Elite Business April 2019

PICSOLVE

Creating surreal pictures and magic moments

INFLUENCERS The marketing model that brands are turning to

THE CROWD Why crowdfunding is the new bank manager

772050 723000

ISSUE 50 APRIL 19

9

£4.50 04

HUEL

Julian Hearn is putting an end to unhealthy snacking

COLLABORATIVE COMMUNICATIONS THAT MEAN BUSINESS Get a world-class business phone system as low as £7.99.

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RingCentral Supports Rapid Growth for Optimum Credit Following the lessons learnt from the credit crunch of 2008, five colleagues working for a mid-sized financial services provider saw an opportunity to shake up the market for second charge mortgages. With investment from a private equity backer and funding lines from a major UK bank, Optimum Credit was born.

Based in Cardiff, Optimum Credit offers a range of variable, fixed, and discounted second charge mortgages either directly through its fully qualified mortgage advisors or via its Broker Intermediaries.

Its innovative approach to pricing delivers prices that reflect individual customer circumstances.

The company also offers flexible overpayment options, allowing clients to either reduce the term of their second charge mortgage or reduce monthly repayments to suit circumstances. “This agility and flexibility is something that we strive for both

commercially and in terms of technology. We are proudly a cloud-first business,” says Paul Strinati, Founding Partner & IT Director at Optimum Credit.

Strinati initially promoted the use of off-the-shelf software and a number of SaaS and cloud services to allow the firm to launch quickly with the minimum of cost, yet with the ability to scale as needed.

Within the highly regulated financial services sector, Optimum underwent significant due diligence examining each supplier for resilience, security, and compliance against best practice standards such as ISO-27001.

“We successfully paid out our first deal in June 2014 and quickly grew, but it was as a result of the need to comply with the requirements of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard that it became clear our existing telephony service just wasn’t up to the task, so we put out a new tender,” he explains.

Communications system requirements for a growing business Optimum had several criteria for the new communications solution: Absolute reliability with the option to scale with the growing business Ability to integrate with Optimum’s in-house Lending Platform Support for self-service functionality through IVR integration Omnichannel contact centre capabilities supported by granular MI The need to support a flexible and secure method for card detail capture whilst meeting the requirement to record calls

“We spoke to and had demonstrations from several telecommunication service providers, but what struck us most about the RingCentral team was their sheer enthusiasm,” says Strinati, “In many ways they are like us, a technologydriven business with a can-do attitude; even in our initial meeting when we raised issues that the incumbent service provider had said were difficult, and often expensive to overcome, they were already discussing solutions that they had previously deployed that they were sure would work for us—it was refreshing!”

Ability to adapt to future regulatory changes

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Ready for the challenge Optimum chose the RingCentral Office® and Contact Centre solution for its company-wide and customerfacing communication platform. The deployment focused on voice and intelligent IVR with self-service options to help customers connect more quickly to the agent best able to handle their needs along with integration into its CRM systems.

“RingCentral adapted its system to allow our clients to securely enter card details whilst still recording the audio portion of the calls,” explains Strinati, “It was one of a number of integration features and capabilities within the application that really impressed us and highlighted the ability to customise the solution to our needs; it also highlighted the potential for the future.”

Company profile Optimum Credit is a leading provider of second charge mortgages for homeowners in England, Wales, and Scotland.

Optimum’s innovative approach to the market has seen it advance funds totalling over £380m since launching in 2014, growing rapidly to 26% market share.

Year founded: 2013 Website: optimumcredit.co.uk Headquarters: Cardiff, Wales Size: 93 employees

Through the plethora of open APIs available, Optimum Credit’s application development team is constantly adding more automation features to its platforms to further enhance the customer experience.

“In RingCentral, we have a platform in which we have absolute confidence plus a shared ethos that believes that almost everything is possible!”

Recognising that customers are increasingly keen to communicate across different paths, Optimum Credit is embracing an omnichannel strategy that is adding elements such as webchat to its telephone service. “With RingCentral, we can manage different channels within a unified contact centre queue,” says Strinati, “this is a useful capability as we start to offer more direct-to-consumer products.”

In terms of deployment, the company has largely done away with traditional handsets with 95% of its employees using the desktop clients and a few executives using the mobile client. “We are now looking at flexible working patterns that could allow our mortgage advisors and call agents to work from home while still meeting our security and regulatory requirements,” says Strinati, “In RingCentral, we have a platform in which we have absolute confidence PROMOTION plus a shared ethos that believes that almost Call today on anything is possible!”

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Paul Strinati, Founding Partner & IT Director at Optimum Credit “RingCentral’s integration features and capabilities really impressed us and highlighted the ability to customise the solution to our needs but also the potential for the future.”

Paul Strinati, Founding Partner & IT Director at Optimum Credit

to start a 14 day free trial or visit ringcetral.co.uk

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42 HUMAN FUEL

After his previous fitness startup failed, Julian Hearn turned the insights he learned from it into meal replacement scaleup Huel. Now he’s changing the way we eat, one meal at a time

8

ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK APRIL 2019

22 ISSUE 50 APRIL 19

REGULARS 11 12 19 82

From the editor Upfront The big idea The crunch

COLUMNS 21 Alana Spencer 31 Anil Stocker

22 PICTURE PERFECT Picsolve creates magic moments and enhanced memories

34 IMPRESSED YET?

64 THE ONLY WAY IS INCLUSIVE

Employers must welcome transgender people with open arms or suffer the consequences

68 DEATH OF THE EMAIL

Sure you can use them every day but is it time to put emails six feet under?

PRESS went from selling fresh juices in a bathtub to being stocked in Selfridges

38 THE IN CROWD

How crowdfunding changed the investment game

50 VIDEO GAGA

Moving pictures can change your branding forever

60 CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

Smart contracts are leveraging blockchain to smoothen the dealmaking process

54

UNDER THE INFLUENCE Influencer marketing can boost your brand but look out for the pitfalls

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

9

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EDITORIAL editorial@cemedia.co.uk Zen Terrelonge – Editor Eric Johansson – Acting Web Editor Varsha Saraogi – Feature Writer Angus Shaw – Acting Commercial Writer Louisa Cook – Editorial Intern DESIGN/PRODUCTION production@cemedia.co.uk Darren Marriott – Head Designer Vrinda Sejpal – Designer Lizzie Thurgood – Designer Mae Bradshaw - Design Intern Dan Lecount – Web Development Manager dan@cemedia.co.uk SALES Sam Deane – Sales Account Manager sam.deane@cemedia.co.uk Katie Reynolds – Sales Account Manager katie.reynolds@cemedia.co.uk Zane Zvirbule – Marketing Administrator zane@cemedia.co.uk Ellie Savva - Marketing Assistant ellie.savva@cemedia.co.uk ACCOUNTS Sally Stoker – Finance Manager sally.stoker@cemedia.co.uk Colin Munday – Management Accountant colin.munday@cemedia.co.uk DIRECTOR Scott English – Managing Director scott.english@cemedia.co.uk CIRCULATION/SUBSCRIPTION

UK £18, Europe £38, Rest of World £60 Elite Business Magazine is published four times a year by Channel Edge Media, 1st Floor, Regency House, 16 Victoria Road, Chelmsford, CM1 1NZ Copyright 2019. All rights reserved No part of Elite Business may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the editor.

Elite Business magazine will make every effort to return picture material, but this is at the owner’s risk. Due to the nature of the printing process, images can be subject to a variation of up to 15%, therefore Channel Edge Media, cannot be held responsible for such variation.

CORRECTION In the January issue, the following people were given the incorrect job titles. Here are the correct roles as follows: Julien Rio, head of marketing, Dimelo Chris Robertson, UK CEO, Creditsafe Sangeetha Narasimhan, regional marketing director, EMEA small and medium businesses, Ingenico We would like to apologise for any confusion.

MIX IT UP

“I

f you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” These words are associated with many figures, such as Henry Ford, and it’s fair to say the quote applies directly to entrepreneurs.

Take Ed Foy. From working at L’Oreal, he accepted his business love and returned to study. This gave him the tools needed to launch juice company PRESS, which has grown beyond its humble bathtub beginnings.

Of course, all firms need finance to thrive and PRESS was no different. But leaders needn’t immediately flock to the bank for money, not with options like crowdfunding around. As such, we investigated the investment model to review its evolution and the big attraction.

Speaking of attractions, they happen to be Picsolve’s bread and butter. As an image specialist working magic for the likes of Thorpe Park, Warner Bros, Alton Towers and plenty more, CEO David Hockley is all about forging a youthful and innovative environment across the 25-year-old business, which is increasingly embracing digital.

All of these developments in this issue support my original point of mixing things up. Discontent with his lot in the corporate world, cover star Julian Hearn sought a better life for his family and moved into entrepreneurship. Having made enough money to retire on – and lost some in the process – he’s found his feet with Huel, the meal replacement business with £20m behind it.

Zen Terrelonge - Editor zen.terrelonge@cemedia.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS

KATY WATSON The shutterbug behind the amazing cover with Julian Hearn, Katy Watson really proved her chops in her first shoot with us. Check out her stimulating visuals on page 42.

ANIL STOCKER MarketInvoice’s CEO and founder explains how SMEs in all sectors can ensure they get paid on time. A vital read for anyone who’s struggling with late payments.

ERIC JOHANSSON Getting entrepreneurs to talk about failures isn’t easy but our resident viking got the Huel founder to reveal how a failed fitness startup led to his next success.

MAX OLIVER In between playing lead guitar in his school’s version of the musical We Will Rock You, Oliver helped us find the facts in The Crunch.

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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The investment rounds that rocked the startup community last quarter

Series

B

CALM

$88m

Calm aims to help people improve their psychological health. And it definitely has financial muscles to accomplish this after becoming the world’s first mental health tech unicorn with its series B round in February

Hack attacks are falling New government figures reveal the number of breaches are decreasing It doesn’t matter how big your business is – everyone can fall victim to malicious hackers. Fortunately, while the threat is still huge, it seems like the number of hack attacks against small businesses has fallen, according to a report.

Having surveyed over 1,000 SMEs at the end of 2018, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport revealed 31% of micro and small businesses had identified

breaches. This meant the amount of hack attacks had dropped from 42% in the previous year. Of those 31%, 19% had lost files or network access, 10% had their website slowed or taken down and 9% had software or systems corrupted or damaged.

Clearly, while the number of cyber assaults has reduced, business owners shouldn’t let their guard down as the damages could be severe.

Series

B

S ta r ling B ank

£75m

Having first raised £60m from investment firm Merian Chrysalis and then another £15m from previous investor Harald McPike, Starling Bank is seemingly set for its global expansion

Series

C

ONF IDO

$50m

The background-check scaleup has impressed ever since launching in 2012.

And with the grand total invested in the company rising to $110.3m with its latest round we bet it will keep doing so for years to come

Series

B

ELV IE

$42m

With its latest round, pelvic-floor training startup Elvie proves that femtech solving women’s needs is a great business opportunity

12

Theranos whistleblowers fight immoral startup culture with new venture Erika Cheung and Tyler Shultz’s actions led to the unveiling of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest scandals ever – Theranos. Now they’re hoping to prevent it from happening again The Theranos scandal was bad. After raising over $700m in funding, it was revealed that its so-called revolutionary blood-testing tech didn’t work, despite what the startup had told everyone. As a result, the company’s leadership is facing criminal charges. Now the two whistleblowers who helped unearth the scandal aim to play their part to prevent it from happening again.

Erika Cheung is the former Theranos lab worker who tipped off the Centers for

Medicare and Medicaid Services to look into the company. Together with Tyler Shultz, the ex-research engineer who helped the Wall Street Journal find the truth, Cheung has launched the international organisation Ethics in Entrepreneurship. The non-profit’s mission is to bring ethics back into the startup ecosystem to prevent more scandals.

The tech sector is certainly struggling with some ethical issues. Here’s hoping initiatives like Ethics in Entrepreneurship can help.

What’s the word I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges of the investigation

[There] is a tendency of some people to lament this change, to overly emphasise the negative

Donald Trump struggled with the word origins as he asked journalists to explore the Mueller investigation more

Mark Zuckerberg was seemingly annoyed with how the press focused on things like privacy violations and the rise of fake news instead of how Facebook is connecting people

Brexit is a kind of madness, it’s a kind of insanity Emmy van Deurzen explains why her services as an existential psychotherapist are in demand from EU citizens suffering from emotional anxiety stemming from the UK’s divorce from the EU

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Words by Eric Johansson

E lv ie r a i se s m a s si v e $ 4 2m se r ie s B round The pelvic floor trainer developer has raised what could be the world’s biggest femtech round to date While women have remained under-served for decades, femtech startups are now rushing to fill the void. As a result, they’re yielding impressive returns in untapped markets.

One of these companies is London-based Elvie, the scaleup that jumped onto the market in 2014 with a smart app-connected pelvic floor trainer. In early April it raised a massive $42m series B round. The round, which is being hailed as the biggest round invested into a femtech company yet, puts the grand total invested in the startup to $53.8m. The new cash injection was led by private holding company IPGL and supported by VC firms Octopus Ventures and Impact Ventures UK. Hopefully, this round will inspire more female founders to take the leap and begin their own entrepreneurial journeys.

Words by Eric Johansson

May 1-2 Accountex ExCel London, 1 Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock London, E16 1XL

May 8-9 Tech Show North EventCity Manchester, Phoenix Way Off, Barton Dock Rd, Manchester, M41 7TB

May 8-9 eCommerce Show North EventCity Manchester, Phoenix Way Off, Manchester, M41 7TB

June 12-13 Festival of Work Olympia London, Hammersmith Rd, Hammersmith, London, W14 8UX

May 23 Building a sales engine for growth White Collar Factory, 1 Old Street, London, EC1Y 8AF

June 18-19 eTail Europe Queen Elizabeth II, Conference Centre, Broad Sanctuary, London, SW1P 3EE

How To Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story Virgin books, £9.99, Out now

F

rom the get-go, Evan Spiegel looks like a spoiled brat. Having grown up with rich parents who had a set designer from the sitcom Friends design his childhood bedroom, Spiegel seemed like just the kind of guy who would spend his Stanford days partying with daddy’s money. And that he did.

However, Billy Gallagher’s new paperback version of How To Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story paints a more complex inside account of the rise of Spiegel’s social media empire. The former TechCrunch journo shows the reader a driven young man who was always looking to prove himself by setting up his own startup. The book showcases this spirit in fast-paced detail in a story that spans the years between Spiegel’s childhood to him building an empire strong enough for him and his Snapchat co-founder Bobby Murphy to famously turn down a $3bn acquisition offer from Mark Zuckerberg – and beyond.

