Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

"I remember when I wrote my business plan for crowdcube and I think I said that we would be a £3 million brand in 5 years time and in our second year we beat that... and suddenly the goalposts moved". Pippa Murray, founder of Pip & Nut is #screwitjustdoit's most popular  podcast - as chosen by YOU! You can find out the Top 5 by visiting our Facebook page here: Pippa is the founder of wholesome nut butter brand Pip & Nut which she founded in 2015 with a startup loan in which she has rejuvenated the humble peanut butters of the high street and she's also a previous Virign Foodpreneur winner. Pippa started with a £10,000 startup loan from her kitchen table and used that to rent to use a commercial kitchen and sold her first products in London markets at the weekends whlst working part-time as a theatre producer. Fast forward to 2018 and she's turning over £3 million, is stocked in every supermarket in the UK and has just raised £1 million to fuel future growth. Let's StartUp!

"At the start of this bus journey this american traveller sat next to me and asked me what I did. I explained I wasn't too happy with my job and he basically said something that changed my life. He said if you're not happy you should do the rocking chair test. Essentially this is to imagine sitting in your rocking chair at the age of 90 and thinking about your legacy in the world, who you have helped, have you left the world in a better place, who's going to remember you, and for why. That was a pretty profound moment at the start of an eighteen hour bus journey. I was thirty minutes in going "No, no, no. I haven't done anything of any significance that's going to make a difference in the world. If I died tomorrow no-one's going to remember me. I've not left the world in a bette place and that really struck me hard. Whilst everyone else was asleep on the bus I was bolt upright thinking about my life about what I need to do to make changes." So #screwitjustdoit is one year old. To mark the occasion and celebrate the success I have selfishly picked my favouite interview of the last 12 months. Ridiculously hard choice, but I did it. And now I want you to do the same. Message me @alexchisnall on twitter, linkedin or email alex@startupu.co.uk and let me know your favourite. I'd really like to know and would mean a lot. You may have in fact missed this episode which went out just a few days before Chiristmas when I spoke to Cemal Ezel, founder of social enterprise Change Please. Cemal was crowned Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 and has a story that really resonates with me, especially as i've been reflecting back on 2017-2018. Change Please essentially uses coffee to tackle homelessness by training homeless people to become baristas and providing a London living wage job, housing, a bank account, therapy and support. Selling coffee across London through mobile vans, Change Please coffee is now being stocked in Sainsbury's supermarkets nationwide and with locations in New York and San Francisco after a chance encounter on Richard Branson's Necker Island the future is one of hope and promise. Cemal and I talk about the rocking chair test, regular reviewing and celebrating, networking..plus rocketships and parachutes..stay with us on that one..   Let's StartUp!

"We were literally in a position where we couldn't pay people for nine months. That test really shows you who's there to support you. They don't need to...they can chase down their money and decide they don't want to make your products anymore. We were open with the team to where we were in the business. And that was the best thing really...just be open and honest and try your best to pull through it" On today's show I welcome Suzie Walker, nutritionist and founder of The Primal Pantry. Suzie tells it like it is. This is the archetypal startup roller coaster ride. Suzie started from her kitchen table in 2013 when looking at some healthy snacks for her two year old daughter Grace. Based on her research she'd decided to raise her on a diet free from grains, refined sugars and oils. But she was struggling to find on the go snacks that weren't full of carbohydrate or sugar. Her nutrition clients were having the same prblems, so she tried some recipes at home blending dates with nuts and coconut, and both her clients and daughter loved them. So much so, that she thought there may be a product there. Thus, The Primal Pantry was born. She now has a global business turning over £3million and exporting to over 26 countries as well as being stocked in all the major Uk supermarkets. Let's StartUp!  

"Well our mission is to make hosting hassle-free for everyone and that's something that we're going to strive for and keep going. I'm not sure what success looks like but once we live in a world that's really easy to share and put your property on airbnb and booking.com and Expedia, then I think it's mission accomplished." Welcome to James Jenkins-Yates fom Airsorted. Airsorted provide airbnb hosts with a 24 hour hassle-free hosting platform, that basically amalgamates and services guest bookings from travel websites such as airbnb, Expedia and booking.com  The company handles the management of host properties from creating listings with photography, maintenance, restocking household items, to liaising with the guests themselves. Homesharing is obviously a booming industry and one of the key ingredients in the ever-growing sharing economy.  Last year on New Year's Eve alone, airbnb reported 3 million people had used the service and in 2016 80 million bookings had been made with projections of $100 million for 2017. Airsorted are already in 10 locations and by the end of 2019 the company aims to expand into 38 locations throughout the world. They've already raised a bunch of money and are curently overfunded on Seedrs. I spoke to James to find out how he came up with the idea.. Let's StartUp! 

