Thriva wants people to give it regular blood samples in exchange for charts on their health. But can it reach anyone other than early adopters and hypochondriacs? A few days after drawing a vial of blood, a Thriva customer is sent a variety of charts and some snippets of lifestyle and dietary advice. This health MOT happens every three months …
Two is the magic number: business co-founders share the secrets of their partnerships’ success
The relationship between business co-founders can be the most emotionally demanding in a person’s life. It can also be the factor which determines the success or failure of a company: the double act. In 2009, the Blackberry was so popular it was being referred to as the Crackberry. It accounted for half of all smartphones being sold. It was even credited …
Brewing up a storm
Prospective indie brewers are getting their first hands-on experience at a facility in Bermondsey. As amateur beer brewers with varying levels of ambition look to break into the crowded craft beer sector, an incubator in south London is offering a useful testbed. Ubrew provides equipment and ingredients for customers to brew their own beer, with founders Wilf Horsfall and friend …
How much money a startup needs to raise – and how to spend it
Exactly how much money do you need to raise and how do you spend it without crashing? Matt Robinson is on his second company, Nested, and reckons he’s hit on a formula. In some ways, GoCardless and Nested are quite similar. Both of the businesses Matt Robinson founded operate as digital middlemen; the former is a means for companies to take …
The dos and don’ts of building a digital marketplace
Dish Next Door, a business promising to create a platform linking home cooks with their hungry neighbours, collapsed in July. What did it get wrong in trying to create a two-way digital market? Dish Next Door (hereafter Dish) thought it was following in the footsteps of modern marketplace giants like Airbnb and eBay – creating a huge, revolutionary platform. But just …
Hoxton Mini Press: The small publisher that’s created a book-selling brand
People don’t tend to shop for books by publisher. But three years after Hoxton Mini Press released its first photobook, it has built up something of a cult following. Big publishers have long dominated the market for expensive coffee table books, but now a tiny two person book maker is edging its way into people’s living rooms. Hoxton Mini Press’ …
Interview with Barry’s Bootcamp CEO
Barry’s Bootcamp is a workout, a brand and a buzz word for the wave of fitness fanaticism that’s sweeping across from the US to Europe. Courier meets CEO Joey Gonzalez. Barry Jay devised an intense workout inside a gym that attracted a small but fast-growing local following. It led to the formation of Barry’s Bootcamp, with outposts opening across the US and more …
Why people are betting big on boutiquey fitness studios
Hot on the heels of SoulCycle’s explosive growth and £90m annual sales, a bunch of UK startups are attempting to build a blockbuster fitness business out of London. Is there substance behind the lifestyle fluff? 26 Sep 2016 Some 15 months after opening his first site in Holland Park, Core Collective founder Jason de Savary was sweating over securing leases on his next two …
Alan Yau: The tastemaker does tech
Wagamama founder Alan Yau is one of London’s best known restaurant operators. He’s about to launch an app that he says will be the opposite of Tripadvisor and Yelp. Not long after Naamyaa opened just by the corner of Angel tube station, a scathing review came out from restaurant critic Jay Rayner, panning the ‘infantile palate’ of its excessively ‘sweet and …
Picking the right collaborators
Menswear brand Agi & Sam took off in 2012 when they collaborated with Liberty and Topman. This stimulated growth but also had significant financial and operational repercussions. Its founders give their advice on what to think about when picking company partners. When recent graduates Agape Mdumulla and Sam Cotton met while working at Alexander McQueen in 2008, it was difficult to fathom how they …