning 50 with a huge 2,900% YOY growth rate.

Managing Director Karyn Seroussi, joins Caroline on the podcast today. She reveals some of the growth strategies which saw the brand avoid jumping through hoops and instead achieve astonishing - becoming the fastest growing sports and fitness brand in Britain this past year.