Before The Billion-Euro Exit: Julian Hearn on Building Huel

0:00Alex Chisnall:What stops founders from building something meaningful isn't the lack of ideas, it's the fear of getting started. I'm Alex Chisnall and this is Screw It, Just Do It, the podcast for people who are ready to stop waiting, take action and make things happen. First year we did 750 ,000, second year we did 5.7 I think it was, third year we did 14.1 million pounds in revenue, last year we did 40 million. I think there must be at least a thousand people in the country that are similar to me. from a very early day when we launched, realized it was going to go bigger than that. I've never done a business plan.

0:32My goal was to create a business that I wanted for myself. We don't know pre-kill.

0:38Alex Chisnall:Can you just tell us a little bit about what led you to this journey? We've got plans of where we want to get to. Whether you get there or not, it's difficult to know. You've created something that people want to be associated with. So it was one of the judges that my friends would wear the clothing. Before we get into today's conversation, this is genuinely relevant for a lot of founders listening. Are you running a business that pays suppliers abroad, receives international payments, or operates across borders? World First helps founders manage global payments and FX more efficiently with access to competitive exchange rates and tools designed specifically for growing businesses.

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1:55sort of starter packs, 45 pounds. So if I can find 1 ,000 people to buy 45 pounds per month, 45 ,000 pounds a month, half a million pound a year business, nice little lifestyle business that I could be into, I could really put my heart and soul into. And so that was the original goal. From a very early day when we launched, we realized it was going to go bigger than that. You know, we got some significant PR in the very early days. Sales were coming in straight away. And I realized this was going to be bigger than that. And so at that point, we started to sort of plan and look a bit bigger. So that mission you're seeing up in the wall, that was set quite early because, you know, the Huel product is different from other food products.

2:33But when you realize that what I wanted was healthy, convenience food, I want something that was quick, easy, but actually nutritious rather than being quick and easy and not very nutritious. So I wanted something that's going to give me all of the sort of, you know, all the products that I needed in a single product. and then but then when you realize when you look at powder powder's got no water in it and therefore it's got a shelf life of 12 months because there's no water no bacteria can live then you realize that actually we can make it vegan if it's vegan then there's going to be a lot less waste on the on the planet we can put 14 meals into a single pouch so again there's going to be less plastic waste so all those things start realizing actually we can do really good as well as given something that the end user wants so we can do something good for the planet good for animals and actually good for the end user.

3:17So that mission that you see up on the wall, that was set quite soon after we realized this was going to become something big. So we decided to try and get things right in the early days because I think I hate companies that chop and change too much. I want to get things right first time and stick to them. And I think that means that you become a clearer, stronger brand over time because people know who you stand for and what you are. So I try and get things right first time. So that was set very, very early. That was probably within the first three months after launch.

3:45Alex Chisnall:Was it? I'll just read it as I'm here. So our mission is to make nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food with minimal impact on animals and the environment. And given your four years into the journey and vegan movement, plastic waste movement have just absolutely snowballed probably in the last two years, three years even. Those things that clearly you set out to do, but a lot of people need a bit of luck, they need a little bit of serendipity and that must have just given more strength to your arm, I suppose, as you've set out with that mission and you've moved forward and you've clearly got a lot of PR out there already.

4:29Yep. Got loads of PR and in terms of going back to the goals, I didn't want it to be a big business necessarily. So yeah, there's probably a bit of luck in it, good timing, good execution. Looking for timing, yeah. Good execution. You've got to execute. Yes, totally. There's probably about 100 brands across the world that are doing a similar type of product. So lots of those are nowhere near us. We think we're probably the biggest in the UK, for sure, biggest in Europe. We're coming up to our 50 millionth meal that we're going to be sold. Our numbers are pretty crazy when you look at it. First year, we did 750 ,000.

5:05Second year, we did 5.7, I think it was. Third year, we did 14.1 million pounds in revenue. Last year, we did 40 million. So in our fourth year, and I did a graph the other day to show us our comparison, to put that in perspective, 40 million in the fourth year. Fevertree, which is worth 3.1 billion. After their fourth year, they were doing about 4 or 5 million. Gymshark, who are a very big company as well, they're doing really well. They were doing 12 million in their fourth year. And Brewdog were doing sub 10, and they're worth a billion valuation as well. So these are all really big companies that I look up to, and I think they've done a fantastic job.

