Gold Nuggets from Tom Evans

Here’s another edition of Gold Nuggets where we talk with some of our most loved makers, founders and do-ers. Digging into their stories to reveal tips, precious wisdom, and even some music to get your under the desk feet dancing.

In this edition we’d like you to meet our pal and long time client Tom from BleepBleeps. They are on a mission to make parenting easier with their Smart Family of devices.

Tell us about yourself and BleepBleeps.

I’m Tom Evans, founder of BleepBleeps. We make cute, connected gadgets that make parenting easier. Before BleepBleeps I was an Executive Creative Director in design/brand/advertising/digital agencies. I jumped ship a couple of years ago to start BleepBleeps and I’ve been grinding it out and learning every day since.

What’s the one thing you wish you knew in your first year?

Strap in, this is going to take waaay longer than you think. And it’s going to be way, way harder than you think. (Actually, maybe it was good I didn’t know that!?)

What are your top tips for growing your team?

When it comes to startups or products/services you need people that can: Think it, Make it and Sell it. These are very different groups of people that don’t tend to hang out with each other!

My advice is to create a brand first, and then get out there and meet people. I must have done over a thousand “coffees” with potential co-founders, team members, partners, investors etc etc. If you have a brand and a vision these meetings are far easier to get in the first place, and it’s much easier to enrol people into your “quest” if you have a cohesive brand and a purpose.

What was the best bit of advice you were given and who gave you it?

My favourite quote of the moment (in today’s tough times for startups: post-brexit, Trump, etc) is: “Staying alive is the new winning" - Paul Graham, Y-Combinator

What’s your ambition for BleepBleeps?

I want to create a brand that’s loved by kids and parents all over the world.

What song motivates you in the office and why?

I have three answers to this.

You cannot beat Jump by Van Halen for getting things going.

During general work/travel I tend to listen to a lot of spoken word: Tim Ferris podcast particularly and a lot of non-fiction/business/self help crap on Audible and Blinkist (which is an amazing summary app).

But spoken word doesn’t work so well if you have write/think. So... (and this is slightly weird) I’ve been experimenting with listening to one very simple track on repeat to help focus when writing, thinking or doing more brain-taxing tasks. And for that I currently use Finder by Ninetoes.

Gold Nuggets from Colette

Welcome to our next edition of Gold Nuggets where we talk with some of our most loved makers, founders and do-ers. Digging into their stories to reveal tips, precious wisdom, and even some music to get your under-the-desk feet dancing.

In this edition we are excited to share words from Sarah Andelman who runs the iconic colette store in Paris. Sarah talks about working with her mum and what they look for in brand collaborations.

Tell us about yourself and your business

Hello, I’m Sarah! Together with my mother, we opened the colette store back in 1997. Our ambition was to open a place where we could showcase great fashion, beauty, design, art and food. Since the beginning, we have always prided ourselves on having an international mix of young designers and more well-known brands. Every week we change the windows and display inside. And every day we receive new products.

What do you look for with brand collaborations?

Each relationship is different but it’s important for us that each partnership feels personal, and that each collaboration is built on respect for one another. It just feels right for all parties.

Our selection process is quite spontaneous but we always pick products we like. We particularly are looking for items that are original, authentic and of great quality.

What was the best bit of advice you were given and who gave you it?

From my mum “just follow your instinct”, and I know I’m very lucky to be able to do it.

What is your ambition for colette?

To keep the excitement alive for as long as possible.

What song motivates you in the store and why?

Anything from the colette podcasts! Here’s the latest...

Gold Nuggets from Hilary Grant

It's time for some more Gold Nuggets where we talk with some of our most loved makers, founders and do-ers. Digging into their stories to reveal tips, precious wisdom, and even some music to get your under-the-desk feet dancing. 

We sat down with our long time friend Hilary Grant to pick her brain about running her knitwear business and what she's learned about running her business in Orkney. 
 

Image Credit: Ross Fraser McLean

Tell us about yourself and your business

I run a knitwear company under my own name Hilary Grant, on a remote island off the North Coast of Scotland called Orkney. I started my business 2011, designing scarves and knitting everything myself on a hand-operated knitting machine. We're now a 2 person business, with my partner Rob joining me on design and running the online shop and all our knitwear is now produced with a knitwear manufacturer in Scotland. We sell our knitwear online and to department stores and design-led lifestyle stores in over 5 countries. 

