Meet Martin, founder of Grubby. If you haven't heard of them, Grubby is the UK's first plant-based recipe kit, on a mission to make plant-based cooking so delicious and accessible, you'll never even think about missing meat. Martin's journey is a wild one. From a B2B office delivery service pre-COVID to landing back at his parents' place in 2020 with every penny spent, wondering what was next. The answer? A direct-to-consumer recipe kit for plant-curious eaters. They kicked off with a with £100k...
May 31, 2025•45 min
Introducing Sarah Vachon, the brainchild behind Citizens of Soil - the regenerative olive oil brand championing the farmers' who deserve a seat at the table - cold pressed extra virgin olive oil from small batch producers in Greece and Spain as well as rarer varieties from the likes of Italy, Portugal and Croatia. Full of polyphenols and powerful antioxidants, there’s a reason why people in the Mediterranean live for so long. As one of the most faked products in the world, Citizens of Soil is an...
May 26, 2025•53 min
Say hello to Imogen Royall. She’s one half of Northern Pasta Co - the spelt pasta brand championing regenerative British farming, on a mission to craft unbeatably delicious pasta without compromise. Based in Kendal up in Cumbria, the brand was set up in 2022 by Imogen Royall, an interior designer, and her builder husband Matt after falling in love with pasta, turning a seedling of an idea into a life changing obsession. The couple even got married "over a bowl of pasta in Italy". And the problem...
Apr 30, 2025•43 min
Introducing Rachel Kettlewell. She’s the founder of Fearne & Rosie, the jam challenger on a mission to spread goodness up and down the country, packing as much fruit into as many mouths, hearts and minds as possible. Having launched a little over 5 years ago she’s now stocked in over 5000 stocking points including the likes of Asda, Co-op and Tesco. Hailing from Withington, Manchester, the brand itself is named after her two first-borns, Fearne & Rosie. Before she became a real fruit que...
Mar 28, 2025•42 min
Say hi to Ella. She’s the founder of Fatso, the chocolate challenger, on a mission to prove that dark chocolate can be just as fun, delicious and chunky as milk. Founded in 2022, Fatso is stocked in over 350 stores with taste-makers and independents like Liberty, Harvey Nichols as well as hotels and offices, counted amongst its many stockists. Driven by an all female team, they’re proof that you can have your chocolate and eat it. That dark chocolate can be bold, premium and playful, and that li...
Feb 26, 2025•39 min
Tom Palmer is the founder of Yep Kitchen, the Sichuan chilli oil taking the deli scene by storm now in over 180 stores across the UK from Cornwall to Scotland with more on the horizon. Founded in 2022, after a decade of living in China, Tom decided to swap textbooks for taste buds, leaving his career in education to turn his passion into a business. On a mission to bring the bold, rich flavours of China's Southwest to the UK through a range of easy-to-use and crave worthy condiments from their s...
Jan 25, 2025•44 min
Say hello to Tim Chong. He’s the founder of Yonder, the next generation credit card company on a mission to make credit more inclusive, accessible, and rewarding. Instead of just offering you air miles, they invite modern explorers into a world of trending restaurants, breakthrough brands, and uplifting experiences with points that are not only easier to use but more enjoyable to spend. Inspired by Neo banks like Monzo and Revolut, Yonder makes Amex look its age with tired UX, a slow app and lac...
Jan 16, 2025•45 min
Introducing Scott Davies. He’s the founder of Hilltop Honey, the 2nd largest honey brand in the UK with a turnover of £44mn selling over 13,000 tonnes of honey a year, the equivalent of 1000 double-decker buses. And while honey sales have been relatively stagnant for the last few years, Hilltop Honey has bucked the trend growing at an outstanding 22% a year. It’s impressive. Scott grew up in a pretty low income family in the middle of Wales, got pretty average GCSEs, didn’t go to university and ...
Dec 29, 2024•58 min
Say hello to Dan Szor. He’s the founder of the Cotswolds Distillery, a pioneering whisky distillery that has learned the rules like a pro, only to break them like an artist. Working with master distillers Jim McEwan from Bruichladdich and whisky veteran Harry Cockburn from Bowmore, the Cotswolds Distillery was one of only 4 English whisky distilleries when it was founded in 2014. Now there are 55. Working with the next generation of distilling talent, Dan was eager to hire talent but rent experi...
Dec 10, 2024•36 min
Drew Wolf is the creative director turned condiment radical who got tired of traditional advertising and decided to make his own fermented hot sauce brand, named Kold Sauce instead. The cold pressed red, green and yellow stuff was part social experiment, part creative outlet, part really good f*cking hot sauce - following his creative curiosity and pepper addiction wherever it takes him, 5am markets and all. The Cleveland native, started the brand during lockdown, riding the hot sauce wave that ...
