Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

"I truly believe that I and Graze would not have been as successful without what I learnt at Innocent. I think it was a good quality start-up and I think it was a good quality scale up and I learnt a lot. I learnt a lot of good things, you know, also some things didn't work which you take a different set of lessons from." So, cast your mind and can you remember a key moment that transformed your life? Maybe it hasn't happened yet but I'm sure it will. Well, that's what happened to Anthony Fletcher back in 2009 when at work one day he happened to try some nuts, seeds and dried fruit that had been delivered in the post by a new company called Graze. Now, Graze had been set up a year earlier by some friends as an internet-based business that posted healthy snacks in cardboard boxes small enough to fit through people's letterboxes. Then, aged 27, and working for drinks company, Anthony said he was blown away by the idea of it so much so he immediately found out where Graze was based, drove across London to knock on its door and asked them for a job. Fast forward to today and Anthony is Chief Executive of the business that now enjoys annual sales of more than £70million, that under his leadership has successfully expanded from the UK to the US. I started off by asking of Anthony how true this story actually was. Let's startup!

"This is an amazing opportunity. Women who are mothers are worth trillions of dollars per year to the economy. Women who are earning who are monthers, 90% of their earnings goes back into the family, versus 45% of men's income". Welcome to episode #105 of #Screwitjustdoit. On today's show I welcome entrepreneur Michelle Kennedy, Founder of Peanut, dubbed 'Tinder for lonely mums' by the New York Times. Michelle is very much a veteran of the dating app industry, having spent 5 years at Badoo and eventually became Deputy CEO. She also held a postiion on the board of the dating app Bumble which went on to revolutionise the online dating industry. She started Peanut after struggling to meet other mums that she could relate to whilst also working. She found herself trawling through blogs for baby advice at 2am while her friends were still hanging out in clubs (or falling out of clubs..). She then decided to create a product to make being a mother a little less lonely.  And in a little less than two years her startup has amassed over 500,000 active users..how has she done that?! You're about to find out. Without further ado let's dive in and... Let's start up!

" Probably one of the greatest pleasures that I get is taking my mum and dad and walking down a supermarket aisle and seeing my dad's face when he see's a picture of his father and his father's name on a shelf in a supermarket. That is a massive plus and a massive pleasure for me. And to think that I made this happen." On today's show I welcome Paul Turner - butcher turned brand building entrepreneur.  Paul comes from a really traditional business - a butchers that was his grandfathers that was passed on to his father and then on to his brothers and himself.  Paul decided that he wanted to develop a product range which he has turned into a nationwide business with Alf Turner prodcuts in every supermarket nationwide. How did he do this? He managed to get on to Dragons Den and he pitched to the Dragons, wanting to get Peter Jones - and getting Peter Jones's support and investment. And to think Paul didn't even have a mobile phone before he went into the den! In the true bootlegging spirit of entrepreneurship Paul handles all of the marketing of the business himself although he acknowledges that the day will come when he has to get help. Paul has embraced lots of partnerships from Help for Heroes to Iron Maiden. On this week's show we talk about: The importance of storytelling - not selling Saying yes to opportunity Ambassadors & collaborations Let's StartUp!

"At the time that I realised PlanSnap was the thing that I wanted to do  - to build the fastest way to get friends together it's very hard if you're tachnically-minded but not from a technical background to find a technical partner to bring on to the team. I realised that was going to be a struggle, and raising investment was going to be a struggle. Not least because women get less than 2% of Venture Capital worldwide. But also because I wasn't ex-Google or something. I knew I could do it, but I still had to prove it to other people." Welcome to Episode #103 with Louise Doherty, founder and CEO of PlanSnap - an app that lets you make social plans with friends in a snap. Some entrepreneurs decide to #Screwitjustdoit, quit their jobs and start a business in an instant. For Louise it took eight years from the moment she knew that she wanted to run her own tech startup, to her finally quitting her job to launch her social planning app, PlanSnap. Louise cites a lack of role models and funding are two of the biggest things stopping women from starting their own businesses, but coming from a family of encouraging small business owners was a massive plus as well as her first employer pledging to back any company she started! So Louise quit her job, got accepted to Techstars, raised investment and put her team together to realise her vision and build PlanSnap. In this episode Louise and I discuss: Getting sales before investment The power of ambassadors and influencers Finding a technical co-founder Let's StartUp! 

