Before I start, let me say this: You only need two things to get going: an idea you love and believe in, and the confidence to say “Yeah, I’m doing it. I’ve started”. Yes it’ll cost money, but not at first. And the beginning is actually the most fun - it’s just researching the aforementioned thing that you love and believe in, and figuring out how to make it real. And as you figure out more and more (and learn from my mistakes as well as your own), it will all become less daunting. And the more real it becomes, and the more you figure out, and the better it looks/tastes/works, the more incentivized you’ll be to find the cash to keep it moving forward. So if you’ve got the idea, just start. True, it may fail, but you won’t know until you find out, right?
Just Do It. Go on. Now!
So, what made me decide to start a kids’ organic food brand in an industry that makes the news every time another founder sells their kids’ organic food brand for $100 million?
Honestly? Well, I’m sorry to put a (very brief) downer on things but it was probably the death of my father when I was 13.
There’s a much-loved, long running radio show in the UK called Desert Island Discs where industry leaders (actors, historians, CEOs, doctors, entrepreneurs, singers) talk about their lives, and how they ended up where they are. And let me tell you, there are a LOT of parents buried on that island, each of them having died when their kids were kids, and each death a starting pistol in disguise. Why is this? Well, my (extremely unverified) theory is this: if the scariest thing in the world happened to you when you were a child and you ‘survived’ it, you become fearless. You think you can do anything, go anywhere, conquer, build, prosper. Obstacles and hurdles that give everyone else pause for thought, you just brush off: “well I survived the worst thing ever. This’ll be easy by comparison”. And it is. In the beginning.
I think all entrepreneurs, as well as having a good idea, need a dose of genuine fearlessness running through their veins too, to have any hope of success. Fearlessness, and maybe a tiny bit of overlap into recklessness (but, like, tiny tiny).
So I had the idea, I had the fearlessness and I had the time: after twenty years working in the fashion industry I had ‘retired’ and become a stay at home parent. Being screamed at by Naomi Campbell and having Madonna sing slightly derogatory songs about me was fun until it wasn’t: I was exhausted by the drama and just wanted to be with my two perfect little children. And because my wife was making good money and we didn’t want the kids to be brought up by a babysitter, the obvious solution was for me to be at home.
And yes, parenting was utterly blissful - apart from one thing: both our kids were incredibly anti-eating. They weren’t picky eaters, they just weren’t into mealtimes. Although actually, that’s sort of what picky eating is. If you’re having fun over there and your mum or dad tells you to stop and to come and sit over here, and eat this, you make your feelings known. You learn very early on that, just by saying no to the food in front of you, you can cause absolute chaos.
It’s not much different to a dead-end job. If your boss just says “do this, like that, NOT LIKE THAT. And hurry up!”, over and over and over… it’s miserable and you make as little effort as possible. Whereas if you have a job where your boss trusts you, and gives you more and more responsibility, and leaves you to get on with it, you respond very differently: you want to work harder, to get promoted. Jobs like that are great!
My idea was just to create this dynamic at the family dining table - to make and sell actual tangible food products designed specifically for kids, that they could take ownership of and use themselves.. children are always desperate to show their parents they can complete a task because they LOVE receiving praise from them. If I could combine that with having them eat more food, willingly? Well, I could already smell the money…