Pulling no punches, Gallagher expertly depicts both how the Snapchat CEO was instrumental in growing the business from day one and the abrupt ousting of third co-founder Reggie Brown as well as the subsequent lawsuit with the same keen eye for detail.

If you’re remotely interested in how Silicon Valley works or if you’re one of those older people who can’t figure out what the deal with Snapchat is, then this is the book for you.

A full event listing is available on our website.

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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Successful crowdfunding campaigns that have closed in the last quarter

GRIND

£3.46m 9.25% Equity

Crowdcube veteran Grind returned for a third round this year to grow the coffee chain beyond its current 11 locations. And 1,771 investors loved the idea so much they invested 256% of the original target

CAPITALRISE

£2.27m 8.57% Equity

The online property crowdfunding platform CapitalRise smashed its original £1.5m target when it raised money on Seedrs in March. The startup connects real estate developers seeking finance with investors looking for attractive returns

CAZANA

£1.54M

UK productivity keeps falling

7.16% Equity

Cazana aims to change the way the automotive industry works through its huge data sets and car valuations. The money from its latest round will be used to expand the business further across the world

SMALL ROBOT COMPANY

£1.2m 22.69% EQUITY

This company is revolutionising farming with adorable robots. Backed by heavyweights from Google AI and Rough Guides, the company filled its coffers in the beginning of the year and now plans to make its robots even more clever

14

Official figures reveal British workers’ output continues to be below their pre-recession levels Words by Eric Johansson

Everyone knows the 2008 financial crisis was bad. However, what may be less commonly known is that UK productivity growth hasn’t snapped back the way it did after previous recessions. While no one is certain what the cause of this productivity puzzle is, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) demonstrate the problem is still there.

Looking at the last quarter of 2018, the ONS revealed productivity had dropped by 0.1% compared to the same period the previous year. It was the second successive quarter the year-on-year comparison unveiled a fall in the output from British workers’ hours at work. This was despite a 0.3% increase between the third and fourth quarters of 2018.

Whether you designate the blame for the decline to the uncertainties of Brexit, the fallout from austerity or the migrating patterns of African swallows, one thing’s certain – the missing piece to solve the puzzle must be found.

ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK APRIL 2019

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Point of no return?

In a turn of events, Superdry co-founder Julian Dunkerton, who left the business in 2018, has returned to helm the ailing fashion retailer – but not without resistance. Having appointed former Co-op boss Euan Sutherland to take over from him as CEO in 2014, Dunkerton’s focus was on branding before he departed. But, still in possession of 18% of shares, the founder has been discontent with Superdry’s decline in his 12-month absence which is why he’s fought to reenter the company.

Seemingly it was quite the battle. Dunkerton reportedly declared “enough is enough” following dismal financials at the end of last year. He appeared to have stern words for his successor too, as he said at the time: “If you believe you are a brand, you have to think like a brand. If you want to think like a supermarket, go and work in a supermarket.”

Although there was reluctance from board members and Sutherland to reinstate Dunkerton, a shareholder vote was taken at the start of April 2019 and the founder was finally given the green light to return as interim CEO. “We look

forward to rebuilding the Superdry brand and the business,” said Dunkerton in a statement. It wasn’t a smooth process but it raises the question, just how much say should a founder have once they’ve left the business?

Words by Zen Terrelonge

Mark Fry head of BTG Advisory

Rita Trehan CEO of Dare Worldwide

Carl Reader chairman of d&t

David Farquharson co-founder and partner, Ignition Law

When a founder of a business moves on to pastures new, they’ll often keep an eye on “their” business as they’ve put so much stock into its success. It isn’t often a previous founder will return but leadership is always under scrutiny to perform in companies controlled by shareholders. If that hasn’t happened then any change, including returning to the leadership which established success in the first place, is always possible. However, in a changing space such as retail it doesn’t mean the same formula will turn around fortunes.

Does the upside potential in bringing back someone with historical knowledge and a deep understanding of the brand outweigh the risk of clinging on to a past view and time that may be out of sync with the changing world of retail? The question remains to be answered. A lot of work needs to be done to salvage the brand but Dunkerton’s knowledge of the market, Superdry’s business processes and connections within fashion and manufacturing will be critical to answering the question that bringing back the founder was the right call.

A founder of a company has no divine right to step into the business at any point in its future. That’s the main premise of my argument.

Whilst the founder might believe that their way is the best way, businesses grow and evolve. The way that they evolve does not necessarily fit – or indeed need to fit – in with the way that the founder would see it. So, sometimes the founder may be able to add something, sometimes they can’t. Fundamentally though, the founder doesn’t have the power or the right to step back in.

There must be mutual understanding in the interests of all parties. Often the acquirer wants to nail down client and supplier relationships as quickly as possible to stamp their own mark on things.

However, this can overlook the fact that an important part of the company’s success has been its historic culture, which the founder is likely to have had a significant role in developing and maintaining. Failure to appreciate this and to appropriately incentivise a founder to remain close – but not too close – can prove to be an expensive mistake.

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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How can you achieve export success?

How can you achieve export success?

The bigger the market the more The can bigger market more you sell.the That’s the the simple logic you can sell.a That’s simple and logicthe underlying desire the to export, underlying desire to export, the evidence is athat companies areand keener evidence companies are keener than ever is tothat do so. than ever to do so.

But how do you go about taking your But how do you go about your business in an exciting andtaking lucrative business inwithout an exciting andyour lucrative direction, putting direction, livelihood without at risk? putting your livelihood at risk?

E E

ven at a time of economic uncertainty, companies remain keen touncertainty, explore the ven at a time of economic oportunities provided by export markets.

But companies remain keen to explore the of course with every reward there is a potential oportunities provided by export markets. But risk, so while is a proven to grow, of course withexporting every reward there isway a potential many companies are understandably wary. risk, so while exporting is a proven way to grow, many companies are understandably wary.

Trading across oceans need not be unduly risky, credit insurance is a way to make exporting less Trading across oceans need not be unduly risky, risky and more profitable. credit insurance is a way to make exporting less

risky and more profitable.

So how can credit insurance support your business?

So how can credit insurance support your The key to successful exporting is accurate and business? up to date about firms, countries and The key to information successful exporting is accurate and sectors around the world.

The single most reliable up to date information about firms, countries and source such information is asingle globally successful sectorsof around the world. The most reliable credit insurace provider, such as Coface.

Our source of such information is a globally successful customers haveprovider, immediate access to unrivalled credit insurace such as Coface.

Our market intelligence resources, including credit customers have immediate access to unrivalled reports on 80 million companies worldwide - plus market intelligence resources, including credit sector or reports, politicalworldwide risk assessments reports oncountry 80 million companies - plus and economic evaluations. sector or country reports, political risk assessments and economic evaluations.

Credit insurance also opens the possibility of negotiating morealso favourable terms with suppliers Credit insurance opens the possibility of and customers, as an insurer will regularly evaluate negotiating more favourable terms with suppliers and customers, as an insurer will regularly evaluate

each of your customers to make sure you are trading thecustomers right credittolevels. each of at your makeThis surenot youonly are protects you from trading on risky terms but trading at the right credit levels. This not only enables concentrate sales protectsyou youto from trading on riskyefforts termson butmore financially robust customers. enables you to concentrate sales efforts on more

financially robust customers.

Credit insurance is the simplest, most reliable and cost-effective way to replace cashflow lost through Credit insurance is the simplest, most reliable and customer insolvency or non-payment.

Some cost-effective way to replace cashflow lost through exporters rely on letters of credit but these can be customer insolvency or non-payment.

Some costly andrely cumbersome tocredit administer.

Theycan arebe also exporters on letters of but these limited in scope as a separate letter is required per costly and cumbersome to administer. They are also customer. limited in scope as a separate letter is required per customer.

As with most aspects of business, preparation and intelligence are the to success, and if a As with most aspects ofkeys business, preparation company takes the right advice, runs the right and intelligence are the keys to success, and if a checks and takes the necessary precautions, company takes the right advice, runs the rightthe export can benecessary a profitable and enjoyable checks journey and takes the precautions, the one. export journey can be a profitable and enjoyable one.

To find out how Coface can support your business To find out how Cofacecall can 0800 085 6848 support your business call visit6848 0800or085 cofaceitfirst.com or visit cofaceitfirst.com

Coface is authorised in France by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution. In the UK Coface is subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and in Ireland Coface is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Coface is authorised in France by the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution. In the UK Coface is subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and in Ireland Coface is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

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09/04/2019 10:33 3/15/2019 2:38:32 PM

Dad behaviour There’s no denying there are more resources out there for mums than dads or that fathers face certain stereotypes.

But, looking to offer a bit more support to papas, Chinua Cole has founded Dadapp

BY ZEN TERRELONGE

I

nspiration can come from anywhere. And for Chinua Cole, his motivation to create Dadapp, the fatherhood community app, came from Jay-Z. “His album is called 4:44, with the specific song 4:44 being the track that generated the idea,” says Cole. “That album covers numerous topics from financial freedom to the LGBTQ+ community but it was the subject of fatherhood that sparked the lightbulb moment for me.”

While Cole admits he isn’t a father, he has enough awareness to know a service like Dadapp has potential.

It’s certainly worked for mothers, who have the similar service Mush through which they can meet other mums.

“I know the founders at Mush, they’re both lovely,” says Cole, claiming nothing like his offering has been developed before, especially on the app front. “Dadapp helps you find, connect and meet with like-minded dads nearby based on location, children’s ages and shared interests.”

There’s zero external funding in Dadapp as it stands, which has been “challenging to say the least” for Cole. But he’s convinced the timing is right for the business to thrive.

“Never in a million years did I think I would [know] so much about fatherhood before I became a dad,” says Cole.

“After many interactions, I think the biggest issues dads face is the uncertainty and the expectations.” He touches on the longstanding and outdated belief that men should be the family provider and appear strong at all times of the day, which still lingers on today as so many guys still don’t talk to people. “I love masculinity and I don’t want it to be erased,” says Cole. “However, I do think men and dads specifically need a space to talk about the challenges they face but also just to catch up for drink to offload the dayto-day stresses of life. I think Dadapp is a great tool for the wellbeing of dads.”

His inspiration and concept are clear but what about motivation? Well, fatherhood is in Cole’s life plan so he knows what he feels would be useful when that box gets ticked. “I’m driven by the fact that if I were a dad, I would want to use Dadapp for myself,” he says.“It’s weird to have to step outside of myself and attempt to serve a community of people.” And it’s that selfless element to the crusade that Cole finds most enjoyable. “I love it because it’s not about me in any way, I’m driven to deliver a service that makes dads’ lives better,” he concludes.

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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Circa.1965

We weren’t around in 1965, but the C65 Diver is the watch we would have made if we had been.

The best of the 60s, remastered. A classic dive watch enhanced by the very latest technological refinements, sporting a lithe masculine aesthetic but with discreet dress styling, that you can wear anytime, anywhere. A timepiece that can proudly stand with the world’s great contemporary dive watches in every respect - apart from price.

Do your research.

christopherward.co.uk

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09/04/2019 10:34

Alana Spencer managing director, Ridiculously Rich

by Alana

Giving half my business to Lord Sugar

With a 40-page contract to wade through, retaining 50% of her business for Lord Sugar’s partnership wasn’t a decision made overnight for the winner of The Apprentice 2016

W

inning The Apprentice 2016 was crazy. And I could write for days about how it felt, share how I spent the £250,000 investment, what Lord Sugar is really like and what I did in the first year – all questions I still get asked on a daily basis.

Following the win, after the madness of Christmas, there were three main focuses: One, employ someone to take care of the orders so I could concentrate on growth. Two, sign the contract and actually become Lord Sugar’s business partner. Three, find a long-term plan for production and start putting it into place.

I got incredibly lucky with the first goal. I found someone who was very hard working and willing to do what was needed to get all the orders out of the door. I had to put a lot of trust in her as she was baking, packing, banking, selling – everything. In fact, she was a lifesaver and I’m not sure what I would have done without her. As a result, this part of the business quickly came under control which allowed me to see a little clearer and have time to focus on the bigger picture.

Part of that picture was signing the contract and officially going into business with Lord Sugar. Since it was born from the win of a television show many people didn’t see it as a real partnership. But for

me, with a 40-page contract to sift through, it all felt very real. I’m not ashamed to say I took rather a long time to sign it. After all, I was giving away 50% of my business. I read that contract morning, noon and night and almost made it a bigger deal than it needed to be.

Then one Tuesday afternoon with my boyfriend, mum, gran and sister all present, I finally signed and popped a bottle of champagne. It was official: Lord Sugar was my business partner and sure enough, two days later, £250,000 was deposited into my account.

Finally, I had my third and perhaps biggest aim: finding a long-term business plan and actually putting it into action. Not many know this but the one I presented on The Apprentice wasn’t the one I eventually put into practice. After a long chat with Lord Sugar and Claude Litner, it was really obvious we needed to concentrate on the model that was already working: selling my cakes at events, food festivals, carnivals all across the country, so we decided to franchise our business and find franchisees, which we call brand ambassadors.

I can’t remember a time before or since that I was running on so much adrenaline. In such a short space of time we had over 100 applications and suddenly, it all felt like it could actually happen.

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PICSOLVE

Picture

By Zen Terrelonge

perfect

Picsolve may not be a brand you’re familiar with but, having operated for 25 years, you’ll know its partners. From Blackpool Pleasure Beach to Warner Bros, CEO David Hockley details why the company’s moment-capturing vision remains the same even though times have changed

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t’s not often a global firm can be linked to witchcraft and wizardry. But with Merlin Entertainments – parent company of Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds – among its clientele, it’s fair to say Picsolve is in the business of magic. Further conjuring capabilities can be witnessed through ties to Warner Bros, the home of boy wizard Harry Potter. Offering a slightly more muggle-like account of the company though, Picsolve CEO David Hockley describes it as a “digitallyenabled entertainment company.”

But what does that mean? And why isn’t Picsolve as well known as the businesses it serves? Well, it hasn’t been hiding in a Voldemort-esque fashion, that’s for sure. It’s simply that clients come first – the Picsolve brand needn’t be in the spotlight. “We seek to entertain the guests of our partners, like Merlin, Warner Bros through to [others in] America,” Hockley details.

