“Life brings you to places you never expect. I was born in Manizales in Colombia, six hours’ drive from Bogotá. I first came to London when I was 22 to study journalism and for my thesis I wrote about the Wayuu women from an ethnic group in northern Colombia, who have been making these beautiful bags for centuries. These people had very little access to basic amenities, including clean water or even schools for their children. The eureka moment came when I realised that I could bring these bags to the UK as a social mission.”
Daniela Castellanos
Founder, Castellano accessories brand

“Malcolm [Levene] helped me understand how people consume. He was very clever at creating theatre and making it fun but the service was also really good. That’s when I realised that customers were looking to buy something that was his brand. They didn’t want Hugo Boss, they didn’t want Giorgio Armani. That was a kind of eureka moment for me.”
Timothy Everest
Founder, designer and tailor, Timothy Everest menswear

“I realised you can never feel negative. You have to continually feel totally pumped that this thing is going to work. If the person whose idea it is looks down at the floor, not very happy, the rest of the team is going to believe it’s not going to work. You have to think, ‘So we’re running on debt at £455,000 – at least it’s not a million. Let’s smash it and get up tomorrow and work as hard as possible to get out of it.’”
Jimmy Cregan
Founder, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee drinks brand

“When was the “ah-ha” moment? I think when I applied for trademarking. You do these things and you think, ‘Gosh, I’m spending a lot of effort and time and money in doing this – and what if it falls flat on its face?’ Well, that doesn’t matter. You say, ‘I need to keep chipping away at it because there is something in this.’ And that’s something that I find really exciting.”
Paddy Dickinson
Founder, Totem Adornments jewellery brand

“It’s funny to look back at because how we started didn’t look like a typical start-up. We had no outside funding; no understanding of how to put systems together. We just had an idea of how this particular industry could work a little better. We started off in an apartment, we rented a hotel ballroom in Boston to put on our first sale and showed it there. It actually worked and we surprised ourselves with how well it worked. We tried again and it worked even better.”
Jason Price
Founder, Tarisio fine-instrument auction house