The Decisions That Took These Founders Global

0:00Don't assume that you have all the answers. The answers are really coming back from what the consumers expectation of what you're creating for them and being flexible. with that. The theme is start as you intend to carry on. A lot of I think smaller businesses that are in regulated industries like food and BMS which is what we are in will start and they will seriously underestimate the amount of time and investment that you need to put in for compliance. Putting the right foundations in in the beginning so that you can then scale up rather than having to unpick it later. We were in product development for three years which was never the intention it just happened so we're pre-selling this product that essentially doesn't exist and you know people don't really buy products but they buy the brand they buy the story and everything focus on building really great business you know being lean kiss enough frogs and then you'll find the right partner welcome back to screw just do it this episode is going to be a little bit different so this was one recorded live at my event the festival of entrepreneurs at the nse in birmingham in october 2025 in a room full of founders investors and operators all grappling with the same question.

1:09How do you go from startup to scale and build a real brand along the way? You'll hear from a panel of exceptional founders and leaders who've done exactly that, building category-defining businesses across consumer, health, sustainability and technology and navigating everything that comes with growth, product, brand, funding, compliance and leadership. This conversation is about what it actually takes to scale. The foundations you need to put in place early, the mistakes you don't see coming, and the mindset required to keep backing yourself as the stakes get higher. It's honest, practical, and full of real world insight from people who are in it or have already been through it.

1:50This is Screw It, Just Do It live from the Festival of Entrepreneurs. We're going to be talking about how do you go from a startup to a national brand? And actually, I'd go further than that and say international as well which is what some of the guys here have done so I'm Jeanette Linfoot I have got the pleasure of moderating this session today so make sure you keep some questions as well because we want to give these guys a good grilling as well at the end so if you've got any questions make some notes but I'm the founder of Brave Bowl brilliant which is a business where we work with organizations to help them scale up their leadership their teams and their strategy.

2:30I spent 25 years in the travel industry as the CEO of the travel division for Saga, which is their FTSE 250, and the MD of the emerging markets for TUI. So I now take what I learned in the world of big business corporate to smaller organizations to help them scale up. And I have a podcast called Brave Bold Brilliant as well, so check that out. But we're going to do introductions this way. So Mark, we're going to start with you. Give us a little bit of an introduction then we'll go down the line and get stuck into some questions that sound alright everyone can I have a nod and a yes is that sound alright amazing right Mark over to you can I just say I love the audience participation I'm gonna get you to do that in two seconds my name is Mark Rushmore I am the co-founder of a brand called Suri we make the most highly rated and sustainable electric toothbrush in the world just a quick show of hands who here brushes their teeth Yeah, who here uses an electric toothbrush?

3:25Okay, and who here loves that gunk on the bottom? Oh, there's always one. Well, anyway, our brush gives a really great performance, has a beautiful design with features that people like, like a 40-day battery, an aluminium body, a magnetic mirrorment so you don't get the gunk, a travel case, a UV light, and that's, you know, some of the reasons why we now have 13 ,000 reviews who's at a 4.7 rating on Trustpilot, and one of the reasons why we're the seventh fastest-growing company in the UK and expanding quickly abroad. So I look forward to answering your questions. Amazing. Over to you, Claire.

4:00Thanks, everyone. Hello, everyone. I'm Claire Warner. Keep still. Sorry, keep doing me. Hang on. Always one, isn't there? There's always one. Thank you. Hello, everyone. I'm Claire Warner. I'm co-founder of Acorn Imperatives, which is the sister brand to Seedlip, which revolutionized the way we drink. So who here drinks? Who here loves to drink alcohol? Who here would sometimes like to not drink when they're drinking? Yeah, okay, so hello. So we kind of kicked off the non-alcoholic revolution about 10 years ago, and Seedlip and Acorn were acquired by Diageo in 2020. and so for the last five years we've been kind of really working very hard to ensure that you've got delicious available yummy drinks that don't contain any alcohol so happy to answer any questions that you might have about drinking but maybe not if you're drinking too much that's for somebody else perhaps to tackle not me yeah can you hear oh perfect so I'm Laura the founder of Monk and our mission is to be the most transformative two minutes of your day and we do that through cold exposure so is anyone here a fan of ice baths a couple okay normally you really over index with founders we're the weird people that you know prepared to do hard things but anyway we make beautiful tools for uncomfortable growth wonderful can you hear me oh wonderful see only one you're okay my name is Melissa Snover I'm the CEO and founder at remedy health we are a Birmingham based technology developer that's building additive and advanced manufacturing technology that we use to personalize both preventative and curative health.

