M24: The Entrepreneurs: Recent Episodes
M24: The Entrepreneurs
Monocle 24’s weekly tour of the most inspiring people, companies and ideas in global business, whether they are starting from scratch, reinvigorating the family firm or developing new technology.
Monocle 24 is Monocle’s round-the-clock radio station that launched in October 2011 and is broadcast from our headquarters at Midori House in Marylebone. You can listen live via our player at monocle.com, as well as downloading shows from our site, iTunes or SoundCloud; we also have a handy app.
The station delivers news and comment, plus magazine shows covering a range of topics including food and drink, urbanism, design, culture, business and print media. Our newsgathering operation includes bureaux in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Zürich, New York and Toronto, as well as dedicated correspondents in over 30 cities from São Paulo to Sydney.
Katrina Smith and Gianluca Franzoni are the co-founders of Nubocha, a US-based company that has developed a healthy and delicious dairy-free gelato for the American market. Launched in 2018, the husband-and-wife team worked to develop an innovative recipe using high quality, sustainably sourced ingredients, including Italian hazelnuts and Ecuadorian cacao. Franzoni is an Italian chocolatier who created premium chocolate brand Domori in the 1990s.
Katrina Smith and Gianluca Franzoni are the co-founders of Nubocha, a US-based company that has developed a healthy and delicious dairy-free gelato for the American market. Launched in 2018, the husband-and-wife team worked to develop an innovative recipe using high quality, sustainably sourced ingredients, including Italian hazelnuts and Ecuadorian cacao. Franzoni is an Italian chocolatier who created premium chocolate brand Domori in the 1990s.
Lucas London is CEO and co-founder of Lick, a UK-based home-décor brand launched in 2020, which makes paint, wallpaper and blinds. The company recently partnered with Made.com and is aiming to inspire more people to take on home renovations. Plus: Monocle’s Nina Milhaud speaks to Karana co-founder Blair Crichton about the brand’s whole plant-based meat alternative – made from jackfruit – and Asia’s growing taste for meat alternatives.
Taylor Simmons is the CEO of Coco Shop, a clothing brand which was first established on the Caribbean island of Antigua in 1949. The retail outpost became well-known to island residents and visitors alike for its patterned summer dresses and shirts. When the founders retired in 2017, the brand’s future was uncertain. Simmons is leading with design and is aiming to elevate the brand without stepping on what has made the label so beloved for decades.
Benjamin Swan is CEO and co-founder of Sustenir Agriculture, a Singapore-based company that has created a unique vertical farming model to help tackle food insecurity, reduce waste and lower the carbon footprint of food production. Plus: we hear from Hammerhead CEO and founder Pieter Morgan on creating a bike computer that can power the pros – including his investor and high-school friend Chris Froome – and make our streets safer for everyone.
Dor Raviv and Yarden Gross are co-founders of Orca AI, a Tel Aviv-based company that provides data and technology solutions to help ships and other vessels navigate the globe safely. Launched in 2018, after the pair met in the Israeli navy, the company works with the world’s biggest shipping operators to cut down on the thousands of accidents a year that are caused by human error.
Liza Lazerow and Fabian Berglund are two of the co-founders of Nordic Knots, a Stockholm-based brand making rugs inspired by natural light in the Nordics and classic Scandinavian design. Plus: we meet Jim McMillan, the founder of The True Honey Co, a brand he was inspired to launch in 2013 after flying over hills of Mānuka flowers in remote parts of New Zealand’s north island as a helicopter pilot.
David de Rothschild is a conservationist and explorer, and the entrepreneur behind The Lost Explorer, an award-winning mezcal brand he created to show how production of the famed Mexican spirit could be done in a more sustainable way. Known for his adventures, De Rothschild discusses why mezcal had nothing to do with the brand he was aiming to create. Plus: Vision-Box CEO Miguel Leitmann talks about making cross-border travel safer and easier for travellers.
Ryan Prince is the founder of Uncle, a London property company that aims to make renting in the city a more desirable and stress-free experience. Prince is a past guest on ‘The Entrepreneurs’ and speaker at Monocle’s Berlin Quality of Life Conference. With all the headlines about people fleeing for the countryside, host Daniel Bach visited Prince at Uncle’s London building to catch up and discuss how Uncle is evolving to cater to city-dwellers.
Brad Wilson is the president of the Ace Hotel group, which is set to open its latest property in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill with a Toronto property soon to follow. The first Ace Hotel was founded in Seattle in 1999 by partners Alex Calderwood, Wade Weigel and Doug Herrick, and Wilson joined in 2011 to help expand their vision. Ace prides itself on looking at different kinds of existing buildings in off-the-beaten track neighbourhoods.
Danish architect and industrial designer Mikal Harrsen founded interior-design brand Design Editions in 2019. Based in Brianza, the heartland of Italian furniture design, it produces premium acoustic panels and contemporary wall décor. Harrsen has found success as people retreated indoors during the pandemic and looked for ways to improve their home acoustics. He previously launched Scandinavian furniture brand MA/U Studio.
Henrik Müller-Hansen is the founder and CEO of Gelato. The Norwegian entrepreneur launched Gelato in 2014 to help companies print and manufacture things in local markets. It now has more than 100 production partners in 32 countries, creating books, prints and gifts, allowing brands, corporations and small-business owners to create and ship items closer to their end destinations, reducing the impact on the planet and cutting down on shipping time and costs.
Valerie Brandes is founder and CEO of Jacaranda, an independent UK-based publisher she launched in 2012. With the aim of bringing more diverse voices to market, Jacaranda and its writers have won multiple awards and the publisher recently secured several partnerships, including with Hachette and Audible, which will help to share those stories with a wider audience.
Tequila is a booming business globally. This week we hear from two of the most exciting brands on the market, which are making waves with their award-winning spirits. Max Davies-Gilbert and Robin Clough walk us through the story of their brand Enemigo, which is stocked by the UK’s top hotels and restaurants and is growing rapidly in the US. We also hear from surf film-maker turned spirits founder Taylor Steele about his sunny brand Solento.
Patagonia has been known for decades as a leader in climate activism. This week, we catch up with Beth Thoren, the outerwear brand’s environmental action director, to hear about the initiatives she is spearheading in Europe. Plus: Monocle’s Josh Fehnert speaks with Irish entrepreneur Jonathan Legge to hear about &Open, the company that has reimagined corporate gifting, opening a market for well-made gifts.
Lay Koon Tan is the founder of Nature Squared, which uses natural materials in its luxury products such as car interiors, pens, homeware and furniture. Utilising manufacturing byproducts that would otherwise go to waste – including bamboo, egg shells, mango skins, feathers and tobacco leaves – Nature Squared has collaborated with the likes of Rolls Royce, BMW and Montblanc.
Frank Cooper III is the senior managing director and global chief marketing officer at Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager. Cooper started his career as a lawyer for iconic music labels Def Jam and Motown, before moving into marketing with Pepsico and later Buzzfeed. Today he helps brands decode the “S” in ESG, finding out how they can best impact society, and is on a mission to address financial inequality.
In the second part of our feature on supporting artisans and makers, we meet Catherine Lock, who is co-founder and creative director of The New Craftsmen. The brand works with a range of top makers from across the British Isles, curating and supporting their work which is sold online and at its Mayfair showroom in London. Launched in 2012, the brand works with designers and artisans making everything from furniture and lighting to art textiles and tableware.
In the first part of our look at how best to support artisans and makers and to celebrate their craft, we meet Suzie de Rohan Willner, CEO of UK womenswear and homeware label Toast, to learn about its mentorship platform, The New Makers. Plus: we meet Martin Johnston and Lise Bonnet, the couple behind Amsterdam label Crafted Society, which shines a light on some of the leading Italian makers of luxury clothing, shoes and accessories.
The market for the resale and rental of clothing, accessories and luxury items is booming. This week, we speak to Eshita Kabra-Davies, CEO and founder of UK rental platform By Rotation about why sharing is a preferable option to buying new, and head to Hong Kong to meet Sarah Fung, CEO and founder of luxury resale platform Hula. Plus: ‘The New York Times’ Styles reporter Elizabeth Paton discusses trends and opportunities in the market.
The market for the resale and rental of clothing, accessories and luxury items is booming. This week, we speak to Eshita Kabra-Davies, CEO and founder of UK rental platform By Rotation about why sharing is a preferable option to buying new, and head to Hong Kong to meet Sarah Fung, CEO and founder of luxury resale platform Hula. Plus: ‘The New York Times’ Styles reporter Elizabeth Paton discusses trends and opportunities in the market.
A couple of years ago, Sydneysider Nik Robinson’s children were learning about the future of the environment at school and decided to do something about it. And so Robinson, along with his sons Harry and Archie, began work on Good Citizens, a brand that turns plastic PET bottles into sunglasses. In a Sydney factory, plastic pellets are turned into shades that have a square or round frame in ocean blue, dark brown or ‘lemonade’ hues.
Charlie Cole is the CEO of FTD, the 110-year-old old flower collective that has been building back its business following a bankruptcy in 2019. The brand’s iconic Mercury Man logo is seen in the window of more than 30,000 florists in 125 countries. Having previously worked for luggage brands Samsonite and Tumi, Cole is helping FTD grow in the world of e-commerce while finding the best way to support local businesses the world over.
Sandra Nassima founded Depuravita in 2015, selling a range of detox juices and smoothies, using locally sourced fruits and vegetables, in smart and sustainable packaging. The Italian brand has since added a line of natural nutrition and skincare products, including probiotic chocolates, at dozens of retailers across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Sebastian Fogg is the co-founder of restaurant consultancy Montana Fogg, launched alongside his partner Laura Montana in 2017. Having launched top restaurants in London, Los Angeles and New York, Montana Fogg advises a host of business at all stages, from how to get started to changing direction entirely. This week, Sebastian tells us what the industry has learned from the past year and offers advice for the hospitality industry as many eateries prepare to reopen.
Konrad Bergström is the founder of X Shore, a Swedish electric-boat manufacturer that designs pleasure craft with the environment and nature in mind. With modular interiors and without the noise of a loud engine they allow for a more enjoyable time on the water. Previously, Bergström founded Zound Industries, the licensee of Marshall headphones and speakers.
Foday Dumbuya is the founder and creative director of Labrum London, a British-African menswear brand he launched in 2015 to bridge the gap between London and the culture of West Africa. Originally from Sierra Leone, he moved to the UK as a young man. After college, he started his career in fashion working for DKNY and later for Nike. He was recently commissioned to design Sierra Leone’s Olympic kit for the upcoming summer games.
Foday Dumbuya is the founder and creative director of Labrum London, a British-African menswear brand he launched in 2015 to bridge the gap between London and the culture of West Africa. Originally from Sierra Leone, he moved to the UK as a young man. After college, he started his career in fashion working for DKNY and later for Nike. He was recently commissioned to design Sierra Leone’s Olympic kit for the upcoming summer games.
Vera and Philippe Henco are the founders of Nyyukin, a jewellery brand based in Düsseldorf inspired by modern graphic design. Manufactured in Germany, Nyyukin’s bracelets are a marriage of cutting-edge technology and traditional craftsmanship. The brand’s pieces are made using 3D-printed titanium and stainless steel for the base and polyamide for colourful, interchangeable inlays. It was launched out of the couple’s design studio KittoKatsu with the help of their friend Johannes Hundt, who has almost 40 years of industry experience.
Last year was very nearly the end for home-sharing platform Airbnb, which lost around 80 per cent of its business following lockdown announcements. But co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky says the turbulence of 2020 has allowed the California-based company to get back to its roots. Following a hugely successful IPO in December and high demand for longer-term, closer-to-home rentals, the company is now working to tackle the problem of over-tourism by encouraging people to discover new places to travel.
Jakob Dworsky and August Bard Bringéus are the co-founders of Swedish menswear label Asket. Launched in 2015, the brand’s aim is to create well-made wardrobe staples to inspire customers to buy less. More recently, Asket created an impact receipt for its staple pieces and overhauled its packaging. It’s an incredible example of a brand fighting back against greenwashing and pushing the boundaries of the fashion industry at the same time.
Charlotte and Adam Cameron co-founded The Workers Club, a UK menswear and lifestyle brand, in 2015. The pair, who met at university, have more than 30 years of combined experience working in luxury and high-street fashion. Based in Oxfordshire where the couple live, The Workers Club focuses on creating long-lasting, functional garments with the best materials.
Hailing from Alberta, Canada, restaurateur and entrepreneur Lindsay Jang moved to Hong Kong 12 years ago with business partner Matt Abergel. She is the co-founder of three of Hong Kong’s best Japanese-inspired restaurants (and Monocle favourites) Yardbird, Ronin and Roti Tori, as well as food shop Sunday’s Grocery and drink brand Sunday’s Spirits. Though it all she has somehow found the time to launch creative agency Hecho. Yardbird recently received its first Michelin star.
Jules Trecco and Marc Simoncini co-founded Angell in 2018. A French e-bike company, launched with the future of our cities in mind, its first vehicle was created by French product and furniture designer Ora-Ïto. One of the lightest e-bikes on the market, with a sharp streamlined design, Angell’s smart technology makes cycling safer for riders and motorists too.
Canadian serial entrepreneur Michele Romanow is the co-founder and president of e-commerce investor Clearbanc. Since launching in 2015, the company has invested more than USdescription::value.5bn in more than 4,000 companies in five countries. Romanow, also a co-host on CBC television show ‘Dragons’ Den’, says that though e-commerce is booming, retail may now be as important as ever for brands, where consumers expect great in-store experiences and seamless online shopping.
Vivien and Howard Wong co-founded mochi ice-cream brand Little Moons in 2010 after leaving careers in finance. The brother-and-sister team grew up watching their parents run a family bakery, and loved to eat the traditional Japanese mochis. They began by selling directly to London restaurants and are now stocked by Whole Foods, Selfridges and Amazon.
We meet Jessica Warch and Sidney Neuhaus, childhood friends who grew up in family jewellery businesses and are now co-founders of Kimai, a brand built around lab-grown diamonds in Antwerp, which is appealing to more socially aware buyers. Plus: spirits-branding expert Elwyn Gladstone joins to discuss Hotel Starlino, an all-natural aperitivo and vermouth range distilled in Turin.
Bethan Higson founded Mother Root, a London-based aperitif brand, from her Peckham kitchen. The company’s first product, the all-natural Ginger Switchel, is a revival of a traditional mixture dating back to the 1700s, made from ginger, honey, apple-cider vinegar and chilli. Higson used her experience in the wine business to partner with restaurants and retailers in her neighbourhood.
Hans Meyer is co-founder of Amsterdam-based hotel company Zoku, which launched in 2016. Zoku’s apartments are designed to act as hybrid work and living spaces that allow us to relax, sleep, entertain or simply focus. The company will open properties in Vienna and Copenhagen later this year. Meyer was co-founder of another Dutch brand, CitizenM, and began to work on Zoku’s concept while living in Bali, Buenos Aires and Washington.
Jessica Mason is the founder and CEO of Piglet, a linen bedding and sleepwear brand that she launched in 2017. Jessica started her career in marketing and PR, working in London and Dubai for brands including Aēsop and Ray-Ban, experience which has come in handy in growing her own brand. Jessica recounts the growth of Piglet from its modest beginnings at her parents’ home in Sussex to breaking into the US market.
Equiano is a rum made between Africa and the Caribbean, which is using its name to tell the story of Olaudah Equiano. The Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist was able to buy his freedom from slavery in the 18th century in part by selling rum, before settling in London. Two of the brand’s co-founders, Ian Burrell, a prominent rum expert, and Aaisha Dadral, who is behind the creative studio Crave, discuss creating the perfect rum to tell Equiano’s story.
Johann Bödecker and Jamie Hall are the co-founders of Pentatonic, a design firm that creates products that promote a more sustainable way of living. Run between London and Berlin, they’ve worked with a host of top brands, such as Microsoft, Red Bull and Starbucks, and recently collaborated with Otherware, the creative collective launched by Pharrell Williams. Together they created the Pebble, a portable cutlery kit made in part from recycled CDs.
Wes Stoody is founder and CEO of Article One, an eyewear brand born in Flint, Michigan. Article One has made a name for itself in terms of both style and craftsmanship, with all of its frames made by just a few small factories in northern Italy. Article One has collaborated with Monocle and a host of great brands in the activewear space including Café du Cycliste, Ciele Athletics and Tracksmith.
Alfredo Lopez is founder of The Natural Wine Company, a Barcelona-based business launched by Lopez and the team behind the cult interiors magazine ‘Apartamento’. With a focus on organic and biodynamic wines, international subscribers receive four to six bottles of wine a month, usually from small and independent producers. It’s proved a great option for people across nine European countries seeking a well-stocked cellar.
Monocle 24’s weekly tour of the most inspiring people, companies and ideas in global business, whether they are starting from scratch, reinvigorating the family firm or developing new technology.
To start the new year, we discuss both opportunity and growth. We catch up with Alex Bec, co-founder of the HudsonBec Group, to hear about the latest offering from the company behind the magazine ‘It’s Nice That’. Called Extra Nice, the new venture is a way for members to invest in the community. We also meet Ilya Volodarsky, co-founder of leading e-commerce analytics firm Segment, which helps thousands of companies to better understand their customers.
In the second part of our favourite conversations from 2020 we meet Steve Tidball, CEO and co-founder of men’s outerwear label Vollebak. Plus, we catch up with Uruguayan fashion designer Gabriela Hearst to talk about sustainability and what it takes to survive in New York.
In the first part of our look back at 2020 we hear from Blake Mycoskie: serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Toms, the shoe company behind the one-for-one giving model. Blake’s new venture is called Madefor, a program helping people cultivate good habits. We also sit down with Maria Hatzistefanis, founder and CEO of Rodial, the skincare brand she launched in 1999 with her own small investment.
When Miriam and Christian Cervantes moved to Vienna with a view to opening their own plant shop, they didn’t think they would be doing so in the middle of a pandemic. But they persevered and launched Calienna in September after months of lockdown and renovation. Alexei Korolyov speaks to the pair about their new shop.
Dion Nash founded Triumph and Disaster in 2011 after retiring from playing professional cricket for New Zealand’s national team. The independent brand’s hair, face and body care lines are inspired by New Zealand’s natural beauty and sold by Selfridges, Liberty London, Harvey Nichols, Mr Porter and hundreds of hotels and salons globally. The company also opened a new flagship store in Auckland earlier this year.
Raffaella Grisa is the founder of organic beauty brand Wait, inspired by Italian and Japanese approaches to wellness. Turin-based Grisa spent years travelling Asia and importing fashion pieces and accessories for a western audience. Launched earlier this year, Wait is a line of body-care products and fragrances made from traditional natural ingredients from both Italy and Japan.