"And he pushed me, saying 'Don't be such an idiot', slightly harder than I think he intended...and I fell off my chair. It was one of those moments in time, drunk as I was, but that conversation haunted me. And I kept coming back to 'Yeah, why not? Why can't we get law into a space where there isn't a premium on information and people do understand how everything fits together and can access that really easily. I never set out to replace lawyers. I'm still very proud to be a lawyer myself, and I showcase amazing lawyers. But it was just that 'how do we plug the gap so that everyone who needs to know can know and then decide what they do with that information." Merlie Calvert launched legal tech startup Farillio in 2017 after leaving her job as a lawyer after 20+ years and burning her legal license! Her mission is to open up legal support for freelancers, microbusinesses and SME's so that law becomes quicker and easier and that the entrepreneur can focus on growing their business.  Merlie has already raised funding, is building a team and is facing many of the challenges that many of you will be able to relate to. She's got a great story and if you'd like to see her 'live' you can join me and an amazing panel of entirely female entrepreneurs on January 29th in London here.

"So I phoned them up and said that I would like to buy some razors. He said the minimum order was 100,000 units. I thought "This is the end of the business, I can't do it, I can't get the money."   But then I said 'How's this as a concept..I come to your front door tomorrow with 5,000 Euros in unmarked bills in a bag, would you go for it? "I was just joking...   But he said "if you're crazy enough to come from London to East Germany overnight to give me 5,000 Euros you're on. I'll see you tomorrow morning." I phoned my dad and said "What are you doing tonight"? He said "Nothing" so I said "Get the car we're going to Dover".   We stopped at Barclays UK on the way down and got 5,000 Euros in cash, drove through the night to East Germany, got there with ten minutes to spare and this guy nearly fell over when he saw us in the morning. It was incredible. He was true to his word and gave us the stock. He gave us a couple of thousand razors and said 'Now that we've supplied you, we might as well keep on supplying you". And that was the start of a great relationship. It was just one of those crazy #Screwitjustdoit moments."   Happy Christmas and welcome to episode #101 in which I welcome Cornerstone's Ollie Bridge to the show via itunes https://apple.co/2RhgBSG Or Spotify https://spoti.fi/2GJ9NJD   Cornerstone started back in 2014 as a razorblade subscription startup. Ollie had some savings and took out a startup loan and since then has gone on to raise in excess of £8 million. He now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers and in this podcast is going to tell you how he went about doing that. It wasn't an easy journey, he's had his ups and downs but has recently launched vitamin tablets and other male grooming products and his eyes are firmly set on the health and beauty market.   He has a goal that by 2020 he'll have 500,000 customers with Amazon-like predicted Tech for orders and to broaden the product range beyond shaving-related products.   The whole journey started with him having to leave work and stand in a queue at Boots in his lunchtime to get a razor and thus wasting his lunchtime, when he could be doing something else. His whole mission is that customers will never have to go to Boots again - they will send you everything you need and go on to predict what you need for the month ahead.   Let's find out how he's going to set about doing this...   Let's StartUp!  

Well here it is..no - not Merry Christmas - that's another week away folks. It is in fact #Episode 100 of my #Screwitjustdoit podcast! Something I'm super-proud of and will be celebrating this important milestone on my journey. Something I never envisaged actually getting to! I thought I would use the opportunity presented to record only my third ever solo round since I started by deciding to #Screwitjustdoit - and launch my own podcast. With a week to go until Christmas, and two weeks still 2019 is upon us, I wanted to present you with a roadmap to YOUR Best Year Yet. This is the exact same process/exercise that I have been doing now for years to help me create success both personally and professionally. I credit an old mentor from the fitness industry for this - Todd Durkin - and believe that if you follow this process it will help you crystallise your vision, success, and significance for 2019. PREPARATION & hard-work are the keys to success and these questions will certainly help PREPARE you to be your absolute BEST in 2019. If you would like a hard copy just email me alex@startupu.co.uk and I will send you one. I sincerely wish you a very Happy Christmas and here's to your very best year yet in 2019 - Happy New Year.