“So if we integrate with an app or a company like Warner, we would do it via their application.” Essentially, when you jump on a roller-coaster and have your pant-soiling expression snapped 24

or pose in front of a green screen at an attraction that transports you to another world, Picsolve may well be responsible. “Our core sectors are theme parks, large attractions, small attractions,” he adds. “With the selfie being omnipresent and the quality of pictures coming out, we have to entertain [guests] with the imaging that they can’t take themselves.”

This scene is a world away from where Hockley started. By trade he’s a finance man, having begun his career at professional services firm PwC even though that wasn’t where his interests lay. “I love media – that’s really my passion,” reveals Hockley.

The attraction in his view is the puzzle of developing content to cater to consumer needs. “The real thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is coming into a business that’s creative, innovative and working with real customers,” he says. “I find that a lot more intriguing than perhaps working in something like financial services.”

And he’d know what that’s like.

Following PwC, banking group ING and learning company Pearson were

his early employers. Hockley finally had the chance to pursue his passion in the role of CFO at Channel 5 back in 1999, where he stayed for the best part of 12 years. “It was a lot of fun and we had to take risks,” he remembers.

“Channel 5 was very much a challenger brand to the larger TV companies.

Digital TV was on the increase. We had to be very clever in terms of providing content that perhaps was alternative to mainstream stations.” He was able to refine his number-crunching abilities to perfection in the post because, while looking to disrupt the scene and stand out from the crowd, there was a need to be “commercially viable.”

An online platform, digital channels and packages for films and sport to run alongside the original analogue station were all among the tools to sculpt differentiation. “I loved being part of an SME business, having come from Pearson and PwC which are very large,” says Hockley. For him, the benefit of being smaller was having 360-degree vision. “The ability as CFO of being able to look across the business both internally and externally was superb,” he emphasises. The commercial viability sought by Hockley was ultimately achieved as the final stages of his time at Channel 5 saw him manage the £104m sale of the company to media mogul Richard Desmond.

“That was an exciting journey to be on,” adds Hockley.

Being able to chalk that experience down as mission accomplished, his options were open. “To be honest I went away from Channel 5 eager to have a break – I’d worked continuously for a number of years,” says Hockley.

After some time out and deliberation over his next move, he started to provide independent consulting support. Racking up interim CFO roles with Travel Channel and Scripps Network Interactive, the former of which was sold to the latter with his help – only for both to be consumed by

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Discovery Communications in a $14.6bn deal in 2018 – Hockley would seem to have the Midas touch.

He went on to clock up time at online video specialist Simplestream, Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan publisher Hearst Magazines and further afield in Romania, again in the TV world, to then eventually enter Picsolve. “It was early 2016 when I came in as interim CFO to a business that had grown reasonably significantly,” Hockley recalls. But Picsolve found itself at a crossroads and that’s where his navigation was needed.

“I think the business was at a position where it had to decide where and how it was going to grow.”

Having been founded a quarter of a century ago, with its 25th birthday this year, Picsolve has clearly been doing something right. Blackpool Pleasure Beach was the first venue to snap up the company’s offering and the partnership remains intact today.

“We’ve got a great relationship, we provide a great service, we launch new products on new rides and that’s a truly wonderful site,” says Hockley.

“It’s got one of those wonderful old wooden roller-coasters.” At the time of Picsolve’s inception, the goal was to give guests moments they can hold onto. “I think the mission [then] was probably not that far removed from where it is today,” he adds. But in the same way the northern theme park evolved from wooden roller-coasters with more modern contraptions, there was room for improvement at Picsolve.

Putting his stamp on the company meant analysing existing operations, truly understanding the different qualities and needs of clients and “where and how we could make sure we operated at an optimal manner for our partners and our guests” without rocketing costs. Investing in a new website that offered an improved experience but understanding the return from it was one of the necessary steps, albeit with an effort to “minimise

the amount of cost you’re expending” – a lesson Hockley gleaned from his time in the TV space.

Another issue Picsolve was facing when he joined was customer fear following a roller-coaster disaster.

“There’d just been the very unfortunate incident at Alton Towers with Smiler, which was obviously awful news [and it] impacted Picsolve as the image provider to Merlin at Alton Towers,” recalls Hockley. The crash between carriages on the Smiler ride resulted in two of the riders needing partial leg amputations and understandably made the public hesitant to visit theme parks.

“The immediate impact was a lower number of people coming into [theme parks] and a lower number of people actually going on rides,” he says. Fewer visits meant fewer opportunities to capture guest moments, which resulted in lower revenue for Picsolve. “The

incident was in June 2015 but it took about a year for that to be sorted out; for people to feel more comfortable about going on some of the rides again,” adds Hockley.

As confidence in theme parks rose again, Hockley was able to begin implementing his own processes. He realised that while there was a digital content strategy in place at Picsolve, a lot of it meant building everything in-house, which “was probably overly slow.” “To get ahead of the competition the business needed to think differently,” he reasons. “It became a cultural change that had to be brought about to make it more of a commercial business.” Hockley notes operating in a “more focused financial fashion” was a primary aim for him when he joined as CFO, which would be brought about with new infrastructure.

We have to entertain [guests] with the imaging that they can’t take themselves

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Having impressed as master of coin, he secured the top job of CEO at the beginning of 2018 and confesses it’s been quite a transition. “Being CEO is a very different role to being a CFO,” Hockley states. “You’ve got to be able to stand up and communicate both internally and externally to your partners exactly what your strategy is and be accountable for the decisions you take.” Jumping into the role with two feet, last year alone he visited over 50 locations that Picsolve operates at across the US, Asia, the Middle East and Europe and his globetrotting agenda looks no different in 2019. “I think that’s very important for employees to be able to meet me and me to meet them to

ask what’s going well and what’s going badly,” says Hockley.

With the team in mind, to get the job done well and have fun doing it – a necessity based on the sector – he’s been eager to embrace the youthful workforce culture and empower staff.

“The vast majority of our workforce are probably in their early 20s and therefore the culture needs to be energetic and engaging,” Hockley says.

And one of the qualities he tries to foster is an element of entrepreneurial flair to stand out from rivals. “I want people to be accountable and coming forward with new ideas,” he offers. “We won’t grow our business unless we have an appetite for being bold and bringing

innovation into the market. I try to instil that within everyone who works in Picsolve.”

Connecting with customers is also crucial and he sees clients regularly as a result. “I meet with Merlin at different levels very frequently and I was with Warner Bros a couple of weeks ago,” Hockley details. But upon entering as CEO he came to recognise that innovation was a real area of strategy the business needed to focus on. “The advancement into digital and rollout of new tech was absolutely critical for us to make our partners’ guests have a much more seamless interaction with image capture and a much more innovative product,” he says. There

The immediate impact was a lower number of people coming into [theme parks] and a lower number of people actually going on rides

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WE WON’T GROW OUR BUSINESS UNLESS WE HAVE AN APPETITE FOR BEING BOLD AND BRINGING INNOVATION INTO THE MARKET are two ways this has been achieved – collaboration and acquisition.

In terms of new unions to make technological leaps, one such partnership was forged with Brusselsbased selfie specialist Panora.me. “They provide images which we refer to as the Super Selfie, which is basically a short video image of you and your family perhaps in the foreground added to a background which may be of the London Eye with the Houses of Parliament,” explains Hockley.

On the acquisition front, Picsolve made a major play for new developments by swallowing American rival Freeze Frame in September 2017. He points to its Experience Wall as a product that was subsequently introduced to the company’s armoury.

It’s an evolution of the green screen, which leverages a series of HD screens for enhanced interactivity. “[For example] at Madame Tussauds, I believe providing image capture which is over and beyond just having a picture with a waxwork is really important,” opines Hockley.

The Freeze Frame deal not only bolstered product offerings, it also supercharged Picsolve’s presence across America. With both parties operating in around 25 locations each at the time, the UK firm expanded its reach. “Their geographic was probably more orientated towards New York whereas we were a bit more orientated towards Florida and the theme parks down there,” says Hockley. “So there was a diversification in growth of our footprint.” The senior team at Freeze Frame were embedded within Picsolve’s US efforts while additional hires have also been made. The win of new sites such as San Diego Zoo has also helped. “I’m very pleased,” he adds.

“Our growth is probably around 20% to 30% in terms of revenue in the US on

the back of the acquisition, so that’s a really good level of growth for that size of business.”

The Asian market is another area ripe for expansion, accounting for just 9% of global revenue with the Middle East currently. China in particular is of key interest, though Hockley also points to Korea and Japan as markets with potential. “Within China there’s some wonderful technology,” he says.

“If we can integrate that with some of the image capture we’ve got coming out of our strategic partner Panara.me, we’ve got something very powerful to be able to meet local operator and consumer needs.”

Affirming his commitment to global growth, Hockley hopes to spread the moneymaking capabilities of the company on a regional basis. “I’d like to have our revenue base split [evenly] between Europe, the US and Asia within the next two to three years,” he reveals. “I think that’s very possible given the amount of growth going on in Asia and the amount of investment we’re putting into that region.”

With such grand plans to scale, it should be noted that absolutely nothing is left to chance with the moves that Picsolve makes, whether at home or abroad. “In terms of innovation and the product, it’s a two-way conversation [with clients],” says Hockley. He points to a recent meeting during which he and his team presented a handful of ideas they felt would work well on the client’s estate. “We basically took their counsel as to whether they thought it was applicable for that particular ride or location,” Hockley continues.

“So it’s a joint approach but I believe we need to bring the creativity and the ideas to our partners for them to buy into it because we’re the image capture professionals – but it has to

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fit into their strategy for their guests.”

If everyone’s happy, it’s then a matter of deciding how to market the product, package it and price it on launch.

Seemingly there’s no shortage of ideas from the business. Picsolve continues to achieve new deals, having secured a five-year image capture contract for additional Merlin sites in the Big Smoke including Shrek’s Adventure! London and SEA LIFE London Aquarium to build on the existing work it was doing at Madame Tussauds, London Eye and The London Dungeon. But there’s more to come though as he points to opportunities within “significant sectors around the world” the firm doesn’t focus on presently. “I think over the next couple of years we’ll move into sectors we’ve not previously provided image capture in – water parks, the cruise industry, sports stadiums and ski resorts are something we’ve looked at,” he adds.

“We’ve got some assets we can deploy commercially if we can identify the right partners and utilise the key elements of our technology.”

With the refreshed Merlin deal in Picsolve’s grip among others, Hockley is hopeful further announcements with other partners will be revealed in the coming months. “It’s really exciting,” he says. “For me, it demonstrates that we’ve got the right strategy, we’ve got the right technology that we’re deploying into partners.” The confidence is based on prospective clients getting in touch to explain they’ve heard about the “great things” Picsolve is doing. “I feel we’ve got more momentum there then we’ve ever had before, demonstrated by those new wins but also demonstrated by having a very good quality pipeline of wonderful brands to work with,” he concludes. “When you get the opportunity to work with great IP, it makes the image capture and the memory just so much more wonderful.”

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09/04/2019 11:32

Anil Stocker co-founder and CEO, MarketInvoice

Hurry up and wait

Hearing from an agency customer that their biggest challenge is getting paid for the work they’ve done, MarketInvoice CEO Anil Stocker was inspired to investigate the issue further

A

contracts they have with their debtors.

For example, they could ask for a 50% payment upfront, request minimum monthly payments for the duration of the project or include a clause enabling the business to retain intellectual property in case of non-payment.

As the business grows, it’s essential they take on a dedicated person to manage finances – someone with credit control experience who can put systems and processes in place for tracking invoices and chasing late payments. This person must be able to take a tough line when necessary, be persistent not only in chasing payments directly but in reminding the client-facing teams to look out for early signs that a debtor is likely to delay payment.

This isn’t to say businesses should be fostering adversarial relationships with their debtors and letting good communication break down. Building good rapport with debtors can actually make all the difference when it comes

to getting paid on time. Often, late payment is not a conscious decision but just a result of the multi-layered nature of the organisation. Staying front-of-mind with the relevant people will help ensure a greater effort is made to pay invoices on time.

Despite cashflow pressures, the future seems bright for thriving creative industries which contribute £102bn to the UK economy. Late payments aside, creative businesses remain optimistic and ambitious with 73% planning to grow this year.

This is compared to 53% of SMEs in general, according to a 2018 Creative Industries Council report. They’re also almost twice as likely than other SMEs to use external finance to support that growth.

With the right funding in place to cushion the shortfall of long or late payments, businesses have the fuel to kick off new projects, hire the best talent and focus all their energy on doing what they do best.

£

big portion of the businesses we work with operate within creative industries. And, especially when working with big media owners, exchanges or large corporates, creative businesses are often subject to lengthy payment terms – sometimes as long as 90 days. Worse still, invoices are regularly being settled almost two weeks after the agreed date. Indeed, our MarketInvoice Business Insights research found 48% of invoices issued by creative businesses in 2018 were paid late. With the average invoice worth over £38,000, the impact of this is huge.

Every delayed invoice means more time chasing payment and less time to focus on growing the business.

There are also knock-on effects such as being prevented from kicking off new projects. So what can creative businesses – and those in other sectors for that matter – do to help mitigate the risk of late payments?

There are certain contingency plans companies can build into the terms of

£ £

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PR ESS

Impressed

BY VARsha Saraogi

Having begun in 2014 with a popup store operating through a bathtub near Old Street station, Ed Foy, co-founder of PRESS, has taken the cold-pressed juice company to Selfridges and beyond the UK

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n a world where veganism is on the rise, there’s an obscene amount of plant-based food startups coming up globally – especially in the UK. Today, consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to protein bars and healthy juices. Household names can’t assume getting a loyal clientele as the market has been disrupted by new and impressive options. However, it wasn’t like this when Ed Foy, co-founder of PRESS, the coldpressed juice company, started a pop-up in 2014 in Old Street tube station. “Back then a purely vegetable juice wasn’t very commercial and people only made them in homes – not paying for it,” Foy recalls.

Looking back, Foy started his journey in the corporate world as a brand manager at L’Oreal. It was then he realised his passion for business and the need for better skills. This resulted in him going back to school and acquiring an MBA at Harvard. “It definitely set the bar quite high for me in terms of expectations of myself,” he recalls. Following his studies, Foy went on to become the head of global marketing operations for Jack Wills. During the following years he picked up many business lessons which would help him throughout his entrepreneurial journey.

While he credits his education and previous jobs, it was mainly during his own experience as a business leader when he honed his skills. “Until you get your feet on the ground and you’re at the coal face of starting a business, you won’t learn about savvy business management and how to scale further, 34

yet?

solve problems and what compromises you’re ready to make for cost versus margin,” he says. “The fundamental idea of the business is about how you run it and how you fund it. It doesn’t matter whether you have an MBA or whether you started a pizza company at 16 – success isn’t defined by that.”