This week we’re on the run with three standout labels: Tracksmith, Satisfy and Hylo Athletics. From London, Hylo’s co-founder explains how he left behind a career as a professional footballer to create the sustainable shoe brand. In Paris, we meet a fashion-industry veteran who put French textile expertise to work on his new label, Satisfy. And in Boston, Tracksmith helps us to tackle the running commute.
We visit Longines’ museum and workshop in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, to find out about the watch-maker’s long history in aviation and what goes into crafting a watch that stands the test of time.
Sisters Sophia, Georgia and Nina Scott are the co-founders of Groundtruth. The accessories brand makes its pieces from a bespoke, 100-per-cent recycled material that is designed to withstand the world’s harshest climates. Georgia and Sophia are documentary filmmakers who have travelled the world covering environmental and humanitarian concerns, while Nina is a textiles specialist. Together they are utilising their expertise in product design, showcasing the brand’s journey and demonstrating how to create transparency in supply chains.
Howard Hughes was a lot of things: one of America’s first billionaires, a film producer and an entrepreneur in industries from media to oil to property. But Hughes was also a keen aviator and owner of the airline TWA, who broke round-the-world records and paved the way for competition in international air travel.
This week we meet two women whose life’s work is inspired by the natural surroundings in which they grew up. Dr Rachel Barrie, known as the “first lady of Scotch” is the master blender of Benriach. We also hear from a beauty-industry pioneer, Sylvie Chantecaille, who worked with Estée Lauder before starting her own label dedicated to conservation.
John Foley, the CEO and co-founder of Peloton, launched the fitness brand in 2012. It’s now valued at more than €30bn. Built around bringing live spin classes into the home, Peloton has studios in New York and London. Foley tells us about the company’s growth, which included an IPO last year, and delivering on massive demand in 2020.
Wiley Post lived his short life to the full. His passion for aviation landed him in jail and lost him an eye but it also meant that he set round-the-world records and soared to new altitudes to discover jet streams, all by the age of 36.
Uruguayan designer Gabriela Hearst launched her eponymous label in 2015, the same year that she took over her family’s ranch in Paysandú. Her rural, off-the-grid upbringing informs the aesthetic of her functional, timeless clothing and accessories, underscored by an environmentally conscious approach to production and packaging.
We profile Elinor Smith, the daredevil pilot who had an incredible career in the air, set multiple world records and continued to fly planes up until the age of 89.
Ben Gorham, who grew up between Stockholm, Toronto and New York, is founder and creative director of Byredo, a brand he launched in Sweden in 2006. When his dream of playing professional basketball didn’t work out, Gorham went to art school and later started making fragrances to elicit memories. Producing scents, homeware and clothing, Byredo has retail outposts around the globe and launched a makeup line in October.
This week, we meet Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans. Cyrill is a German designer and entrepreneur who started Parley in 2012 as a forum for creative industries to address major threats towards marine ecosystems. It’s had notable collaborations with Adidas, Anheuser-Busch InBev, American Express and the UN.
In this new series we profile some of the fearless record-breaking aviators who flew to dizzying heights and were pioneers in their field. We begin with the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart, who paved the way for women in aviation.
Robert Wright and Tiberio Lobo-Navia are the co-founders of Beni Rugs. The Marrakech-based label works closely with local communities to craft made-to-order rugs for its clients, weaving ancient tradition together with digital creation and ordering. We also meet António Magalhães, who along with his brother, co-founded menswear label Portuguese Flannel, celebrating their family’s legacy in textiles. Founded in 2013, they create unique cotton, linen and flannel clothing, which you can find at their flagship Porto shop.
Pete Butler and James Terry are co-founders of Dishpatch, a London-based business delivering ready-to-cook meals from top restaurants across the UK. The company was launched through the Entrepreneur First network at the start of the pandemic and is now working with restaurants to improve the experience of at-home dining.
This week we hear from two companies using good product design to help shift consumer habits in food and drink. We speak to Dan Black of London’s Black + Blum to hear about its range of stainless-steel lunch boxes, cutlery and water bottles that are inspiring people to think twice about wasteful packaging. Plus: we meet Justin Wang of Larq, makers of self-cleaning water bottles and pitchers that remove bacteria from water using UV light.
Antoine Hubert is the CEO and co-founder of Ÿnsect, a French agri-tech company that farms insects to make high-quality feed for fish, plants and pets. Launched in 2011, the company is a leader in environmentally friendly products and farming techniques. To date it’s raised almost 0m and is in the process of building an automated insect farm in Amiens in Northern France, with plans to expand the vertical farming model around the world.
Oliver Ripley is the co-founder and CEO of Habitas, a hospitality group he launched in 2014 with Kfir Levy and Eduardo Castillo. They dreamt up the idea to start a hotel group built around experience and impact following a trip to the Burning Man festival. With locations in Tulum and Namibia, Habitas is working to expand to Bhutan, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and further locations in Mexico.
Using its carbon-neutral fleet of electric bicycles and vans, Foodlogica has been transforming the last mile of inner-city food delivery. Launched in 2016, the company has transformed from a small-scale experiment into a lucrative business across three countries by identifying a problem and solving it efficiently.This week, co-founder Francesca Miazzo explains how the idea came to her.
Mat Hunter is co-founder and co-CEO of Plus X, the first purpose-built facility for technology, innovation and hardware pioneers in the UK, which he created alongside Paul Rostas. Their first location is in Brighton, on the UK’s south coast, with plans to grow across the country. We also hear from Josh Wyatt, CEO of NeueHouse members clubs, on creating work and cultural hubs to connect cross-industry creatives and entrepreneurs.
Curra Rotondo is co-founder of Lefrik, a Madrid-based company that makes backpacks and travel accessories from recycled plastic bottles. Designed with commuters in mind, Lefrik backpacks are functional, light and waterproof – and stylish. Before founding Lefrik, Curra worked in the fashion industry for 14 years. She teamed up with David Ruiz Andrés, the founder of Grenergy, one of the largest renewable-energy companies in Spain, to found Lefrik in 2012.
Bernhard Gademann, headmaster and director of Institut auf dem Rosenberg – an international boarding school in St Gallen, Switzerland – discusses entrepreneurial spirit in the education space. Plus: we meet Johannes Ariens, CEO of Loge Camps, which has breathed new life into outdoor-focused hospitality.
Jill and Steve Henry are the founders of Meander, an Edinburgh-based outerwear brand. The idea for their minimalist and multifunctional pieces came after a charity ride from London to Paris, which inspired their mission to design a performance jacket to look good in the bar afterwards.
Matt Alexander is the CEO and co-founder of Texas-based Neighborhood Goods, a modern take on the department store that opened its first outpost in Plano in 2018 and now has locations in New York and Austin.
Richard Ettl is co-founder and CEO of SkyCell, a Swiss company that makes smart pharmaceutical containers used in the transport of highly sensitive treatments and vaccines. Along with sealed, temperature-regulated containers, SkyCell provides data to make logistics simple. Not only do the containers prevent spoilage, itself a multi-billion dollar problem, but they provide the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with data on the best and most efficient shipping routes.
Alejandro Bethlen is the CEO of leading floral brand The Bouqs, a California-based company launched in 2012 by John Tabis and Juan Pablo Montúfar. Bethlen joined from Amazon earlier this year. Plus: we hear from Alan Mahon of Scotland’s Brewgooder about the importance of remembering your reason for starting a business.
Tim Warrillow is the co-founder and CEO of Fever-Tree, the premium drinks and mixers brand he launched with Charles Rolls in 2005. As you’ll hear, the pair went to the ends of the Earth to find the best ingredients possible. Plus: Black Tomato co-founder, Tom Marchant, discusses the future of luxury travel.
Peter de Boer is co-founder of Willsark, an Amsterdam-based beer brand producing London Göse, a unique sour beer. The company was started by four friends as something of a side hustle but the founders hope that one day Willsark will be their main venture.
James Chambers talks to American entrepreneur Hao Tran, the co-founder of Vietcetera, a lifestyle-focused media company based in Ho Chi Minh City. Plus, we meet Tushar Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of HubbleHQ, a platform helping companies to find their perfect office space.
Helena Price Hambrecht and Woody Hambrecht are the founders of Haus, a California brand making apéritifs from fruits and botanicals grown on their Sonoma County farm. Recently they created a range of drinks inspired by restaurants across the US to support the sector during lockdown.
Mark de Lange is the founder of Amsterdam-based eyewear brand Ace & Tate, which has more than doubled its retail footprint to 65 locations since we last spoke to De Lange in 2018. We ask him about moving the brand forwards and how the brand’s focus on sustainability has a lot to do with bricks and mortar. Plus: we meet lawyer-cum-ceramics designer Stine Dulong to hear about turning her passion into a business, SkandiHus.
Richard Lee Massey is the founder of Apt, a new hospitality platform in London. The reopening of London’s restaurants earlier this month was a welcome relief for many. But with physical-distancing restrictions still in place, Apt will allow groups of friends to dine in a more intimate setting. They can choose from a host of top chefs and rent one of 98 private apartments at east London’s Town Hall Hotel for their meal.
CitizenM has fast-tracked the launch of an app across its 20 properties. It is designed to ensure that as much of the hotel experience as possible can be contactless. We ask Robin Chadha, CitizenM’s chief marketing officer, how the company will retain a warm and personal touch for guests. Plus: we meet Marieke Flament, CEO of Mettle. She tells us how its digital account is helping small brands to focus less on finance and more on what really matters.
In 2019, Russell Gong and Achal Patel launched Cabinet, a New York-based company selling ethically made over-the-counter health essentials. During lockdown in the US, Cabinet partnered with Uber to ensure safe delivery of its products.
We meet Ning Li, founder of Typology, an all-natural beauty brand launched in France in 2019. He launched the company, his third venture, after stepping down as CEO at Made.com. Typology recently launched in the UK amid the global pandemic. We also get advice on reframing problems from Dave Evans, a best-selling author and co-founder of the Stanford University Life Design Lab. We discuss his new title, ‘Designing Your Work Life’.
Jack Scott and Alex Wright are the co-founders of Dash Water, which makes sparkling water using fruit and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. Since launching in 2017, the UK brand has saved more than 250 tonnes of fruit and sold more than seven million cans.
Co-founders of Akt, Andy Coxon and Ed Currie met in 2015 when they were both dancers. They wanted to create a natural deodorant that actually worked. Their product is a balm, applied like a lotion, which comes in an aluminium tube with recyclable packaging and includes ingredients such as mandarin, petitgrain, cedar and eucalyptus.
Alex Bennett-Grant is the founder and CEO of Amsterdam-based We Are Pi, an award-winning ad agency. He tells us about working with clients to reflect changes in culture and society, from digital transformation to calls to end systemic racism.
Luca Gnecchi Rusconi is the founder of LGR, an eyewear brand inspired by Africa. His entrepreneurial journey began during a family trip to the former Italian colony of Eritrea in 2005, when he came across several pairs of vintage Italian-army sunglasses. He soon left his job in finance and embarked on creating his own line of eyewear.
We meet Jules Miller, founder and CEO of The Nue Co, who launched the supplement brand in the US in 2017 after her own health concerns. Her company has attracted huge interest during the global pandemic. Plus: some clever brand-communication advice from Karl Wikström of Sweden’s Akestam Holst.
Florian Gschwandtner is an Austrian serial entrepreneur and co-founder of fitness app Runtastic. Launched in 2009, the self-funded company is considered by some to be the first Austrian start-up. After incredible growth, Runtastic was bought for €220m by Adidas in 2015, with Florian staying on as CEO until 2018. Today he is also an advisor to the Austrian government on entrepreneurship and co-founder of Tractive, which makes real-time location trackers for pets.
József Váradi is co-founder and CEO of Hungarian airline Wizz Air. Váradi helped to guide Wizz through the financial crisis of a decade ago and explains why Wizz is well placed to hit new heights in the future. We also hear about the looming office revolution from Bruce Davison, CEO of GoSpace AI, and why hope is a great motivator from Nils Leonard , founder of Uncommon Creative Studio.
As more people contemplate navigating on two wheels post-pandemic, what role does the industry play? We hear from cycling kit brands Rapha, Café du Cycliste and Machines for Freedom and bike manufacturers Specialized and VanMoof. We introduce you to technology partners Strava, Beeline and Wahoo and hear from the voices behind Hexr, Beryl Bikes, Laka and The Service Course, possibly the world’s best bike shop.
Ariel Childs, managing director of Winkreative, tells us how to work with leading brands to help them rethink the mission and remember the customers they’re working for. Plus: we meet the authors of ‘The New Long Life: A Framework for Flourishing in a Changing World’ and speak to Jono Holt, founder of creative agency Otherway.
Abigail Lorick is the founder of Ansea, a US-based swimwear company making pieces for women from sustainable materials. Lorick’s career in fashion has ranged from modelling to designing clothes for ‘Gossip Girl’. Ansea was backed by Solera, a women-owned private-equity firm in New York.
Alain Sylvain, CEO and founder of New York brand consultancy Sylvain Labs, tells us how personal experience informs leadership during troubling times. Plus: we head to Islay off the west coast of Scotland to meet Douglas Taylor, CEO of Bruichladdich distillery.
Carlos Ferrando is the founder and CEO of Closca, a Valencia-based company that designs products to inspire change. These include an award-winning collapsible bicycle helmet and the Closca mask (conceived as an anti-pollution mask for cyclists) to help protect people from coronavirus.
We catch up with David Abrahamovitch, the CEO and founder of Grind, which is behind 11 central London cafés and restaurants. He tells us why he is optimistic about the business when the doors swing open again. We also meet author and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Alex Lazarow to discuss his new book ‘Out-Innovate’, in which he writes about the need to back businesses for the long run.
Josh Lachkovic is the founder of The Wine List, a London-based wine-education company that began as a newsletter. Members receive two bottles of wine every month, along with tasting notes and materials to help them gain confidence in choosing their drink. Lachkovic is forming relationships with smaller wineries in order to deliver unique wines.
Blake Mycoskie is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and founder of Toms, the company he launched in 2006, which created the one-for-one model of donating a pair of shoes for each pair sold. Blake’s newest venture is called Madefor, a company which has created a 10-month programme to help people cultivate good habits using tools Blake picked up after struggling with depression.
Oxford-based Kyle Grant launched Oxwash in 2017 while a PhD student. Claiming to be the world’s first sustainable laundry company, Oxwash uses new technology to clean and disinfect at lower temperatures, use less water and filter out microfibres. The company recently announced a €1.6m investment to help it expand.
As countries emerge from lockdown and try to restart their economies, it’s clear that our world will be much different, particularly in the way we travel and navigate our cities. This week, we hear from renowned explorer Henry Cookson on escapism and from Alain Visser, CEO of Lynk & Co, on why car companies have a massive role to play in finding mobility solutions.
Cristina Würdig is co-CEO of Officina Dario Pegoretti, a bespoke Italian bicycle manufacturer that bears the name of her late friend, a renowned maker of frames by hand who passed on his skills to his apprentice, Pietro Pietricola. Their freeform “ciavete” style of painting is celebrated in a new short film called “Dream On”. Cristina talks about inspiring the next generation to make things by hand.
This week we check in with Reformation and Canada Goose to uncover just a few of the many incredible stories of how the fashion industry has stepped up to support healthcare workers tackling the coronavirus pandemic. We also hear from the co-founder of Vollebak on creating clothing fit for the harshest conditions and head to Paris to get advice on tackling uncertainty from the founder of De Bonne Facture.
Nicky Kelvin is director of content for The Points Guy UK, a leading travel-advice platform. The lifelong aviation enthusiast started his career as a music lawyer and photojournalist but turned his side hustle of sharing his travel expertise into a successful career. With much of the world under lockdown, Nicky tells us how best to approach future bookings.
This week we hear about an inspiring initiative in Italy, where publishers have been supporting independent bookshops throughout the lockdown. We also meet Alex Chua of the Goldbell Group in Singapore, which has created a €3.2m B2B lending scheme, and put questions to Georg Ludviksson, CEO of Reykjavik-based Meniga, on starting a business during a downturn. Plus: we cast an eye to the future of sustainable aviation with Connectjets founder Gabriella Somerville.
Canlis might be the only restaurant in Seattle that still maintains a dress code but the 70-year-old fine-dining institution is anything but stuck in the past. When coronavirus struck, third-generation owners Brian and Mark Canlis used it as an opportunity to rethink their business. Brian tells Monocle about how Canlis has pivoted and how they’ve managed to not lay off any employees.
As gyms are closed and many of us are stuck at home, it’s an opportune time for home fitness platforms. We speak to Bruce Smith, founder of Hydrow, while Jason de Savary of London’s Core Collective talks about the gym’s new CCTV platform.
As gyms are closed and many of us are stuck at home, it’s an opportune time for home fitness platforms. We speak to Bruce Smith, founder of Hydrow, while Jason de Savary of London’s Core Collective talks about the gym’s new CCTV platform.
This week we hear from Debbie Wosskow, Stefan Allesch-Taylor and Julietta Dexter, three serial entrepreneurs and successful business founders who give us their tips and tricks on finding the right market for your product or service.
Bryan Papé is the founder and CEO of MiiR, a Seattle-based brand making reusable stainless-steel drinkware. Miir has had to close its flagship retail and café space due to the pandemic but a new artist collaboration called ‘Alone but Together’ is boosting team morale.
Bryan Papé is the founder and CEO of MiiR, a Seattle-based brand making reusable stainless-steel drinkware. Miir has had to close its flagship retail and café space due to the pandemic but a new artist collaboration called ‘Alone but Together’ is boosting team morale.
Bryan Papé is the founder and CEO of MiiR, a Seattle-based brand making reusable stainless-steel drinkware. Miir has had to close its flagship retail and café space due to the pandemic but a new artist collaboration called ‘Alone but Together’ is boosting team morale.
Businesses big and small are facing a world of uncertainty but there’s no time like the present to rethink your company mission and retool for the future. Guests include SeedLegals on fundraising, fashion designer Christopher Raeburn on defining your purpose and Headspace co-founder Richard Pierson on navigating uncertainty.
Tessa Clarke is CEO and co-founder of Olio. It was the first app to allow neighbours to share food, which might otherwise go to waste. Since launch in 2015, more than 3.6 million portions of food have been shared by almost 2 million people in 49 countries. The company also has a dedicated network of volunteers who pick up food from local businesses to share with the community.
The global pandemic has created a challenging environment for many businesses. But at the same time, there is plenty of opportunity to start delivering solutions for clients and customers. This week, Monocle’s editor in chief, Tyler Brûlé, offers a moment of clarity, while Pip Jamieson answers questions from listeners. In our feature interview, Nils Leonard advises on how to kick things into gear, to stop asking “what next” and to refocus on purpose.