5:42Our flagship brand is Nourished, started as a D2C concept, the world's first personalized gummy vitamin, and it's now launched in close to 40 ,000 stores across the globe in retail and pharmacy. Amazing. So what a great panel we've got, ladies and gentlemen. Shall we give them all a round of applause for their intros? I think we should. okay so let's get stuck into this so I really want to start off around scaling up and what has been the sort of one big secret or the big ingredients that's made the difference for you in terms of going from starting to scaling so Claire gonna come to you first if that's all right yeah thank you I think look when we when Seedlit was launched in 2015 it was introduced to a consumer that didn't yet understand how to drink when we're not drinking and so we introduced Seedlip and then a few years later Acorn and I think the secret for us was to really clarify the message around what to drink when you're not drinking and that was quite a functional message it's kind of you know we all understand that alcohol is fantastic it's very social but perhaps we would enjoy other ways to consume delicious drinks so the what to drink when you're not drinking message was very clear, very targeted.

7:02But then for Acorn, we took that into a much more celebratory space. So it was much more about, you know, what to drink when you're enjoying food, how to spritz with us, how to be social, as well as, you know, not as well as being moderate. So for us, it was about being very laser focused on the issue, on the challenge, and then addressing that challenge with some delicious drinks. Wonderful. That's great. Laura, what has been your secret to success in scaling up? Do you know what? There hasn't been one single thing. I think for us, we've made a lot of strategic bets, and it's just those layering up.

7:37But also, we're not at a point where I would say we've really fully scaled. We only fully launched at the beginning of this year. And I think one of the things we've realized is you have to have the right product. And our first generation one product wasn't suitable to scale. We're working on Gen 2, and I think that is going to be the biggest unlock for us. I actually listened to this podcast, which was like three years of therapy. It was the episode with Will Ahmed, the founder of Whoop, on how I built this. And he was talking about hardware, particularly connected hardware. And he was saying, you know, so many founders think Generation 1, you're going to sell 100 ,000 units.

8:12And actually, that's the wrong goal. The point of your Gen 1 is just buy you time to learn about the market, get the product right for Gen 2. And that's kind of where we are at the moment. Although we are national, we're throughout Europe in a few countries, but again, on quite a small scale. But with our new products, we're gearing up to go out to the Middle East later this year. So, yeah. Amazing. So watch this space. So, yeah, because scaling it means different things at different times, doesn't it? And so, Melissa, for you with Nourished, what's the one big thing that's really stood out as you've scaled the brand, would you say?

8:46Yeah, I think, you know, everyone's scale of journey will be different depending on how you have set up your business. We are a full stack manufacturer. So I think the single biggest thing that I'm glad we did and has been really crucial to our success is that we started from day one being fully compliant with the rules that we knew we would need to be compliant with if we wanted to be big. So I guess the theme is start as you intend to carry on. A lot of I think smaller businesses that are in regulated industries like food and VMS which is what we are in Will start and they will seriously Yeah underestimate the amount of time and investment that you need to put in for compliance and at the end of the day if you can't be Compliant and scalable you can't grow your business past a certain point Yes, it's a really interesting point there Melissa around putting the right foundations in in the beginning so that you can then scale up rather than having to unpick it later, which is a lot harder and probably costs you a lot more money.