However, PRESS wasn’t Foy’s first idea. “When I came out of business school, one of the ideas I had was to make Ben’s Cookies, which I think are miracle products because they’re just so delicious, [although] sadly not necessarily at the healthier end of the spectrum,” he laughs. “But the reality was I wasn’t sure I could’ve got morally behind the idea of spending the core part of my life selling a very sugary product in a market that was already very saturated and had its problems with obesity.”

The idea to launch PRESS was born when Foy’s co-founder Georgie Reames visited LA and saw people beginning to make cold-pressed juices a daily routine. Foy saw the trend spread throughout the US. That’s when he decided to bring the culture of healthy juices to Blighty. “The health and wellness movement was going to become more important in Britain and we thought we should bring that concept over to the UK,” he reflects. “And while I was in Nashville, it had made a meaningful impact on my life.” No wonder then that Foy and Reames decided to launch the nutritional juice startup rather than a venture offering sugary snacks. “The exciting thing with PRESS is our mission has always been about balance, about changing lives with nutrition,” he continues.

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P RESS

Despite knowing it would be far from easy, Foy’s insatiable appetite to make the startup a success kept him going through the initial days of selling cold-pressed juices out of a bathtub near Old Street tube station. “We branded the bathtub, filled the top with ice and product and it was a kind of test – ‘Are people going to be interested in this? Will they pay for it?’” he remembers. He would soon have his answer. “I called Georgie up after the first day and said ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’” Foy continues. “She said ‘Any good news will do right now.’ And I said ‘Well the good news is we’re sold out, the bad news is we’re gonna have to do this for the next month.

Get back to the kitchen and I’ll see you there. I don’t know how or when we’re going to fit sleep in.’ So it was a real success and we sold out every day and people really liked the product.”

Looking at how the juices were gaining demand, Foy and Reames decided to open a store in Soho at the end of 2014 by injecting their savings along with additional help from family.

Unfortunately, due to financial restrictions, they picked the wrong location. “We did the bad thing of opening on a very quiet street because all we could afford was the deposit for that kind of site and rent,” he says. “I’m happy to stand in a pineapple outfit and say ‘Come in for the best juice’ but when there’s no one to even say that to, there’s not much you can actually do.” Understandably, Foy is determined to change the location of his flagship store this year even though it lasted five years. He believes a disadvantageous street can be the

“difference between something amazing and something that never happened.” “It’s a real shame because so many businesses may have an amazing concept, a great product, great customer service, great execution but because of financial restrictions they just fail very fast and very early,” he adds.

Indeed, finances were the main concern for Foy. “Oh my God, it’s like the worst challenge that we had,” he remembers. In fact, getting cashflow was such a concern in the beginning that it cost Foy more than his sleep. “I was clinically depressed for two years because I was just so worn down from 19 hours a day of constant stress of running out of money, managing the business – it’s brutal and it’s ultimately driven by the fear of always having to watch out for money,” he says.

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It even got to a point that Foy and Reames were almost out of cash. “It was coming up to Christmas [one time], we had a lot of people on the payroll to pay and we were very close to running out of money, which meant Georgie and I would have had to put more money in,” he remembers. Fortunately, things took a turn for the better when he had a look at their Shopify account and found there were thousands of pounds seemingly just sitting there unused.

After a phone call, the PRESS founders found out that the payments had been bouncing from their accounts for “some random accounting reason” and that they actually had money to spare. “We managed to get [Shopify] to pay that all out in 24 hours, which meant we had plenty of money,” Foy remembers.

Still, the experience taught him the importance of having an accounting team. “The biggest thing that I don’t think anyone really explains or teaches is you need to have your bookkeeping done properly from the beginning and if you don’t understand the difference between bookkeeping and your accounting, you’ll suffer,” he opines.

Another challenge for Foy was to ensure he sourced the best quality of ingredients which again came at a higher cost. “In the beginning, when buying fruit and veg it tends to be cash upfront as opposed to monthly billing until you have a trading history and that makes your working capital quite painful,” he says.

Clearly, the journey from the bathtub pop-up to making PRESS juices a morning ritual for thousands of people was fraught with thorns but that didn’t demotivate Foy. “Our battle is always 36

I was clinically depressed for two years because I was just so worn down from 19 hours a day of constant stress of running out of money grow the business, drive price down, open up our product to more people and repeat because eventually you’d like your product to be as cheap as possible without compromising on quality and eventually you’re the Tropicana,” he says. And this is why Foy realised he should change the bottle after studying consumer behaviour in supermarkets to make it more attractive. He wanted to make it more explicit and informative as opposed to the simple design it had in the beginning.

Additionally, Foy ensured social media was an integral part of his marketing strategy and fresh content was posted regularly, which can be difficult for startups. “The struggle was when you’re small, you’re trying to do a million things and making sure you spend the time on doing the right imagery, the right posts and driving people to the business – it’s quite hard, it’s just a lot to do,” he says.

To escalate brand awareness further, Foy even started The Squeeze, a publication which he populated with articles on health and wellbeing. “I’d recommend mostly anyone with an online business, if you’re not creating articles on your own

platform, then your customer only has so much that they can actually engage with,” he says.

Foy’s efforts to scale PRESS resulted in the brand being stocked in Selfridges in January 2016. The then director of food Nicola Waller happened to walk by the Soho establishment and was looking for a smoothie and juice bar for the store. “They said ‘Listen, you’ve got to meet me at noon tomorrow, would you guys be able to pull something together before that?’” he recalls. With the promise of a deal like that, the founders unsurprisingly spent the next 20 hours putting together an 85-slide presentation. Despite the sleepdeprivation caused to get it done in time, the efforts undoubtedly paid off with PRESS bagging the deal. “It’s awesome that a business like Selfridges was willing to give a small one like ours a chance because they saw the promise [of it] and that certainly gave us credibility for our quality and products,” he adds.

Indeed, the Selfridges deal opened a host of opportunities for Foy and, additionally, he was able to secure more funding. In the same year, he raised a

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private round and secured funding from VC firm The Clark Group. And in 2017 he even raised £1.1m through crowdfunding on Crowdcube. He utilised the money by investing in a new chilled warehouse to run the distribution effectively.

Indeed, Foy’s hard work truly paid off as PRESS products are stocked in more than 450 independent stores across the UK today and he has no intention of stopping. In fact, in March 2019 the business began stocking its products in Belgium.

Consequently, it opened many more doors for Foy throughout Europe. “What that means for me is that actually there are all these opportunities out there and if we were to put manpower and time on Europe as an opportunity, maybe pick three key markets – which is what we’re looking at now – what could we achieve?” he says, adding that Germany and France are next on his radar.

However, he faced various challenges with respect to translating the words on the bottles and having multiple languages on them. “It sounds like a small thing but it isn’t when you’re trying to streamline production and manufacture,” he says.

Along with expansion, Foy believes innovation is key and he’s always introducing new products.

What started as a cold-pressed juice business has now grown to having soups, supplements, granola bars, superfood snacks as well as nut milks. “Vegan ice cream is definitely in the pipeline next and we’re also working on our CBD [or Cannabidiol] range of products,” he adds. And that’s not even all. “A sparkling drinks range, just trying to deliver great flavour but without high sugar and additives, as well as a vegan scrambled eggs mix are coming soon.”

Having seen the highs and lows of business, PRESS is only set to grow further and this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the unwavering passion Foy harbours. “If you’re in an emerging market, just by surviving you will become the front runner,” he concludes. “You’ll see the competitors fall over and you, therefore, will become the answer in that market.”

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The in crowd

BY ZEN TERRELONGE

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With traditional financial institutions tightening their belts and seemingly throwing away the keys to their vaults around a decade ago, it paved the way for crowdfunding and there’s been no looking back since

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he bank was once the holy grail for finance but there’s been a significant shift over the past decade with the creation of crowdfunding platforms. No longer does the success of a company hang in the balance based on the mood of a bank manager that may or may not grasp the entrepreneur’s concept. That power now rests with consumers – the crowd if you will.

The chore of securing cash is one of the very reasons a rather well-known UK crowdfunding platform was founded in 2011. “Darren and I launched Crowdcube after experiencing first-hand the challenges of raising finance to get a business idea off the ground or take it to its next phase of growth,” says Luke Lang, CMO and co-founder of Crowdcube. He notes there was a general conversation across the business landscape about how difficult it was to get a company up and running. “Banks had become much stricter with lending, government grants for enterprise had been scrapped and active angel investors were few and far between,” he adds.

“Crowdcube presented and, still does present, a way of solving that problem.”

As it stands, Crowdcube has had 820 rounds generating a grand total of £500m for the likes of craft beer business BrewDog through to luxury travel company Mr & Mrs Smith, showcasing how the model works across sectors.

But what exactly is crowdfunding? Well, simply put, it’s receiving funding from the crowd – a group of individuals that buy into a business idea, figuratively and literally, for shares within that particular company.

“Equity crowdfunding enables you to invest alongside a diverse group of people – including retail investors,

angels and venture capital firms – in companies that aren’t listed on the stock market,” says Lang.

Indeed, the advantages of the access to a more diverse population of investors is very clear after Killing Kittens achieved a “sector first” by securing investment through crowdfunding in 2018. The 2005-launched sex party organiser is all about female empowerment and it seems to have been a game-changer for the marketplace in which it operates and crowdfunding generally. “Our business was classified and sat as a brand in the adult industry,” explains Killing Kittens founder and CEO Emma Sayle. “Killing Kittens was the first adult classed business to embark on a public crowd raise.”

Sayle turned to equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs to raise the capital for Killing Kittens. From its launch in 2005, the startup today counts more than 120,000 men and women among its customer base. And, from a quick glance at Seedrs where the most popular funding campaigns at the moment revolve around insurance, banking and clothing, it’s easy to see why the adult-facing firm stood out. “As a brand that continues to lead the charge in the female adult sector, we like to set the standard for the sector,” says Sayle of why crowdfunding appealed. “Rather than accepting private equity investment we instead opted to offer the chance to invest in the brand to our own ‘Kommunity’ first.”

The foray into uncharted territory worked wonders for Killing Kittens as it essentially achieved a 118% investment of its £500,000 goal, which took it to £598,100. Sayle successfully sought investors of all sizes, ones who would back the company vision of promoting “unforgettable

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experiences that continue to inspire confidence, sexuality and femininity whilst continuing to push the boundaries for female expression.” There was a huge range of investments being pumped into the company, with everything from £10 to £50,000. “Killing Kittens has always been about community so this seemed like the best fit for this first raise,” Sayle continues. “I would rather have 300 investors all feeling part of the business than five city boys.”

The case of Killing Kittens is just one of many examples of successful rounds. And as Crowdcube approaches 1,000 successful campaigns, Lang explains that in the beginning he knew the business had “huge potential” but even he’s surprised by the market’s evolution. “I don’t think when we started we knew exactly where it would take us but it’s clear now that the impact equity crowdfunding has

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had on the investment market in the UK and increasingly globally has been huge,” he says.

That “huge impact” has presented opportunities for new crowdfunding to take shape in other forms. For example, The House Crowd is a platform that’s focused solely on property investments.

But how does its model differ from other equity crowdfunding services?

“The House Crowd is focused purely on debt-based crowdfunding in the form of peer-to-peer lending secured against UK property,” details Frazer Fearnhead, CEO and co-founder of The House Crowd.

So it’s not just a matter of business diversity that crowdfunding enables.

The way it’s used has been adapted to suit broader enterprise needs over the past decade that it’s grown

in prominence. “We’re seeing increased interest in debt-based crowdfunding for investment in business or property projects, along with reward and donation crowdfunding for creative or charitable projects,” says Fearnhead.

“The crowdfunding market is also underpinned by better recognition from regulators and better technology than ever before – so continued growth looks very promising.”

Still, despite expecting growth, Fearnhead advises caution in terms of challenges. Entrepreneurs should do their due diligence to ensure everything is up to code before being seduced by pound signs. “As with any industry there are some charlatans and

Killing Kittens was the first adult classed business to embark on a public crowd raise Emma Sayle, Killing Kittens

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We’d certainly want to be giving the banks a run for their money and based on how far the industry has come in the last eight years, I think it’s achievable Luke Lang, Crowdcube

fraudsters,” Fearnhead warns. “For obvious reasons, the investment space in particular is susceptible to fraud and malpractice and that includes crowdfunding platforms. Reputable crowdfunding platforms have to distance themselves from fraudulent practices, being as transparent with investors as possible.”

There are other difficulties that business leaders should also bear in mind when embarking on a crowdfunding campaign. Sayle discovered generating the funds while also continuing to scale Killing Kittens was a serious juggling act.

“The first challenge came from getting the project online and ready,” she recalls. “We were mid-build, we had a tech road map to keep to, so we were building and raising at the same time.

We began the crowdfund process at the end of December 2017 and closed in July 2018. Finding the time to fit the raise in whilst continuing running Killing Kittens was very challenging at times.” Other planning issues included ensuring there was a good deal for investors without shortchanging the company but also trying not to overthink and stress about the process.

The preperation paid off when the campaign went live. After raising 70%

of the crowdfunding privately through the Killing Kittens community in one day, Sayle opened it up on Seedrs where the rest of the money took 28 days to arrive. “I questioned myself constantly – ‘Have we got this right?’, ‘Why is it taking so long to raise?’ ‘Did I get that wrong?’ and so on,” she says.

“Thinking about it now, perhaps being nine months pregnant at the time of going public on the platform was adding to the trepidation.”

In the same way Killing Kittens leant on its community for support, it was the same case for craft peanut butter brand ManiLife. “ManiLife’s community is incredible so I wanted to give them a chance to pledge their support,” says founder Stu Macdonald. The foodie firm secured £282,000, which wasn’t bad at all considering it only sought £100,000 – a target that was reached at pace. “We actually hit our original target of £100,000 in about half an hour,” details Macdonald. Offering how it was achieved, he adds: “It’s basically a mix of building anticipation, a large group of small value interest-led investors and a small group of high value investors. It worked out better than expected.”

ManiLife didn’t stop there. It went on to secure another round, this time for £700,000. “Second time round was

a lot more intense as we were raising a lot more money,” admits Macdonald.

“We kept the round open for several weeks so it was a completely different experience.” The other difference he discovered from the two rounds is how much came from customers and how much was from Seedrs. “About 90% of the original raise was from ManiLife’s network,” he reveals. “This was vastly different the second time round – closer to 50:50.”

