Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

I hope you had an awesome Christmas and are looking forward to an amazing new year. I interview Alessandra Sollberg founder of Evermore Health who are revolutionising the functional nutrition space that leverage personalisation. Alessandra grew up speaking 6 languages and got into the nutrition space after teaching windsurfing and snowboarding. After graduating from Oxford University she spent time in startups before spending time as an investor with private equity and venture capital firms. She now has her own funded nutritional startup and I recently spoke to her to find out more.

"So with Jonno and I, there was a very clear moment I can remember when I said, 'If we're gonna go ahead and do this...when it's on, it's on...'And we made that clear decision that we're dedicating the next years of our lives to doing this and that's what we did. We quit our jobs and we were all in." I speak to Tim Fung, founder of Airtasker, an online marketplace that allows people to outsource tasks and errands to people in their local community. Airtasker was founded in 2012 in Australia, now has over a million members and is launching in the UK in early 2018.  So if you're looking to make money from tasks, the practical such as moving furniture, right to the outrageously decadent such as paying someone to wait in line to buy you the latest iPhone then listen up. On today's episode Tim and I speak about a whole bunch of different things from raising finance to building a team.

"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." I speak to Cemal Ezel, founder of social enterprise Change Please. Last month Cemal was crowned Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneur of the Year. 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.. Wishing you a very Happy Christmas - spare a thought (and some change) for those who are homeless this Christmas. Donations to Change Please.

"I think it's an unwritten rule really. For me, I could cash in on who I've worked with over the last ten years and I could really go to town with it, but you lose that long-term credibility. I think people wouldn't call you and want to work with you if they knew you were that sort of person. And that's definitely something we've shied away from." Former rugby player and personal trainer Tom Oliver is the founder of Tom Oliver Nutrition which sells fish oil supplements made from caviar and which will be in over 5,000 retailers around the globe in the next few months.  After leaving Richard Branson's school Stowe to become a professional rugby player with former European Champions Northampton Saints, Tom succumbed to a series of injuries and his pro career ended very early at the age of 22.  After re-training as a personal trainer he set up a lucrative business training some of the most high profile middle eastern families. With a keen interest in nutrition Tom developed his own product range who's fans include Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Brad Pitt, and Katy Perry. Tom Oliver Nutrition has already entered markets in Malta, Dubai and Singapore and has exciting growth plans for 2018.  Tom and I talk exchanging time for money, relationship building and being inspired by those you work with...and for.

"To be completely transparent with you, we had made the decision...we opened in Boston - and it didn't work out. It didn't work out for us because we weren't well enough funded, and we didn't have the core systems in place to run a two location business." Nikolay is the founder of Taylor and Hart, an award-winning online jeweller for custom engagement rings who have over 2,000 happy customers and have generated over £2.5 million.  Now - would you like to increase your average order by 50% or more? Because that's exactly what Nikolay did after attending Techsters in Boston in 2015 where his long-standing assumptions were challenged.Including the one that 98% of their customers were men. Since rebranding their average order is up 50% and they have the best of both offline and online with the store in London and plans for future stores in both the UK and the US. We talk about experimentation, the advantage of speed and of challenging your assumptions.

"I just felt that I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm struggling. Everything I do is a juggling act. Entrepreneurs focus on their business and they are a success, where I'm thinking, I'm not a success at anything". On today's show I speak to Tara Howard, who left school at sixteen to go on to become a commercial airline pilot and mum of four. She is now the founder of The Venus Awards which recognises and celebrates the successes of business women throughout the UK.  What started as a one-off awards ceremony back in 2009 is now a nine region operation about to launch in London and with international aspirations.  We talk about empowering women and children and about changing people's lives.

"That was an explicit decision at the beginning that I took which was...start with information...start with media, and start with giving it away for free. So that will allow me to build up a massive audience, and then work out what needs to be sold and what needs to be provided." Bosh! are the fastest growing plant-based online food brand. In 18 months they have amassed over 1.5 million followers and their videos have reached over 1 billion people. Henry Firth and Ian Theasby met in school aged just 11 and together they built Bosh! in 2016 to inspire people to a healthier, more ethical and sustainable lifestyle after seeing the popularity of food videos on Facebook. On today's show we talk about building an online community, the lean startup model, and the launch of a product that their community demanded: the launch of their new vegan cookbook.

"I guess you need that little bit of a kick to really make that leap, and for me that came in a bit of serendipity. I went back home and told my mum the idea...my dad died when I was sixteen...and she reminded me that the last present he had bought me was a popcorn machine. " On today show I welcome Propercorn founder Cassandra Stavrou who quit her high flying ad agency job to move back in with her mother and started experimenting with flavours, for what has turned out to be one of the fastest growing snacks in the Uk, with sales forecast to reach close to £20 million in 2017.  Cassandra talks about having the confidence to quit your job and start your own business. And how a meeting with Innocent's Richard Reed led to her recruiting a co-founder. Plus how a cement mixer and car spray painting kit all played their part in creating the brightly coloured popcorn snack you see everywhere from Tesco meal deals, to abroad in over ten countries.

"When I said to them 'What's your favourite flavour of your noodles', one of the brothers looked at me with a sly grin, smirked, and said 'we don't eat our own noodles Damien'. I said, 'why wouldn't you eat your own noodles?' And he said, 'If you knew what we put in our noodles, you wouldn't either". Damien Lee has just conquered cancer - for the second time. And all whilst building a team of over 20 people and raising millions of pounds to build an award-winning, premium, no-nasty, gluten-free cup noodle. He's also developed a noodle kiosk that will deliver a hot cup of noodles that is set to revolutionise the food-to-go industry. Damien has also eschewed the traditional route to market via supermarkets and sells via their online store, amazon, their kiosks on university campuses, hospitals and on trains - for now. Oh, and I forgot to mention that he's done all this whilst bringing up his two boys as a single dad. Here's his compelling story.

"We had a hundred people come. They'd all paid £50 directly into my bank account. And at the point that they paid me, they didn't know where they were going to eat food, what food they were going to eat and by that point we just created this momentum that we were able to generate. And out of these people none of these were my friends. We generated a hundred real customers through social media, a little website, some branding, and some listings in some magazines." Stuart Langley and Frederick Bolin, co-founders of The Disappearing Dining Club have thrown dinner parties in laundrettes, in lighthouses, film sets and fashion stores.  Stuart started the business in 2010 and since then has partnered and collaborated with a whole host of individuals, companies and brands from Google to Rita Ora to throw dinner parties that offer more than just great food and drink. Do you love restaurants but also love dining in beautiful and unusual locations with a group of cool strangers where there are no menus and you eat what you're given?  Intrigued? Then join Stuart Langley as we tuck in...