Brother-and-sister duo Sean and Sara Panton founded this Vancouver-based essential-oil brand in 2014. While the pair began by blending their products in their shared kitchen, Vitruvi is now one of North America’s leading players in a fast-growing industry.
Around the world and across all businesses, we are living in difficult times. Business leaders are trying to answer a long list of pressing questions. How will our firm secure revenue to keep the lights on? How can we be nimble and reactive to the needs of our customers and clients, while also finding opportunities for growth? And will some of this uncertainty just become our new reality? We asked a few founders for advice.
Tom Molnar is CEO and co-founder of Gail’s Bakery, which has more than 50 UK outposts. Tom started it after meeting Gail Mejia, founder of The Bread Factory, a wholesaler serving London’s top chefs. For 2020, Gail’s launched the “Waste-Not” campaign to champion reduction of food waste.
Tom Molnar is CEO and co-founder of Gail’s Bakery, which has more than 50 UK outposts. Tom started it after meeting Gail Mejia, founder of The Bread Factory, a wholesaler serving London’s top chefs. For 2020, Gail’s launched the “Waste-Not” campaign to champion reduction of food waste.
Every year more than one billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption is estimated to be wasted. We meet two women leading the fight against such waste: Mette Lykke from Copenhagen-based Too Good To Go and Elsa Bernadotte from Stockholm company Karma.
Every year more than one billion tonnes of food produced for human consumption is estimated to be wasted. We meet two women leading the fight against such waste: Mette Lykke from Copenhagen-based Too Good To Go and Elsa Bernadotte from Stockholm company Karma.
Austrian company Wohnwagon’s award-winning caravan features sheep’s wool insulation, triple-glazed windows and a solar water heater. The design has won a prestigious Austrian business prize and could prove to be a green alternative to owning property.
JP Mastey is founder of unisex-natural-deodorant brand Corpus. Mastey is the former owner and president of Baxter of California, the premium men’s grooming and skincare brand he bought in the year 2000. He left Baxter not long after it was sold to L’Oréal in 2013 and this venture marks his return to the beauty industry. The conversation tackles the skincare industry, sustainability and growing a covetable brand.
Oliver Goffe co-founded the UK-based Marloe Watch Company in 2015 with Scottish designer Gordon Fraser, then a complete stranger. The pair didn’t meet in person until 18 months after they started speaking, and today continue to work remotely on their range of smart mechanical watches.
Jonathan Petrides is the CEO of Allplants, a vegan food business that he co-founded with his brother Alex. Since launch in 2017, the company has cooked and shipped more than one million meals across the UK.
Phil Cody launched the UK shoe brand Cody & Co in 2019. The company manufactures all its footwear in Sheffield, using traditional methods inspired by Phil’s favourite Italian brands.
Clemens Böninger is co-founder of The Drug Store, an upscale London-based retailer focused on CBD products with locations in Marylebone and the City. Clemens started in the medical marijuana market, but shifted his focus in response to the demand for CBD-based natural remedies. Just around the corner from our Midori House headquarters you’ll find the first permanent location, a minimalist shop that resembles an art gallery.
Philip Chan is head of Page Hotels, the Hong Kong-based company that’s just launched a new property in central London. We talk to him about the small details of his hotels and how to create a fresh concept in a crowded market.
Maria Hatzistefanis is founder and CEO of Rodial, the skincare brand she launched in 1999 with a small investment. While raising a family and writing two books, Maria has managed the company’s expansion into 35 countries. Maria started as a beauty writer for ‘Seventeen’ magazine in her native Athens before studying business at Columbia in New York. But after a short career in finance, she saw a niche for targeted skincare products and created Rodial.
Alexander Walton Masters is the managing director of The Out, an on-demand luxury car-rental company that exists to help Londoners escape the city. The company was born out of Jaguar Land Rover’s venture-capital arm InMotion, which incubates and invests in companies in the mobility space. From delivery to pick-up of its Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, The Out aims to take away the usual pains of renting.
Freddie Blackett is the co-founder and CEO of Patch, the London-based online garden centre launched back in 2015. Patch helps customers find and choose the right plants for their space and then delivers them right to their door. From rookie gardeners to plant enthusiasts and big-name corporate clients, Patch has proved popular in helping Londoners select and care for their plants, while giving them confidence to head out to the local garden centre too.
Twin brothers Byron and Dexter Peart, founders of fashion and accessories label Want Les Essentiels in 2006, are no strangers to launching a business. In 2019 they established Goodee, an online marketplace that sells sharp-looking, sustainable home goods that are ethically made.
Steve Tidball is the CEO and co-founder of Vollebak, a men’s outerwear label launched with one question: what does the future of clothing look like? Steve and his brother Nick dreamed up the brand while running ultra-marathons in extreme conditions. Today, leaning heavily on science and technology, their team creates pieces from materials most have never thought to use, from titanium to graphene.
Ellie Webb is the founder of Caleño, a non-alcoholic spirit inspired by the flavours and colours of Colombia. Since its launch in January 2019, the Bristol-based brand has sold almost 30,000 bottles of the juniper and inca berry alcohol-free spirit.
Dan Murray Serter is the co-founder of London-based Heights, which manufactures a multivitamin aimed at improving brain function. Heights came about as Dan struggled with insomnia and his previous venture, the mobile-shopping platform Grabble, was failing. Dan tells us how he convinced Grabble’s investors to refocus on Heights.
Carl-Magnus Norden is the CEO and founder of Volta Trucks, a Swedish company that’s developed an electric truck aimed at commercial use in dense urban areas. A serial entrepreneur, Norden came out of retirement in Switzerland to start the company.
Louise McGuane launched Irish-whiskey label JJ Corry in 2015 after spending more than 20 years working in marketing for premium drinks brands. She has revived the practice of whiskey bonding, a popular practice in Ireland before the industry was decimated in the 1930s. McGuane sources, matures and bottles her own blends and single malts from her family farm in County Clare.
Christian Pauzenberger is the co-founder of Vielö, the Austrian skincare brand behind a range of products made using liquid organic whey, a byproduct of the dairy industry. Launched in 2017, the company’s Whey Series is designed and produced entirely in Austria and includes a range of hand and body washes, and lotions. Sold directly to the consumer, and carried at select stockists, the certified organic products symbolise the circular economy model of business and production.
Raja Dhir is the co-founder of microbiome company Seed. Based in LA, Seed is a collective of scientists and doctors, researching how bacteria can improve human health and that of our planet. Its first product, a daily synbiotic, focuses on the stomach.
In revisiting our favourite conversations with technology-company founders in 2019, we hear from Richard Pierson, a former ad executive who founded meditation app Headspace with a Buddhist monk; Luis von Ahn, CEO of free language-learning tool Duolingo; and Michelle Kennedy, founder and CEO of the app for mothers, Peanut. Plus: getting people to use their phones less and creating companies for both profit and good.
We talk to some of the leaders in the world of fashion on how to cut waste and design more sustainably. The brothers Christopher and Graeme Raeburn tell us about their "reduced, recycled and remade" concept, and we chat with Kresse Wesling from Elvis & Kresse about recycling London’s discarded fire hoses to create luxury handbags and her programme that reuses leather offcuts from Burberry.
We talk to some of the leaders in the world of fashion on how to cut waste and design more sustainably. The brothers Christopher and Graeme Raeburn tell us about their "reduced, recycled and remade" concept, and we chat with Kresse Wesling from Elvis & Kresse about recycling London’s discarded fire hoses to create luxury handbags and her programme that reuses leather offcuts from Burberry.
Chris Hall is the executive vice-president of Long Meadow Ranch, a family-owned California wine company and integrated agricultural business. Started after his parents bought the ranch in 1989, the company now runs four wineries, a restaurant, café and farmer’s market. As California now deals with the effects of climate change and widespread wildfires, Long Meadow Ranch has become a leader in environmentally friendly practices – also known as full-circle farming.
Linda Liukas is a Finnish programmer, author, illustrator and founder of Hello Ruby, an interactive and fun children’s book series about technology and computing. Launched on Kickstarter in 2014, the series is now published in 25 languages. Liukas also founded Rails Girls, teaching programming to young women in more than 300 cities, and here discusses why our view of life with computers isn’t more hopeful.
Martin Murray, founder and CEO of Austria’s Waterdrop, has created the ‘microdrink’: an effervescent, compact cube made of plant and fruit extracts that can be added to tap or filtered water. It’s a response to the large carbon footprint of the drinks industry, which ships glass and plastic worldwide.
After working at Nike and Disney, Andy Mooney joined Fender in 2015, becoming the first CEO of the US heritage guitar brand to actually play the instrument. He now oversees the relaunch of Fender’s iconic models and the company’s digital growth.
Lisa Yamai is the executive vice-president of Snow Peak, the Japanese outdoor apparel and gear firm, and granddaughter of the company’s founder. Yukio Yamai was an accomplished mountaineer who started the brand in 1958 to create climbing gear that met his standards. In 2014, Lisa joined to lead the design and development of the company’s first ever clothing line. We met her after the launch of Snow Peak’s new flagship store in central London.
Nicola Kilner is the co-founder and CEO of Deciem, a skincare firm with 50 shops that is known for its tagline, ‘The abnormal beauty company.’ Kilner co-founded the company with Brandon Truaxe, launching 10 brands in 2013. But it was the firm’s eleventh brand, The Ordinary, which has been its most successful to date. In January 2019 – after a turbulent 2018, which included a very public struggle with mental-health issues – Truaxe was found dead. Kilner has spent the year helping the company follow through on Truaxe’s vision.
Agata Kozak launched Madrid-based Cossac in 2014, a women’s fashion label with a focus on sustainability. Kozak – who grew up in Poland, studied in Barcelona and Istanbul and worked in London – wants people to buy less while investing in quality pieces, which is why she makes wardrobe staples to span the seasons.
Camilla Fayed is the restaurateur behind plant-based Farmacy, which uses vegetables, fruit and herbs from her biodynamic farm in Kent. Launched in London in 2016, Farmacy now has an outpost in New York.
Will Pearson and Nick Doman are co-founders of Ocean Bottle, the London-based company behind a reusable water bottle that allows consumers to measure their impact on the collection of plastic in our oceans and rivers. Every bottle funds the sweeping up of about 11kg of plastics through partner Plastic Bank, which pays collectors in Brazil, Haiti, Indonesia and the Philippines. Since this year’s launchit has sold more than 30,000 bottles.
Galahad Clark is the co-founder of Vivobarefoot, whose lightweight shoes promote natural movement and help feet grow stronger. Galahad launched the company in 2012 with his cousin Asher Clark, both of whom are relatives of the original founders of Clarks, the English heritage shoe brand.
Brother-and-sister duo Sean and Sara Panton founded this Vancouver-based essential-oil brand in 2014. While the pair began by blending their products in their shared kitchen, Vitruvi is now one of North America’s leading players in a fast-growing industry.
David Kahl is the CEO and founder of Fully, a Portland-based office-furniture brand designing desks and chairs which, it says, encourage a more active and energetic workspace. Kahl started his professional life as an accountant. The job took him to Manhattan, where he lived through the horrors of September 11th, an experience that inspired him to focus on building positive work environments. He launched Fully in 2006, which is now a Certified B company working with top manufacturers in Europe.
Stephen Ying is the founder of Spinbox, a company making portable turntables with the aim of bringing music on vinyl to new audiences. Ying is a classically trained musician who also tours the world as DJ QuestionMark. By creating Spinbox he was hoping to introduce more people to a DIY style of making and sharing music. Spinbox is made with a durable, waterproof cardboard shell and includes built-in speakers and an amplifier.
Julian Hearn is the founder of nutrition brand Huel, one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. Hearn sold a previous business for a tidy sum in 2011 before launching Huel in 2015 with input from nutrition expert James Collier. The company has sold more than 40 million meals in more than 80 countries. Huel’s drinks are created to be a complete meal, with a balance of protein, carbohydrate, fibre, fat, vitamins and minerals.
Tom Warner is the co-founder and director of Warner’s Distillery, the UK’s largest independent gin brand. It’s based on a 200-year-old farm in Northamptonshire that has been in the family for generations; now it boasts a two-hectare botanical garden, more than 400,000 bees and bountiful berries that go into a newly released raspberry gin.
Luis von Ahn is co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, the world’s most popular language-learning tool, teaching more than 35 languages to 300 million people globally. Presented like a game, the platform plays to our competitive nature: a passive-aggressive owl called Duo reminds users to practise daily. The company is also expanding into literacy: new app ‘Duolingo ABC’ is aimed at helping people who can’t read or write to learn their mother tongues.
Monocle’s Alexei Korolyov meets Masha Dabelka, a Russian DJ, artist and founder of Turntablista, a school in Vienna teaching the art of turntablism and nurturing women DJs. Dabelka launched the project after winning a contest and bursary from Vienna Business Agency’s creative centre Departure. The school gives students an opportunity to play music live through its collaboration with an independent radio station.
Monocle’s Alexei Korolyov meets Masha Dabelka, a Russian DJ, artist and founder of Turntablista, a school in Vienna teaching the art of turntablism and nurturing women DJs. Dabelka launched the project after winning a contest and bursary from Vienna Business Agency’s creative centre Departure. The school gives students an opportunity to play music live through its collaboration with an independent radio station.
Folk’s creative director Cathal McAteer founded the streetwear label in 2002 after moving to London from Glasgow. Known for their lush materials, wearable feel and smart details, Folk’s clothes have cult status worldwide. The brand recently launched a low-impact partnership with retail giant John Lewis called It’s All Good Folk.
Kathryn Duryea is the CEO and founder of Year & Day, the San Francisco-based tableware company making ceramics, cutlery and glassware. In creating a brand that helps people connect around the table at home, she set out on her own, finding partners in Italy and Portugal to craft the necessary pieces.
Kathryn Duryea is the CEO and founder of Year & Day, the San Francisco-based tableware company making ceramics, cutlery and glassware. In creating a brand that helps people connect around the table at home, she set out on her own, finding partners in Italy and Portugal to craft the necessary pieces.
Norma Kamali is the New York-based fashion designer whose career spans five decades. She has always been ahead of the trend, whether that’s re-using parachute silk, designing the sleeping bag puffer coat that made her name, becoming obsessed with personal health and wellness or championing gender-neutral clothing. Along with her flagship retail space on West 56th Street, Norma has designed pieces for Whitney Houston, Farrah Fawcet, Bianca Jagger, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.
Hiro Shinn and Ty McLaren are the founders of KOA, a New York-based men’s skincare brand inspired by the natural beauty of Hawaii. They started their careers together in investment banking but quickly decided that they were more interested in building a brand of their own.
Hiro Shinn and Ty McLaren are the founders of KOA, a New York-based men’s skincare brand inspired by the natural beauty of Hawaii. They started their careers together in investment banking but quickly decided that they were more interested in building a brand of their own.
Emily Brooke is the founder of Beryl, the cycling company behind a new bike-sharing scheme in London with sharp mint green bikes. Emily is also the inventor of the green laserlight integrated into hire bikes around the world. Emily launched the company, originally Blaze, in 2012 off a successful crowdfunding campaign and went on to raise more than £1M in the first few years, while being recognized with an MBE for services to transport and the economy.
Portugal’s João Correia, a former pro cyclist, is the founder of InGamba, a high-end cycle-touring company that gives riders a taste of life in the peleton. But instead of competition, clients enjoy good food, fine wine and beautiful landscapes.
Fredrik Carling is the CEO of Hövding, a Malmö-based company that makes what it calls the world’s safest cycling helmet: an airbag that inflates from a collar around the neck. The idea of industrial-design students Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, the product was seven years in the making. After a career at Levi’s, Carling joined to help the company grow.
Joey Zwillinger is an engineer and renewables expert who co-founded Allbirds along with former New Zealand professional footballer Tim Brown in 2015, who was our guest on ‘The Entrepreneurs’ last year. This week, Zwillinger tells us about new eco-friendly materials and production methods that the Certified B company has introduced to help it grow its product line and retail footprint while maintaining its commitment to sustainability.
Olof Sköld is the co-founder and CEO of Gothenburg’s sports-nutrition brand Maurten, whose hydrogel technology allows athletes to ingest high levels of carbohydrate while avoiding gastrointestinal issues. And owing to a client list that includes top athletes sponsored by other companies, it recently released unbranded packaging.
Paddy Cosgrave is the CEO and founder of Web Summit and Collision, two of the leading technology conferences in the world. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Cosgrave worked in a number of start-ups before launching the annual Web Summit conference in Ireland, which has grown steadily since 2014. He is now listed as one of the most influential people in technology.
Lyn Harris is the founder of Perfumer H, the boutique brand, shop and working laboratory she runs in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood. Harris is one of the most well-known names in the world of fragrance; she created her new label after leaving previous venture Miller Harris. Having studied the art of creating fragrances in her twenties under the tutelage of renowned perfumer Monique Schlienge, Harris moved to Grasse, spending five years at the prestigious French fragrance manufacturer Robertet.
Lyn Harris is the founder of Perfumer H, the boutique brand, shop and working laboratory she runs in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood. Harris is one of the most well-known names in the world of fragrance; she created her new label after leaving previous venture Miller Harris. Having studied the art of creating fragrances in her twenties under the tutelage of renowned perfumer Monique Schlienge, Harris moved to Grasse, spending five years at the prestigious French fragrance manufacturer Robertet.
Rob Moncrieff is the founder of Motionlab, a company that believes it has created the perfect commuter bag. Its backpack puts the weight on the hips instead of the shoulders, increasing movement for runners and cyclists while reducing strain and the risk of injury.
Adir is the co-founder and CEO of Uncommon, a company using research into wellbeing to create beautiful co-working spaces. Launched in 2014, it has four locations, including a property on London’s Liverpool Street. After working at a top international law firm, Adir set out on her own, initially launching property development firm G&T London before turning her attention to her latest venture.
Peter Carayiannis is a lifelong watch collector and now co-founder and designer of Mission Watch Company, a Toronto-based watch brand. Carayiannis launched Mission in early 2019 along with Aron Solomon after spotting a gap in the market for affordable watches that didn’t sacrifice quality. Their first watch, The Mission 1, comes with a Japanese movement and is limited to 300 pieces.
Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo is the co-founder of Fiol Prosecco. Gian Luca grew up in a wine-producing family in the Prosecco region and, after years of working for Armani and Moncler in Milan, he was looking for something to take him back to his home in Treviso. Along with childhood friends Pietro and Giovanni Ciani Bassetti, Passi de Preposulo launched luxury brand Fiol that, he is hoping will boost the profile of prosecco as a premium product.