Having achieved success through the model not once but twice, it’s a matter of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it for Macdonald. “I’ve been lucky enough to run two very successful funding rounds and meet some fantastic people in the process,” he says. “I’d keep everything the same in case my luck runs out.”

Building on that, while Sayle found there were things that troubled her with crowdfunding, she’s more than happy to use it again and will do so very soon. “We’re starting a Series A raise in May for approximately £4m, of which we are planning £1m via Seedrs as a public crowd raise again,” she says, highlighting the power of community. “But we’re also opening this raise up to funds and private individual investors as they bring expertise and advice to the table, in tandem with their investment.”

So where is crowdfunding heading in the future? According to Lang, while Crowdcube’s mission remains the same, the market has evolved in that it’s not just startups that benefit from it but developed companies too – and that’s a positive. “Equity crowdfunding is now firmly established as an accessible way to fund startups and growth companies – it’s now part of the mainstream with a strong track record of helping young companies grow,” Lang says. Concluding with a look into the future, he adds: “We’d certainly want to be giving the banks a run for their money and based on how far the industry has come in the last eight years, I think it’s achievable.”

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HUMAN

FUEL D

ON’T BE A DICK.” The words are written in bold black letters on the white wall. Just feet away, roughly a dozen people huddle over their computers, organising marketing efforts and engaging with customers across different forums. Upbeat rap music plays from the speakers across the facility. The song is part of the collaborative playlist every employee can add tracks to, which means it includes an eclectic range of everything from RnB to rock.

This is the new global headquarters of Huel, the meal replacement startup.

The company offers a selection of powder-based and ready-made drinks, bars and granola. Each snack promises the scaleup’s dedicated fans – the affectionately called 42

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BY ERIC JOHANSSON

JULIAN HEARN AIMS TO PUT AN END TO UNHEALTHY MEAL DEALS WITH HUEL. AND AFTER A £20M INVESTMENT ROUND AND HAVING SOLD ALMOST ONE SERVING PER MINUTE IN THE BEGINNING OF 2019, HE MIGHT SUCCEED

Hueligans – a complete meal with all necessary nutrition. The idea is to replace the forgettable meal deals busy professionals wolf down during their lunch breaks. No muss, no fuss, just healthy snacking. If any of the workers labouring away at their desks would doubt the mission, they can just look up at the words written on the wall encouraging them to “Do the right thing,” remember that “Brand is fucking important” and to always prioritise “Nutrition first, taste a close second.”

These guidelines combined with Huel’s mission to provide convenient healthy food have yielded some impressive results. “This is technically the fastest growing company in the UK at the moment,” argues Julian Hearn, the co-founder.

The company launched in 2014 and today its products are

JULIA N HE A RN

available in over 80 countries. Between 2018 and 2019 its sales jumped by 185% to over £40m with 2.7 million meals sold in January this year alone – representing essentially one meal being purchased per second. Moreover, in October last year it raised a £20m venture round. About £1m of that cash injection was invested in the new Tring HQ where roughly 50 out the company’s over 80 global employees can make good use of the company’s gym, kitchen and 15 meeting rooms. There’s even a small gift shop. The facility also doubles as a testament to the company’s aspirations. “It’s an office where we can hold 150 people without any rejigging,” declares Hearn.

Huel’s success is the accumulation of years of grit and the experience gathered during his first two startups – the

associate online marketing startup Mash Up Media and the failed fitness venture Bodyhack.

Although, arguably, his first foray into entrepreneurship happened decades ago when a seven-year-old Hearn took advantage of his mum’s greenhouse. “Me and our next door neighbour made a little stall, took the plants and sold them,” Hearn laughs. While he can’t remember if it was his own or his mother’s idea, the concept proved so successful she had to grow more plants because of the demand her son created. “I suppose that was the first time I’d done anything like that,” he recalls.

It would take roughly 30 years before he flexed his entrepreneurial muscles again. In the meantime

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Hearn did what he refers to as “the normal route,” meaning he acquired a degree in marketing at Bournemouth University before embarking on a 15-year-long career clocking up time with heavyweights like Starbucks, Tesco and Waitrose.

This changed when Hearn and his wife began to try for a baby.

By then, he felt the weight of the daily three-hour commute from Aylesbury to London. “It was a bit much,” he recalls. “I was leaving the house at half six in the morning and was home at half six at night and I just thought I needed to find a better way.”

Failing to find suitable employment closer to home, Hearn eventually had a brainwave after attending a marketing affiliate event in Norwich. “I met some guys who were making serious money,” he states. Their online marketing businesses intrigued him. Not only were they earning hundreds of thousands of pounds but were doing so from the comfort of their homes.

“They weren’t rocket scientists,” he continues. “They were just normal guys and I thought ‘You’ve got a pretty good lifestyle and you seem like normal guys so why can’t I do what you do?’” Inspired, Hearn decided to follow their example.

For the next year his days were spent as the head of online marketing at price comparison site Dialaphone.

At the same time, every evening and weekend were devoted to him “learning the tricks of the trade” of his new side hustle. “I realised that there was an opportunity they hadn’t seen,” he recalls. “They were very focused on keyword voucher codes or discount codes and weren’t focusing on promotional codes.”

After a few initial attempts proved successful, Hearn decided it was time to work at it full-time.

Convincing his wife to give it six months and a £1,500 investment of their own money, Mash Up Media was born in 2008. While other founders may’ve been nervous, Hearn trusted the insights accumulated in the year prior.

The gamble soon paid off. “Within three months I was making more money than I’d been making from my salary,” he says. The next three years saw Hearn “making a couple of million pounds per year.” In March 2011, he exited by selling the business and its website PromotionalCodes.org.uk to an American company. “I was 40 at that point and had enough money that theoretically I could retire if I wanted to,” he remembers.

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Following the exit, Hearn and his wife enjoyed their success. “We didn’t go completely mad with the money,” he says. Instead, they bought a second house by the coast and spent most of their time with their son, enjoying being a family. However, the peace and quiet didn’t last for long. “I got itchy feet,” Hearn confesses. “That was the problem. Being at home all the time with your wife and young child, it was getting a little bit cabin feverish.

I wanted something else to do on the side.” But it was more than itchy feet – fatherhood also motivated the decision to find something to do three days a week. “I didn’t want my son to see me at home all the time,” Hearn admits.

“He needed a role model, somebody to see working and being at home all the time is probably not a great role model.”

The idea behind his second startup Bodyhack came from him being fed up with the conflicting fitness and dietary advice he was bombarded with. From paleo diets and intermittent fasting to HIIT workouts and heavy dumbbell sets, there’s seemingly no singular method everyone can get behind. “It becomes very frustrating,” he sighs.

But then Hearn started thinking – what if there was a platform that trialled different health plans to find out which ones actually yielded the best results?

“I thought there is an opportunity because if it has bugged me it has probably bugged other people as well,” he says.

Kicking off his new venture, Hearn and three other people embarked on four different 12-week programmes.

Each human guinea pig had to be meticulous in how they recorded their progress – every nibble, dumbbell curl, cardio session and body weight fluctuations had to be accounted for. “It was extremely strict because you had to keep things scientific to keep it as provable as possible,” Hearn explains.

And his own workouts generated some stunning results. “I personally went down from 21% body fat to 11% body

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fat,” he says. “I was about 40 at the time and that was the leanest I’d ever been in my entire life.”

The only problem was that people didn’t believe Hearn was as shredded as he claimed despite the picture proof provided. “People are quite used to being shown fake photographs,” he explains. “That was the feedback we got, [people saying] ‘These are fake.

These are photoshopped.’” To prove the results once and for all, two weeks later he shot a video of himself. “You can’t photoshop it in the same way,” he says.

While this video helped convince some detractors, Bodyhack had bigger problems. The company had the ambition of getting 100 different programmes onto the platform.

However, it was a costly endeavour in terms of time and money to get people to try the 12-week plans. And even if Hearn had managed that, the dietary needs were too complicated for clients to follow. “People wanted the results but it wasn’t practical for some people to eat that type of food when working,” he explains. “It’s very difficult to stop working at 11 o’clock and get a pot and pan out and cook an egg and 100 grams of broccoli.”

Even though he closed down the project, this insight made him wonder if eating healthily could become as easy as having a protein shake. “That was obviously super convenient because all you had to do was to just put water in, scoop out some protein and put it in,” he says. Drawing inspiration from the concept, he reached out to different nutritionists to find a way to create a shake that included all the essential nutrients people need. Some were less than enthusiastic whilst others like James Collier, who ended up cofounding Huel, were more optimistic.

“So I paid him to do a consultation,” Hearn explains. “Two weeks later he’d devised a formula pretty similar to the formula we have today.”

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unflavoured and had a certain taste to it,” he remembers. “[It was] very earthy and sort of natural tasting but at the same time it’s not what the majority of the population is trained to eat.” Expanding on the subject, Hearn argues people are primed to neglect nutrition in favour of flavours. “You could live your whole life if you lost all your taste buds and if you lost all of your smell you’d be fine as a person,” Hearn explains. “You’d live. But if you took all the nutrition out of your food, you’d die. Nutrition is what food is supposed to provide primarily. Taste is secondary. Unfortunately, if you go to most supermarkets then nearly all food is the other way around. They design food on a taste basis and maybe think about nutrition very late whereas we think about nutrition first and think about taste second.”

Still, earthy taste or not, he believed he was on to something huge and decided to invest £220,000 of the Mash Up Media money into the new venture.

“I felt fine about it but my wife [was] a little bit hesitant because I’d burnt probably £80,000 on Bodyhack,” Hearn laughs. Nevertheless, he managed to convince her this was a project worth betting on and so, in 2014, Huel – short for Human Fuel – was born.

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This meant facing many challenges.

Some, like the branding and edits to the marketing copy, were reasonably easy to solve by using different freelancers. Similarly, there was no need to hire a model for the marketing photos as Hearn, who was still in the best shape of his life, was happy to pose for the pics. Even the site required minimal coding after the founders decided to use Shopify’s e-commerce solutions. “I’m not saying it was easy but it was doable,” Hearn shrugs.

Other obstacles were tougher to overcome. “The hardest thing was actually to get the product made in the early days,” Hearn admits.

“That just took forever and was super difficult.” The problem wasn’t so much finding manufacturers but convincing them Huel wasn’t like other new food businesses that failed to live up to expectations, with huge costs as a result. “For a factory to change their production line and deal with a new product that’s probably going nowhere is probably not going to be worth their time and effort,” he explains.

But Huel’s luck was seemingly about to change. “Eventually we found this big multinational that said

‘[We’ll] do this for you, no problem,’” Hearn remembers. And for about four months he considered it sorted.

Then the manufacturer suddenly made a 180 and decided not to go through with it after all. “That was a key point at which I felt ‘This is it,’” he says. “This was way into a year after we first started and I thought, ‘These guys are just letting me down.

This is never going to go anywhere.’ I nearly gave up.”

Luckily, Hearn decided to give it “one more crack” and soon found the manufacturer Huel’s been using to this day. “They were quite a small operation at the time and now we’re their biggest client and they have been able to grow and scale up with us,” he states. “So it’s been a very good relationship.”

With the drink finally manufactured after 18 months, Hearn soon found his first customers.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t through his marketing efforts but via him chatting on the Facebook group London Startups and somebody asking what Huel was actually doing.

“I explained what I was launching and they must’ve gone through and checked the site out before we actually launched and that’s how our

Jul i a n He a rn

first initial customers came – through that Facebook group,” he explains.

Once the product was officially launched in June 2015, the founding team knew their investment had been worth it. Not only was the national press interested but the exploding numbers of freshly converted Hueligans also blew Hearn away. “I’ve worked for some good brands before [but] the engagement I saw, I hadn’t really seen that from customers,” he says. Passionate customers from the UK and even France started sending Huel pictures posing with the shakes.

“When I started seeing people like that coming back in the early days, I thought ‘Yeah, this is definitely going to go somewhere,’” he smiles.

As the community grew, Huel actively engaged with customers on its own forum and actioned the insights gained from these conversations. “It’s really made the product better,” Hearn argues. For instance, while his wife and friends were put off by the earthy flavour, most Hueligans disliked the sweetened versions. “When we launched, the feedback from a lot of people was that it was too sweet,” he says. “We tend to attract people who [are] very nutritionally aware and want something that’s healthy for them. People are looking for really healthy food, something that’s really good for them. They don’t want it to be confectionary in taste.” Fortunately, with the company being direct-toconsumer, Huel has been able change the flavours according to both early and later customer insights within just a few months.

Fast adaptability like this saw Huel quickly attract customers as far afield as Dubai and China. However, Germany was the first country it opened an international office in.

“They’re a big country and that was

I nearly gave up

our biggest selling country outside of the UK,” Hearn says, adding that the cultural and geographical proximity also played into the expansion. Even though Huel certainly benefitted from the nation’s huge number of professionals – not to mention its thriving startup scene – some slight differences made the expansion occasionally challenging. For instance, Hearn and his team had to figure out how to make up for Germany’s ban on working on Sundays to ensure a consistently high turnaround.

Another hurdle was to find a way to make people change their eating habits. “In the UK the most popular lunch is quite clearly the sandwich and we see ourselves as a very viable alternative,” Hearn says. The way he explains it is that both bread and the shakes are made from powder, which makes convincing people to level up their meals easier. But in Germany, things are a bit trickier. “They actually still go out quite a lot for cooked food at lunchtime, which we didn’t realise,” he explains, pointing to the doner kebab as a firm favourite.

“Huel is not as directly comparable to eating out or eating cooked food.

So for some people it is possible it seemed more alien in Germany than it does in the UK.” But difficult as it might be to expand Huel’s operations into Europe, it was child’s play compared to entering the US in 2017. “To export food into America is very difficult,” Hearn claims. “You have to go into FDA rules [which] are quite specific and problematic.” Because of this, Huel

was forced to find an FDA-approved Canadian manufacturer to ship it down to the States. Moreover, the scaleup had to solve everything from finding reliable suppliers to the packaging to get it up to the same standards as in the UK. “Most of the issues have really been about starting afresh over there,” Hearn says, admitting that it’s still something the company is working on.

He doesn’t mind the hard work though. “If you don’t enjoy problem solving then starting a business is not going to be right for you,” he says. And his work ethic is clearly an advantage to stay ahead of the competition.

