Beijing-born twins Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu launched this men’s cosmetics brand in 2019 after raising funds from angel investors Sally Preston and Neil Mather of Kiddylicious, the children’s snack business. Bestsellers in Shakeup’s skincare and makeup range include moisturiser, under eye concealer and face masks. The brand is stocked by national and overseas retailers, such as Harvey Nichols, Superdrug and Australia’s Myer, and it recently launched its new Face 4ward range in China. The Xu brothers previously set up READY, a creative agency based in Bath.
The twins set to shake up the cosmetics industry
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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…
OONI Pizza Ovens: ‘We didn’t disrupt this market; we created it’
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.
HIGH FIVES, CHAMPAGNE AND A KILLER SERIES-A
James Jackson and Jack Allman co-founded Bumper in 2013. Today, backed by Porsche Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover and Silicon Valley’s finest, they are building something special… In 2021, Bumper co-founders James Jackson and Jack Allman closed their Series-A funding round. High fives and Champagne followed – and plenty of it. The duo and their team […]
Dragons’ Den’s Jenny Campbell: “If people lack self-belief, energy and attitude, you won’t believe in them.”
Jenny Campbell does not do negative. If you fancy a moan about the weather, go elsewhere. If your toast landed butter-side down this morning, keep schtum. With Jenny, you’ll do well to keep it positive and energetic. Future Dragons’ Den contestants beware…
‘How we made tofu sexy’
Tofoo produces organic, gluten-, dairy- and yeast-free products from soybeans. Husband-and-wife team Dave Knibbs and Lydia Smith have built the business to sales of £18.6m in 2021. The North Yorkshire firm says it is the fourth-largest brand in the chilled meat-free market, with more than one million households buying its products regularly. Its recent growth is partly due to winning listings in major retailers including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
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.