Dec 01, 2024•50 min
Introducing Tess. She’s the founder of All Dressed Up, the flavour-first salad dressings company on a mission to elevate everyday meals (not just salad leaves) using trending ingredients people know and love without any of the artificial ingredients that supermarket brands use. After cutting her teeth in the fast-paced FMCG world with names like Coconut Collaborative and Perkbox, Tess took a bold step into the kitchen to hone her culinary chops, training as a professional chef at the renowned Le...
Nov 19, 2024•45 min
Say hello to Ben Vear. He’s the co-founder of Living Things, the low sugar, all natural, prebiotic soda taking London by storm, exporting to five countries and selling a can every minute with more bubbles on the horizon. Backed by Brewdog co-founder James Watt, the gut loving brand raised a large family and friends pre-seed round, and is now looking to raise further funds to grow the team and expand the business internationally. Stocked in over 700 tastemakers stockists from Delli Ap to Amazon, ...
Nov 19, 2024•47 min
Say hello to Ollie Scott. Chief ‘Unknownian’ behind the UK’s most unexpected creative recruitment company. A wild bunch of multi-talented humans working across product, creative, client services, design, strategy and leadership; building A-class teams at some of the world’s most dynamic agencies. Having founded Unknown in 2019, Ollie set out to break the mould in recruitment. By remaining curious as to what makes each applicant individual, Unknown has morphed from a simple idea and a £13K credit...
Sep 27, 2024•48 min
Say hi to Will of Willy's Pies - the lockdown-born culinary success story that has put pies firmly back on the map. The quintessentially British pies are handmade in Hackney (where else?), with a focus on elevated fillings using local ingredients, and lots of it. Drawing on a decade of experience as a top-line chef, Will’s furlough brain-child has since grown out of his home kitchen and into a commercial HQ in London Fields. With the help of his business-partner and best friend, Josh, Willy’s Pi...
Jul 28, 2024•34 min
Say hello to Simon Beckerman, the creative force turned entrepreneur behind Gen Z’s favourite fashion marketplace, Depop, which he sold to Etsy for a staggering £1.25 billion. Today, we’re discussing his more recent venture, Delli, the culinary marketplace that lets independent chefs and businesses sell food on their own terms Founded in 2020, a year before selling Depop, Delli reflects Simon’s belief in the power of unique, story-rich products. Much like Depop, which became a beloved platform f...
Jun 28, 2024•40 min
Welcome Amin. He founded Qube, the world’s first members-only studio for music and content creators. With locations in Acton, Hackney, Canary Wharf and soon Elephant and Castle, their studios enable musicians, podcast hosts and content creators to rehearse, experiment, record, host, and capture a range of content whenever they like. Amongst their audience are musicians like Lewis Capaldi, Raye, J Hus, Flo as well as content creators like Chunkz and Logan Paul - who all benefit from the best in c...
Jun 10, 2024•40 min
Introducing Sidney & Declan. They founded outdoor clothing brand Fera - a love letter to the British outdoors. Founded in 2022, each capsule celebrates different outdoor culture, from fly fishing to country pubs and outdoor cooking. Their collections are made up of hard-wearing canvas gilets, sherpa fleeces, field shirts and double knee trousers - bringing a rugged, hardworking and boxy style back to the UK outdoor scene. And while outwear has become dominated by highly technical over-engine...
Jun 01, 2024•39 min
Say hello to Thom Elliot. Back in 2012, he and his brother James founded Pizza Pilgrims - a remarkable journey that turned a simple tuk-tuk into a pizza empire spanning over 20 locations. Fueled by a passion for authentic Italian pizza and disillusioned with their previous careers in advertising and TV production, the brothers bought a Piaggio Ape and set off on a month-long pilgrimage across Italy. They immersed themselves in the art of pizza making, studying ingredients and flavours, and broug...
Apr 15, 2024•39 min
Introducing Frazer Thompson, the visionary behind Chapel Down. Frazer's journey began in an unexpected way—he founded Chapel Down in 2002 after a playful wager with a friend led him down the path of winemaking. What started as a gamble transformed into a success story, with Chapel Down emerging as England’s leading winery and achieving a stock market valuation of £120 million. Frazer's early days were humble, starting as a paperboy in the outskirts of Newcastle before moving to London in the lat...
Mar 24, 2024•52 min
Say hello to Nick and Toby. They founded ‘Ask Us For Ideas’ (or AUFI for short) back in 2010 connecting ambitious businesses with the top 1% of creative agencies globally, from startups and scaleups to household names. Born out of the last recession, they’ve experienced the growth of a totally different brand building landscape firsthand. From the rise of social media and DTC brands to the boom of VC backed tech businesses out to change the world - often playing match-maker from both sides of th...