Huel seemingly arrived just as the market was inundated with meal replacement startups. Over the past few years scaleups like Soylent, Queal and dozens of other brands with similar concepts have tried to solve the issue of convenient healthy eating. Pointing at societal issues like booming obesity and health issues, Hearn believes it’s clear why these companies are so successful.

“People are getting more nutritionally aware,” he says. While he’s seemingly uncomfortable talking about his competition as he doesn’t “know their businesses that well,” he argues that Huel stands out in the crowd due to its uncompromising attitude to nutrition over taste. “We try to make the best things that we can rather than just making a profit,” Hearn says.

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been approached by 30 plus VCs and some real top tier VCs as well,” he remembers. The usual answer was “thanks but no thanks.” But his attitude was in for a readjustment. Noticing how other startups in the space were able to scale rapidly thanks to VCs’ cash injections, he began to contemplate if there might be something to it.

However, he truly changed his mind when Huel had to stock up for the busy months coming up after the Christmas of 2017. “We did get a little bit tight at that point in terms of money in the bank,” he recalls.

After debating it, the board decided to seek investment to avoid a similar crunch again. The following summer, the scaleup negotiated a deal with the VC firm Highland Europe to raise a £20m venture round. Huel’s leadership was also able to leverage the fact that it was in a good financial position in those months. “So we were able to negotiate a very good deal,” Hearn smiles. To date, most of it is saved for a rainy day. “The vast majority is sat in the bank for opportunities or problems that may arise so we could deal with them,” Hearn explains.

He’s now aiming to make Huel a £250m company within the next four years and to potentially exit the business at some point. But no matter what form a potential exit may take, Hearn’s adamant he’ll stay until he’s confident it will survive. “These things are rare,” Hearn concludes. “You don’t want to rest on your laurels. It can happen where people think things are going fine, they chill out, go on a holiday in Barbados and then suddenly you’ve killed what you’ve started. So I’m still heads down on Huel at the moment.”

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A DVERTI SI NG F E ATURE

how executive coaching actually works Executive coaching has grown in its recognition as an effective development tool valued by employers – but what specific workplace issues does it help improve?

O

rganisations seeking to use a coach will already start out with an idea of what they think they will gain from the relationship. However, not enough can be said for asking what can be different for the business by using coaching as well as how to evaluate the success of coaching engagements.

Whether it’s for major banks and pharmaceutical giants or small hospices, the need for coaching is essentially always the same: businesses are looking to improve performance, achieve excellence and deliver successful outcomes. How they get there varies but using a professional executive coach is a valuable investment for meeting specific needs.

Executive coaching is about moving your business forward by helping unlock its full potential with sustainable, lasting results. It doesn’t entail telling business leaders what to do but focuses on motivating and helping workers overcome the challenges and dilemmas faced in the workplace. By empowering your people realise their full potential, their learnings are transferred into operational actions which increase business results and performance.

Executive coaching works in two ways: one-to-one coaching and team coaching and they each exist for a reason. For example, if senior managers are facing change or challenges a one-to-one approach helps them make good decisions, achieve their goals, hone their communication skills and increase their effectiveness within their role. For organisations, team coaching helps motivate and better align teams, improve internal and external relationships and enhance team dynamics and their ways of working.

The use of coaching should also be systemic in order to achieve greater success. Being part of a wider leadership development or culture change programme will help identify areas where a business might benefit further by being exposed to coaching

techniques. The Academy of Executive Coaching (AOEC), for instance, can build internal coaching capabilities in businesses by training employees to have better conversations and even become qualified executive coaches themselves.

Working in partnership with the coachee and contractor, coaching brings sustainable change to the way a business operates. If you’re in pursuit of developing a high performing team or striving to maintain your standards of excellence, coaching can help you realise these objectives while encouraging a culture of inspirational and trusted leadership, employee engagement and talent management. Find out how at one of AOEC’s open days.

For more information please visit www.aoec.com or call 020 7127 5125

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VIDEO GAGA SINCE THE ADVENT OF THE INTERNET, VIDEO HAS BECOME A KEY SOURCE OF ENTERTAINMENT ON THE WEB BUT ALSO A VITAL MARKETING TOOL. NOW, BUSINESSES NEED SEPARATE STRATEGIES FOR EVERYTHING FROM SOCIAL MEDIA TO STREAMING

BY ANGUS SHAW

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V

ideo killed the radio star, as The Buggles proclaimed in their 1979 hit, but seemingly it’s providing new life to business brands. Present in everything from digital billboards to streaming services, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone denying its utter dominance over all marketing mediums. “After years of trying to convince clients that video marketing was going to become an essential part of the content marketing mix, the time has finally come when not even the naysayers can deny its importance,” says Andy Barr, managing director of 10 Yetis, the PR agency.

The internet is a massive enabler in this respect. By 2022, video – including everything from video on-demand to file sharing and video-streamed gaming to conferencing – will represent 82% of global internet traffic, according to IT giant Cisco. “With a staggering 45% of consumers discovering new brands through social media video advertising, there’s certainly space in every marketing plan to maximise return on investment through the use of this medium,” Barr says.

With the demonstrable diversity driving video traffic, it’s clear video marketing is no longer one thing but multiple parts that each demand unique strategies to master.

This wasn’t always the case. Video marketing was once restricted to silver screens only iconic brands like Coca-Cola could afford to splash their logos across.

But with today’s tech, shooting a quick advert, vlog or announcement with the potential to reach just as many eyeballs is often an affordable way for small businesses to get their names out there.

“Over the last few years we’ve entered a space where budget restrictions are no longer a valid excuse,” reasons Barr.

“Any SME can start creating their own branded content using a phone or DSLR, a microphone and some lighting, which will set you back next to nothing.”

Indeed, 81% of businesses used video as a marketing tool throughout 2018 and 99% intended to carry on doing so, according

to research company Wyzowl. That’s because the content doesn’t need to have production values that can be likened to James Cameron’s Titanic – it’s still possible to make a big splash with a jet-ski after all. “Even if you’re just giving your clients and consumers a sneak peak behind the scenes with a weekly live video, you should see an increase in engagement,” Barr opines. “You just need to ensure you’re consistent with your output and the content is planned strategically.”

Although the practicalities may seem straightforward, video marketing takes a lot of thought to navigate. Here are some pointers on getting it right.

Say it loud and clear

This doesn’t mean marketers should be screaming into a microphone with clickbait-clad headlines like some online personalities. But researching what makes your target audience tick and catering content to them is paramount to maintain eye contact. “Well, the first rule is easy – be interesting,” advises Philip Slade, director of Jaywings, the digital marketing company. After all, although the fact 81% of companies use video marketing is a reassuring statistic, it means competition for attention is fierce – especially with advert blockers on sites like YouTube stopping some brand marketing from even appearing. “In the age of ad blockers – 51% of people are using these now – video marketing must be genuinely interesting and provide an incentive for consumers to give advertisers a chance,” Slade continues.

Stay social

Audience retention is an even bigger factor to take on board when spreading videos on social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Through their respective Stories feature, sharing and viewing is engineered to happen at a lightning-fast rate. “People swipe, swipe and swipe until something catches their attention,” says Sarah Cantillon, managing APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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After years of trying to convince clients that video marketing was going to become an essential part of the content marketing mix, the time has finally come when not even the naysayers can deny its importance Andy Barr, managing director of 10 Yetis

partner at Movement, the marketing agency. “There’s no time to gradually draw people in by building up a narrative: you need to be upfront with your key message from the outset.”

She recommends presenting your video as a brief animated poster to stay as eye-grabbing as possible to the millions already thinking of swiping on. And it goes without saying you must then deck it out with all the features social media offers. “Businesses should make sure they’re up to speed with the different platform functionalities to make the most of social video,” Cantillon adds. “For example, you can add links to Instagram Stories when you have over 10,000 followers – useful for pushing specific products or services.”

Optimised and primed

From a tablet to a smart fridge, there’s seemingly no barrier to where audiences can get hold of videos today.

As a result, businesses must hone their content to greet consumers on a variety of devices. But with 78.4% of digital video views coming from mobiles in 2018, that’s the best place to start, according to research firm eMarketer. “The mobile web and mobile apps are now an intrinsic part of everyday life, which has seen demand for video advertising surge while costs have been driven down,” explains Jason Barrett, UK sales director at NEXD, the ad creation company. He advises stripping videos down to be as light as possible in file size, allowing even the choppiest wi-fi and 4G connections to render clips for phones on the move.

Also, make the most of external links and branding. “The 52

post-click destination, usually a website, should be mobile optimised and, if possible, deep-link to the specific product, message or offer to increase the opportunity of customer conversion,” he adds.

Slow and steady

With so many social media sites, video-hosting platforms and streaming services out there, every outlet you’re not putting your mark on can feel like a missed opportunity.

Well, although maximising exposure is a good thing, too many pages to juggle will mean struggling to maintain a consistent and high-quality image for your business.

Just imagine the impression consumers get when they stumble upon a business’ LinkedIn page that hasn’t been updated for a month. “Simplicity is often the best approach, whether it’s in-video marketing or branding and advertising in general,” says Slade. “Don’t get too bogged down in deciding which channel you want to opt for.” Instead of approaching video marketing with a scattershot just to tick boxes, focus on what you can handle. “There are plenty of examples of brands that use just a single channel and are successful – think consumer goods companies and their use of Instagram influencers,” Slade reassures.

Looking at video marketing as one beast is the wrong attitude to have in this day and age. Instead, every cog in its machine should be oiled individually, providing the opportunity to capitalise on the many ways viewers can now consume content.

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10/04/2019 15:55

The national business event that focuses on scaling up

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influence

BY VARsha Saraogi

From brands big and small to B2B and B2C, influencer marketing is changing the way companies spread awareness.

But should you bother spending your resources on it?

I

nfluencer. How many times have you seen that word in a social media bio? It’s one of the most popular buzzwords in marketing right now. The term refers to the numerous people making themselves a name on platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. In the past decade, YouTubers like Zoella, Alfie Deyes and Lilly Singh have become celebrities in their own right and are continually drawing in millions of followers and subscribers. Inevitably, brands have cottoned on to the massive potential this has for promoting their products and services. “It enables you to connect in an authentic and direct way with your audience when you’re a new business and you’re trying to grow,” says William Soulier, CEO of Model Village, the influencer marketing agency.

However, influencer marketing has arguably been around the block for donkey’s years. Remember when Frank Sinatra brought a glass of Jack Daniels on stage? Fast forward a few decades and brands have employed celebrities and sportspeople like Britney Spears, David Beckham and Miley Cyrus to advertise for them. However, you don’t need to be a movie star or a Kardashian to become an influencer. All you require is a strong following, internet access and a smartphone that can produce high-quality photos or videos. “What once used to be a press trip is now being hijacked by influencers who are actually storytellers – and that storytelling is really what’s driving marketing today,” Soulier says. Along with creativity, all a potential influencer requires is the hallowed verified status or the blue tick to be able to represent bigger brands – a status more sought after than a university degree, according to affiliate marketing network Awin. And looking at sevenyear-old Ryan of Ryan ToysReview with his almost 19 million subscribers earning him $22m through his YouTube channel,

according to Forbes, it’s easy to see why nearly one-fifth of children in Britain aspire to be influencers.

As endorsements evolved beyond traditional media outlets like TV, print media and billboards, the impact of influencers skyrocketed thanks to the engagement social media posts have. “A generic billboard in the streets isn’t so engaging to the customer today but a lifestyle post that showcases the product in action, that looks and feels real is what today’s consumer is looking for,” Soulier continues. And rightly so, as the global Instagram influencer industry has doubled in two years and is already worth $2.4bn – a number only set to grow. “Because at the end of the day, there’s a constant thirst for new content,” he adds. As a result, influencers today are a part of mainstream marketing for every business.

One of the main benefits of using influencers is brands needn’t invest endless resources on creating material. “Only a few years back, businesses would spend crazy amounts of money curating and perfecting content they wanted to push out,” Soulier reflects. And it can become an expensive affair for startups should they create innovative photos on a regular basis. Now, they can rely on influencers. Money invested into them gives head honchos creative content as well as the ability to reach people across the world. “Influencer marketing is something that gets the real results you’re looking for if done in a continuous manner – it’s an always-on marketing channel,” Soulier says.

Indeed, leveraging influencers is increasingly popular – and for good reason. It can result in unparalleled sales, grow equity results and generate unmatched return on investment. And many have reaped these benefits. For instance, startup owners must take notes from 2012-launched activewear company Gymshark – a client of Soulier’s – which had revenue of £100m in 2018. This was the result of signing up 18 fitness enthusiasts including influencers like Nikki Blackketter and Lex Griffin who helped take the brand to more than 130 countries through their Instagram posts. And to reach an even wider global audience, Gymshark – with a following of over three million on Instagram – now invites fitness influencers big or small to become their ambassadors in exchange for free apparel and a commission fee. “When done right, influencer marketing has been shown to deliver real business goals like downloads, orders and sales,” says Solberg Audunsson, founder APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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In f lu enc er m a r k et i ng

and co-CEO of Takumi, the influencer marketing platform. “Influencer marketing is very powerful when it comes to targeted brand awareness.”

Given that 61% of UK consumers engage with influencers on a daily basis, with 80% making purchases based on their recommendations, it’s easy to see why partnering with influencers has become such a vital avenue for brands.

A seemingly endless line of companies have attempted to strengthen their reach by enlisting influencers and having a celebrity talk directly to their followers as a cost-effective way to gain traction.

However, some are far from convinced.

“No matter how much shit you throw at a wall, some of it will stick,” says James Smith, founder of James Smith Academy, the personal training business. “If you

pay someone £5,000 to post something and you make £6,000 it’s a worthy investment because as a percentage you probably don’t need that many people to buy your products to earn money, so I don’t think it’s [influencer marketing which is] working – it’s just that you’ve got a big audience to tap into.”

While it may still appear like a “worthy investment” to use influencers, Smith believes the model has taken the wrong turn over the past few years because bosses are putting more resources into tackling traditional business issues but “no one’s really looking or giving a shit about people being mis-sold stuff.”

And well-known celebrities like the Kardashians posting about slimming teas and appetite suppressant lollipops and businesses such as BOOMBOD

It’s a saturated market where anyone with a few followers can do a story or post or whatever [for a product] and sell fucking dogshit in a can and they’d get paid for it James Smith, James Smith Academy

56

fuelling body image issues continue to thrive on social media despite receiving much criticism. “The victims are impressionable young teenagers – male and female – who develop bigger issues from aspiring to buy this rubbish or to look like these influencers that they look up to,” Smith says. “It’s a saturated market where anyone with a few followers can do a story or post or whatever [for a product] and sell fucking dogshit in a can and they’d get paid for it.”

