Singaporean entrepreneur Leon Foo left behind a career in accountancy to found his roastery, PPP Coffee, in 2009. But that wasn’t the end of his journey. “In 2018 I discovered how controlling the temperature, pressure and solubility of a coffee machine would create an opportunity to transpose features from a £15,000 industrial machine into a £300 capsule one,” says Foo. 

This led to the launch of the Morning Machine in 2018. The Nespresso-capsule-compatible contraption allows users to control the temperature, pressure and water-to-coffee ratio through an app. “We are still one of the very few companies that are laser-focused on coffee drinkers looking for convenience,” he says. 

Last year, Foo followed up the Morning Machine with the Morning Dream, which helps home brewers froth café-grade milk with precision. “We hope to become the Spotify of the coffee world. Just like how the streaming platform connects artists to listeners, we hope to connect roasters with coffee drinkers.”  
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In 2012, Pakistani entrepreneur Shiza Shahid and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai founded the Malala Fund, which lobbied for funding for young women to access education, especially in countries where there are significant barriers. Shahid’s next solution was to a more domestic issue. Upon migrating to the US at the age of 18, she found an outdated kitchenware industry in which items were riddled with toxic chemicals. She launched cookware brand Our Place in 2019 alongside her husband, Amir Tehrani. 

“At the time, the kitchenware industry felt exclusive – we leaned into inclusivity,” says Shahid, who wanted her brand’s imagery to show the product in kitchens with more realistic, messier dishes. She was determined to prove that the kitchenware industry didn’t need to rely on sometimes toxic PFAs (chemicals widely used for their grease-resistant properties). “Our Place holds more than 200 patents but much of the sector is still doing things the old way,” she says.

Rock musician-turned-entrepreneur Gen Terao founded home appliance brand Balmuda in 2003. “We realised that many kitchen appliances were just made for convenience,” he says. Tokyo-based Terao wanted to create something stylish as well as functional. Among a line-up that includes coffee makers and hot plates, the bestselling product is the much-copied toaster (two million sold and counting), which steams bread with precise temperature control to achieve a crispy exterior and a soft, pillowy interior. 

Terao is more inspired by his travels than by market research. “I see my music career as fundamentally the same as my work in kitchenware,” he says. “In my time as a musician, my perspective shifted. I moved from wanting to be the most popular hitmaker to aspiring to build a company that could genuinely contribute to people’s lives.