Alenka Repic is the founder of Kaaita, a Slovenian company that has placed its footwear in dozens of hotels across the world. Trained as an economist, Repic launched Kaaita in 2004 as a creative consultancy helping other companies on environmental issues. Over the years, the company has transformed into a boutique manufacturer making sustainable slippers. For this week’s programme, Guy De Launey went to Kaaita’s headquarters in Ljubljana.
Chris Sheldrick is the CEO and co-founder of what3words, an easy-to-use geocoding system that the London-based company believes can be a new standard for sharing precise locations. It has created a three metre x three metre grid across the globe and assigned unique three-word addresses to every square. Emergency services and delivery companies are using the system to reduce error in reaching hard-to-find locations. Mercedes-Benz took a stake in the company and is integrating the platform into its vehicles.
Stuart Wells is the global head of brand marketing and communications for Adidas Outdoor, made up of Adidas Terrex and heritage brand Five Ten, which focuses on trail running, mountain biking, climbing and outerwear. The department operates as more of a start-up and is driving research and development and collaborations with brands such as Parley for the Oceans. Wells has years of brand and entrepreneurial experience, having worked with Nokia and global agencies McCann-Erickson and BBDO.
Karim Kaddoura is co-founder of Virtuo, the French start-up that’s shaking up car hire. It offers no-nonsense rentals of premium Mercedes not only from airports and train stations but in city centres across France and the UK. The company is expanding quickly, taking away the pain of hiring a car and offering something better than car sharing. Karim’s father owned a dealership and his entrepreneurial journey has been about rethinking our relationship to cars.
Andrea Salinas is the founder of eco-swimwear brand Now Then. While the landlocked Spanish capital of Madrid is the unlikely nerve centre for a women’s swimwear brand, Andrea’s savvy decision to base there has allowed her to shore up business opportunities and reliable logistics. Her eco-friendly fabrics are fitted around the idea that both consumers and industry insiders need to change their ways.
James Uffindell is the CEO and founder of Bright Network, a UK-based platform launched in 2013 that matches more than 200,000 graduates with jobs at more than 300 global businesses, including Bloomberg, Dyson, Goldman Sachs and KPMG. Uffindell began his entrepreneurial career after university by helping prospective students secure a place at Oxford and Cambridge. He later realised that he could help those same people get jobs to match their skills.
James Uffindell is the CEO and founder of Bright Network, a UK-based platform launched in 2013 that matches more than 200,000 graduates with jobs at more than 300 global businesses, including Bloomberg, Dyson, Goldman Sachs and KPMG. Uffindell began his entrepreneurial career after university by helping prospective students secure a place at Oxford and Cambridge. He later realised that he could help those same people get jobs to match their skills.
Swaady Martin is the founder and CEO of Yswara, a line of ethically grown African teas and accessories. Based in South Africa, the brand was launched in 2012 and is now carried in 30 retailers across 17 countries. Its tea is the first African foodstuff to be sold at Harrods and Selfridges. Before launching her own luxury label, Martin spent a decade at General Electric helping to grow the company’s portfolio across Africa.
Flora Davidson and Gus Bartholemew are co-founders of Supplycompass, a platform launched in 2015 aimed at creating a trusted and transparent supply chain for the fashion industry. From sourcing materials to manufacturing, the platform helps businesses and designers know exactly what they are buying. The firm works with more than 50 factories in India and Portugal and more than one million products having been made through Supplycompass to date, including homeware and furniture.
Tomer Botner is the founder of Florentine Kitchen Knives, the Barcelona-based company he runs with his wife, Noam Blumenthal. The brand is named for the Florentin area of the couple’s native Tel Aviv. Botner started the brand as part of his thesis project while studying industrial design and now produces colourful bespoke knives for hobbyists and top chefs around the world.
Cousins Kavi and Shamil Thakrar are the co-founders of Dishoom. Their seven restaurants across the UK are a love letter to the old Irani cafés of Bombay (now Mumbai): perfect meeting places in a bustling diverse city. The cultural mash-up bears a resemblance to modern London where Kavi and Shamil opened their first location 10 years ago in Covent Garden. The clever affordable menus are full of comfort food and interpretations of classic dishes.
Zane Salah is the founder of Lexxola, the London-based sunglasses brand he was inspired to start after a trip to Los Angeles. Disappointed by the quality of what was accessible to him on the market, Salah gave up his day job in art to pursue building the company. His mission is to recreate classic designs, producing high-quality frames in Japan at an affordable price.
Mark Gainey is the co-founder and chairman of Strava, the rapidly growing social network used by more than 40 million people in 195 countries. From gold-medal efforts to weekend jogs around the park, Strava allows users to share their workouts. Gainey is a Harvard graduate and former venture-capital executive whose earlier venture, Kana Communications, was valued at bn and provided a solution to customer-service email in the early days of the internet.
Jamie Cook is the founder and CEO of Hexr, a London-based company behind what may be the safest bicycle helmet ever created. For decades, there has been almost no innovation in foam cycling helmets, beyond them becoming more aerodynamic. After five years of research and testing at University College London and Oxford University – and more than 3,200 prototypes – Hexr’s 3D-printed helmets began shipping earlier this month. The firm’s head-scanning app ensures you get a perfect fit.
Graeme and Christopher Raeburn are the brothers behind Raeburn, the east London fashion studio whose “remade, reduced, recycled” ethos is a benchmark for sustainable design. After a decade as head of design at cycling brand Rapha, Graeme returned to the company. Then earlier this year, to mark the 10th anniversary of Christopher’s first Remade collection – a series of pieces crafted from a single recycled parachute – the Christopher Raeburn label became simply Raeburn.
Eddie Brook is co-founder and CEO of Cape Byron Distillery, which launched near Australia’s Byron Bay in 2016. Legendary whiskey distiller Jim McEwan invested in the venture and agreed to mentor Brook after learning about his family’s 96-acre farm. A wasteland 30 years ago, Brook’s parents planted 35,000 subtropical rainforest trees, regenerating the land and – it turns out – creating an incredible climate for making spirits.
Rémi Clermont is co-founder and creative director of French cycling-fashion brand Café du Cycliste. After a career as a professional kayaker he took an IT job in Nice where, as an avid cyclist, he discovered the dream roads of the Côte d’Azur. He invested in a small café and began designing smart, France-inspired performance wear. Today the brand has shops in Palma and Shoreditch, plus a flagship café on Nice’s old port.
Jack Millington and Rory Harker are co-founders of Billy Tannery, a company based in England’s Midlands that’s helping to revive the region’s rich leather-making history. Launched in 2017, the company produces leather goods – including aprons, backpacks and tote bags – using goatskin from the food industry that would otherwise go to waste. It is also working with a number of restaurants to design bespoke products that are all vegetable tanned at the firm’s micro-tannery.
Avi Meir is the co-founder and CEO of TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based company aimed at streamlining business travel courtesy of a platform for doing everything from booking flights to simplifying expenses. In the past four years the firm has grown from being staffed by a few people to a team of about 200 – and raised more than €65m.
Charmian Love is the co-founder of B Lab UK, the Certified B Corporation partner in the UK. The global movement was created to help businesses strive for both profit and purpose by becoming more transparent, innovative and sustainable. Charmian was CEO of London-based change consultancy Volans when the company became a B Corps firm She founded B Lab UK with James Perry, director and co-founder of Cook Food, in 2013.
Adam Lewenhaupt is the CEO, creative director and founder of CQP, a Stockholm-based footwear brand. Though Adam worked in finance for the first decade of his career, he grew up with a passion for design. Realising that banking wasn’t for him, he designed his first trainer, launching the product in 2014. CQP, or Conversations & Quintessential Products, is a marriage of fine craftsmanship and design.
What Milan is to fashion, Vancouver is to technical apparel and athletic-wear. While the city is home to Arc’teryx and Lululemon, it’s also home to Respect Your Universe. The athletic-apparel brand has grown steadily since 2014 and now has retail outposts in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. We meet CEO Marello Leone.
Christian Meier is a Canadian former professional cyclist, who retired at the peak of his career to focus on his passion for coffee. Meier and his wife Amber own and operate three businesses in Girona, Spain: La Fábrica Girona, Espresso Mafia and The Service Course. The couple decided to follow their dream to open a café after Christian competed in his first Tour de France.
Gauthier Van Malderen is the CEO and founder of Perlego, a digital streaming platform for textbooks. Around the world, the cost of textbooks is one of the greatest pain points for college and university students, who often only need to read small sections of increasingly expensive books. Van Malderen launched the business in 2016 to help not only students, but also publishers in their fight against illegal content-sharing. Perlego now has 250,000 titles from 2,300 publishers.
Anya Hindmarch is a name synonymous with creativity and handbags. Her label was launched in 1987; in the ensuing years, Princess Diana became a loyal customer. With shops around the world, the brand is also known for the Chubby Hearts Over London design project and an ‘I'm not a plastic bag’ environmental campaign.
Gabriel Waterhouse is the founder and chef behind The Water House Project. After years of cooking in London’s Michelin-starred kitchens he yearned for a less structured environment – what he calls ‘social fine dining’. The result is an eight-course dinner served three times a week in a warehouse space on London’s Regent’s Canal.
Matt Taylor is the co-founder and CEO of Tracksmith, the New England-based premium running label that celebrates the style, heritage and culture of the sport. Taylor started designing his own line after leaving sportswear giant Puma. Since launching in 2014, Tracksmith has been growing steadily and recently opened a flagship shop near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
Alan Mahon is the founder of Brewgooder, a Scottish craft-beer company that donates all its profits to clean-water projects. Launched in 2016, the Certified B company has to date helped fund more than 130 such projects from sales of its Clean Water Lager, brewed in partnership with Brewdog, with the overall aim to improve the lives of more than one million people by 2025.
Kresse Wesling is the co-founder of Elvis & Kresse, a company that’s creating a blueprint for sustainable luxury fashion. She launched the brand in 2005 with her husband James ‘Elvis’ Henrit and the Certified B Corporation turns discarded items into handmade accessories and homewares. The couple donate 50 per cent of their profits to charity and recently partnered with the Burberry Foundation to tackle the problem of leather waste.
Chris Young and Jina Kim are the husband-and-wife team behind Circumference, a line of natural skincare products aimed at changing the way we think about the beauty industry and how we treat the environment. Growing up in a traditional Korean household, Kim was taught to take care of her skin and even watched her family members make their own skin-care remedies – a far cry from the toxin-filled products she saw on the market.
Tom Marchant is the co-founder and owner of The Black Tomato Group, a company built around luxury bespoke travel. Marchant and his two co-founders James Merrett and Matt Smith decided to launch a company after a trip in the 1990s. And while every firm in the sector offers unique travel experiences, Black Tomato continues to deliver. Its latest immersive travel experiences are aimed at helping clients improve particular aspects of their personal and professional lives.
Sara and Molly Sheridan are the mother-and-daughter team behind Reek perfume, an Edinburgh-based company launched in 2016 that makes scents celebrating women and Scottish heritage. Sara is a historical novelist and Molly is a make-up artist by trade – together with award-winning perfumer Sarah McCartney they’ve created a line of perfumes that honour Jacobite women in particular, and are based on scents hundreds of years old.
Tommy Kelly is the co-founder of outerwear brand Jöttnar, which aims to make the best kit possible for the world’s most-demanding alpine athletes. Kelly and co-founder Steve Howarth were both Royal Marines commandos.
Danielle Copperman is the founder of Qnola, a line of quinoa-based granolas with stockists including Whole Foods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in London, and La Grande Épicerie in Paris. Copperman is a full-time model and started the company after friends and contacts became interested in the gluten-free granola she was making for herself to take for long days at work. She is also a qualified nutritionist and has written her own cookbook.
Hayche is a London-based furniture-design studio that makes vibrant pieces from natural materials. Its pieces add colour and beautiful design to homes, restaurants, shops and hotels around the world. The brand was launched in 2014 by architect and angel investor Alejandro Villarreal, alongside longtime friend and collaborator Elizabeth Encinas, now Hayche’s head of marketing.
Nassib is the founder of Tappan, a digital native-art gallery. The aim of the platform is to make the contemporary-art world more accessible, connecting emerging artists with both seasoned and rookie collectors.
Richard Pierson is the CEO and co-founder of Headspace, the meditation app used by millions of people in more than 190 countries. Struggling to deal with stress and anxiety in his life, Pierson left a successful career in advertising. But when his struggles only got worse, he took up meditation, coached by Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe. They went on to launch Headspace in 2010, first as an events company and later an app with the aim of making meditation more accessible.
Brothers Niklas and Mattis Oppermann are the co-founders of Carl Friedrik, a leather-goods business launched in 2012. Focussed originally on wholesaling, the company is now a direct-to-consumer brand producing bags, wallets and cases (mostly in Italy) using all naturally tanned leather with sustainable production methods.
Katerina Schneider is founder and CEO of Ritual, a vitamin company she founded after leaving behind a career in investment. When Katerina became pregnant, she set out to find a vitamin that was free of additives and that suited her vegan diet. Finding nothing on the market, she launched Ritual with Dr Luke Bucci, an expert in multivitamins. To date, Ritual has sold more than one million bottles and earlier this year closed a m (€22.3m) Series B investment.
With no experience in fashion or retail, Henry Hales launched a men’s underwear line in 2010, made from surplus fabric from the production of shirts. He had some sample boxer shorts made up, packaged them, and opened a stand in east London’s Spitalfields market. Today, Sirplus is a head-to-toe menswear label with shops in Islington, Portobello and Princes Arcade.
Victor Lugger and his business partner Tigrane Seydoux spent two years driving around Italy to find the best producers and suppliers before opening their first restaurant in Paris. Today, they have nine restaurants as part of the Big Mamma Group, including a new trattoria in London’s Shoreditch called Gloria.
Angela Scott is the founder of The Office of Angela Scott, a women’s shoe brand all about elegance and functionality. After working in construction and estate management – and learning of the impracticality of high heels – Angela wanted to create a line of boots and shoes that celebrated women, using the same craftsmanship she was seeing in men’s shoes.
Harry Mead is the founder of the recently opened London members’ club The Court, an ambitious £2m (€2.3m) venture, inspired by Mead’s favourite classic films. The luxury club recently opened its doors in the former Bag O’Nails site in Soho, an iconic music venue. The menu was created by Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers, the cocktail list by Mr Lyan and artwork by Bradley Theodore.
Max Kreijin and Nick Brackenbury are the co-founders of NearSt, a platform getting people back to the high street. They’ve also paired with Google so that those searching for a specific product can be told that it might be available nearby.
Gabriella Somerville is the founder and managing director of ConnectJets, a leading private-jet brokerage handling sales, charters and logistics for clients around the world. The company was launched in 2009, with Gabriella providing her own seed funding, and has soared ever since. With 25 years of experience in commercial aviation, Gabriella works closely with plane owners and manufacturers to reduce both operating costs and carbon footprint, while striving to offer safer and more comfortable travel.
Tay Liam Wee is the chairman and co-founder of Watchbox, a growing trading platform for pre-owned watches shaking up a multi-billion-dollar industry. Watchbox mixes personalised online shopping with high-touch retail service. Tay is the former owner of Sincere Watch, a family business he took over in the 1980s, expanding the company across Asia.
Stefan Allesch-Taylor CBE is chairman of Coffeesmiths Collective Inc, owner and operator of a number of standout brands in coffee, including The Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, Nordic Bakery and Baker & Spice. A serial entrepreneur and award-winning philanthropist, Allesch-Taylor has more than 25 years of experience in finance and growing start-ups and is also a professor of entrepreneurship at King’s College London.
Whitney Bromberg Hawkings is founder and CEO of Flowerbx, the florist trusted by some of the biggest names in fashion, retail and hospitality. Hawkings spent almost two decades as Tom Ford’s personal assistant before launching her own company in 2015. Flowerbx has also collaborated with top designers on a series of vases, created a line of bespoke fragrances and has a regular client list including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tory Burch and The River Café.
Michelle Kennedy is the CEO and founder of Peanut, a rapidly growing app and network for mothers. She was previously deputy CEO of dating platform Badoo and later, along with Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe, created dating app Bumble.
Karen Mabon is a Scottish designer and illustrator, based in London, who’s known for her colourful and playful silk scarves. Her eponymous label was launched in 2013 after she attended the Royal College of Art. Her pieces are stocked by a number of retailers including Anthropologie, Bloomingdales and Harvey Nichols. The collection now also includes cashmere scarves, silk sleepwear and cushions, with plans to introduce more homeware and women’s clothing this year.
Andrew Dudum is founder of Hims, a direct-to-consumer brand with sharp and witty marketing changing the conversation about men’s health and wellness. It offers products for hair loss, sexual wellness and skincare.
Pip Murray founded London-based nut butter company Pip & Nut in her kitchen in 2013. A range of nut butters and an almond milk are now stocked by more than 5,000 shops across the UK and Ireland.
Nils Leonard is co-founder of Uncommon Creative Studio and ethical-coffee brand Halo, which sells specialty grade coffee in compostable capsules. Previously, Nils was chief creative officer at Grey London.
Stephen Stroud and Jonathan Kruger launched The Drop in 2016, an on-demand label that ships made-to-measure suits to your door in just a few weeks. In consultation with a stylist, and with just 10 measurements and two photos, their algorithm can laser cut you a perfect suit, which means no inventory for them and minimal waste in production. They have big plans for 2019, including growing the brand to bricks and mortar.
Hostmaker was launched by husband and wife Nakul Sharma and Deepti Patankar, who left their jobs to launch the platform from their kitchen table in 2014. The end-to-end management company is reinventing home-sharing, and working with top hotels to do so. Whether its creating smart-pricing algorithms or providing a five-star hotel service, the platform takes care of everything for owners and travellers alike.
The realisation that most homeware was geared towards women led to the founding of Merchant Sons, a Toronto-based brand with global ambitions focused on improving the homes of men. CEO Cathy Ly describes how the well-crafted homeware is inspired by classic menswear.
An in-depth look at four start-ups easing the strain on healthcare providers and making the patient experience more transparent. We meet the founders of Tovertafel, Patientory, Thriva and Forward Health.
Beaumont Nathan is an independent art-advisory firm that’s breathing new life into the global market by using experience and data to make sales more transparent. The firm was founded in 2013 by Hugo Nathan and Wentworth Beaumont, who both previously worked for Christie’s and the Dickinson Roundell Gallery. Tom Mayou joined in 2015: he’s now the firm’s director of operations, tasked with bringing entrepreneurial thinking to a sometimes rigid industry.
Pete Sunderland and Ross Baynham are co-founders of Glasgow design studio Instrmnt. The studio launched in 2014 with the release of the industrial-inspired Instrmnt 01, a crowdfunded steel watch.
