England football captain Harry Kane is one of the investors behind this gut health brand, which raised £1.4m in March. Dr Megan Rossi, a gut health specialist and research fellow at King’s College London, joined forces with chief executive Jon Walsh to launch the business in 2019 with a range of ‘good for the gut’ granolas. They have expanded the brand to mueslis, porridges and live yoghurts, and retail sales hit £2.8m last year. The products are stocked in more than 1,400 stores nationwide, such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, and celebrity fans include Davina McCall.
Founding a business is brutal…but amazing!
Dr Megan Rossi & Jon Walsh
Bio&Me
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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…
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WHY ‘LET’S GO AGAIN!’ IS THE ULTIMATE ENTREPRENEURIAL MANTRA
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.
JASON & DENIZ YARNELL
CO-FOUNDERS - VANILLA UNDERGROUND
“We’re obsessed with care”
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.”
ARON GELBARD
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How I overcame illness, tragedy and humiliation to build a multimillion-pound global brand
Rob Law has conquered more challenges than most, including family tragedy, personal illness and humiliation on national TV. Here, Rob reveals the tools he uses to dance around seemingly immovable obstacles and we uncover why having these tools in your kitbag is often the difference between success and failure…
Rob Law MBE
Founder - Trunki
‘Starting our business nearly killed us…’
Born in 2016 with the posting of a simple question on Facebook by friends, Owen and Lee, ‘What can I get you?’ From this, GoGetters has now evolved into a food ordering & delivery platform dedicated to promoting local, independent business in communities outside of UK’s major cities, now extending to cover towns across Essex, […]
OWEN BARROW & HERCULES NICOLAU
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How a naïve idea turned into a multi-million pound company
Stay unbelievably close to what your customer wants.” This simple piece of advice helped to propel Clare Hornby’s fashion brand ME+EM from a “naive idea” to a £40m-turnover business. “The key thing is to get your product right – and you only do that by understanding your customers,” she tells FEBE…
CLARE HORNBY
CO-FOUNDER - ME+EM