4 scaling-up tips from successful Bristol entrepreneurs

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with two inspirational Bristol entrepreneurs to record our latest Curious Investor Podcasts. Matt Dyson, co-founder of baby sleep aid business?Rockit (pictured above), and healthy snacking entrepreneur Cathy Moseley (aka The Kernel) of?Boundless.

Listen to the Curious Investor Podcast with Matt from Rockit here. And the Curious Investor Podcast with Cathy from Boundless here.

Both podcasts are full of top tips and advice for start-ups and growing businesses – from people who have been there. If you don’t have time to listen, below are four invaluable pieces of advice that Matt and Cathy shared in our discussions.?

1.?????Choose your business partner(s) wisely

Matt Dyson:?My skills are aligned with those of my co-founder Nick, who is also my brother-in-law. We have different but complementary strengths. He has a strong engineering and business background, whereas my experience is in product design, advertising and creative.?

Personality and objectives are also important. We have a similar outlook, sense of humour, and aims for the business. We’ve scaled up Rockit in terms of revenue but not people. As we are a core team of two, we need to work well together and stay in constant communication, which allows us to make quick decisions.

Cathy Moseley:?You need a diverse team around you for the longevity of a business. My business partner, Talia, has made a vital contribution to the growth of Boundless. She has the commercial experience in food and supermarkets I don’t have which has really plugged the gap in my skill set.

When you do have a team in place it’s important to listen to what they’re telling you. It might not be the same as your opinion but often they are closer to the ground and can tell you what’s going on. Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses, what you need and what you bring to the table.

2.?????Don’t stick with conventional wisdom

MD:?We went against a lot of the original advice we were given. The traditional approach is to grow a product in your home market before expanding overseas. However, we didn’t want to lose our first to market advantage, especially internationally. So, we launched as far and wide as possible and started exporting from day one. And it paid off.

We have also stayed as lean as possible and despite raising investment via Crowdcube in 2018, we have resisted further raises which would reduce our shareholding in the business. We have also resisted spending money on flashy office space and senior staff. Living within our means and not putting the business at risk has been proven to be a good strategy over the past 18 months.?

CM:?People snack now more than ever. And from personal experience in my previous role in the City I know how busy people eat – unhealthy snacks, at your desk, that aren’t feeding your body anything good. My vision was to develop an on the go snack that is tasty?and?healthy.?

We do things differently by soaking grains to draw out more nutrients, allowing them to be absorbed more easily and remove the irritation. We’ve taken this a step further with our latest product, the world’s first activated chip. We had to convince farmers and millers to grow super grains a different way, and manufacturers to change their process, and it hasn’t been straight forward. But we can now build on this to develop new products.

3.?????Get the right support

MD:?You can’t be an expert at everything so outside support is invaluable. Our plan is to sell the business at some point and external expertise to prepare Rockit for a trade sale is important for us. It might be 2-4 years down the line, but we need to start preparing now.?

We work with a business mentor who is highly experienced. They come from a senior product design management background and play a key role in helping us to plan for future growth. We have also invested in Intellectual Property (IP) and other legal advice. When it comes to things like IP, you can do some of it yourself but it’s so important to get it right – particularly if you are working across different geographies.

CM:?There’s a lot of help and support out there but it can be hard to find. We joined Business West and are still members, which has been extremely helpful. As has the Chamber of Commerce.

I didn’t have a mentor for the first 18 months, and I wish I had. My mentor provides a different perspective outside the industry, a sound business mind, and an outlet to get things off my chest. You need to get any feelings of worry out and your partner and friends really don’t want to hear about your business 24/7!

4.?????When the going gets tough – pivot and innovate

MD:?Our biggest challenge to date was the pandemic. Before COVID, we largely sold through distributors, some of whom cancelled orders when the pandemic hit. We weren’t selling direct to consumer at this stage and renegotiated with key distributors so we could make the move online – and reach all the stressed parents at home spending time on the internet. We saw a massive peak in sales.

We are also focused on new product development and innovation in a sector that is traditionally quite conservative. As a scale-up we are also closer to our customers and listen to what they need – and then develop new products accordingly. Building a portfolio of products with protected IP is important for our business growth and a future trade sale.

CM:?We launched into Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett and TK Maxx in early 2020, and soon after we went into lockdown. We are an on-the-go snack and people were no longer on the go. After some initial panic buying in March/April, sales dropped. But we are small and were able to pivot quickly.?

Thankfully it’s a lot easier to turn a dinghy than a cruise ship! We changed the focus to online sales, and it has ended up being a good thing. We are now more balanced between online and retail. Health has never been more important, and there has been a rise in awareness about gut health, which is a good thing for us.

For more hints and tips from successful entrepreneurs, read our Curious Investor's Guide to... Scaling-up a business.