Diego Burdi and Paul Filek founded Toronto-based interior-design firm Burdifilek in 1993 – in the midst of a recession. They’ve since designed iconic interiors for many of North America’s top retailers and, while the industry has faced tectonic shifts with the rise of e-commerce, Burdifilek continues to champion the value of bricks-and-mortar shops.
Sharan Pasricha knows every detail counts in the world of hospitality. And it’s why the founder and CEO of Ennismore pushes his team to constantly think outside the box in designing inspiring and creative social hubs. The hospitality firm owns The Hoxton hotel chain, a host of restaurants and bars, and has also breathed new life into historic Gleneagles in Scotland. All of Ennismore’s properties are unique – inspired by the neighbourhoods where they exist.
Looking to the seafaring roots of his family – and the traditional ingredients used on the spice route connecting Asia, Africa and Europe for thousands of years – Jonathan Keren and his husband Doron Baduach launched a line of men’s grooming products in 2016, called Maapilim. Using a historical name for the Mediterranean, the brand has found success in focusing on quality products for men, without the macho marketing.
Nicolas Roope and Michael-George Hemus are the co-founders of London-based designer lighting company Plumen. While coming from very different backgrounds, the two shared a vision for what a design-first brand could become and set out to solve the problem of how to get consumers to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs. Learning the industry in a meticulous long game and with beautiful design at the core of the brand, they created the world’s first designer efficient light bulb: the Plumen 001.
Airtasker is an online platform that helps users outsource everyday tasks. It was created by Tim Fung in 2012 and today there are more than 1.5 million people in Australia and the UK using it, with more than €13m worth of jobs available through the platform each month.
Sofia Fenichell is founder and CEO of Mrs Wordsmith, an illustrated children’s book series focusing on words that, according to data scientists, will help children succeed academically. ‘The Storyteller’s Illustrated Dictionary’ is an Amazon bestseller and the company recently raised m (€9.7m) from investors to expand into the US and China, with plans to create a digital component and cover different languages.
Simon Dent launched Dark Horses with London ad agency Lucky Generals two years ago. The aim was to build a network of entrepreneurial companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of top clients in the world of sport.
Andreas Palm and Christian Larson are the co-founders of premium Swedish underwear brand CDLP, which is stocked by top hotels and retailers around the world. Larson is a filmmaker who has created music videos for artists such as Sigur Rós and Kylie Minogue; Palm is a former CEO for fashion designer Ann-Sofie Back.
When a corporate career in business strategy led Ben Young into Australia’s waste-management sector, he quickly learned that disposable cups were a huge problem for landfill sites and oceans. Young spent four years product testing a reusable cup then launched Frank Green, which makes stylish reusable cups and bottles.
Alexandre Mars is a celebrated philanthropist and founder of global nonprofit Epic, a foundation which invests in social innovation. Mars also founded tech fund blisce/.
"Adam and Ryan Goldston were student athletes at the University of Southern California when they started Athletic Propulsion Labs and created a basketball shoe proven to make players jump higher. Launched direct to consumer in 2010, APL’s Concept 1 basketball shoe became a global sensation overnight, helped along by the fact it was the first ever shoe banned by the National Basketball Association. Based in Los Angeles, APL now creates products across the luxury, performance and streetwear markets, stocked by 300 of the world’s finest high-end retailers.
For our final episode of the year, we look back at some of the most inspiring conversations we’ve had this year, unpacking everything from branding, growing a company, building a strong team, attracting investment and mentoring the next generation of business leaders. We hear from Debbie Wosskow, co-founder of The AllBright, Cal Henderson, co-founder and CTO of Slack, Alain Sylvain, founder and CEO of Sylvain Labs and menswear designer Kestin Hare.
Grenade is one of the fastest growing brands in the massive sports-nutrition market. The brand was started by Alan and Juliet Barratt, who created their first product in their home kitchen in 2009, later launching the company with just £27 in their business bank account. Grenade now has customers in more than 80 countries, with plans to expand further after a huge stake in the company was sold last year to Lion Capital for £72m.
In 1998, Stuart Holding restored two antique looms, which he used to create homeware textiles he then sold at his wife’s shop. Their children Tessa and Dax now help run Mungo Design and its three shops in South Africa.
After a successful career working in IT, Piotr Nahajski followed his passion into winemaking and, in 2013, launched Chalkdown Cider. Produced from apples grown in the Hampshire Downs, the sparkling cider is both uniquely English and a refreshing alternative to champagne and prosecco.
Karoli Hindriks is co-founder and CEO of Jobbatical, an employment network helping companies to build stronger and more diverse workforces by hiring talent from abroad. Well-known in her native Estonia as an inventor, media personality and successful entrepreneur, Hindriks set her sights on working with businesses and governments to move skilled workers across borders.
Claire Ptak opened Violet, her bakery in East London, in 2010 after moving to the UK from California five years earlier. She trained at Chez Panisse under renowned chef and restaurateur Alice Waters and, earlier this year, caught the eye of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who hired her to make a cake for their wedding.
Having spent a career building fashion brands, working in high-end tailoring on Savile Row, running factories and consulting with the country’s largest department stores, British fashion designer Patrick Grant wanted to start from scratch. He launched Community Clothing in 2016 with the aim of crafting affordable clothes for both men and women in a more sustainable way.
Hanna Naima McCloskey started Fearless Futures after leaving her job in finance, feeling there was something missing in the way the corporate world was addressing diversity and inclusion. McCloskey and her team now run training programmes to engage people in thinking critically about those issues.
While managing a Mayfair gallery, Bernadine Bröker Wieder was looking for better ways to connect with collectors. With Francesca Polo, she founded a global platform that allows art to be securely sourced and loaned to exhibitions.
Launched in March 2018, East London footwear brand Stepney Workers Club was inspired by the ethos and inclusive culture of workers’ sports clubs of years past. Bringing together a wealth of experience in designing footwear for luxury brands as well as working in wholesale and brand management, Roger Pereira, Simon See and Simon Bishop set out to create a new classic shoe and wardrobe staple: timeless canvas and suede footwear.
After leaving the world of finance, Henry Cookson became a record-setting polar explorer, and has since built a multi-million-dollar business, Cookson Adventures, specialising in bespoke journeys for clients. Many of the trips are considered “world-first” experiences, including the first commercial submersible dive in Antarctica.
Torontonians Charles Birchall and Brad Taylor first met in the city of Le Locle at Switzerland’s most storied watchmaking school. The pair eventually returned home and in 2017, armed with the best training, launched Toronto’s most exciting new watch brand.
Fokke de Jong founded menswear label Suitsupply from the boot of a car in the Netherlands in 2000 after a chance encounter threw him into the world of Italian textiles. We discover how the affordable tailoring firm has found the right marriage between online and bricks-and-mortar retail as it prepares to open its 100th shop.
David Spencer-Percival is a serial entrepreneur with an award-winning record for co-founding and growing recruitment firms Huntress and Spencer Ogden into success stories worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Pair business know-how with an obsession with rosemary’s health benefits and you have his latest venture: all-natural drinks sold by London’s top retailers and food halls.
Amastan is reshaping the idea of a hotel stay in the City of Light. It is the vision of self-starter Zied Sanhaji who, armed with his family’s entrepreneurial spirit and his own know-how from a range of hospitality jobs, opened the doors a few years back. The boutique property encourages creativity and connection, with all the charm and top service you’d expect from a venue with just 24 rooms.
Serial entrepreneur Katrina Larkin is on a mission to create beautifully designed workplaces for collaboration and engagement. She’s the co-founder of Fora, a rapidly growing network of so-called premium “pro-working” spaces in London. Over the past two years Fora has opened four locations and has plans to open additional spaces in the 13 buildings the company owns across central London.
Cal Henderson is CTO and co-founder of Slack, a communication and collaboration platform with more than eight million daily users in over 100 countries. With 1,200 employees across nine cities, Slack was valued earlier this year at more than bn after its latest round of funding.
A group of friends from the Dublin area are reviving the heritage of craft distilling in Ireland. They’ve set up The Glendalough Distillery in the scenic mountain surroundings of Co Wicklow, and have been making standout Irish whiskey and gin. But it’s in crafting the traditional Irish spirit poitín, called the ancestor of all distilled drinks, where the friends are really making their mark.
Lee Thompson and Radha Vyas are the co-founders of Flash Pack, a company for adventurous solo travellers in their thirties and forties looking to meet like-minded people while seeing the world in style and comfort. Using just £8,000 of their own money, the pair – who are also husband and wife – have turned Flash Pack into a £10m business.
Knowing that most technical brands do not focus specifically on caps, Mike Giles and Jeremy Bresnen set out to design the best running cap on the market. The breathable, lightweight, fast-drying caps are designed to look just as good on the run, as with streetwear on the weekend. And with its “Everybody Run” philosophy, Ciele has become the preferred cap of runners around the world.
Cities are becoming more desirable places to live but renting a flat is still a stressful experience. Ryan Prince, co-founder of Uncle, has set out to change all that. His property-management service (which he co-founded with his father) has found success by regarding its tenants as customers. The company, owned by Canadian property developer Realstar, now has three properties in London and a building in central Manchester.
With a shared sense of style and a desire to turn their passion for design into something tangible, Oscar Phillips and Sheriff-Deen Showobi set out to craft the ideal sunglasses. Inspired by vintage frames, they created Oscar Deen. The east London natives built their brand over three years and launched it earlier this year. Phillips works full-time at a recruitment agency, while Showobi works for an advertising agency, meaning Oscar Deen represents the ultimate side hustle.
Sylvain Labs was launched in 2010 in the so-called ‘innovation consulting’ market – somewhere between a creative agency and business consultancy. At its heart is a focus on strategy, helping companies to develop and launch new products and solidify their brands, while communicating their purpose and ethos. With offices in Manhattan, Amsterdam and Richmond, Virginia, the Certified B Corporation has an extensive client list including GM, Google, Samsung, Nike, Airbnb and LVMH.
Amelia Singer has carried a passion for sharing her love of wines throughout her life. Wine-and-cheese events in university and small tasting pop-ups for friends quickly turned into a career for the self-starter, who is now a successful television host, columnist, consultant, educator and events host.
Debbie Wosskow is co-founder of The Allbright, a members’ club aimed at celebrating, connecting and empowering women at work. Previously she was the founder and CEO of home-exchange platform Love Home Swap; she also sits on London mayor Sadiq Khan’s Business Advisory Board.
Ed Barry knows the value of a good cup of coffee in building a community. After five years living between Dublin and New York, he was looking to mix his experience in both cities with the café culture in New Zealand, where his parents are from. This led to the launch of Over Under Coffee two years ago in the heart of Earl’s Court in London. Serving cocktails, brunch and regularly hosting live events and pop-ups have helped the brand establish a loyal following – and also enabled Barry to open a second location in Soho.
East London label LNDR makes sophisticated women’s clothing for the gym or high street. Launched by Sarah Donnelly, Donna Harris and Joanna Turner in 2015, the brand is stocked at Selfridges, Net-a-Porter and Le Bon Marché. Today, Harris and Turner are here to tell us about growing a brand known for quality products and customer care in a crowded market.
Adel Zakout is an architect-turned-entrepreneur and the co-founder of Clippings, a digital platform for interior designers that allows them to easily source products, from furniture to light fittings. Adel launched the company with Tom Mallory back in 2014 and it has since expanded fast. Earlier this month the company announced that it had closed a m (€12.7m) Series B investment round – led by Farfetch, Moda Operandi and Rent the Runway.
This week we’re taking an in-depth look at how a host of start-ups are bringing more people into the worlds of personal finance and investment. We meet four entrepreneurs who are making the world of finance easier to understand and engaging people who wouldn’t ordinarily invest their money. We hear from Max Rofagha, founder of Finimize, Ben Stanway and Charlie Mortimer, co-founders of Moneybox, and Emilie Bellet, founder of Vestpod.
Greg Jackson has worn many hats over the course of his career. He co-founded marketing-technology business C360 in the early 2000s and then sold it to the Tangent Group in 2006; after that he went on to work for several companies across various sectors, from healthcare to finance. Then, three years ago, he launched Octopus Energy, a green-energy provider set up to rival the so-called “Big Six” energy companies that dominate the UK market.
Tim Brown was a professional footballer in his native New Zealand before deciding to create environmentally friendly footwear. He is the co-founder of Allbirds, a booming shoe brand with sustainability at its heart; earlier this year the company sold its one millionth pair.
Adorno is a digital platform for design-lovers that enables people to discover and buy one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces direct from designers around the world. Part marketplace, part online gallery, the site was launched last year by Copenhagen-based entrepreneurs Kristian Snorre Andersen and Martin Clausen, and has already garnered fans worldwide.
Ben Branson spent a decade working for creative agencies, helping other people to build their brands. But in 2014 he decided to put his skills to the test on his own project. That project was Seedlip, a non-alcoholic spirit born out of Branson’s passion for natural botanicals and hobby distilling. Seedlip has since become a huge success and is stocked in high-end London retailers and served in bars and restaurants across the globe. Branson explains how his experience designing toothpaste tubes helped him build the brand and reveals why he’s confident the market for non-alcoholic drinks is only just getting started.
When Umberto De Marco went looking for a pair of sustainable trainers and returned empty-handed, he made a decision: he would create the world’s first luxury sustainable sneaker brand. Little more than 50 years ago his father Enrico invented an eco-friendly synthetic-leather material. Coronet Group, the company that spun out of that invention, is today a global manufacturer that supplies fashion labels such as Louis Vuitton and Armani. Having put Coronet’s expertise to use, De Marco has launched a line of trainers made entirely in Italy from high-quality vegan leather.
We assess the importance of business mentors. As anyone who has founded a company will know, having an experienced adviser who can lend advice and an ear during the tough times can be key. But it’s a two-way street: as an older entrepreneur you can learn a lot from having a younger mentee.
Jessica Herrin is the founder and CEO of Stella & Dot, a San Francisco-based jewellery-and-accessories retailer built on what it calls a “social-selling” model. The company has reimagined direct sales for the digital age, engaging with tens of thousands of entrepreneurial women around the world who want to work flexibly from home. Herrin launched the company in 2003 and by 2010 it was valued at €318m.
We’re in Paris talking to a group of experts and entrepreneurs about funding – how start-ups should go about securing it and what investors are really looking for.
Marco Abele is the founder and CEO of Tend, a Zürich-based digital platform focused on “life-enriching investment”. Driven by blockchain, Tend allows investment in luxury assets through co-ownership, such as shares in high-end sports cars, homes, vineyards and whiskey collections. Abele’s track record in finance means he knows how to create wealth for his clients – and now he’s launched a platform to encourage them to enjoy investment.
Jo Malone made her name – quite literally – as the eponymous entrepreneur behind her iconic perfume brand. A sensation in the 1990s, Malone later sold the brand to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder Companies. While she stayed on as creative director, she eventually left the business for good in 2006. On this week’s episode, Malone talks us through how she dealt with selling a company that bore her name and explains how she built her second global fragrance brand Jo Loves.
Apollonia Poilâne is a third-generation baker and CEO of the Poilâne bakery brand. While she was encouraged by her father to explore the world and pursue her passions, it’s in the bakehouse where she has always felt most at home, carrying on her family’s tradition. Under her guidance since 2002, the eponymous company has grown steadily – there are now bakery locations across Paris and London, and the brand’s staple thick-crust sourdough bread can be found in hundreds of French restaurants and in more than 1,500 food retailers around the world.
While on a summer break from university in Glasgow, keen cyclist Alec Farmer taught himself to sew. Setting out to craft the perfect bag, Farmer used discarded materials that he found around the city: and soon Trakke was born. It’s now a well-known maker of waxed-canvas bags and travel accessories that are inspired by Scotland’s rugged landscapes and designed to last a lifetime.
The son of an engineer and an artist, Ashley Watson has always had an understanding of both form and function. He spent years working as a designer before deciding to combine two of his great passions: clothing and motorbikes. In 2014 Ashley launched his eponymous brand, focusing on high-quality motorcycle clothing made in England with a meticulous attention to design and detail.
In 2009 Charles Armstrong launched The Trampery, the first co-working space to take root in Shoreditch, a district of east London that has since become crowded with shared workspaces catering to the area’s creative and entrepreneurial communities. Over the past nine years, Charles has grown the brand and opened more properties across the capital. But he is now in the process of completing a project on a far grander scale. The Trampery Fish Island Village is a new mixed-use development in Hackney Wick, which will include London’s largest dedicated campus for emerging fashion labels.
Intrigued by style and craftsmanship, Phoebe Gormley started making her own clothes at a young age, and at just 15 began interning in London’s Savile Row and Jermyn Street, known for high-end men’s tailors. After two years studying costume design at university, Phoebe told her parents she would take the money earmarked for her final year of tuition to start her own venture. Launched in 2015, Gormley & Gamble became the first women’s only tailor in the history of Savile Row.
Dave Dawson trained as a lawyer but never had much love for the legal profession and always harboured a desire to one day start his own design company. That day arrived in 2003 when he decided to quit his day job and launch the Urban Electric Company, a lighting brand based in Charleston, South Carolina. For the past 15 years the brand has built a name for itself for its robust yet elegant lighting fixtures. The company now employs more than 200 people.
Shane Clifford is CEO of Wonderbill, a digital platform that organises your household bills while also suggesting other providers that could save you money. Just two years old, the platform now has 50,000 users across the UK and has plans to expand to new markets across Europe in the new year.
Edinburgh-based fashion designer Kestin Hare worked with a number of labels including Nigel Cabourn and Burberry before launching his eponymous label in 2014. The brand now has two shops, one in Shoreditch and one in the Leith area of the Scottish capital. Made in the UK, the styles are a nod to the working-class roots of his native Leith and are quickly changing the perception of Scottish design. Kestin’s wife Gemma worked with Harvey Nichols before taking over brand, marketing and strategy for her husband’s label.
When bespoke tailoring fell short of his expectations, former Goldman Sachs banker John Buni launched Tailor Made London. The company uses high-precision body scanners to map customers’ bodies and create a perfect fit.
Brendan Murdock made his name as the founder of well-designed barbershops, which he called Murdock London. The brand was right at the forefront of a wave of new spots catering to men who care about their appearance and are willing to pay good money for smart grooming products. But Murdock has since left that eponymous firm to set up a more intriguing company: a health-and-wellness brand called Anatomē. Now he’s in the business of advising customers on their wellbeing and recommending vitamins, supplements and essential oils. The brand also has a flagship store in Shoreditch.
Craig Elbert is the co-founder and CEO of Care/of, a direct-to-consumer brand that specialises in vitamins and supplements. Care/of makes understanding what to buy and what to take simple, while giving customers access to research on vitamins. Founded in New York in 2016 by Elbert and Akash Shah, the company has recommended vitamins and supplements to more than one million people.