9:48So, yeah, great piece of advice. And, Mark, for you, with Suri, you're on a very fast-track journey. What's the standout thing that's making a difference for you and starting to scale in? I am just a very basic person, I think, and this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous probably compared to these much better answers, but just lots of people brush their teeth. I mean it is a genuinely enormous market you know there's not many categories you know I think everyone here brushes their teeth yeah dare I say not everyone takes vitamins every day or non-alcoholic drinks or you know what I mean or yeah and so we just we're sort of lucky in that we have this absolutely enormous market the electric toothbrush portion of it is in double digit growth so you've kind of got this organic momentum and then just when you look at the market dynamics is also really only two players who've got an 80 % market share.

10:42And so, you know, we don't have to have a huge market share in the market to have a sizable business. You know, if you take a 10 % share of a$13 billion category, you know, you can build a sizable business. So that's kind of the core. But then absolutely the scalable systems, you know, from day one we knew that given the size of the business, like, you know, if we're going to build this so that everyone in the world can buy one of our products, you know, what does that look like from a systems perspective, from a compliance perspective, from, you know, a scaling operations, finance, team, everything.

11:14And so we have we had some experience in building and selling companies before this. And so I think we basically made a lot of errors and continue like every day to make errors. And it's sort of through those very painful moments that you learn how not to do things. Fortunately, we've got some great partners as well. There's Troy, if you put your hand up, coming here to support us, you know, iFulfillment are our 3PL and you know, when I remember going down and they didn't want to necessarily work with us to begin with because we just had an idea, we hadn't sold a single product but fortunately, you know, given that they were, you know, they're a decent sized 3PL they took a risk on us and you know, from day one I think actually sold out like immediately and they went from zero sales to 5 ,000 units in the first week.

12:04And so fortunately, we've had a good partner who's been able to scale with us. And we're going to talk about the power of relationships and how important that has been in all of our business journeys over time. So good shout out to Troy over there. Well done. You can tell you a thing or two about relationships as well. What time? No, we'll come to you later, Troy. That's off the stage conversation. But Mark, you mentioned about that, you know, this isn't the first business that you've been in. Everyone here on the stage had live prior to their existing business today. And I think sometimes we forget how transferable our skills are, actually, from our previous sort of experiences, whether it was in corporate, whether it was with other startups.

12:47So for you, with your background, what have been the things from your earlier career that you kind of brought into Surrey that have really helped you in terms of transferable skills, from life pre-Surie, if you like. So, interesting, you know, because definitely there's things I brought from business. But actually, a key message I would say to anyone is, like, there's also a lot of lessons from outside of business. Like, I mean, God, if you want to be humble, try looking after two children on your own who are under the age of six. You know, I learned a lot about sleep deprivation, extreme stress, anger, emotional issues, just from, you know, this morning.

13:29But actually, like, an example who, you know, in my life is my mother was a stay-at-home mother and then she became a marriage counsellor for Relate, which is a charity, and she spent 20 years working for not for money. And through that, she kind of learned, you know, about asking me interesting questions, you know, Someone would act in a certain way, she'd say, oh, why do you think they did that? And I'd be like, I don't know, because they're a dick. But she'd say, well, you know, what about their day? What's happening? And it's sort of just those questions got me to think in a slightly different way.

14:05You know, like, oh, maybe there's another reason. Or I wonder why. Or, like, actually, how can I respond differently? How can I adapt my response? And then I think she then went on to work in business and was very successful. But I think my point is it doesn't matter if you don't come from a big company background, if you haven't worked before. I think the fact that my mother can do it from the age of 40, having never worked before, or I really just think anyone can be an entrepreneur. Yeah, and great example of a role model, actually, there. And those important questions of start with why. Simon Sinek, start with why.

