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
More Founder Stories
We made millions from Spandex costumes…then we nearly lost it all
MorphCostumes is an online fancy dress costume retailer founded in 2009 by brothers Ali and Fraser Smeaton and their flatmate Gregor Lawson. The company started as a small online business selling full-body skintight costumes – commonly referred to as Morphsuits, after the founders noticed their popularity at a stag do. In 2014, the Edinburgh-based company […]
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…
It’s not about the money. It’s all about the mission.
This start-up is transforming the way music royalties are paid. The Audoo Audio Meter™ tracks and identifies music played in public places, such as shops, gyms and bars. The data is sent to performing right organisations to ensure that artists are compensated for their work.
The man on a mission to make parking forgettable
After experiencing the frustration of poor parking experiences, Dan Hubert launched AppyWay in 2013. His vision was to build a platform that would standardise, and centralise a digital version of the kerb. AppyWay’s platform aims to enable cities and fleets to optimise their operations and transition to net zero.
Entrepreneurship is a disease…but I don’t want the cure’
This technology start-up unlocks the world of whisky. It has developed proprietary image capturing software that allows mobile phones to scan and identify any bottle of the ‘golden elixir’. The Bevvy app displays a variety of information on the scanned whisky, including an estimated valuation, tasting notes, user ratings and distillery history. Its database stores details of more than 200,000 bottles, and the app is aimed at anyone from novices to collectors and distillery owners. Headquartered on the Isle of Islay, the company was set up in 2021 by leading whisky expert Laurie Black, and entrepreneur Luke Heron, co-founder of medtech firm TestCard.
From Dragons’ Den to a £12m business
Startup Logistics provides services including shipping, bulk storage, and website support to e-commerce brands. The company was founded by Udhi Silva and Nick Coleman, who previously founded online healthcare supplier Medical Supermarket in 2011 and snack company Snaffling Pig in 2013. As a result of their experience building Snaffling Pig, they understood what consumer brands […]