Launched in London in 2004, Rapha sets the benchmark for premium cycling wear. Its 22 shops-cum-cafés around the world act as community hubs for cyclists, selling performance and streetwear as well as skincare, self-produced films and an in-house magazine; it also provides luxury travel experiences. We met Simon Mottram, the founder and CEO.
Kevin Glynn and David Nolan are best friends, former Goldman Sachs bankers and now co-founders of Butternut Box: a company that creates fresh, delicious dog food and delivers it direct to customers. Since starting the business two years ago, they have served up one million meals to happy pooches across the land and just raised £5m (€5.6m) for expansion.
Timo Boldt is the co-founder and CEO of technology-cum-food business Gousto, one of the leading meal-kit providers in the UK. Since its launch in 2012 it has delivered more than 13 million meals and in March, off the back of strong growth, secured a further £28.5m (€32.4m) in funding to expand its reach and improve its technology. What’s cooking?
After making a name for herself designing bags for Puma, Virgin Atlantic, Microsoft and others, Jacqui Ma saw an opportunity to strike out on her own. In 2012, as a working mother who cycled everywhere, Ma noticed a lack of affordable and stylish bags on the market. And so Goodordering was born: manufacturer of colourful, practical and multifunctional bicycle bags for families and professionals.
Jen Rubio co-founded direct-to-consumer luggage company Away in 2016. She met business partner Stephanie Korey when the pair worked at eyewear venture Warby Parker; they took their experience and used it to disrupt an industry that they felt was stuck in a rut. With four shops across the US (and one coming to London), plus an exciting move to a new HQ in New York imminent, Away is well on its way.
Geoff Watts and Julia Fowler moved from Australia to London in 2009 to found retail-technology company Edited. Touted as the “Bloomberg terminal for fashion”, Edited uses big data and artificial intelligence to help some of the world’s biggest fashion retailers ensure their buyers make the right decisions. Today it has more than 100 staff spread across London, New York and San Francisco.
Brothers Taco and Ties Carlier founded the Dutch bike brand VanMoof in 2009 with the mission to reimagine how a bicycle can function in the cities of tomorrow. The slick electric bikes they design subtly integrate smart technology, such as a theft-defence system that includes a built-in alarm and an invisible lock. VanMoof now has shops in Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Paris, Taipei and Tokyo.
Joe Taylor worked for a number of big companies in the consumer-goods sector, including Kellogg’s and Heinz, before striking out on his own. When training for an Ironman triathlon, he discovered that trail mix was a great source of fuel for endurance. In 2016 he launched Real Handful, a healthy snack brand with bold flavours and playful packaging, with his wife. Taylor talks to us about creating a better product and building the brand.
As we’re increasingly being told by serious researchers and popular science writers alike, a good night’s sleep is essential to our health and wellbeing. But it’s something Paul Efmorfidis has known for decades. The entrepreneur had an epiphany as a young man after he made a bed of seaweed in his native Greece and had the best sleep of his life. In 1989, he founded the mattress brand Coco-Mat to bring natural, sustainable and comfortable beds to the world. Today the company has shops in 17 countries.
For cities, corporations and drivers around the world, the future of the car is up for debate. The cost of congestion, pollution and infrastructure is increasingly taxing on citizens and their governments. For drivers, filling up is a chore that hasn’t changed much in 100 years since the launch of the first private cars. But start-up Zebra Fuel is hoping to shake things up. The company has developed a way to deliver cleaner fuel directly to car-owners and is working to develop technology to better deliver electric-vehicle charging. We meet co-founder and CEO Reda Bennis.
While fashion and philanthropy are finding common ground, it’s not often a brand or fashion retailer is set up specifically to benefit a charitable cause. But that’s exactly what entrepreneur Stacey Boyd has done with Olivela. The e-commerce platform carries more than 200 luxury brands, with 20 per cent of the proceeds of any product purchased going directly to partner charities to fund education for girls across the developing world.
Flexible, shared work spaces are in high demand around the world. But what about those looking for a more premium experience? Enter Stockholm’s No18. Launched by Michel Gordin in 2012, No18 now has two location in the Swedish capital, including one at the city’s Grand Central Station. Offering a professional atmosphere with all the comforts of a members’ club, No18 features meeting and event spaces, as well as a gym and a bistro. Now the company is taking its focus on work-life balance and the Swedish way of life across the Atlantic, with a new space opening in Atlanta.
Beauty and skincare brand Malin+Goetz launched in 2004. The simple elegant packaging, unisex products and approachable brand instantly caused a stir. Skincare expert Matthew Malin found nothing could calm his sensitive skin; Andrew Goetz – a self-confessed cosmetics philistine and former marketing director for Swiss furniture-maker Vitra – worked on the brand's look, and the company was born.
Composer Paul Schütze and husband Chris Rickwood set out to launch a perfume house four years ago, Paul Schütze Perfume. Their five fragrances are inspired by memory and architecture, and packaged in the Cotswolds.
This week we are taking a closer look at company culture and what it takes to build a thriving environment where people want to work. We’ll meet the entrepreneurs behind growing businesses who are leading by example.
Charlie Jardine is the founder of EO Charging, which designs and manufactures electric-vehicle charging points for homes, workplaces and destinations. After leaving university, Jardine bounced around jobs and internships in London before following his interest into the booming electric-vehicle industry.
Kasper Hostrup is the founder of Goods, a Copenhagen menswear shop that has garnered loyal clients worldwide thanks to its service, pared-back style and carefully thought-through collections. Goods opened as the global financial crisis hit but Hostrup weathered the storm and now the business is thriving. In this week’s episode, he speaks about what it takes to run a premium menswear store.
Jacob Wedderburn-Day is the co-founder and CEO of Stasher, a welcome storage solution for tourists and day-trippers across Europe. Conceived during a brainstorming session among three friends at Oxford University, the technology start-up links people with convenient luggage facilities, often creating extra revenue for independent businesses with extra space. In three years, more than 50,000 bags have been stored using the platform across the UK, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, with plans to expand to the whole of Europe.
John Schoolcraft is head of creative at Oatly, the oat-milk company based in Sweden. Its product can now be found around the world – including at Monocle cafés. In this week’s episode, Schoolcraft talks about how he helped to create a stronger identity for the 25-year-old company and take it global, making the product a favourite among baristas, as well as healthy and environmentally conscious connoisseurs.
Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo are the women behind New York-based Of a Kind, an online marketplace with a focus on emerging designers in fashion, homeware and jewellery. They met in university, bonding over their keen eye for fashion. Both moved to the Big Apple, Mazur working in art and Cerulo in the magazine industry. A good idea and a long email chain in 2010 led to the pair creating Of a Kind, a business that remains true to its original concept today.
Alice Walsh is the founder of Alice Made This, a London-based design company that makes men’s accessories and women’s jewellery. What began in 2012 with a set of four minimalist cufflinks has evolved over the past six years into a collection spanning everything from shirt studs and tie bars to necklaces and bracelets. In this week’s episode Walsh talks us through how she built the brand and how she teams up with factories across the UK to create her unique pieces.
Angel investor Pip Wilson sold her successful consultancy Bluefin in order to look for a new venture in tech. After a friend went through a difficult divorce, Wilson decided to set up Amicable, a platform that uses technology to help couples divorce more easily, enabling both parties to reach a fairer outcome.
What does it take to say goodbye to a safe monthly salary and strike out on your own? This week we hear from company founders who left high-powered jobs to head off into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship. First, Peter Milne, who left finance to start The Nunhead Gardener. We also meet Bryce Gracey, who set aside a career in architecture to co-found No. 22 Bicycle Company, a bespoke titanium manufacturer. We’ll also hear why Jackie Fast left her media-marketing business Slingshot Sponsorship to launch a vineyard and wine brand in her native Canada.
Sleep expert Christopher Lindholst puts his success down to the fact that he frequently snoozes during the working day – and he’s not alone. His company MetroNaps builds and operates EnergyPods, the world’s first chairs designed specifically for napping in the workplace. The recliners are now installed in 30 countries and used by companies such as Nasa and Google. Lindholst shares his story.
Tom Broughton has always been an eyewear obsessive – ever since he started wearing glasses at the age of seven. In 2012 he began designing and making frames on his kitchen table, not to make money but out of sheer passion. Eventually he garnered a loyal fanbase and what began as a hobby quickly grew into Cubitts, a new London-based eyewear brand that boasts a smart multi-channel model with five bricks-and-mortar shops across the city.
Catherine Ellis is the founder of Hill & Ellis, a London-based maker of handsome, handmade bike bags. As a cyclist herself, Catherine noticed both the growing popularity of cycling and the dearth of well-designed, beautifully made bags on the market. So she set out to create them herself.
New Zealand-based Xero is a world-leader in accounting software. The cloud-based programme was designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their finances – a tedious and time-consuming task for any entrepreneur. Since its launch in 2006, Xero has spread to about 180 countries worldwide, enabling business owners everywhere to dedicate more time to the important stuff. Co-founder Gary Turner tells us how to build a global brand and how you create “beautiful” software.
Xero is a New Zealand-based company that’s a world leader in accounting software. Its cloud-based programme was designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their finances, a tedious and time-consuming task for any entrepreneur. Since its launch in 2006, Xero has spread to some 180 countries, enabling business owners everywhere to dedicate more time to the important stuff. Co-founder Gary Turner spoke to producer Daniel Bach about how you build a global brand and how you create “beautiful” software.
Having tired of mass-market eyewear, optician Jordan Paul founded Opticianado, a Toronto-based shop specialising in vintage specs sourced from across the globe.
Chris Stang is a co-founder of The Infatuation, a restaurant-discovery platform that has become the guide of choice for discerning diners across the US. Founded in 2009, the platform has just made headlines around the world by agreeing to acquire the Zagat brand from Google, which many will know for its respected drinking and dining guides. In this episode Stang tells us how he and co-founder Andrew Steinthal came up with the idea and how they have grown evolved it in a fast-moving and highly competitive market.
For lawyer-turned-designer Mark Johnson, the dream of launching a menswear brand was inspired by an anorak worn by his father in the 1960s. That ambition was realised in 2010 with the founding of Kovalum. While a modernised take on that very jacket remains an anchor of the brand’s product line, it has since expanded to include a collection of button downs, T-shirts and accessories – all manufactured in Toronto.
Matthew Corrin’s idea to create a brand around healthy eating has seen his business grow from a single shop to one of the fastest-growing food franchises in the world. Corrin is the Canadian founder behind Freshii, a take-away chain which aims to make healthy options affordable and convenient. Launched in 2005, Freshii now has more than 300 locations in 85 cities around the world. Matt Alagiah sits down with Corrin to discuss how he came up with the idea and how he has built the business into the global brand it is today.
Tala is a young British lighting brand with sustainability at its heart. Max Wood and Josh Ward, two of the three co-founders, explain why they decided to strike out on their own, talking us through how you build a successful design company.
Breathing new life into a brand can be a difficult undertaking. From changing a logo, to overhauling the business focus, rebranding can make or break established names and struggling enterprises. We ask Pentagram’s Paula Scher to give us her top tips for revamping a brand and have Maurus Fraser of Winkreative walk us through his favourite rebranding projects. We also talk to the duo who have reimagined British eyewear manufacturer Kirk Originals, and a Viennese entrepreneur who has rescued an obsolete watch brand.
One-time banker Eric Brass explains the origins of Tequila Tromba, the Toronto-based premium tequila brand he co-founded in 2011.
Romée de Goriainoff is one of the three co-founders of Experimental Group, the French hospitality brand that launched Paris’s first proper cocktail bar and is now the name behind restaurants, bars and even hotels the world over. But it all started with three school friends and a mutual desire to spend their lives doing something fun, unconventional and challenging. In this week's episode, Romée tells us how he created one of the world's coolest bar brands.
Dustin Kroft went from moving furniture to making and designing it in 2015, when he established his eponymous design studio in Toronto. He traces the journey of Kroft Furniture and his ambitions for the firm.
In 2010, James Eden gave up a job in finance to turn around a 100-year-old factory in Manchester. The result is Private White VC, a luxury menswear brand where everything is made in Britain. Eden tells us how Private White VC breathed new life into the factory – and the community.
Jeremy Brown and his wife Cath left a vibrant life in London to move to the Devonshire countryside. There they launched Feldspar, a design brand that produces everything from tableware to lambswool blankets and is stocked in some of the best retailers in the country, including the Victoria & Albert Museum shop and Fortnum & Mason. Jeremy tells us how the countryside inspired their endeavour.
Dax Dasilva is the founder and CEO of Lightspeed, a tech firm founded in Montréal in 2005. The company provides point-of-sale software for small retailers and restaurants around the world, helping them to manage inventory, sell online and connect with suppliers and customers. Dasilva tells us how Apple was an inspiration, how design was crucial in shaping the company and why they chose to stay in Montréal.
Joel Clarke, Owen Wilson and Diti Katona trace the story of their Toronto-based small-batch aperitivo rosso brand Capo Capo.
Amelia Harvey is the woman behind The Collective, an innovative yoghurt brand that has shaken up the dairy aisles of supermarkets across the UK and Europe with its playful packaging and fruity flavours. Founded in 2011 as a joint venture with the original New Zealand-based company, it has now grown into a thriving business with annual sales of more than €33m and a vast range of dairy products. In this episode Harvey reveals the secret to getting your foot in the supermarket door (literally) and explains how the food sector is evolving.
Archie Lee Coates IV traces the story of PlayLab, the creative studio he co-founded in New York in 2009.
Alex Bec is the co-founder of the HudsonBec Group, a company which began in 2007 with a website called ‘It’s Nice That’. The mission of the website was, and still is, to “enable creativity to thrive” and it does this by giving exposure to great artists, designers and illustrators all over the world. The brand now encompasses a printed biannual magazine and an events programme – and has a loyal fanbase. Alex told us about the brand’s humble beginnings and how it has grown since then.
Michael and Nicola Sacher are the husband-and-wife team behind cat-and-dog outfitters Mungo & Maud. In this episode, they tell us how their English setter sparked the idea for the brand and how it has grown into the world's top shop for discerning pets.
In the early years of the internet and social media, many assumed that e-commerce would eclipse traditional retail. But today many brands are successfully shifting their focus away from the screen and back to the high street. We hear from four businesses invested in that change, from pop-up-space rental platform Appear Here and clothing labels Kotn and L’estrange to Singapore’s We Are The People, a shop bringing crowdfunded projects to bricks-and-mortar.
Toronto-based cosmetics entrepreneur Gaelyne Leslie explains why she left a career in investigative journalism to fill a niche in the all-natural cosmetics sector with her company, Crawford Street Natural Skin Care.
Jonathan Levine is the co-founder and CEO of Master & Dynamic, a New York-based company that makes high-end headphones and audio accessories. Levine talks about the early days of the company, its many collaborations and why it is important to be a contrarian at times.
Peter Cahill is the founder of Voysis, an Irish start-up that has developed an intelligent personal assistant to rival the likes of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. Cahill tells us about his journey and why being independent is an advantage in the market.
Melody Adams and partner Nemanja Borjanovic were working in the City before a trip to San Sebastián inspired them to quit and open a restaurant. Serving traditional Basque cuisine, Donostia was launched in 2012 in Londo's Marylebone; just three years later their second restaurant, Lurra, opened its doors on the same street. So how, with no previous experience, do you become a success in one of the world's toughest industries?
Marc Popper is the co-founder of Italian-inspired espresso bar and restaurant Café Paradiso in Geneva. In this episode he tells us how his previous work in branding helped him conceptualise the Paradiso and how he partnered with his previous clients to open it.
Alex Wolpert is the founder of the East London Liquor Company, a distillery located in a former glue factory in Bow Wharf. Founded in 2013 with the intention of reviving east London’s lost legacy of distilling, the company now produces around 15,000 bottles a month. Wolpert explains how the brand is able to produce affordable spirits in the costly capital.
Founded in 2013, Bather was the product of an incorrectly packed suitcase sent to Croatia that led Kyle Kaminski to realise that there was a gap in the market for affordable high-quality men’s swimwear. He decided to start his own brand of colourful trunks made locally in his native Canada, catering primarily to a North American market. Here Kyle tells us the story behind Bather.
James Leay is part of the founding team behind Make Shift, a company that designs, builds and manages new public destinations that house independent businesses. Make Shift has been behind successful revitalisations of London spaces such as Pop Brixton and Peckham Levels. Here Leay tells us about the business model and his plans for the future.
In this special edition of ‘The Entrepreneurs’, we look back at 2017 with six of the bravest and boldest entrepreneurs in everything from technology and design to media and fashion to find out what lies behind their success. The episode includes conversations with Miguel McKelvey from WeWork, Mark Adams from Vitsoe, Serena Guen from Suitcase, Gavin Eddy from The Frome Independent, Whitney Wolfe from Bumble and David Hieatt of Hiut Denim.
Mark Cass opened Cass Art, a shop offering top-quality art material in 1984. Since then the brand has grown and it now has over 10 locations across the UK. Mark tells us the story of a company that wants to fill towns with artists and explains how getting to know his customers has changed the direction of the brand.
We talk about how to get the most out of the holiday season. We go to meet Erwin Perzy III of Original Viennese Snow Globes, the first snow-globe maker in the world; Chantal Coady, the founder of Rococo Chocolates in London and Johanna Weiste, who runs a traditional Finnish Christmas decoration business.
Natasha Arselan launched online auction house AucArt in December 2017. The platform supports emerging talent by offering art directly from the studios of final-year students and early career artists. By cutting the overhead costs of the gallery, AucArt can sell works at a lower price point and give a higher percentage of the sale back to the artist. In this episode, Arselan tells us about how her passion for discovering new art guided the enterprise and how she hopes to disrupt the art world.
Natasha Arselan launched online auction house AucArt in December 2017. The platform supports emerging talent by offering art directly from the studios of final-year students and early career artists. By cutting the overhead costs of the gallery, AucArt can sell works at a lower price point and give a higher percentage of the sale back to the artist. In this episode, Arselan tells us about how her passion for discovering new art guided the enterprise and how she hopes to disrupt the art world.
Jack Bensimon is the founder and president of Canada’s largest independent advertising agency, Bensimon Byrne. Founded in 1993 by Bensimon and longtime friend Peter Byrne, the agency has been responsible for some of the most memorable ads in Canadian history. The Toronto-based agency is one of few in the world to ever buy itself back from a multinational holding company. Here Bensimon tells us the story of the company, the ideas behind some of its major campaigns and why independence is so important to them.
Alastair Rae and James Shaw founded independent menswear label Albam in 2006. The brand, which focuses on utilitarian and versatile design combined with a high-quality craftsmanship, quickly found its niche between the high street and high fashion. In this episode, Alastair Rae reflects on the brand 11 years on.