"Managing the team and managing the workload is a huge challenge that I'm battling with all the time but the team are absolutely amazing. I couldn't ask for a better, hardworking team. They really love what we're doing, which I believe is quite hard to find". On today's show I welcome Charlotte Sweet, Founder of Sewn Right. Charlotte left a job in luxury fashion to set up her own business in early 2015. She was inspired by her grandmother, a lifelong seamstress. Driven by a love of fashion and a lack of innovation in her industry, Charlotte set out to change the way the world view sewing. She was working three different jobs when setting out on her entrepreneurial journey and she spotted a gap in the market. Alterations were either being done by high-end Saville Row tailors or being done by local dry cleaners but, no-one was offering a modern alterations service. Sewn Right was born and she's now the owner of a thriving business. Let's StartUp.

"When my grandparents passed away who I spent a lot of time with I'd been thinking why I didn't record their life stores which is something I had in mind but never did, and realised how quickly their stories faded. And I've had that regret for a long time and been thinking since then about solutions... and why this problem exists if a lot of people want to capture the stories of their loved ones. Rutger Bruining's grandfather was a member of the Dutch resistance during World War II but died before Rutger had a chance to record his memories. The experience left him wondering “why we don’t capture the stories of the people we care about the most”. Before I dive inot my interview with Rutger, I'd like to mark last week which saw us finish up our 'live' #screwitjustdoit events. Twenty plus events throughout the UK in 2018 and a massive thank you if you lived in the UK and were able to attend. Given this podcast is now listened to in 96 countries we're only scratching the surface with our events in the UK. I'd love to take these to your country in the near future. With Virgin Atlantic now sponsoring us, who knows what's possible :) 2019 events for the first quarter of the year are already up on the StartUpU Facebook page Before the year is out I'd love to know who you would like to both hear on the podcast, and see at one of our 'live' events. Drop me a message @alexchisnall on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or @alexanderchisnall on Instagram - I'd love to hear from you! Rutger Bruning, a former management consultant, realized he could help people capture the stories of those we love most by using online platforms such as Freelancer.com, which makes it easy and economical to find writers willing to take on such commissions. “Millions of people are trying to write their own memoirs and most of them don’t finish the job,” Rutger said. “We’re offering a service: Stories of life, of love or loss, whether it’s small or big — if they’re real and well-written and the voice of the customer comes through, you create something really unique and beautiful.” I caught up with Rutger and started by asking him more about how he came up with the idea for his business. Let's StartUp!

"I have so many different passions: fitness, fashion and food - the three "F's" - plus music of course. So it was a natural progression once I came off the x-factor...to get into fashion and release my own clothing line. And as soon as the W8 Gym came along... it's funny how timing works out, as when Nick approached me I was actually thinking of venturing into fitness. So as soon as I saw the product I just jumped on it..quite literally. This is what I was looking for. This was amazing. You may know Fleur East from 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here', from the X-Factor, her Top 3 album, her number one single 'Sax' ...but what you may not know... is that she is a female entrepreneur and business woman with her own clothing brand and now a fitness startup too. Fleur is related to Nick Meaney..who's related to Clive Payne..who first came up with the idea that became W8 Gym. Having first met me at Jim Cregan's 'Jimmys Iced Coffee' HQ for the first Virgin StartUp meetup outside London in July 2016, they are now two and a half years into their journey. Clive developed the prototype, Nick travelled to China to source suppliers and many iterations later, Fleur designed the final product and filmed all the exercises that W8 Gym allows you to do. I caught up with them to find out how they're getting on. Let's StartUp!