14:41Why do you exist? What's the purpose of your business, et cetera? So, yeah, some great advice there. And Claire, for you, you've been on a journey as well over the years. anything that you carried from your sort of earlier professional life into the businesses and where you are today actually within that Diageo world shall we say yeah so I spent so I studied law and then I didn't want to be a lawyer so I became a bartender instead which still upsets my father today that was 25 years ago and and I became a bartender because I just thought I stay in hospitality until I figure out what I'm going to do and that's how many people get into hospitality which is fundamentally an industry built on relationships and and from there I then joined LVMH and I spent 15 years at LVMH so very much in the business of luxury spirits luxury brands and we were instilled with an entrepreneurial spirit so that that was how we did business you know to be imaginative to be innovative you know to work with smaller budgets to think about how you can take legacy brands and interpret them for you know generations of new consumers so i was already sort of taught how to be entrepreneurial but with brands that already had a legacy and so when i wanted to create my own brand i assumed wrongly that whatever we created would automatically be attracted to a consumer because that's that's the way that Dom Perignon works or Crouve works or Veve Clico works you know from a luxury brand perspective you're already ahead of what the consumer is looking for but when you're creating something in the non-out space in a category that's nascent and actually probably really didn't even exist the humble moment for me was whatever we created needed to really meet the consumer's need that perhaps they weren't aware that they needed but still needed to kind of tap into some emotional need around wanting to feel part of the party, feel part of the social engagement.

16:57So the first iteration of Acorn we created and we shared it with our bartender friends and they were like, this is delicious. And then we shared it with consumers and they said, this tastes awful. And I don't know if everyone remembers during COVID when we were all drinking Negronis. When was the first time you had a Negroni? Does anybody remember? And who here has had a Negroni? What was your thought the first time you had a Negroni? It's disgusting. Why am I drinking this? It tastes like medicine. And that's the first feedback we got from Acorn. It's so bitter. Oh, my God, how do I drink this?

17:33And we had to do a big job of education, big job of kind of building confidence around why Acorn was relevant. And I think that for me was a long learning journey. Don't assume that you have all the answers. The answers are really coming back from what the consumer's expectation of what you're creating for them. And being flexible with that. From a luxury perspective, there's less flexibility. From a new consumer brand perspective, you have to be much more flexible and reactive. So that's the journey I'm still going on, I think. Yeah, amazing. So we're going to talk about brand and products and distribution a little bit in a little bit more detail.

18:12But for you, Laura, what sort of stood out for you in terms of kind of your lessons from early business to the business you're in now with Monk? I think probably two things that really came from like previous career. One of those being branding and marketing. Like back when I had like a real career, I was working in advertising for agencies like Saatchi. And just building brands was something I loved. And that was so important for Monk because we were in product development for three years, which was never the intention. It just happened. So we're pre-selling this product that essentially doesn't exist.

18:46And, you know, people don't really buy products, but they buy the brand. They buy the story and everything. And also, it's interesting with a product like an iSpark because very few people actually enjoy using it. You know, if you're saying to someone, hey, do you want to use this product? You're going to hate it. Every cell in your body is screaming at you to get out. so we're not selling that but we're selling like the transformation that comes with cold water therapy so the storytelling was was such a cool part of it and then the second thing it sounds so cliche but it's network i think in the two previous businesses i had i spent a lot of time and effort really building up network and you know even if you can always buy access to them like mark and i actually met on an island in croatia as part of this um this group called baby bath and they used to hire out this whole island.

19:29It was just like, what, one, 200 founders just partying for three days. But like, it's the connections you just get from that. You know, there's another one in London I joined called Dorian, which again was brilliant. Met loads of my investors there. But yeah, I'd say branding and network were two big factors. Yeah, amazing. And Melissa, from your point of view, you obviously had multiple businesses. You've started, exited, started again. Absolutely. Yeah, I think my only employed job in my life was being a waitress, which I loved, by the way. When I was in university, I started my first company when I was still in my MBA.

20:08And I have had four very different businesses, actually. The first one was in finance. That was extremely good, as was my university education in accounting and finance. If you can't understand your numbers, doesn't matter how good your idea is. unfortunately that is the facts you will not be able to make it and so many great ideas fail because the entrepreneur does not understand the cost to get to market or the customers propensity to spend so that's something that is foundational for any business I think my my next company I didn't manufacture it but I came up with a brand I had to learn how to do packaging I had to learn how to do labeling compliance and international shipping and I had to learn how to pitch retailers and I had no idea what I was doing.