Kirsty Whyte and Paul Tanner had more than 25 years of experience in the design world, working in Habitat and Made.com, before deciding to start their own business. In 2015 they launched the minimalist vintage inspired watch brand, Freedom To Exist as a side project to their day-jobs. This week they tell us how they manage their time between both jobs, what they have learned along the way and the secrets to working with your partner.
A former officer in the Danish army reserve, Hedvig Alexander founded Far and Wide Collective in 2013 with the goal of opening North American markets to artisans in developing countries.
Gavin Eddy was working as a trader in the City before he decided to quit and buy some land in the countryside. He stumbled on the town of Frome and, captivated by the town’s vibrancy and identity, decided to invest in it. Today, he runs a destination street market once a month, The Frome Independent, showcasing some of the best craftspeople, designers, makers, producers and traders in the South West. We hear how Gavin’s project gave a new lease of life to the town.
Australian-born Adam Iezzi founded AIPR in 2005. Today the company counts fashion brands such as JW Anderson and APC among its clients. Iezzi tells us how availability, communication and slow growth helped shape his company.
Joni Steiner is the co-founder of Opendesk, a global online platform that facilitates the local production of furniture by connecting consumers to a library of designs and a host of nearby craftsmen. Originally trained as architects, the team behind the company developed their concept with the help of crowdfunding and an incubator programme. We find out more about this furniture-making movement, the democratisation of production and distribution and what the future holds for the Opendesk.
Andrew Dale, a 30-year-old former banker from Toronto, founded his high-end leather-bag brand, LeDaveed, in 2016. He shares the story of how he left big finance in favour of independent fashion.
For this special edition we head to Lisbon for this year’s Web Summit. The Portuguese capital hosted entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and political leaders as part of the event’s largest edition yet. We hear from three very different mobility innovators: Lewis Horne, CEO of Uniti; Alexander Zosel, founder of Volocopter; and James Meeks, CEO of Move Systems.
For this special edition we head to Lisbon for this year’s Web Summit. The Portuguese capital hosted entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and political leaders as part of the event’s largest edition yet. We hear from three very different mobility innovators: Lewis Horne, CEO of Uniti; Alexander Zosel, founder of Volocopter; and James Meeks, CEO of Move Systems.
South African-born Bernie de Le Cuona founded her eponymous fabric brand in London in 1992. This week she tells us how an inspirational trip to India led to the beginnings of her business.
John Hitchcox co-founded property-development company Yoo in 1999, along with maverick designer Philippe Starck; since then design-minded hotels and residences have sprung up in more than 30 countries worldwide. Hitchcox tells us about founding the firm, his close relationship with Starck and the approach that has fuelled Yoo’s success.
Philip Knatchbull has always been surrounded by film: his father, John Braeburn, is one of the UK’s pre-eminent producers behind features such as ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and ‘A Passage to India’. We find out how Philip, CEO of Curzon, has not only expanded the cinema chain but created a leading film-distribution service, Artificial Eye, and a digital platform.
George Bevis is founder and CEO of Tide, an innovative start-up on a mission to revolutionise banking for small businesses. This week he shares his journey.
Alan Moore thinks that the business world needs a dose of beauty; not physical attractiveness but strong purpose and positive cultures, with products that are good to people and the planet. Here he urges entrepreneurs to rethink not just what they make but how and why.
London-based entrepreneur Taha Fezzani left a two-decade career in the oil industry to launch Zest and Zing, his brand of premium spices inspired by his childhood family holidays in Libya and travels around the world. Fezzani shares how he launched the brand and what he’s learned.
London-based entrepreneur Taha Fezzani left a two-decade career in the oil industry to launch Zest and Zing, his brand of premium spices inspired by his childhood family holidays in Libya and travels around the world. Fezzani shares how he launched the brand and what he’s learned.
Sheherazade Goldsmith and Laura Bailey are the founders of Loquet, a London-based luxury jewellery label. Since launching the brand in 2013, the pair have attracted an army of loyal fans and are now stocked in more than 60 retailers around the world, from Browns to Colette. This week they explain how they did it.
Jonny Boud and Alex Potter run the hospitality group GoodLife Projects. Together they’re the creative minds behind some of London’s most popular hotspots – from the day-party concept Love Brunch and the Caribbean-inspired eatery The Rum Kitchen to the acclaimed new restaurant Foley’s. They share their story and inspiration.
Before launching his influential British menswear label Universal Works, David Keyte’s career stretched from signwriter apprentice and coal miner to working with fashion designer Paul Smith. This week he shares his influences, top business tips and lessons learned.
Huckletree co-founder Andrew Lynch shares the story of his fast-growing co-working start-up.
Mark Cho is co-founder of The Armoury, a groundbreaking temple to classic menswear in Hong Kong, and co-owner of Drake’s, a highly respected UK company known for its beautiful neckties. Both brands have flourished under his watchful eye – so what lessons has he learned?
Maria Falbo tells the story of her “Made in Europe” lifestyle and leisurewear brand Copson London, inspired by skating and sun-kissed summers.
Kevin Delaney is editor in chief of ‘Quartz’, a popular digital news outlet founded five years ago. Since then it has launched ‘Quartz India’ and ‘Quartz Africa’, made a pioneering mobile app and has just published its first book. So what’s the secret to its success? Delaney joins us in the studio to share what he’s learned.
While completing a master’s degree in international development, Matt Powell realised that refugees in the UK had few employment resources helping them to integrate into society. He decided to launch Breaking Barriers, which works with corporate partners such as Thomson Reuters and Ikea to help refugees find meaningful work. Powell shares his story.
Is artificial intelligence the future of healthcare? We talk to Dr Claire Novorol, co-founder of Ada: an app designed by doctors and powered by AI that’s aiming to be your personal health companion when you’re unwell.
Inspired by her Swedish upbringing, west African heritage and vintage family photos, entrepreneur Maya Njie launched a niche independent perfume brand in east London. She tells us what lessons she’s sniffed out along the way.
In a technology industry obsessed with artificial intelligence and augmented reality, one of the most exciting sectors involves foam and springs. Start-ups are shaking up the once-sleepy sector of making and selling mattresses. But with competition through the roof, who will become the industry leader? We sit down with James Cox, co-founder of London mattress company Simba.
The story of how one UK-based team designed and built the Hummingbird: the lightest folding bike in the world.
Despite our growing eco-friendly credentials, humans still waste too much water. Malmo-based industrial designer Mehrdad Mahdjoubi has a solution: a futuristic shower designed by his clean-technology start-up Orbital Systems, which can reduce water usage by 90 per cent. It’s backed by Nasa-approved technology and the co-founder of Skype – but will this Scandinavian solution catch on around the world?
The story of Jonathan Self, co-founder of pioneering family-run start-up Honey’s Real Dog Food and author of the recently published book ‘Good Money: Become an Ethical Entrepreneur’.
Ben Farren is the founder and CEO of Spoke, a menswear brand obsessed with clothes built for fit. It sells just two styles – chinos and shorts – but in a huge range sizes. The products are sold online, directly to the customer. But what are the promises and pitfalls of the model? Farren walks us through the company’s story.
Abe Burmeister is co-founder of the New York-based clothing brand Outlier. Abe was once a freelance graphic designer looking for a better pair of pants. When he couldn’t find any he decided to make them himself. He and his co-founder now run a cult-favourite brand whose mission is to build the future of clothing. Abe shares the Outlier story.
We share top lessons learned from guests of ‘The Entrepreneurs’ in the first half of 2017.
Zoe Partridge is the founder of Wear The Walk, a new London start-up that allows users to rent curated pieces of fashion from an online library. Unlike its competitors it shuns big brands to feature only new and emerging designers. Partridge tells us about the future of sustainable fashion.
Paul Brown is the founder of popular healthy-food start-up BOL Foods, whose bestselling products included meat and fish until the company relaunched this summer as a plant-based brand. So why the dramatic change in strategy? Will customers flock to them or flee? And what sort of planning went into the decision? Brown walks us through the company’s story.
London-based entrepreneur Rebekah Hall left a 10-year career in finance to create an organic cold-pressed juice brand called Botanic Lab. This week she tells us how her company competes in a saturated market of health-conscious consumers.
Antonio Weiss and Matt Brown are the founders of Thomas Clipper, a UK lifestyle brand that crowdfunds design-led products, such as sturdy double-edged razors and Italian-leather wash bags. The two have recently launched a line of French-made cologne on First Edition, their own crowdfunding platform for boutique craft brands. This week the pair share their story.
Restaurateur Brooks Reitz is building an empire of award-winning eateries in Charleston, South Carolina – from the much-loved Leon’s Oyster Shop to Little Jack’s Tavern, recently named one of the ‘Best New Restaurants in America’ by ‘Bon Appétit’ magazine. Brooks shares his rise in the restaurant world, the secrets to his success and his decision to launch a start-up, Jack Rudy Cocktail Company.
For newspapers and magazines, unpacking the complexities of technology stories can be difficult. As editor of ‘Tech City News’, London-based journalist Alex Wood realised that most media outlets did a bad job at writing technology articles for non-experts who care more about big trends than jargon. So, in 2015 Wood quit his job and launched a news site called ‘The Memo’ to fill the gap. This week he shares what he’s learnt after two years.
This week we tell the story of Polly Leonard, founder of the textile industry’s iconic magazine, ‘Selvedge’. What began as a one-off issue is now a cult brand with a dedicated following around the world. Leonard shares how she did it and what she’s learnt.
Station F is the world’s largest start-up campus. Opened weeks ago in Paris with an appearance by France’s president Emmanuel Macron and the project’s billionaire founder Xavier Niel, it’s located in an abandoned 1920s railway depot the size of the Eiffel Tower and has room for thousands of companies. Is this a turning point for the French technology scene? Its director Roxanne Varza tells us more.
Marc Vlessing is the founder of Pocket Living, a London-based start-up that’s developed a solution to help priced-out young professionals onto the property ladder. Its product? Compact, well-designed homes sold for at least 20 per cent cheaper than the local-market rate. Vlessing discusses disrupting a stubborn market, shares tips on how start-ups can navigate regulation and looks at the future of living in growing cities.
Years ago former advertising copywriter David Hieatt left London with his family for the Welsh town of Cardigan, once home to the largest jeans factory in Britain. Since then, he and his wife Clare sold their popular T-shirt company Howies, built the much-loved brand Hiut Denim and created a three-day rural retreat in their old cow barn called The Do Lectures. This week on The Entrepreneurs David shares the secrets to building long-lasting brands and the big takeaways of his purpose-driven career.
Stocksy United is an artist-owned co-op that specialises in high-end curated stock photography. The Canadian startup was launched by entrepreneur Brianna Wettlaufer, who cut her teeth in the trade after rising through the ranks at the photography giant iStock. This week on Eureka, Brianna shares her story.
Juniqe is a fast-growing Berlin-based start-up selling a curated selection of wall art and home accessories from independent artists; it’s one of a growing number of businesses attempting to disrupt the mass art market. Its co-founder Lea Lange tells us how her company is leading the pack – and why Berlin is a great place to set up shop.
Joan Murphy and Pip Black were working in advertising when they met on a surfing trip in 2007. A friendship soon turned into a business partnership when they launched their groundbreaking London-based fitness studio Frame, which has since developed a cult following. This week Joan shares the story of Frame.
From the rise of Mr Porter and Farfetch to the demise of Style.com, the e-commerce industry has experienced an eventful few years. This week we tell the tale of a new entry, an online marketplace called Bombinate. Founded by two friends following a road trip around the world, Bombinate sells only the highest-quality products from lesser-known brands from Europe. The mission is to cultivate a lively community of likeminded brands but how will it fare in a saturated market? Bombinate’s co-founder Massimiliano Gritti shares the company’s story.
Simon Karlstetter and Claudio Ricci share the story of their Munich-based magazine ‘Der Greif’ and their new project Picter, a sharing tool for photographers.
There are 2.5 billion people with uncorrected vision problems. James Chen is a Hong Kong-based venture philanthropist and entrepreneur who’s on a mission to help the world see better – and he’s marshalling start-ups, government and non-profits to make it happen. This week Chen explains how he’s doing it and what he’s learnt along the way.
Unbound is a London-based start-up that’s revolutionising the publishing world, giving authors the tools to pitch, crowdfund and launch their own books. This week, Unbound’s co-founder and chief executive Dan Kieran shares the company’s story.
For frustrated singles searching for soulmates the old-fashioned way, technology start-ups have provided a more efficient method of finding love: dating apps. One fast-growing addition to the field is the Austin, Texas-based company Bumble, founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe, a co-founder of the dating app Tinder. Unlike its competitors, Bumble empowers women to make the first move. This week Wolfe shares the company’s story, discusses the role of feminism in the technology industry and explores the future of networking.
This week we hear the story of Herschel Supply, the brand built by two Canadian brothers in 2009 that now sells millions of bags a year in more than 70 countries. Co-founder Lyndon Cormack tells us how the company grew so successfully.
Founded in 2010, WeWork has become a global co-working behemoth. Operating almost 200 offices around the world from Bogota to Berlin the company now has a staggering valuation of bn. Two years ago we featured WeWork’s co-founder, Miguel McKelvey, who this week returns to share the secrets of the company’s rapid growth, why its membership has expanded beyond just start-ups and what he thinks the workplace might look like in the future.
Chris Kontos is an Athens-based photographer and DJ who focused his creative efforts with a friend in 2013 to launch a print magazine called ‘Kennedy’. Filled with gorgeous photo essays and profiles, Chris calls his passion-project a “biannual journal of curiosities”. This week he shares why and how ‘Kennedy’ came to be.
Ajaz Ahmed founded the creative and design agency AKQA after dropping out of university in the mid-1990s to help brands take advantage of the burgeoning digital revolution. AKQA now has more than 2,000 employees across 21 studios around the world. This week Ahmed shares the secrets to a good campaign and why he sold a majority stake of AKQA to the advertising giant WPP.
On a trekking adventure through Nepal, John Wood noticed the lack of quality children’s books and learning materials. After returning home and quitting his executive job at Microsoft, he created Room to Read, one of the fastest growing non-profits in the world. This week John shares why he ditched his career to deliver books to far-flung regions on the back of a yak.
As big corporations hunt for entrepreneurial candidates with digital know-how, smaller start-ups search for experienced executives to help them scale. Executive search firm Gordon and Eden is on a mission to bridge the start-up-corporate divide. The firm’s founders Sam Gordon and Sophie Eden share their unique business model and explain why old-school headhunters haven’t yet caught up with the digital age.
US entrepreneur Jeff Lynn is the co-founder and CEO of Seedrs, an equity-based crowdfunding service in London. Users can invest in start-ups on the platform – often for as little as £10 – and receive shares in return. It’s a way for start-ups to raise funds and for the little guy to own a piece of the pie. But how did Jeff build Seedrs? This week he shares his inspiration, top tips and lessons learnt.
Jan Chipchase is the founder of Studio D Radiodurans, a consultancy that’s perhaps like none other in the world. He and his team travel to the far edges of the earth on behalf of clients to immerse themselves in difficult environments and understand human behaviour. He’s recently distilled his years of experience into a beautiful crowdfunded guide called 'The Field Study Handbook'. This week Jan shares lessons for travelling anywhere, making sense of the world and making a difference.
In July 1946, a French automobile engineer turned fashion designer named Louis Réard invented a revealing two-piece swimsuit called the bikini. Réard created a company and made bikinis for decades until his death in the mid-1980s, when the brand went dormant. This week on Eureka we meet Richard Emanuel, the Scottish entrepreneur on a mission to revive Réard to its former glory.
In the world of high-end, long-lasting and much-loved furniture brands, Vitsœ is perhaps without rival. For more than 50 years, the company has manufactured and sold furniture designed by the legendary Dieter Rams. But how do you sustain a legacy of top design, not to mention a profitable business model, for more than half a century? This week we meet Vitsœ’s managing director Mark Adams – the man who saved the company from bankruptcy and who has ambitious plans for the brand’s future.
Richard Reed created the drinks brand Innocent with two university friends in 1999. Years later, after growing the company into a global phenomenon worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the three friends started JamJar Investments, with the goal of backing the next generation of brilliant ideas. So, how did he get to where he is today? Richard shares his story.
How do you launch a thriving print magazine in the digital age? Serena Guen is the founder and CEO of Suitcase Group, a multimedia brand best known for travel and fashion-inspired quarterly ‘Suitcase’ magazine. Guen launched Suitcase as a globetrotting student in 2012 and has never turned back. This week she shares the secrets to her success.
Kwami Williams was raised in Ghana and studied aerospace engineering at MIT, where he worked with Nasa. On a trip back to his homeland he encountered the super-crop moringa. This launched him on an entrepreneurial journey that resulted in MoringaConnect, which aims to eradicate rural poverty, and a clean-beauty brand, True Moringa. This week he shares his story.
Massimo Buster Minale is the founder of cult-favourite interior design brand Buster + Punch. During a career working for top architecture and design firms, Minale built and sold custom motorcycles in an east London garage. His passion evolved into a company and Minale was soon crafting furniture, light fixtures and accessories, with the goal of building an accessible lifestyle brand in an analogue-obsessed age. This week, he shares his journey.
Turin-born Luca Faloni built a successful career as a strategy consultant in London and San Francisco. But it was while working on a project in the fashion industry that he saw an opportunity to start his own company. Faloni tells us why he quit his job, how he started his eponymous menswear brand and what he’s learnt from the experience.
This week, we profile The Next Web, a popular media brand based in the Netherlands. Founded in 2006, it runs one of the world’s most visited websites for technology news, operates a start-up hub and hosts an annual technology conference in Amsterdam. The company’s co-founder and chief executive, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, explains how the company found a business mix that works.
In 2010 Jeff Raider co-founded the iconic brand Warby Parker, which has revolutionised the eyewear market and become a household name. He’s now the CEO of Harry’s, an innovative company that’s hoping to replicate the success of Warby Parker, this time in the shaving market. So how did he get from spectacles to beards – and what has he learnt along the way? Raider shares his story.
Have you ever listened to an audiobook – that grandfather of the modern podcast, once defined by cassettes and CDs at your local bookstore? Now slick, digital and massively popular, audiobooks are the fastest growing segment in the publishing industry. But how are they made, what do the economics look like and will audio eventually kill the printed word? This week we’re talking to Laurence Howell from pioneering Amazon-owned company Audible.
Simon and Elaine MacKenzie are the husband-and-wife team behind new family-friendly city-guide brand Urbanito. While travelling with their children the Scottish duo discovered a lack of smart and stylish travel guides that catered to curious kids as well as their parents – so they decided to make one themselves. They share their story.