These days it’s almost impossible to scroll through your social media feed and not come across models with chiselled bodies and fitness gurus promoting supplements, workouts and so-called healthy recipes with their videos on Instagram Stories as well as on IGTV. And while it would be acceptable if the intention was to motivate their followers, some post content only for their own financial gain. And Smith says sooner than later, people will start calling out unethical endorsements. “In the UK you have people like Joe Wicks [who] sold out to Lucy Bee, sold out to Uncle Ben’s, sold out to Myprotein – and he was getting people to buy supplements they didn’t need, getting them to buy coconut oil that has no health benefits and people were lapping it up,” Smith claims. “He was raking in the money. So now that people won’t, he’s not going to be so popular and I’m not gonna make that mistake. Even if that means I don’t make as much money, for my longevity in the industry, I don’t care.”

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IN FLUE N CE R M A RK E TI NG

Furthermore, when startups work with celebrities they do so in the hope that some of their supposed greatness will rub off on the brand.

The risk is that bad press may also impact them if influencers make mistakes. Whether it’s reality TV James Smith, James Smith Academy star Scott Disick who accidentally posted a private message between him and Bootea, the company paying him for a post, to millions of his Instagram followers Smith seconds Soulier’s thoughts and believes it goes both or Naomi Campbell committing a similar faux pas while ways, that influencers taking on campaigns just for money posing with a new pair of Adidas kicks, it’s not always a win is a slippery slope. Despite being given offers worth £10,000 for entrepreneurs. “The most important thing that should for posts, he’s always turned them down. “They don’t care if I be cracked down on isn’t whether or not you should do don’t believe in [the product],” Smith says. “They assume that paid advertising – because if someone does see benefits in I’ve got a large engaged following and they just want to take something it’s great, they should by all means share their advantage of that. I would endorse something that’s part of my experience,” Smith argues. “But it’s now that some people are everyday life. So as far as supplements or any type of product just making up stuff, labelling it however they like and trying to [are concerned], it’d be a no. If I believe in protein or creatine, flog it off to trustful people.”

I should just give people that advice. I shouldn’t have to stand Looking at these instances, it’s unsurprising that while using behind it in a paid post. To me, damaging my reputation isn’t influencers might be a good idea for many, it’s important to do worth the money.” your research before hiring one. “What you need to look out While Smith believes in giving beneficial fitness tips to his for is the credibility of who you’re partnering with because growing 320,000 followers on Instagram, not all do. One of the essentially you’re bringing these influencers in as an extension main issues the influencer market faces is the lack of honesty. of your brand, as an ambassador,” Soulier says. He adds that Since influencer marketing has so much at stake, there are for a sports brand, for instance, partnering with a professional always going to be those that fake their way into the fold. With athlete with a social following is way more useful than a sports the goal to reach as many people, influencers have been using blogger. “Looking at Gymshark, you want to target someone bots or generating fake engagement using online tools and relevant in the fitness space – not someone who goes to the programmes. Realising these unethical practices, Instagram gym a couple of times a week or isn’t a die hard sportsman. The cracked down on fake accounts and third party websites. influencers that we pair up with Gymshark are actually living While this helped brands identify influencers’ fake numbers, and breathing the brand.”

Soulier believes it will still take time to eliminate the problem Another factor to consider is if the influencer has the same entirely. “The reality is it’s going to be a never-ending battle values as the brand. In the case of Gymshark, if an influencer simply because these bots [and] websites where you can buy “suddenly starts posting about alcohol and vape cigarettes – followers from ultimately close down [and] another one pops both not necessarily the biggest controversies in the world up,” he says. While this is seemingly a problem in the industry – it goes against the brand and the values that Gymshark is which will persist, there are ways to discover the credibility promoting,” continues Soulier. “The way to utilise influence of one’s audience. “A lot of the times we’ll come across just an marketing is by building a real partnership, not just throwing emoji in a comment and often that will be the work of bots,” dollars at various influencers.” Truly, startups must hire Soulier adds. “That’s an easy way for startups to identify influencers who aren’t faking it. “And so the best way for an fraudulent accounts.” entrepreneur to actually avoid this type of mistake is simply Buying followers isn’t the only problem when dealing with looking at influencers that can embed that product in their influencers. Many fail to be open about sponsored content, daily lives,” he advises. which is a breach of the ruling by the Advertising Standards APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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In fluenc e r m a rk e ti ng

The way to utilise influence marketing is by building a real partnership, not just throwing dollars at various influencers William Soulier, Model Village

Agency (ASA). Hence, it’s important to get familiarised with the regulations to avoid bad practices, so the ASA has a comprehensive list of rules to be aware of before anyone dives into the industry of influencers.

One of the ASA rules requires influencers to be transparent and truthful when it’s a paid partnership with the declaration of #ad. And since the rulings came into play, the influencersphere saw a seismic shift over the past three years as nondisclosure of advertising became a hot topic in the media and government. “We’ve undertaken a lot more work in clamping down on misleading ads,” says Matt Wilson, senior media relations officer at ASA. When they receive a complaint, the first action taken by the governing body is always attempting to resolve informally where the posts must be

taken down. “If an advertiser is unwilling or unable to work with us then we can and will apply further sanctions which can include, ultimately, referral to our legal backstop Trading Standards who can impose legal sanctions including fines and imprisonment,” he adds.

Consequently, the ASA is increasingly trying to raise awareness so companies don’t fall into legal hot waters. “One of our challenges is reaching out to influencers and raising awareness so they know the ASA and the ad rules exist and that they have to abide by them,” Wilson continues. “But there is more to do and we’re committed to having more impact regulating online which includes clamping down on those influencers who don’t play by the rules. We want to get to a place where the norm is for influencers and brands to play by the rules.”

For all the work the ASA is doing, entrepreneurs can’t afford to be blind to what’s happening. There are many influencers who might boast of millions of followers but are bad examples of using social media. Felix Kjellberg, known as PewDiePie, had YouTube videos with racist slurs and anti-semitic content, while fellow YouTuber Austin Jones pled guilty to child porn charges.

And there were those like ThatsBekir and Bahar Al Amood whose feud sparked violence among their followers, which compelled hundreds of police officers armed with riot control sprays to be deployed.

Mastering an understanding of what makes its audience tick will enable a startup to better reach its customer base and grow with new prospects through valuable content, opinion leadership and vlogs – all of which will build long-term brand awareness and loyalty. “Influencers are great at talking to their audiences but authentic and honest content is important for influencer marketing,” Audunsson concludes. “The key for brands is to partner with influencers that are relevant and appropriate to [its] offering.”

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09/04/2019 22:31

Sm a rt c o nt r ac ts

f f Chip o the

By Eric Johansson

old block

Smart contracts could make business deals more efficient and cheaper.

However, there are still downsides with this nascent blockchain technology

S

hould you believe the hype when it comes to blockchain? Over the past few years, people have pledged to use blockchain to fundamentally transform everything from healthcare to democracy. There are even innovators who claim they use the technology to prevent sexual assault and improve childcare. While some of these cases may seem more farfetched than others, it’s clear the business buzz around blockchain may be justified. For one thing, the technology is already used in smart contracts, which make transactions and deals smoother. “The technology is exciting because the possibilities and utility of smart contracts are endless and can revolutionise the way SMEs operate,” says Emmanuel Marchal, managing director at ConsenSys, the blockchain company.

It’s fair to say anything that can evolve the running of an SME sounds ideal. But what exactly is a smart contract? “The simplest real-world conceptualisation of a smart contract is a vending machine – money goes in, drink comes out and no human is involved,” explains Andy Bryant, COO at bitFlyer Europe, the bitcoin marketplace. Obviously, there’s a bit more to it but the core concept is accurate with smart contracts automating deals from the signing of the contract to its implementation. Essentially, once agreed, the contract will trigger every action encoded in it, from payment to shipping, with the blockchain technology theoretically removing the need for solicitors or even trust between the two parties. “In 60

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other words, smart contracts provide the necessary levels of trust to transact in an online world,” continues Bryant.

Smart contracts achieve this by using blockchain, a decentralised and autonomous digital ledger where every transaction must be compliant with the previous block of data to be accepted, creating a new block in the chain. “Basically, it’s a computer program intended to digitally facilitate, verify or enforce the performance of a legal contract,” explains Julian Zegelman, founder of TMT Blockchain Fund, the VC firm. “Smart contracts are self-executing meaning they allow the performance of contractual transactions without third party involvement.”

Let’s say two parties agree on a deal, what should be in it and what the different parties should do to fulfil their part of the transaction. Once they sign the contract, the deal will run through a blockchain platform like Ethereum. This means that half of the computers – or nodes – in the decentralised network must agree that the deal is sound before it goes through. This procedure results in there being no other party involved in the process, no centralised authority, other than the two parties making the deal.

Moreover, this automation means that, once triggered, no parties can back out of the deal.

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S ma rt c ontrac ts

As you can imagine, there are several benefits to this concept. “One of the biggest advantages for small businesses using smart contracts is they’re able to trust unknown transaction counter-parties over long distances or different legal jurisdictions,” says Bryant. Moreover, they encourage efficiency. “The use of blockchain allows the processes to be automated which in turn saves a huge amount of time, whilst also eliminating the need for third party involvement,” explains Bryant. “They allow businesses to essentially streamline various complicated processes into one, automated process.

Additionally, the contract theoretically removes the need for judges and lawyers to argue about the grey areas of the contract. “The charm of the smart contract is the promise to eliminate these intermediaries and that the only point of reference will be the code of the contract itself,” says Maurizio Sironi, manager at Blockchain Reply, the blockchain advisory organisation. “For this to work, the conditions of the smart contract need to be unambiguous. The boundaries of reasonability would have to be exactly defined, leading to greater transparency and accountability for both parties.”

And that’s where you may encounter a few snags when it comes to using smart contracts. While two people for instance agreeing an item is worth X amount of money is a reasonably straightforward transaction, the problem arises with more complicated deals. “Due to the complexities of computer coding, it’s not yet possible to accurately use smart contracts in all scenarios – many ideas for where smart contracts could be or ideally would be used aren’t currently possible to implement,” explains Emma Stevens, associate solicitor at Coffin Mew, the law firm. The rule is that the more room

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there is for interpretation, the harder it will be to use blockchain-based deals. “By their nature, smart contracts are unequivocal due to computer coding trends and the need to be black and white to avoid uncertainty so they can execute instructions,” continues Stevens. “They’re therefore only as good as the data they receive and, as they’re programmed and reliant on human data input, there is always the potential for human error.”

And that’s not the only potential issue with using smart contracts. “While blockchain technology is hailed as being ultra-safe, no digitalised system is 100% protected from cyber attacks,” explains Stevens.

This is best exemplified with the breach of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or the DAO, a digital organisation. The DAO allowed users to contribute the cryptocurrency ether to a pool that would be invested in proposed projects based on a vote, which would be proportional to how much ether each person had invested.

When the DAO launched its tokens on Ethereum’s blockchain in May 2016 it attracted 14% of all ether created at that point. However, in June someone exploited a flaw in the code. “It essentially allowed for an attacker to keep interrupting a transfer at the moment between sending and receiving funds, tricking the receiver into repeating the same transfer a large number of times and accumulating the ill-gotten gains,” Bryant explains. Even though the stolen money, which had a value of roughly $50m, was later returned to its rightful owners, the breach showcases how there are still vulnerabilities in blockchain and, as a consequence, smart contracts.

Clearly there are risks with using this nascent technology. However, if SMEs tread carefully, there are also huge advantages.

09/04/2019 22:25

A DV ERT I S I NG F EAT U R E

The one place engineered to bring rapid growth to businesses With scaleups comprising £1.3tn of the £1.9tn generated by all UK SMEs, there’s clearly more than a few secrets business owners need to learn. Fortunately, the Festival of Enterprise will reveal all

I

t can be a tough yet seemingly simple question all business bosses must answer: what strategies should be adopted to scale up a business? More specifically, what support, products and services do business owners need to execute their strategy? An answer is clearly needed, as according to the ScaleUp Institute, the data analytics company, out of £1.9tn generated by all SMEs around £1.3tn is from scaleups alone. Such statistics are certainly tough to ignore.

With so much success and opportunity concentrated around just 36,500 UK businesses, there’s a clear need to cascade the knowledge and inspire more SMEs to get on their growth journey which, overall, can boost the UK’s sinking productivity levels. Fortunately, one place is designed to do just that.

The forthcoming Festival of Enterprise is a two-day business event, now in its third year, taking place across October 23 and 24 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham. As part of its arsenal to bring rapid growth to Britain it boasts a stellar, 150-strong speaker line-up, with experts from all aspects of business including consulting, innovation, 62

funding, marketing, technology and leadership, sharing critical insight on how to successfully grow companies.

And to ensure no business is left behind, it’s completely free to attend.

The show floor’s decked out with international technology, marketing brands and national brands showcasing

growth solutions alongside regional specialists from finance, professional services, marketing, IT and technology sectors. But it’s far from just a pretty sight: the conference agenda is themed across five keynote stages, with previous speakers including the likes of John Peace of the Midlands

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A DVERTI SI NG F E ATURE

The event is perfectly balanced because the conference agenda delivers the strategic insight while the exhibition show floor is where business owners can discover innovative products, solutions and services to execute their strategy.

Engine, Nick Chism of BEIS and Patrick Magee of the British Business Bank, alongside experts from PwC, BGF, Google, Facebook, AWS, Cisco, Aston University, Birmingham City University and the DIT. “Over the last two years we have had conversations with hundreds of ambitious business owners and their feedback shouts loud and clear that there is a real need for more support around the strategies of scaling up a business,” says James Ashwood, organiser of the Festival of Enterprise.

“We rebranded the SME Live event to the Festival of Enterprise and completely refocused the content proposition because our audience and business owners want the strategies for scaling up rather than general business information. The event is perfectly balanced because the conference agenda delivers the strategic insight while the exhibition show floor is where business owners can discover innovative products, solutions and services to execute their strategy.

“We are breaking new ground with our 2019 event and invite brands, service providers and stakeholders in business growth to get in touch and discuss how they can be involved in this exciting event.”

