
Steve Adams co-founded Mattress Online from his spare bedroom in 2003. In 2022, the company bounced into the FEBE Growth 100 with sales of £33m. Read on to find out how Steve’s done it and what he’s learned along the way. Steve Adams felt lower than the price he’d got for selling his e-commerce agency. […]
SIX REASONS WHY GRIPPLE WENT INTO ORBIT FEBE meets the entrepreneur who: Built a £100m company that can never be sold Encouraged his staff to invest in their business Made it illegal for accountants to take control In June 2018, Yorkshire entrepreneur Hugh Facey was at Buckingham Palace to receive his OBE. The businessman absorbed […]
FOUR FOUNDER LESSONS When Dr Guy Braverman and Dr Allen Hanouka became businessmen, little did they know that they would build a multimillion-pound company that would save many, many lives. Their career paths seemed set when Dr Guy Braverman and Dr Allen Hanouka were working at North London’s Royal Free Hospital in the early 2000s. […]
When businesses face unexpected threats, the directors usually call emergency board meetings. A leadership team gathers in the boardroom to thrash out a survival strategy and take decisions that they often hide from customers and the wider team. Here’s what women’s clothing company Snag did when facing a crisis during 2020’s first lockdown: founder Brie […]
We live in an era of remote working, office pool tables and CEOs signing off emails with smiley emojis. But beneath the fluff, many people still believe deep down that fun and work do not go together – that fun is expensive and a distraction from the DEADLY SERIOUS business of running a company. In these people (you […]
There are Hueligans everywhere – on your road, in the gym, down the pub, in your local restaurant. Hueligans aren’t people who hate spelling(!), but people with one thing in common: they all eat Huel. And their proliferation has propelled the company’s revenue to £100m in just six years. For context, there are four entries in this year’s FEBE Growth 100 to hit £100m+ in six years, but Huel is the only centurion in the consumer goods category. What’s more, it’s on a steeper growth trajectory than some of the huge names…
Connie Nam felt her confidence draining away. The founder of London-based lifestyle jewellery brand Astrid & Miyu had built a fast-growing, multi-million-pound company, but that didn’t matter. As unbelievable as it sounds, imposter syndrome was creeping in. The Seoul-born, US-raised Londoner explains why: “I’d hired someone who’d started to challenge how I ran the business. They were an expert in that field; I wasn’t. I saw myself as a founder, not a CEO, so the criticism hit home.”
As business meetings go, it was unusual. It’s not every day that an entrepreneur with a background in manufacturing pitches to a Spice Girl. But somehow, this rendezvous was going ahead. And Christopher Money was pumped. The year was 2016 and Christopher had moved heaven and earth to get an audience with Emma Bunton. But the outcome of his proposal was in the balance. The idea that Baby Spice would say no to his business partnership invitation wasn’t worth thinking about, as the idea she’d say yes was so incredible. *Enter huge amounts of adrenaline.
Pizza oven maker Ooni’s year-on-year growth is turbo-charged, but the stat that most exhilarates co- founder and co-ceo Darina Garland is not directly related to revenue at all. The number that makes her happiest is the company’s Employee Net Promoter Score, which is a whopping 74. The global average eNPS – a measure of employee engagement – is 12, with anything above 30 regarded as outstanding. So 74 is an outlier that proves that Ooni’s team absolutely loves working there.
Until last year, Wayne Starkey still filed his own VAT returns. Many co-founders of four-year-old companies do – old habits die hard and it saves a few quid in accountancy fees. What VAT-DIYers don’t do, however, is turn down £85m buy-out bids. Ever. Yet that’s the jaw-dropping offer Wayne and co-founder James Whiting rejected just a few months ago. Those facts indicate how far and how fast The Skinny Food Co has come since its 2018 launch. They also reveal how down-to-earth yet ambitious these two entrepreneurs are.
Vanilla Underground’s recent growth has been formidable, with online sales of its officially licensed clothing and apparel going – to use a technical term – completely ballistic. Armchair shoppers are ordering Minecraft T-shirts, Peppa Pig slippers and Harry Potter rucksacks faster than Sonic the Hedgehog. And the trend has handed the company’s Tamworth-based co-founders, married couple Deniz and Jason Yarnell, a heady combination of excitement, joy, and – because you can’t run a business without it – worry.
Charlie Bigham started cooking up his business at home. It all started on his kitchen table 25 years ago. Sitting at his kitchen table, he began to combine ingredients to create dishes that he hoped to sell to local food shops and delis. Today, he employs more than 500 people. We talk to Britain’s comfort-food king Charlie Bigham and extract nine lessons from his extraordinary entrepreneurial journey…
Care is not a traditional business value. Peruse the classics and you’ll see boldness, passion, honesty and perhaps integrity, but not the C-word.
Thankfully things are changing – as Bloom & Wild demonstrates. This flower retailer meets tech company is undoubtedly growing relentlessly. Yet its business values would disorient yesteryear’s ‘manly’ entrepreneurs. “We’re obsessed with care,” says founder Aron Gelbard. “It’s vital to me and it’s a key trait I look for when hiring.”
Peter Roberts is the sort of investor you want on your team. The 75-year-old has been there and done it as a founder, marshalling his biggest recent success, PureGym, to a £160 million turnover and a place in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100. He’s also been there and done it as an investor, fuelling several exciting start-ups on their journeys towards rapid growth…
Entrepreneurial journeys don’t come much wilder. In March 2021, Juliet Barratt watched through tear-filled eyes as Cadbury owner Mondelez International bought the business she’d co-launched in her spare bedroom 11 years ago. The deal was reportedly worth £200m. So why the tears? Quite simply because Grenade was her baby…
Trying to talk to Sarah Willingham without saying “success” is like trying to eat a doughnut without licking your lips. And when the inevitable happens during the first few seconds of our conversation, the Dragon’s Den star does what comes naturally to her – and in her warm and charismatic manner, she takes control and sets the agenda…
When Nicholas Charles Tyrwhitt Wheeler talks business, you listen. The founder of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts has built a company that turns over £220m. He owns 95% of it. So, it’s fair to say Nick has picked up a few valuable lessons since launching his business in 1986. So, when we met Nick, we walked away with seven golden nuggets that we’d like to share with you…
The story of Green & Black’s shows that the courage to be different, together with a compelling adventure story, are key ingredients for commercial success. Josephine Fairley knows how to build a killer brand, and here she shares her pearls of wisdom with you including effectiveness of complementary partnerships, the power of enthusiasm and the potency of targeted marketing…
In the pantheon of British entrepreneurs to have navigated enormous, spirit-crushing roadblocks to turn their dreams into reality, one pushing for kingpin status is 58-year-old Surinder Arora – founder, owner and chairman of Arora Hotels. We spoke to him about his fascinating journey…