Dock & Bay was created in 2015 to reinvent the beach towel. The company’s lightweight towels are made from recycled plastic bottles and are quick drying, compact and sand repellent. In 2017, co-founders Andy Jefferies and Ben Muller appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, securing a £75,000 investment from Deborah Meaden in exchange for a 10% stake. The London-based business has warehouses on three continents and has expanded its eco-friendly product range to include hair wraps, make-up removers, ponchos and more, all using materials made from recycled plastic bottles building on its mission to become a sustainable lifestyle brand. Sales have doubled in two years, reaching £8.4m in 2021.
Great culture is about hiring great people. Nothing else.
Andy Jefferies
Co-founder - Dock & Bay
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‘As an entrepreneur my job is to be a hype-man and recruiter’
Founded in 2016 by then 23-year-old George Melhuish, this West Bromwich based company supports over 30,000 customers. Safe Fence is a manufacturer, hirer, distributor and installer of non-mechanical construction site plant. Expansion into areas such as groundworks, scaffolding and material handling equipment has seen sales more than double in two years, reaching £13.8m in 2021.
George Melhuish
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From Dragons’ Den to a £12m business
Startup Logistics provides services including shipping, bulk storage, and website support to e-commerce brands. The company was founded by Udhi Silva and Nick Coleman, who previously founded online healthcare supplier Medical Supermarket in 2011 and snack company Snaffling Pig in 2013. As a result of their experience building Snaffling Pig, they understood what consumer brands […]
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Why we’ll be bigger than Heinz
Dr Will’s is on a mission to reduce our sugar consumption. Its sauces, dressings and mayonnaise are made with only natural ingredients and are sweetened with dates rather than added sugar. Its eponymous cofounder, Dr Will Breakey, teamed up with Liam White and Josh Rose to launch its products in 2017, and they have since won
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Dr. Will's
How we secured a slam-dunk deal with the NBA
Two years ago, we wrote about James Macfarlane under the headline: ‘The quiet tech entrepreneur who’s building a half-billion-pound empire’. Hands up. We low-balled him. In April 2021, PM Connect signed a contract with the NBA. The agreement, means that fans in Europe and South Africa can now pay to watch the New York Knicks, LA Lakers et al via their mobile phone. Where the business could go from here is dizzying…
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HOW TO BOOTSTRAP A FUTURE UNICORN
Entrepreneurs set themselves testing targets – it’s what they do. From hotel owners to jewellery makers, they must strike out alone or with a small team and forge something special. Doing so requires a deliberate dash – naked at first – into a painful daily hailstorm of challenges. It’s a tough calling by nature, and there are as many different dreams burning holes in founders’ pillowcases each night as there are stars in the sky. But of all the entrepreneurial goals, there can be few more demanding than the one Dima Kats set himself in 2016.
DIMA KATS
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Fancy-dress costumes, robots and £1bn
This is a story about robots, a six-year-old company worth £1bn, and a costume-wearing CEO. This incredible ‘unicorn’ business is on a mission to disrupt how surgery is done around the world. So, how did this unicorn with more than 500 staff come about? Read their amazing story here…
Martin Frost CBE
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