The Entrepreneurs

Jeremy Brown and his wife Cath left a vibrant life in London to move to the Devonshire countryside. There they launched Feldspar, a design brand that produces everything from tableware to lambswool blankets and is stocked in some of the best retailers in the country, including the Victoria & Albert Museum shop and Fortnum & Mason. Jeremy tells us how the countryside inspired their endeavour.

Dax Dasilva is the founder and CEO of Lightspeed, a tech firm founded in Montréal in 2005. The company provides point-of-sale software for small retailers and restaurants around the world, helping them to manage inventory, sell online and connect with suppliers and customers. Dasilva tells us how Apple was an inspiration, how design was crucial in shaping the company and why they chose to stay in Montréal.

Joel Clarke, Owen Walker and Diti Katona trace the story of their Toronto-based small-batch aperitivo rosso brand Capo Capo.

Amelia Harvey is the woman behind The Collective, an innovative yoghurt brand that has shaken up the dairy aisles of supermarkets across the UK and Europe with its playful packaging and fruity flavours. Founded in 2011 as a joint venture with the original New Zealand-based company, it has now grown into a thriving business with annual sales of more than €33m and a vast range of dairy products. In this episode Harvey reveals the secret to getting your foot in the supermarket door (literally) and explains how the food sector is evolving.

Archie Lee Coates IV traces the story of PlayLab, the creative studio he co-founded in New York in 2009.

Alex Bec is the co-founder of the HudsonBec Group, a company which began in 2007 with a website called ‘It’s Nice That’. The mission of the website was, and still is, to “enable creativity to thrive” and it does this by giving exposure to great artists, designers and illustrators all over the world. The brand now encompasses a printed biannual magazine and an events programme – and has a loyal fanbase. Alex told us about the brand’s humble beginnings and how it has grown since then.

Michael and Nicola Sacher are the husband-and-wife team behind cat-and-dog outfitters Mungo & Maud. In this episode, they tell us how their English setter sparked the idea for the brand and how it has grown into the world's top shop for discerning pets.

In the early years of the internet and social media, many assumed that e-commerce would eclipse traditional retail. But today many brands are successfully shifting their focus away from the screen and back to the high street. We hear from four businesses invested in that change, from pop-up-space rental platform Appear Here and clothing labels Kotn and L’Estrange to Singapore’s We The People, a shop bringing crowdfunded projects to bricks-and-mortar.

Toronto-based cosmetics entrepreneur Gaelyne Leslie explains why she left a career in investigative journalism to fill a niche in the all-natural cosmetics sector with her company, Crawford Street Natural Skin Care.

Jonathan Levine is the co-founder and CEO of Master & Dynamic, a New York-based company that makes high-end headphones and audio accessories. Levine talks about the early days of the company, its many collaborations and why it is important to be a contrarian at times.