The Entrepreneurs

Abe Burmeister is co-founder of the New York-based clothing brand Outlier. Abe was once a freelance graphic designer looking for a better pair of pants. When he couldn’t find any he decided to make them himself. He and his co-founder now run a cult-favourite brand whose mission is to build the future of clothing. Abe shares the Outlier story.

We share top lessons learned from guests of ‘The Entrepreneurs’ in the first half of 2017.

Zoe Partridge is the founder of Wear The Walk, a new London start-up that allows users to rent curated pieces of fashion from an online library. Unlike its competitors it shuns big brands to feature only new and emerging designers. Partridge tells us about the future of sustainable fashion.

Paul Brown is the founder of popular healthy-food start-up BOL Foods, whose bestselling products included meat and fish until the company relaunched this summer as a plant-based brand. So why the dramatic change in strategy? Will customers flock to them or flee? And what sort of planning went into the decision? Brown walks us through the company’s story.

London-based entrepreneur Rebekah Hall left a 10-year career in finance to create an organic cold-pressed juice brand called Botanic Lab. This week she tells us how her company competes in a saturated market of health-conscious consumers.

Antonio Weiss and Matt Brown are the founders of Thomas Clipper, a UK lifestyle brand that crowdfunds design-led products, such as sturdy double-edged razors and Italian-leather wash bags. The two have recently launched a line of French-made cologne on First Edition, their own crowdfunding platform for boutique craft brands. This week the pair share their story.

Restaurateur Brooks Reitz is building an empire of award-winning eateries in Charleston, South Carolina – from the much-loved Leon’s Oyster Shop to Little Jack’s Tavern, recently named one of the ‘Best New Restaurants in America’ by ‘Bon Appétit’ magazine. Brooks shares his rise in the restaurant world, the secrets to his success and his decision to launch a start-up, Jack Rudy Cocktail Company.

For newspapers and magazines, unpacking the complexities of technology stories can be difficult. As editor of ‘Tech City News’, London-based journalist Alex Wood realised that most media outlets did a bad job at writing technology articles for non-experts who care more about big trends than jargon. So, in 2015 Wood quit his job and launched a news site called ‘The Memo’ to fill the gap. This week he shares what he’s learnt after two years.

This week we tell the story of Polly Leonard, founder of the textile industry’s iconic magazine, ‘Selvedge’. What began as a one-off issue is now a cult brand with a dedicated following around the world. Leonard shares how she did it and what she’s learnt.

Marc Vlessing is the founder of Pocket Living, a London-based start-up that’s developed a solution to help priced-out young professionals onto the property ladder. Its product? Compact, well-designed homes sold for at least 20 per cent cheaper than the local-market rate. Vlessing discusses disrupting a stubborn market, shares tips on how start-ups can navigate regulation and looks at the future of living in growing cities.