"That's what you've got to do as an entrepreneur. You've got to see what other people haven't seen sometimes. You won't get it right all the time but boy, when you get that punt right, it's just fantastic And it's the best feeling in the world when you can pull that off." I welcome Kris Gumbrell, co-founder of Brewhouse & Kitchen, recently named best pub chain and best pub to work for at the Publican Awards. Kris is a fellow Cardiffian exiled to Bournemouth like myself. His brand is a really disruptive force in the pub industry and has come in like a breath of fresh air with 19 sites in the UK, 15 in the last 2 years alone. With 400 staff they are now the biggest brew chain in the UK and 2nd largest in Europe. With 300 different beers that are brewed onsite unique to each location, they have a brewing academy, hosted 8,000 brewing experience days and given 18,000 brewing masterclasses. We're in the pub - let's StartUp!

"Probably one of the best things that happenend to me in my life is that I got diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma cancer. It was a big health scare, I didn't know if I would be around in a year, and I asked myself if I was gone in a year and I don't have longer to live, what do I really want to do" On today's show I welcome Sean Greeley, CEO and founder of NPE Coaching. When you're 26 and you hear a doctor on the other end of the line say "I don't mean to scare you but it's stage IV melanoma cancer and you need to get to hospital immediately', your life changes in a very profound way.  Sean went from being a professional wakeboarder, competing for Team USA to founding and becoming CEO of Npe coaching. He went from a high school kid in New Engalnd, turning down scholarships in both track and field and music to move to Florida and follow his dream of competing professionally in wakeboarding.  He also walked out of his first class in business school leaving $10k of the first term's tuition behind. Sean's gone on to found and grow Npe, a company i've been privileged to be a part of, and been listed a number of times in the Inc 500 fastest growing privately-owned corporations in America. Let's StartUp!

"I think it was the tipping point where we saw, after running the company for some years, trying to reach out to people all the time and trying to engage these people. It's quite painful and it's a lot of energy that you have to give. It's then quite the opposite, people reach out to you and they want to work with you because what you do is meaningful and you really see the difference in your company. Your days are not the same days at all, it's much more exciting because you feel you are bridging a gap and people need you and everything you do is going that much faster." Julien Verdier is the co-founder of ad tech company, adyoulike, a global leading native in-feed platform. Launched in 2011 is is recognised as being a pioneer in native technology and creating advertising expereinces for users that mirror the websites they are visiting.  Adyoulike operates in more than 18 countries, has over 100 employees and has received funding from a French billionaire and then through VC's.  Julien originally started the business after quitting his job with his best friend back in 2010 and with no money they started Adyoulike.  I caught up with Julien to find out a litle more about what Adyoulike does. Let's StartUp!

"Running a startup is a rollercoaster, and there are constant up and downs. I think that the most important thing in those ups and downs as a person is identify when you're down and just telling youeself that this is something temporal.  Eventually you hit the bottom. And then you go back up. As long as you are aware that at the bottom you can only go up, and ou will go up eventually..you can probably overcome everything." I welcome Dror Ginzberg founder of Wochit. Dror has over 25 years of experience in technology with the focus on video and related tech. As co-founder and Ceo of Wochit, Dror provides over 600 global news brands, media brands, publishers and professional bloggers with the video creation platform for production of video content at scale and speed.  After starting his career in techhnology whilst serving with the Israeli defence forces, he's now on his second tech startup. And with offices in New York, London and Israel he's a man on the move. I manages to track him down at his home in Tel Aviv. Let's StartUp!

"...And when the government announced the smart meter rollout it was crucially the customers who owned that data. Not the energy suppliers, not the district network operators, that to me was a massive opportunity to say 'well hang on a second'. In a market where consumers feel more disempowered than any other market, all of a sudden they own the one asset that the industry needs to operate. That has to be a tool to rebalance the market." On today's show I welcome Jane Lucy, founder of energy disruptor labrador. Jane first worked with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to create the first collaborative communities around money and land and take on the supermarkets.  She has a really interesting backstory as a lawyer, single-mum and now as an energy disruptor. She created Labrador which tracks your energy use through your smart meter and automatically switches you to the best tariff. As one of he most expensive household bills, most of us doing nothing about it. We don't switch tariff, preferring to stick with one of the big 6 energy suppliers where we could be saving up to £300 annually by switching. I caught up with Jane to find out just how easy it can be.. Let's StartUp!

"It's cool to be a foodie now. Whereas it used to be a very niche thing, all over now..whether it's pop-up food markets or open kitchen restaurants... food on TV, and in the real world, is a kind of cool space to be in."   Join Jamie Spafford 'live' on March 28th in Bournemouth: Just visit the Eventbrite page for StartUpU. And on this week's show I speak to Jamie, Ben, Mike and Barry who launched SORTED food in 2010 after finishing university.  The Wall Street Journal calls their show "food porn meets social media" whilst The Independent calls them "the food equivalent of Instagram or Spotify". They describe their own show as a "mix of food, recipes, video and banter". With over TWO million social followers including Barrack Obama and David Cameron, and ELEVEN million downloads per month, I spoke with the guys to find out how they became the world's most engaged cooking channel - that's also inspiring a younger generation to think more about what they eat. Let's StartUp!