Husband and wife team Manav and Rimi Thapar started LoveRaw: a plant based chocolate brand with £600 and a food processor. Today, the confectionery is sold in 20 countries, and stockists include Asda, Coop and WH Smith. LoveRaw secured £2m of funding from investor Blue Horizon Ventures in 2020, after rejecting an offer in the BBC’s Dragons’ Den two years earlier. The family-run firm is based in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, and products launched this year include vegan peanut butter cups in milk and white chocolate flavours.
How we blagged meetings with buyers to build our brand
More Founder Stories
ON TRACK TO £45M TURNOVER AND “I STILL DON’T SEE MYSELF AS SUCCESSFUL”
When Wayne Spriggs’ company, Lusso, was chosen to kit out the bathroom of The Equinox Hotel’s penthouse suite on Manhattan’s West Side in 2019, he couldn’t help but smile. Flashing through his mind were vivid memories of the two-bedroom houses he used to fix up in his hometown of Middlesbrough. The Equinox was a world away. Yet without starting out on those humble houses in England’s Northeast, the glamorous New York hotel project would never have come about. Moreover, if Wayne hadn’t taken that first step, Lusso – on track to turn over £45m this year – would not exist.
“Our no.1 aim is to be sh*t hot!”
When it comes to pulling off creative ideas, Marie Owen is your go-to leader. Founder of an award-winning production services company, she is the advertising and film industry’s real-life dream-maker. Since starting the business in 2006, Marie has worked with the likes of Harry Styles, Meryl Streep and Marcus Rashford. But it hasn’t all been celebrities and glamour. “I didn’t take a wage for at least four years. But there was always a hunger within me to do more and be better.”
From nearly running out of cash…to becoming G100 number 1!
Founded by friends Purdy Rubin and Charlotte Figg and Purdy’s two sons, Jack and Charlie, Purdy & Figg is part of a new category of products at the intersection of household cleaning and wellness, with a range of sustainable, non-toxic, essential oil scented cleaning products. The company launched its core product ‘Counter Clean’ in 2022 […]
‘Don’t Do What You Love, Do What You’re Good At’
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…
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…
HOW I BUILT A BUSINESS WITH BABY SPICE
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.