While the core of the occasion is tailored to delivering established

companies the strategies to scale up, organisers are equally keen to support future scaleups. As a result, there’s a keynote stage dedicated to accelerating startup growth. In fact, acquiring more customers and achieving funding are also essential components of the Festival of Enterprise proposition, so will too have their own dedicated keynote stages. That’s why right at the heart of the event is a central arena being built to share stories of success from some of the UK’s most influential business leaders. “We have created the platform for the highgrowth community to come together,” says Tansy Stevens, organiser of the Festival of Enterprise. “As well as promoting the event to the fastest growing companies in the UK, we are keen to support all stages of growth and inspire more SMEs to challenge their thinking, discuss their business with the leading experts in growth and come away from the event with a clear sense of what to do next, having made valuable new contacts who can help them on their journey.”

Also on offer are high-impact networking features and mini-events taking place over the duration of the two days, along with informal festival elements to create an inspiring and entertaining environment to learn, meet and network at the recently

upgraded NEC. “It is no secret that the West Midlands is the fastest growing UK region outside of London, so it makes perfect sense for the Festival of Enterprise to return to the NEC, Birmingham this October,” concludes Kathryn James, MD of NEC Group Conventions and Exhibitions. “I’d like to extend a warm welcome to the event for the third year which, with its showcase of innovative business solutions, should prove to be a fantastic opportunity for small and mediumsized enterprises to discover how they can drive business growth.”

The Festival of Enterprise takes place on October 23 and 24 2019 at the NEC, Birmingham. More information about getting tickets or opportunities to get involved can be found at www.festivalofenterprise.co.uk

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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In c r easi ng i nc lu si v i t y

The only way is

inclusive

BY VARsha Saraogi

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09/04/2019 18:27

In cr e asi ng i nc lusi vi t y

British workplaces are rife with transphobia. However, it’s in your company’s interest to be more inclusive and make the environment welcoming for every employee

B

usinesses are increasingly encouraging gender fluidity.

Recognising that gender for many isn’t easily defined within the dicotomy of male and female, Facebook has expanded its user profile options to over 70 choices, including terms like bigender and pangender. Many other companies such as the dating platforms Her, OkCupid and Tinder followed suit. Even banks like HSBC and Metro Bank started including the Mx prefix on their forms. While the clock on social justice for transgender workers has been ticking for years, many of them don’t feel welcome in the workplace.

And they have reason for their concerns as transphobia is ubiquitous in many companies with 43% of bosses admittedly being less likely to even hire a transgender person, according to research by Crossland Employment Solicitors, the law firm. And only 3% have an equality procedure in place that openly welcomes transgenders to apply for jobs. Additionally, more than half of transgender workers have feared workplace discrimination so much that they masked their gender, according to Stonewall, the LGBT rights charity. “That’s totally unacceptable in 2019,” argues Ben Farmer, head of HR, UK corporate at Amazon.

The fact UK businesses discriminate against transgender people is a shame – not only because of the human suffering it yields but also because it can considerably cripple companies. “The drawbacks [for not employing transgender people] are limiting your available talent pool, limiting what different people can bring to the table in terms of co-working, collaboration, creativity, innovation and way of doing things,” argues Jeremy Blain, founder and CEO of Performance Works, the business consultancy. And losing out on trans staff isn’t the only problem with having a non-inclusive workplace – you also risk alienating younger generations. Blain continues: “Millennials and perhaps Generation Z who are more open will see these companies making decisions not to be inclusive and cross them off their list – further limiting talent for the future [and] leading to a competitive disadvantage in human capital terms, which will in the medium to long term impact the business’ health.”

While some entrepreneurs today are actively prioritising the LGBT issue, there are many who’ve failed to address the elephant in the room. And this can be problematic for a business owner. The Equality Act 2010 protects the rights of trans people working in the UK, rendering employers legally responsible for discriminatory practices against them in both the recruitment process and working environment. So it’s in their best interest to nurture a culture that welcomes trans people. “It’s for the business leaders themselves to embrace it, model the right behaviours and walk the talk,” Blain adds. “If it’s not modelled from the top, then there will be a problem below.”

Indeed, head honchos must make the office environment more conducive to employee wellbeing, irrespective of their gender. “I think all business owners would agree that anything you can do to make your business a more enjoyable and productive place where employees feel they can be themselves is a good thing,” says Farmer. “Not every business can do everything but actively working to foster greater inclusivity is worth it.”

So how can business leaders make their transgender employees feel more welcome? “It starts with attitude,” says Blain. “If the attitude isn’t right then how can the rest of the employees be expected to toe the line? Attitude drives appropriate behaviours and that in turn starts to shape the organisational culture as a more inclusive, diverse and less biased environment.”

Indeed, having an inclusive workplace requires entrepreneurs to instil gender equality, equity and respect as part of their company’s core values. “Improved ways of working on a dayto-day basis are an important way to tackle discrimination and unconscious bias,” Farmer advises. “[Simple] initiatives and habits that drive objective decision-making will always deliver better outcomes than any policy.” For instance, at Amazon, meeting documents don’t carry a named author and “decisions are based on data and evidence rather than whoever has the loudest voice.” Additionally, Farmer says having rainbow lanyards, stationary and avatar ribbons are a great way to show support.

Farmer also points at how Amazon offers all its employees transgender resources including a toolkit for managers, co-workers and HR personnel through its employee affinity group Glamazon. This initiative has been raising awareness about LGBTQ issues and promoting equal opportunities through mentorship and social gatherings. Additionally, Farmer ensures he keeps developing the guidelines by getting his team’s input. “[We] also made a simple change to our internal directory page that allows over half a million employees to add their preferred pronouns,” he adds.

Furthermore, employers must go the extra mile to ensure the office is a welcoming space for all involved. “Ask yourself APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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In c r easi ng i nc lu si v i t y

Anything you can do to make your business a more enjoyable and productive place where employees feel they can be themselves is a good thing Ben Farmer, Amazon UK

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whether there are any changes you can make to your HR policies to appeal to a more diverse range of candidates,” says Chris Stappard, managing director at Edward Reed Recruitment, the employment consultancy. “This could mean relaxing your dress code so that employees are free to wear gender-neutral clothing or by introducing unisex bathrooms. And it never hurts to clarify that you’re committed to creating an inclusive work environment on your job listing and on your company’s careers page.” Moreover, being vocal about your inclusive workplace is definitely a quality to promote on social media. “Not only will this help attract diverse new talent but celebrating your employees’ achievements in this way can help you retain [current transgender] staff too,” he adds.

Along with making changes in attitude and policies in the company, it’s the leader’s responsibility to educate the entire team.

“Values and policies are meaningless unless they’re embraced and practiced at all levels of the company,” advises Alice Hallsworth, solicitor at Child & Child, the law firm. “So ongoing training should ideally be held for all employees and at all levels on gender equality, discrimination and how to both identify and deal with these situations and to discuss what can be done to prevent this happening in the workplace.” Given 39% of LGBT workers have been harassed or discriminated against by a co-worker, according to TUC, it’s essential to give the staff training.

To aid employers further, Blain believes the government must take more steps. “Perhaps having a minister for diversity and inclusion would be a dramatic statement of intent – it’s inherent in some ministerial posts but not explicit enough for me,” he opines.

Additionally, recognising the ones who are on the right path will also encourage other businesses to follow their lead. “[Companies] who are championing the new behaviours and who are inclusive and diverse should be rewarded – i.e corporate tax advantage, benefits advantages.”

Importantly, a company that can pledge its support to employees irrespective of their race, gender or sexuality stands to benefit massively. And by creating a sense of empowerment among employees, businesses can pave the way for change. “There’s much more to inclusivity than just filling quotas: it’s all about building a team with a diverse range of voices, backgrounds and perspectives and then ensuring that each employee is valued and listened to,” Stappard concludes.

ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK APRIL 2019

10/04/2019 15:56

A DVERTI SI NG F E ATURE

Principal’s amazing contribution is recognised From below-average academic results to an ofsted oustanding ranking, weston college has so much up its sleeve thanks to principal dr paul phillips

W

hen Weston College’s Principal Dr Paul Phillips, CBE, was named FE Leader of the Year at the TES FE Awards, it marked the latest step in a remarkable journey.

Since he became principal in 2001, Weston College has undergone a dramatic transformation. It has progressed from below-average academic results and poor finances to an Ofsted outstanding status and a string of prestigious national accolades.

Dr Phillips’ role in this journey was fittingly recognised as he was named FE Leader of the Year at a black-tie event at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

The TES Awards, hosted by comedian and presenter Dave Gorman, celebrate and showcase the most exciting ideas, best practice and most inspiring teaching and leadership in the FE sector. Indeed,

judges commended Dr Phillips for his “transformative” leadership – and for good reason. Turnover at the college increased from £9m when Dr Phillips joined in 2001 to more than £63m between 2016 and 2017 – making it one of the ten biggest colleges in England. He has also personally championed social mobility for all, including raising standards across prison education.

Dr Phillips and Weston College are now setting their sights on their next significant achievement – the 600 in 6 campaign. This aims to persuade businesses to pledge 600 work-related learning opportunities – including apprenticeships, traineeships, work placements and project briefs – in six months. “One of the greatest challenges faced by the education sector, and society as a whole, is equipping people

with the skills they need in an increasingly competitive and everchanging world,” said Dr Phillips.

“The 600 in 6 campaign takes up that challenge by seeking to inspire the future workforce and supplementing learning programmes with relevant workplace skills and experience.”

The campaign is only eight weeks old but businesses are already pledging their support with over 300 opportunities created so far. It has been a success across industries, with employers seeking to upskill existing staff as well as bring fresh talent into their organisations.

The campaign has been reaching businesses across the South West and beyond, as Weston College continues to deliver training of the highest quality and expand their provision.

If you’d like to get involved in the 600 in 6 campaign, get in touch with Weston College on 01934 411 594 or email apprenticeships@weston.ac.uk

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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EM A I L S

Death of the

BY ANGUS SHAW

0

68

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EMAILS

email?

Everyone uses email. Yet the advent of instant messaging apps and other forms of communications begs the question of how long it will remain relevant

E

mails have been the dominant means of online communication for decades. However, with the emergence of platforms like WhatsApp, Skype and Slack, the question is if it’s time to level up your company’s messaging game.

To answer that you must first acknowledge the reasons behind emails’ lasting popularity – starting with the price. Gmail, for example, presently costs a minimum of £3.30 per employee account per month – or even nothing if you forgo an integrated company network. “Even a phone doesn’t have quite the same ubiquity because you’ve got to pay a phone bill, either go pay as you go or you’ve got your own deal, whereas for an email it doesn’t cost you anything,” argues Erica Wolfe-Murray, founder of Lola Media, the marketing agency.

Additionally, the simplicity provides a lot of value. “Its ability to send large documents and links easily in a cost-effective manner with speed and relatively few problems has made email the go-to platform for businesses,” suggests Jake Moore, cybersecurity expert at ESET, the cybersecurity company.

The accessibility seems to work its charm with many professionals like Mou Mukherjee, head of registry

services at .Cloud, the domain provider. “It’s a form of direct communication, it’s private and it’s easy to track,” she argues. “Although instantaneous communication has many benefits, it’s not practical when your colleagues or customers are asleep on the other side of the world.”

But for its simplicity and its price-worthiness, emails still have downsides. For instance, they’re not as secure as many of the new messaging apps. “Unless you obviously choose to go through a unique email system they’re less secure than anything else and people can get hacked,” Wolfe-Murray argues. Indeed, 92% of malware – like viruses and spyware – come from

links in emails, according to Verizon, the telecommunications company.

That’s far more than the 6.3% from websites and the 1.3% from other sources.

This is where the new type of messaging services like WhatsApp have a clear advantage – most of them use end-to-end encryption, meaning encoded messages only intended recipients can see. And this could be a reason why people may opt out of using emails. “I know people that do contact purely on WhatsApp because they know it can’t be diverted or broken into in the same way,” argues Wolfe-Murray.

Moreover, Ben Roberts, host of the Marketing Buzzword Podcast, argues

In 2019 people want to know if people have received and opened their message Ben Roberts, The Marketing Buzzword Podcast

APRIL 2019 ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK

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E M A IL S

ALTHOUGH INSTANTANEOUS COMMUNICATION HAS MANY BENEFITS, IT’S NOT PRACTICAL WHEN YOUR COLLEAGUES OR CUSTOMERS ARE ASLEEP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD Mou Mukherjee, .Cloud

emails lack transparency compared to new platforms. “Without the help of a third-party app, there’s no way of seeing [if ] the recipient has opened and read your messages,” he explains.

And while there are ways to find out whether your emails have been read, it’s often not as easy as a grey tick turning blue on WhatsApp. And that’s usually not good enough these days. “In 2019 people want to know if people have received and opened their message,” Roberts continues.

“They want to know they’re not being ignored.”

Additionally, the rise of flexible working has upped the need for reevaluating how you reach your staff. “With more people taking up remote working and flexible hours it’s increasingly important to consider the best way to communicate and, often, that’s something other than email,” says Richard Jackson, account manager at Vapour Cloud, the digital transformation specialist. Indeed, 68% of employees across the world quizzed by Owl Labs, the video 70

ELITEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.CO.UK APRIL 2019

conferencing hardware company, clock in remotely at least once a month, while 52% do so from home a minimum of once per week. “Email has to now find a way to fit into that vast mix of different approaches in which we can communicate via technology,” Jackson continues.

As an example of how combining emails with new tech can happen, Wolfe-Murray’s other company TAXO’D, the tax calculation service, allows emails to piggyback on the app by having merchant receipts sent through them, with the app doing most of the legwork. “You can give apps access to all the email data that you have so they can hunt out the bits of information they need within your inbox and I think those are just great, it just makes everything so easy,” Wolfe-Murray describes.

Emails also have another extremely useful ability – connecting with people in a way that you can’t do on Facebook, according to Michyl Culos, head of marketing communications at Mailjet USA and EMEA, the email

delivery platform. “Where social platforms have steadily migrated away from allowing brands to organically reach their audiences with genuinely valuable content, email enables authors to connect with their most loyal customers organically and in increasingly personalised ways,” she says. Indeed, 73% of marketers believe return on investment from emails sent out to customers is good or excellent, according to Econsultancy, the digital business experts. Moreover, brands can use their consumer data to create bespoke email newsletters on factors like location and purchase history.

“The net effect is that a mailing list of 1,000 people carries far more potency when it comes to ROI than 100,000 followers on Facebook or Twitter,” Culos continues.

Given the benefits of emails, it’s clear the communication form will survive despite its limitations. “I think that emailing is just simple,” Wolfe-Murray concludes. “So you sort of want to go ‘Don’t mess with it.’”

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82

of Brits didn’t use all of their holiday allowance last year

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