20:58My first ever retail pitch, I brought a 29 slide page deck and the buyer was so, so kind that he, by the end of the meeting, he said, just so you know, most of the time those decks are around five slides. And he, luckily, maybe he felt bad for me, but he gave me listing in 800 stores and stop and shop in the US and allowed me to use the order to invoice factor the manufacturing and that was the beginning of a brand that I was able to grow to a really substantial size so each of those experiences gave me different amounts of you know knowledge and confidence around different areas but every single one of them I've had to learn new things in this business I had to learn how to build 3d printing technology use g-code and set up my own manufacturing site.

21:47And I think this one is the most complex by a country mile. But I think in general, all of those things are just individual pieces of knowledge. Knowledge is available to you. It's more available to you now than it ever has been. I mean, I think a lot sometimes, what would I have done if I had to chat to PT at my fingertips at the very beginning? I mean, it's a fun thought exercise. But what is more important is the confidence that I have built in myself and my team that no matter what comes at us and the challenges are huge and different, we will be able to overcome it. And you don't have that when you're new.

22:24And every issue is life or death. Yeah. So there's a lot in there around mindset, around surrounding yourself with the right people. But Melissa, I just want to loop back around to you around the finance side, because you said basically, if you don't know your numbers, you're dead in the water as a business owner, founder, whatever. So 100 % agree with that. It's so important. But I want to talk about raising finance as well, which would be good to get everyone's perspective on this. But Melissa, from a female perspective, you have gone out, you have raised finance. For those that were here this morning listening to Liam Fox on the opening panel, a lot of it was around the blockers for access to capital that we face as founders.

23:05So Melissa, for you, how have you managed to raise the finance that you needed? And were there any nuances from a female perspective? Sorry, Mark, but I'll touch on it because I know there's a very limited proportion of VC capital goes to female founders versus men, right? So I don't want us to have a big gender discussion, but I think it is a relevant point about generally raising finance and too, as a female founder, how were you successful? And any tips for anyone here thinking I need to raise some capital. What's the best way to go about it? Yeah, so raising money is really difficult regardless of whether you're a female, male, underrepresented founder, regardless of industry.

23:44The amount of change that has happened in the funding markets in the last six or seven years is momentous. When I raised my first round, which was the highest ever female founder seed round in UK history in 2019, which is not a lot of money and someone should have already beat me but that just shows that it is true because no one has it was so much easier to raise money i have to be honest in 2019 it was much easier to raise money even when all i had was a really pretty slide deck and a great idea and a bit of experience proving that i had executed and exited businesses in the past when we raised our series a in 2021 in the middle of COVID, I did not meet a single investor face to face.

24:30I did the entire round, which was 8 million pounds. And I also took in another six to secondary out my seed round. I didn't meet a single one of them. Again, it was a lot easier to raise money in 2021. Since 2021, the entire venture capital market has completely been flipped on its face. And it is starting to rebound slowly. but the rate at which capital is being deployed has completely changed. So I could do a whole panel on this topic. So I think my one piece of advice to you is vet your investors or your potential investors the same way you would vet a new employee. The relationship is two ways and you owe it to yourself to do that.

25:13Those relationships are not short term and you need to be sure that you know the people that you're going to be working with. The second really big thing I would say is diversify your cap table the same way you would diversify your commercial opportunities and your pipeline. I have CVCs, VCs, angel investors, family offices. Each one of them has a different view on valuation, has a different access to capital. When all the VCs had to sit on their hands when the financial market collapsed, the corporate venture didn't care at all. Nothing changed for them. They're part of a big company. So make sure you diversify your cap table because you can't possibly anticipate what's going to happen.

25:57And the best way to do that is to hedge your bets with diversification. Yeah, brilliant advice, actually. And it's not easy because you've got to put yourself out there, right? Yeah. And you do have to be prepared for the no's and the knockbacks and absolutely. Anyone else want to chip in on the panel about raising finance? Mark, Laura, Claire? Anyone else? I just find you so compelling. Oh, thank you. I always give you money. I don't know if anyone, like, I've never met someone where I'm just like, I just know you're going to make me more money. So if you need any money, I don't have any, but I'll give it to you.

