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.”

This year, Meatless Farm launched a vegan steak made from pea protein, adding to its range of plant-based food that includes meat free mince, burgers and chicken. Danish entrepreneur Morten Toft Bech founded the Leeds-based business in 2016. It opened production hubs in the Netherlands and Canada last year and now exports to more than […]

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…

Jay Richards’ life nearly ended in unmitigated disaster, but his passion for business saved him. Today, his ingenious start-up bridges the growing gap between brands and Generation-Z. As a business, how do you appeal to Generation-Z – those people born from 1995 onwards? How do you sell yourself to schoolkids and fresh-faced young adults in a language they understand?

Not only did Chris Herbert create The Spice Girls but he also managed Five with Simon Cowell amongst many others. More recently, he re-engaged with his 90’s pop roots for the Big Reunion tours, where acts dust off their ‘90’s leather trousers to perform around the world…

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.