What’s the one thing you wish you knew in your first year?

Have goals and celebrate smashing them. Learn from mistakes. 

When you're a small company,  you sometimes don't have the time or even notice when you're achieving things - you're always moving on to the next task. It's good to celebrate when good things happen, it gives you the motivation to move on and allows you to take stock of your achievements. 

Top 3 tips for growing a brand in a remote location

Social media is basically a lifeline for our business when we live in such a remote place. But having really brilliant content is what makes people stick around. It can genuinely be an isolating experience, running a business in a remote place but Instagram allows you to build a little world around yourself with people who support what you do and meet other businesses and creatives who inspire you and you can support in return. 

Physical face-to-face events are so important for us as it gives us a chance to meet the lovely people to support us online. It also gives you the opportunity to make chance encounters with all sorts of people outside our social media circle. We do a lot of pop up shopping events in winter and I think it really means a lot to people to be able to touch our knitwear and feel it before making a purchase. Our knitwear feel so soft and tactile -  one thing you can't show people through the internet!

Instagram has been a brilliant driver for us, but we don't want to rely on it too much. Kaye has been quite evangelical about newsletters for quite some time and we're ready to jump in with that now.

What was the best bit of advice you were given and who gave it to you?

Make a plan and stick to it. We worked with a brilliant woman called Kirsty Scott to help us build a growth strategy. It was the best thing we've ever done for our business.

What’s your ambition for your business?

We like being small as it offers us flexibility. For us the driver for the business really comes from the creative side - so we think about other products we'd like to make, techniques we'd like to develop and figure out how to reign it in to be commercial and accessible to people. We'd love to start working with more interior designers on bespoke projects and large-scale pieces. 

What song motivates you in the studio and why? 

It's hard to choose just one song. If I need to concentrate I'll listen to Disasterpiece. On Friday afternoon, when I'm trying to wrap up everything for the weekend I'll make a point of listening to Yo La Tengo's cover of "Friday I'm In Love". It's good for a Friday dance around the studio and getting into the weekend spirit!

Gold Nuggets from Ding

It's time for some more Gold Nuggets where we talk with some of our most loved makers, founders and do-ers. Digging into their stories to reveal tips, precious wisdom, and even some music to get your under-the-desk feet dancing. 

In this edition we’d like you to meet one of our favourite couples, John Nussey and Avril O’Neil from Ding, a project we helped become successfully funded on Kickstarter.

Tell us about yourselves and Ding

Hi! We're Avril and John, and with support from The Design Council, John Lewis and our amazing backers on Kickstarter we’re launching Ding. 

Ding is a simple, beautiful, smart doorbell that’s perfect for your home and makes your life easier. When a visitor presses the button, the chime rings in your home and also connects to the Ding app on your smartphone, allowing you to talk with the person at your front door from wherever you are in the world!

What’s the one thing you wish you knew in your first year?

There's a lot I wish we'd known in our first year! Making a physical product comes with many challenges and it's hard to know what to prioritise. In all honesty, we don't have many regrets, as we've learnt so much through the experience. The one thing I think we wish we'd had was a way of meeting and expanding our team quicker. We have secured an amazingly talented team, including the guys at PWG, but it took a lot of searching to find them. 

What are your top 3 tips for how to best use funding?

Tip 1. Spend it on things you can't do yourself

Tip 2. Trust your gut and don't worry about spending it

Tip 3. Invest it in the company, rather than using it as an income, get your product out there sooner. 

What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given, and who gave you it?

Make the business work for you and don't be a slave to any other formulas or compare yourselves to others too much. 

What’s your ambition for Ding?

On a personal level, it is to see a product we've made out there in the world, solving a real need. In the bigger picture, it's to make IoT products that have a genuine benefit for people, rather than producing technology for technology's sake. 

What song motivates you in the studio and why? 

"Ring my bell" by Anita Ward. Then there’s "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica, "My doorbell" by The White Stripes...we could go on! ;)