26:32Thank you. I have a sorry toothbrush, by the way. I didn't even know that it was the same company. But yes, I definitely do. Let's definitely sort each other out. I think we, I've got a couple of thoughts on this, because it's absolutely true that 2021 and prior, it was much easier to raise, and since then it's been harder to raise. We have only raised subsequent to 2021, and a lot of people are like, oh, wow, how did you do that? And in each round, we've had more investors wanting to put money in than we had available slots. And I think there's a couple of comments I'd make on it. So one, some of the world's biggest companies, some of the world's biggest Fortune 100 companies were born out of the depression and come in when times are hardest, there's this weird correlation where some of the best companies are founded.

27:22And I think the reason, actually I don't know the reason, my guess for the reason is that when times are hard you really have to like really lean in and be very, very focused on building a sustainable, profitable, scalable company and you have to operate in a tighter way. Now, building that muscle and building a company that can grow in a lean, sustainable way, I think it's actually a good thing for the long run. And there's a lot of companies who did raise a lot of money prior to 2021 who, guess what, still aren't profitable, have gone under, wasted investors' money, wasted their time. And I think actually that's almost like a downside of some of the VC industry is, like companies who shouldn't really have money get money.

28:11So I just say to anyone in the crowd, just build a really good company. You know what I mean? If you focus on that, if you're not getting funding, chances are you maybe don't have a really great company. Go back and work out how to make it better and less risky. And it is difficult. People are like, oh, how did you get that? We had 98 % rejections. Fortunately, I've spent the better part of my late teenage years and early 20s getting rejected by a lot of other people in nightclubs. And so I had, you know, by the time we came to funny, I was like, what, you don't want that? Don't worry, next. And so I think the trick is, though, to try and not take it personally, which is really difficult, you know, because someone rejecting your idea can feel like they're rejecting you and your ego, and it hurts, you know.

29:01But it doesn't hurt if you're kind of used to it. And also if you realize that like, you know, just because you know, the girl or man at the bar isn't interested It doesn't deplete your value as a person, you know, you just have to make your right person And so fortunately, you know, by not taking it too personally We managed to find the right investors and when you meet the one, you know Who writes the big checks then you kind of you know, that's all it takes So I just say, you know focus on building really great business, you know being lean and And kiss enough frogs and you'll find the right partner.

29:33Yeah, great advice there, Mark, actually. And coming back to the advice from your mum, right? Start with why. Is your business case compelling enough that people want to invest? And, sorry, this is so crucial. In all our rejections, again, I'm not trying to give dating advice, but it was the same way. If someone rejects you, don't be like, you're an idiot, I hate you. Say, okay, cool, maybe I'll see you again sometime. And then guess what? When you're a bit richer and you're a bit more successful, suddenly, oh, now you're interested in me. And so without, like, it's so, it's a, in every round, we raise three rounds, someone who rejected us in the prior round has come in because I would say to them, in the next 12 months, we're going to do this, this, this, and this.

30:20And they'd be like, oh, well, we can't invest in a friend. Okay, cool. And then in 12 months time, I'd be like, we did all those things and we surpassed all of it by 50 % and we're going to raise again. I don't mind whether you invest in me now at this valuation or whether you invest when it's more expensive. The only difference to me is that you're going to make less money. So you're cool. And it's worked like a charming time. Well, great dating advice from Mark. Great chat-up advice at the bar and also great advice on how to raise finance. So there we are. That's a triple whammy. I'm terrible at dating advice.

30:55But yeah. No, that's really interesting. And I think building that thick skin, isn't it? You know, a knockback. It might be a not right now or it might be a no. But actually, it's one step closer to the yes because you've had a chance to practice as well and learn through the experience. So coming to Claire and to Laura, any perspectives for you on either raising finance or choosing when to invest in a project, a product, a new development? because that's the other side. It's great to get the money, but what are you going to spend it on? So maybe coming from a slightly different angle rather than raising the finance, choosing when to invest and what to invest and how best to select that.