5:45They're British brands. They're sort of disruptive as well. But when you compare it to our numbers, you realize how much has exploded, just to show there was such a demand there that people were not getting satisfied. They were buying convenience food, but they realized that convenience food was probably not very good for them. And so they still want convenience. They want speed. They want to save time, but they want it to be higher quality. And then there's all those other factors as well, the fact that we're a vegan product. people are now realizing that eating meat for every meal is not good for them probably and definitely not good for the planet.

6:16So if they can cut down their meat consumption, she all makes it very easy to do that. You're still super convenient, but you're getting all the nutrients that you need and it's vegan at the same time and it's good for the planet. So there's a lot of tick boxes there.

6:32Alex Chisnall:And that is a hockey stick graph, isn't it? If you're looking at your four-year growth. And when you started out and you were thinking lifestyle business and you set the three-year, the five-year plan, whatever you had, did it look anything like that? I don't typically do plans. So at that time, no, I didn't look ahead and go, what is this going to be? I just literally thought, right, I'm just going to start this, see how it goes. So, I mean, my initial order was, I think it was£5 ,000 worth of stock. so there was no I've never done a business plan don't do that we do do plans now but even now you know we're talking one pages you know just to say where it could go because it's so difficult to predict the future or you can do really I think if you just do the right things you've got a big long list of stuff you need to fix all the stuff you need to do and you've got we've got plans of where we want to get to whether you get there or not it's difficult to know but so yeah when I first launched no didn't have much more of a plan in a few months.

7:36Alex Chisnall:So you're... What's the reaction been from friends and family who... I assume you've still got the phrase still saying friends and family but back then when they saw that you were starting this and just looking lifestyle and you're staying local to see what you're doing there? I mean I think you're quite lucky most of my friends and family they're all very... they don't treat me any different or do anything different they're all very down to earth and I think in the very early days they were probably saying as a lot of people first heard of Shuler think this is a bit weird what you're doing doesn't make any sense to me but now a lot of them use the product now in the early days they certainly didn't and one of my things when I first started I wanted my first business I made money from was a good cash generator but didn't wasn't some brand you wanted to be associated with so one of the things I wanted to do was be proud of the company and so he's one of the judges of of that is that my friends would wear wear the clothing yeah and you know we go down the pub and quite often they will turn up two or three of them will turn up with that on so it's it's a it's nice to see that you um you've created something that people want to be associated with yeah yeah absolutely um and again when you you look back and we mentioned steve jobs earlier and i always love that quote that you know you can then you've drawn the dots when you look backwards and when you have the time which you probably don't get very often to actually look back at that growth do you identify any particular moments or moments where you actually thought this is actually going to surpass anything that I actually set out to achieve uh probably almost straight away um and what was that do you think well stuff like there's even over on the wall there right in the far corner there's an article that was uh it's It's not necessarily a positive article, but straight away we got national press.

9:26In my first business, it was a very SEO-orientated business. He was always trying to get links or trying to get featured in national press. Couldn't do it. Just didn't have anything. They wouldn't write about it no matter how hard you tried. This business, straight away, I can remember I got two sales from two guys before the website even launched. I was just talking about it on a Facebook group. These two guys, I just talked about it. They said, what are you doing? And blah, blah, blah. I wasn't trying to sell, but there was just that interest. They came to the site. And obviously, the site was live, but I hadn't publicized it.

9:59And they bought. And then on the 17th of June, 2015, when we actually launched, we got sales. We got sales straight away. Within the first month, we got, I think it was seven or eight national press. So within the first month, it was, you know, sales were strong. National press was great. Feedback from customers was really, our customers are a different breed. they are usually really, really nice people. It's amazing how warm and how passionate they are about the brand. And I hadn't seen that before. I'd worked to sort of cool brands before like Starbucks, never got that sort of level of engagement.

10:35I know people sending us pictures of them proud to hold the product or wear the T-shirt, and I just hadn't seen that before. So almost straight away, I knew this was going to be a lot bigger than what I'd originally planned.

10:48Alex Chisnall:If this conversation resonated with you, don't just sit there, act on it. Make sure you follow or subscribe for more game-changing conversations. And remember, the only thing standing between you and your business breakthrough is the decision to screw it and just do it.