Feb 25, 2024•53 min
Introducing Andy Shovel. He co-founded the plant-based meat alternative brand THIS!™ back in 2019 on a mission to force the world’s livestock into retirement. Only five years on, his vegan start-up is now valued at over £150mn and doing exactly what it set out to. Last year alone they saved 557k animals from the slaughterhouse targeting reforming meat lovers searching for familiar textures and flavours. From fry-up favourites like streaky bacon and sausages, bbq classics like burgers and mince t...
Feb 12, 2024•33 min
Welcome Sam and Imme. They’re the co-founders of Botivo, the small batch aperitif inspired drink on a mission to put the craft and depth of flavour from the alcohol world into the non-alcohol space. Based in Hertfordshire, they use a combination of natural ingredients starting with an apple cider vinegar and wildflower honey base with botanicals of wormwood, rosemary, gentian and thyme with an orange zest flourish. The result: a herbal flavour profile with bitter and citrus notes and a long fini...
Jan 25, 2024•40 min•Ep. 102
Say hi to Stu Macdonald - the founder of Manilife, the undisputed champion of peanut butter. It all started back in 2014 when Stu moved to Argentina seeking to escape a looming job in accountancy, swapping numbers and spreadsheets for peanuts and social enterprise. While working for a peanut butter estate in Buenos Aires, he fell in love with jars of the gold stuff and started selling them wherever he could. But what really makes his peanut butter, peanut butter like no other - especially when t...
Nov 23, 2023•39 min
Introducing Jono Holt. Ten years ago he founded Otherway, the strategically-led studio where design and advertising work together to connect brands with a new generation of consumers. Forged from a background in advertising but with a desire to create omni-channel brands in a fast-changing digital world; Jono spotted the DTC trend early, looking to brands like Warby Parker in the states, going on to launch brands like Butternut Box, Psycle, Hylo, Cabinet, Moju, Lucky Saint and many more, includi...
Nov 06, 2023•39 min
Say hey to Ellen Miles. She runs Dream Green, a social enterprise on a mission to make cities greener by giving people the information, inspiration, and tools to get guerrilla gardening. Based in East London, they’ve provided youth groups with nature-based skills, communities with grant funding and advice, and festival-goers with messy, radical fun. Through a range of online guides, real-life workshops, and tailored one-to-one support - her plan is to inspire us all to become green fingered acti...
Oct 23, 2023•39 min
Say hello to Morgan and Rima. They founded Peachies - a nappy brand supporting families through the first 1,000 days. Engineered to be a super soft upgrade with unrivalled performance and no nasty chemicals. Their mission is to change the world, one poop at a time. When we think of nappies, we think of brands like Huggies and Pampers, big brands that have dominated the market for years, followed by a range of cheaper supermarket own brands by the likes of Tesco and Asda. It’s big business too wi...
Sep 27, 2023•43 min
Introducing Xavier Baker on the show. He runs the Isle of Wight Distillery, home to their signature Mermaid Gin in original, pink and zest formats - as well as newly launched Spiced Rum and Salted Vodka to keep your taste buds refreshed. If you thought their bottles were the only things filled with spirit you’d be wrong. Xavier is unstoppable. He’s not only a self-taught brewer and distiller but an avid environmentalist, adventurer and athlete. He’s rowing across the Atlantic to raise awareness ...
Sep 10, 2023•46 min
Introducing Henry Hales. He founded SIRPLUS, the relaxed tailoring brand born from surplus fabrics with a vision to create clothes that are worn more, last longer and adapt to the seasons. What started off as turning excess shirt fabric into upmarket boxer shorts back in 2010, has transformed into a British menswear staple offering a whole host of product lines, from shirts and knitwear, to outerwear, loungewear, and smart suiting that’s ideal for weddings and parties. Now with over six stores i...
Aug 14, 2023•33 min
Introducing Freddy Manduca. He founded Newfoundland, one of the UK’s leading providers of diagnostic tests and medical devices, on a mission to make self-testing accessible across a myriad of health concerns. What started as a desperate race to provide the UK with enough Covid tests has pivoted into a business predicated on the idea of convenient and affordable self diagnosis for the people. This enables people to skip lengthy wait times with overcrowded and under-resourced NHS but also not pay ...
Aug 01, 2023•35 min
Introducing Laura Jardine Paterson. Founder of Concat, the first digital-led company by all refugee and female developers based in Lebanon. It’s one of the most ethnographically rich businesses I’ve come across in a long time. A sign of the times in a way that is positive, progressive and profound. Take every single stereotype about web development; male-dominated, tech-focused, for profit, based in the West - then do the opposite. That’s what Concat is. Predominantly female, human-centric, work...
Jul 24, 2023•37 min
