The Entrepreneurs

‘Eureka’ is a spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week Josh Udashkin tells us how he became inspired to create the New York-based “smart” luggage start-up Raden.

During a three-month hospital stay when he was 18 years old, Ed Cooke studied memory techniques to overcome boredom. By the age of 23 he was a Grand Master of Memory, someone who can memorise 1,000 random digits in an hour and the order of a deck of cards in two minutes. Cooke is now the founder of a fast-growing start-up called Memrise, which allows people to learn a language quickly while also having fun. He outlines the value of a good memory and tells us how Memrise gained tens of millions of users.

After three years in Afghanistan, Flore de Taisne and Edmund Le Brun created Ishkar, a social enterprise that curates products made by artisans affected by war. They explain how they did it.

In 2003, after a globetrotting career as a broadcast journalist, Nancy Durham and her philosopher husband planted a lavender field on their Welsh farm. What began as a passion project evolved into a much-loved company that distills lavender oil to create creams, balms and chocolate, all inspired by Welsh hill farmers. Durham tells Daniel Giacopelli about her transition from journalist to farmer, as well as mistakes made and lessons learned.

‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. Catherine Gazzoli grew up on a healthy Mediterranean diet, worked in food education at the UN in Rome and was the head of Slow Food UK. Here she explains how she got the idea for her organic baby-food brand Piccolo.

It’s a tough time to be a wristwatch business. Swiss watch exports have plunged, global demand has sunk and the industry is in a slump. But is it all doom and gloom? Where are the opportunities? This week Daniel Giacopelli sits down with Stephen Pulvirent, managing editor at the world’s most popular online watch magazine ‘Hodinkee’. Pulvirent explains the ups and downs of the sector and charts the evolution of ‘Hodinkee’ as the spiritual home for a new generation of mechanical-watch lovers.

This week we hear the story of Swede David Voxlin, founder of London-based start-up Craved, which works with independent producers to curate and sell craft food and drink made entirely in the UK.

It’s sold in more than 140 countries, served in more than 100,000 outlets and almost seven million cups of its product are consumed everyday. But with an evolving coffee scene, a rise in Asian demand and the threat of climate change, how is Italian brand Illy preparing for the future? Daniel Giacopelli sits down with Massimiliano Pogliani, the first CEO employed from outside the family, to find out.

‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Dr Neema Moraveji, director of Stanford University’s Calming Technology Lab and co-founder and chief scientist of Spire, a wearable device that tracks and influences your state of mind.

Cousins Robert Nightingale and Jonathan Cazzola grew up in the British countryside, where they developed a passion for vintage motorcycles. Amid careers in branding and design, they realised that the motorcycle world lacked a handsome and robust luggage and accessories brand and so decided to create one. The pair share the origins of their company, Malle London and tell us why they tested products on a 10,000-mile road trip across North America.