This week we meet Ben Saunders, one of the world’s most famous polar explorers. In 2004, he became the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole and a decade later he completed the longest human-powered polar expedition in history: a 1,800-mile return journey to the South Pole on foot. Saunders is also the founding editor and publisher of ‘Avaunt Magazine’, a brand ambassador and a public speaker. He shares the most exhilarating moments of his career, why the less glamorous side of exploring involves spreadsheets and all the many lessons he’s learnt.
Menswear designer Mehmet Ali was once the creative director of the venerated Savile Row house Hardy Amies. But he’s now left all that behind to launch his own brand called MEHM+ which focuses on innovative design and a strong sense of provenance. So why leave a cushy job to venture into the unknown? Ali shares his story.
In a former life, Robin Roberts studied zoology, was an officer in the British army and spent two decades at an executive search firm. It was then that he saw qualified executives consistently mess up job interviews. Robin decided to launch a company called ‘Rehearse it!’, staffed with theatre professionals, to help people prepare for critical moments in their careers. Robin and his casting director Michele Leach explain the story of 'Rehearse it!' and share their top interview tips.
Clover Lewis studied fashion design and worked as a costume assistant everywhere from opera houses to music tours. But it was after Clover experienced breast cancer that she was inspired to launch her own business – a stylish swimwear brand for women who’ve gone through breast cancer surgeries. She shares how she turned a recovery project into an inspiring tale of business success.
Raoul Shah founded the powerhouse communications agency Exposure in 1993. He’s since pioneered the art of product placement and represented big-hitting clients from Nike and Converse to Coca-Cola and Uniqlo. Raoul explains how PR has changed over the past quarter century, shares the secrets to keeping clients happy and tells about that time he launched Jay Z’s luxury champagne brand.
Lana Elie is the founder of Floom, a London start-up that allows some of the city’s best florists to sell beautiful bouquets through a slick online interface. She quit her job to launch Floom just over a year ago – she tells us how she did it.
Fabien Riggall is the founder of Secret Cinema, a fast-growing company that organises complex large-scale productions of much-loved films, from ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’ to ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, in which the audience and performance come together as one. It’s all done with a healthy dose of secrecy: locations are hidden until the final moment and smartphones are strictly forbidden. So how did Fabien build a secret brand in an oversharing era? And what has he learnt along the way? He shares his story.
French entrepreneurs Laura Faeh and Cécilia Thomas share how they created their London-based lifestyle company Lapp – maker of the poptail: stylish ice pops made of fresh fruit and premium alcohol – and what they’ve learnt along the way.
Sharmadean Reid is the founder of London-based brand Wah Nails, which she started as a hip-hop magazine for girls while she was still at university. Reid has since built a business empire focused on nail art, with salons, products, pop-ups and a new virtual-reality experience that pushes the boundaries of technology in the beauty industry. This week she shares her top tips and tells us about mistakes made and lessons learnt.
Paul Noble was Monocle 24’s original executive producer, helping to launch our radio station. Since leaving he's fulfilled a long-held dream to create a physical place in which to experience, enjoy and celebrate good music. It’s called Spiritland, a one-of-a-kind café, bar, event space, shop and studio in London, built around one of the world’s best sound systems. How did he get the idea off the ground?
The green revolution has made its mark in offices, with science supporting the idea that greenery boosts wellbeing, but gyms are yet to catch on. This week we meet Matt Aspiotis Morley – whose fitness brand Biofit uses natural materials, lots of plants and zero technology – and find out how he plans to attract customers in a crowded market.
Christian Lane’s foray into the world of entrepreneurship began with a folder for large documents, which he called the Foldio. He’s since gone on to make your kitchen a more connected place with his company Smarter, which introduced the world to the wi-fi kettle and new product FridgeCam. But how did he make the jump from paper to the ‘internet of things’?
Tom Adeyoola is on a mission to build his company into what he calls the “Google of size and shape” and he’s raised millions and hired 14 PhD holders to make it a reality. Metail is a London-based fashion-technology start-up that allows customers to discover and purchase clothes online that fit them perfectly, based on their personal measurements. It’s a lucrative space that many start-ups have tried to conquer – but few have succeeded. Why? Adeyoola explains Metail’s rocky beginnings and tells us how they’ve come out on top.
Harry Triggs and Andrew Molyneux met at university, studying industrial design. Triggs went on to be a lighting consultant and Andrew a product designer but in 2012 they combined forces to launch TM Lighting, helping clients to create the perfect lighting conditions for works of art.
A few years ago Aron Gelbard realised that the way we send and receive flowers was pretty inefficient. It usually begins with searching the internet for florists and ends with a knock at the door when the receiver is not at home. Aron and his friend Ben Stanway decided there had to be a better way. Their company, Bloom & Wild, boxes up fresh flowers in a container that fits through your door’s letterbox. But getting from idea to execution involved a healthy dose of innovation. This week, Aron explains how they did it.
Luke Sweeney and Thom Whiddett got their start in menswear, working for the bespoke-tailoring icon Timothy Everest. In 2007 they set off on their own to create much-loved brand Thom Sweeney. On their 10-year anniversary they tell us how they did it.
In the mid-1990s Australia-born Jasper Cuppaidge ended up in London after missing his connecting flight while on a surfing trip. Years later and still in London, he founded one of the city’s most famous and beloved beer brands, Camden Town Brewery, which he recently sold to much fanfare and controversy to the world’s largest brewer – for £85 million. This week Cuppaidge tells us what happened between that missed flight and that big sale, and what he’s learnt along the way.
Ashton spent 30 years in global finance and banking, running trade floors and working as a partner at a hedge fund. But the entrepreneurial itch struck and it came in the form of a wine case. He's now the CEO of 67 Pall Mall, a members club for wine-lovers. He tells us how he got the club from concept to cork.
Indian entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia has been building technology start-ups with his brother Divyank since they were teenagers, beginning with a business loan of a few hundred dollars from their father. The two have recently been catapulted into the world of billionaires after selling part of their company Directi for 0m and selling their advertising technology firm Media.net for 0m, the latter deal being one of the largest in ad-tech history. Bhavin shares what he’s learned and why he’s now deeply involved in his latest venture, the team messenger service Flock.
It’s an article of clothing that many people overlook but Vahan Hovhannisyan believes that socks are the world’s best conversation starter. Hovhannisyan is a co-founder of designer sock brand Look Mate, a company he brainstormed, built and launched with his brother while Hovhannisyan worked as an accountant for a luxury hotel in London. The socks are designed with top creative minds and produced by a father-daughter team in the brothers’ hometown in Armenia. But why socks – and how did the brothers get the company off the ground?
French entrepreneur Alexandre Mars founded one of Europe’s first-ever web agencies, one of the world’s largest mobile marketing agencies and sold his social-media management company to Blackberry – but he’s now on a mission to add a dose of efficiency to the world of philanthropy. And he thinks he’s found a formula that works. Alexandre chats to Daniel Giacopelli about the Epic Foundation, his New York-based platform that connects would-be philanthropists with charities focused on youth well-being.
This is the story of PJ Harrison, an Englishman in Los Angeles who left behind a career in the creative industries to launch a football club, City of Angels FC, with his friend: the musician and entrepreneur Joe Sumner. Harrison explains how he got inspired and the lessons he’s learnt along the way.
The global watch industry is going through tough times but amid the hand-wringing and alarmism you may have missed a more optimistic story: small independent brands are actually going through a renaissance. This week we focus on the journey of four London friends who pushed aside their day jobs to create a UK-designed Swiss-made watch company from scratch. Two founders of Farer, Ben Lewin and Jono Holt, share their story.
‘Eureka’ is a spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Emma Wingfield, a Brooklyn-based researcher, expert on West African art and co-founder of textile brand Five | Six. Along with her co-founder Laine Henry, the two collaborate with the weaving collective in Waraniéné, Côte d’Ivoire, to produce gorgeous ethically-made home-goods and bags. Wingfield explains how they turned a research passion into a company.
Imagine founding and running a company for 30 years before losing it to forces largely out of your control. After licking your wounds, what do you do next? We ask Roger Saul, founder of iconic UK luxury brand Mulberry. His career move involved a luxury hotel, an electric-car project, an organic-food brand and a designer outlet village that’s attempting to reinvent the retail business model.
‘Eureka' is a spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week photographer Phil James and creative director James Cowdale explain how they brainstormed, designed, crowdfunded and launched the UK-based workwear brand &Sons.
Jonas Almgren is a Swedish entrepreneur and the CEO of London-based start-up ArtFinder, one of the world’s largest online art marketplaces. The company’s goal is lofty: create a world where everyone owns art and where independent artists can make a living doing what they love. To pull it off they’re investing in algorithm-heavy technology such as advanced image recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Jonas shares his journey from Stockholm to Silicon Valley and New York to London.
‘Eureka’ is a spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week Bruno Haid shares his entrepreneurial journey from Austrian village to New York City and how he’s hoping to revolutionise the co-living industry with his new start-up Roam.
We profile two entrepreneurs who are keeping things local. US entrepreneur Steven Novick is the founder of Farmstand, a new London restaurant that does one thing: sustainably sourced and delicious food inspired by the roadside stalls of America’s Midwest. Mandeep Singh, co-founder and CEO of Trouva, tells us how he built the London-based start-up into a global shopfront through which small independent retailers can sell their products to an international customer base.
Highlights from the past year, from a legendary Detroit record label and a beloved British chocolatier to the secrets of a Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
What's the future of driving in the era of the sharing economy? We ask Silicon Valley entrepreneur Andre Haddad, CEO of Turo.
‘Eureka’ is a spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week Josh Udashkin tells us how he became inspired to create the New York-based “smart” luggage start-up Raden.
During a three-month hospital stay when he was 18 years old, Ed Cooke studied memory techniques to overcome boredom. By the age of 23 he was a Grand Master of Memory, someone who can memorise 1,000 random digits in an hour and the order of a deck of cards in two minutes. Cooke is now the founder of a fast-growing start-up called Memrise, which allows people to learn a language quickly while also having fun. He outlines the value of a good memory and tells us how Memrise gained tens of millions of users.
After three years in Afghanistan, Flore de Taisne and Edmund Le Brun created Ishkar, a social enterprise that curates products made by artisans affected by war. They explain how they did it.
In 2003, after a globetrotting career as a broadcast journalist, Nancy Durham and her philosopher husband planted a lavender field on their Welsh farm. What began as a passion project evolved into a much-loved company that distills lavender oil to create creams, balms and chocolate, all inspired by Welsh hill farmers. Durham tells Daniel Giacopelli about her transition from journalist to farmer, as well as mistakes made and lessons learned.
‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. Catherine Gazzoli grew up on a healthy Mediterranean diet, worked in food education at the UN in Rome and was the head of Slow Food UK. Here she explains how she got the idea for her organic baby-food brand Piccolo.
It’s a tough time to be a wristwatch business. Swiss watch exports have plunged, global demand has sunk and the industry is in a slump. But is it all doom and gloom? Where are the opportunities? This week Daniel Giacopelli sits down with Stephen Pulvirent, managing editor at the world’s most popular online watch magazine ‘Hodinkee’. Pulvirent explains the ups and downs of the sector and charts the evolution of ‘Hodinkee’ as the spiritual home for a new generation of mechanical-watch lovers.
This week we hear the story of Swede David Voxlin, founder of London-based start-up Craved, which works with independent producers to curate and sell craft food and drink made entirely in the UK.
It’s sold in more than 140 countries, served in more than 100,000 outlets and almost seven million cups of its product are consumed everyday. But with an evolving coffee scene, a rise in Asian demand and the threat of climate change, how is Italian brand Illy preparing for the future? Daniel Giacopelli sits down with Massimiliano Pogliani, the first CEO employed from outside the family, to find out.
‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Dr Neema Moraveji, director of Stanford University’s Calming Technology Lab and co-founder and chief scientist of Spire, a wearable device that tracks and influences your state of mind.
Cousins Robert Nightingale and Jonathan Cazzola grew up in the British countryside, where they developed a passion for vintage motorcycles. Amid careers in branding and design, they realised that the motorcycle world lacked a handsome and robust luggage and accessories brand and so decided to create one. The pair share the origins of their company, Malle London and tell us why they tested products on a 10,000-mile road trip across North America.
Thousands of start-up founders and investors from around the world attended this year’s edition of Web Summit in the Portuguese capital. We hear the stories of three entrepreneurs – from Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon itself – whose companies stood out from the crowd.
What does a brand sound like? This week we meet an entrepreneur and DJ who believes that every brand should have a strategy for sound. Brian d’Souza of Open Ear explains how to curate a brand’s musical identity.
‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. In 1846, Edwin Fear established a watch brand in Bristol in the UK. The Fears Watch Company survived the 19th century and lasted through two world wars until the late 1950s when it shut down. We meet Edwin Fear’s great-great-great grandson, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, who’s on a mission to revive the family firm to its former glory.
Which luxury companies are doing their part to protect the planet and how can consumers know which brands to trust? Diana Verde Nieto’s solution is something called the Butterfly Mark. Here she explains the power of trust and the twists and turns of her career in sustainability. Meanwhile, we meet two twenty-something brothers on a mission to create the world’s first truly premium sportswear brand for men. Castore’s Tom and Phil Beahon share their game plan.
This week we hear the story of Chaz Hutton who studied architecture in Australia before moving to London for a change of scenery. But what began as a hobby – drawing funny and observational doodles on Post-it notes – soon turned Chaz into an online phenomenon. Now with a new book, ‘A Sticky Note Guide to Life’, he’s left architecture for good. So what’s it like changing careers and going full steam ahead into the great creative abyss?
Acclaimed social scientist Dr Robert Cialdini knows all about persuasion and influence. He talks about his new bestseller ‘Pre-Suasion’, which reveals how the world’s best persuaders succeed based on what they do before they deliver their message. Plus: boot-makers in Norway, an Australian dog-walking company with a difference and the former Swiss diplomat running a boutique hotel in Kosovo that’s challenging ethnic stereotypes.
‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Gabi Lewis and his company Exo. While at university in 2013 Lewis ordered 2,000 crickets to his dorm room, which he planned on turning into tasty nutritious snacks. Today his company Exo produces protein bars made with cricket flour. We ask what went wrong in those early days and whether Exo can ever convince the western world to embrace insects.
The global travel industry is a juggernaut influenced by world events, hi-tech disruption, the rise of the middle class and long-term trends, one of which is the increasing desire for a genuine local experience when overseas. We meet the CEOs of two travel companies that aim to fulfil that need: Paul Christie runs Walk Japan, a pioneering tour operator that has been leading long trips across the country since the early 1990s, and Eric La Bonnardière is the co-founder of French start-up Evaneos, which connects travellers directly with local travel experts.
‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Craig Robertson, who tells us how he launched premium male skincare brand Filmore, which marries minimalist Scandinavian design with Scottish craftsmanship.
Daniel Lubetzky is the founder and CEO of Kind, the fastest-growing snack company in the US, and author of the ‘New York Times’ bestseller ‘Do the Kind Thing’. Lubetzky and his team have built a billion-dollar company based on healthy ingredients and a devotion to the philosophy and practice of kindness in everyday life. He talks to Monocle’s Daniel Giacopelli about everything he’s learnt.
‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by Daniel Giacopelli and the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Cynthia Corbett, who began her career as an international economist working on debt conversion plans for Sub Saharan Africa in the 1980s. With a young daughter the constant travel put a strain on her family life so she quit her job and retrained as an art historian, eventually opening a gallery in her house. She shares lessons learned.
Velocity is an app that offers a curated selection of the world’s best dining experiences, picked by local insiders. The all-in-one platform is aimed at the jet-set crowd and lets users discover, reserve and pay for meals around the world. Co-founder Alex Macdonald shares the company’s story and vision. Meanwhile, former journalist Amanda Thomson moved to Paris to study the wine industry. Raised as a vegetarian and on a no-sugar diet, she now makes no-sugar sparkling wines and champagnes under her brand Thomson & Scott. She explains how she did it.
This week we hear the story of restaurateur Kurt Zdesar. Australian-born Kurt kicked off his culinary career with stints at McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken but was soon overseeing Nobu’s first European location in London, which received a Michelin star within 10 months. He’s brought all-day dim sum to London with his popular Ping Pong brand, launched Black Roe in Mayfair, his restaurant Chotto Matte is going international and he’s just opened a new Italian joint Fucina. Kurt shares his inspiration.
Hirofumi Kurino from United Arrows and Simone Cipriani from the Ethical Fashion Initiative discuss the creative partnership that led them to hitch a ride to Ethiopia. Then the CEO of Oliver Peoples explains why the US eyewear brand is making moves in Europe. And Palida Boonyarungsrit reveals how she’s leveraging her family’s multigenerational history of craft in Thailand to create her very own business.
Presented by Monocle’s Daniel Giacopelli, ‘Eureka’ is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by the team behind ‘The Entrepreneurs’. This week we hear the story of Jane Porter, founder of bespoke uniform design company Studio 104. For better or worse, first impressions count and in hospitality a quality uniform for a concierge or maître d is worth its weight in gold. So why are many uniforms so unappealing? Jane Porter had the same question, so she quit her job as a fashion buyer and did something about it.
In an age of digital distraction and constant interruption one company is taking a stand for minimalism through good design. Punkt. is a Swiss brand that creates products to simplify our frenetic lives. Their latest creation is a mobile phone that does just two things: make calls and send texts. But is this minimalism for the sake of minimalism or is Punkt. on to something deeper? We meet Petter Neby, the company’s CEO and founder to find out.
Presented by Monocle’s Daniel Giacopelli, ‘Eureka' is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by the team behind 'The Entrepreneurs’. If you’re a parent of a certain age you’re likely to know stylish baby-stroller brand Bugaboo. Designer Max Barenbrug was a student in Amsterdam in the mid-1990s when he formed the idea for the company. Bugaboo has since become a design icon and kickstarted a revolution in mobility products. Barenbrug explains how he spotted the opportunity and what happened next.
Not long ago Texas-born Mickey Ashmore was a 20-something finance graduate working for Microsoft. Now he’s affectionately known as the Sabah Dealer, the founder of a hugely popular and fast-growing brand that sells slip-on shoes based on an old-school Turkish design. Ashmore shares his tale. Meanwhile, we meet Simon Talling-Smith, the man overseeing the European launch of a disruptive airline called SurfAir. Think of it as the Netflix of the skies: pay a flat monthly fee and you can fly as much as you like. But will the business model take off?
Presented by Monocle’s Daniel Giacopelli, ‘Eureka' is a weekly spotlight on business origins brought to you by the team behind 'The Entrepreneurs’. Tom Donald is an Australian composer and concert pianist whose work has been featured in award-winning films. He’s also the founder of the London Contemporary School of Piano. Tom tells us how he turned his passion for pianos into a business.