⚡ How this Start-Up has Created the Most Sustainable Tableware on Earth

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the start-up world
📰 The biggest news stories in the start-up world
🍽 How this Start-Up has created the most sustainable tableware on Earth
🏃 How interactive marketing campaigns create deep relationships
♟ A tool that acts as your personal sales strategist

🥳 We hosted our 4th Cardiff Start-Up Social last night and it was another BLAST. We had so many great founders there, don’t miss out on our next Cardiff social and grab your ticket here. Bristol and Birmingham, we’re coming for you in the New Year!

✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this link taking you through to Haatch’s S/EIS funds from which they’re investing £100k - £800k in early stage companies

Happy hustling,
Rich

🎤 Events/Opportunities

🛍 Acurio VC have just raised a new €150m fund to invest in seed stage Saas, Marketplace and E-Commerce Start-Ups across Europe. You can connect with the team here.

🧑‍💻 Capmont have just raised a new €100m fund to invest in European B2B tech companies at seed stage and beyond. You can connect with the team here.

💳 Outward VC have just raised a £51m fund to back FinTech founders, you can apply here.

📈 Marketing + Growth Executive, Fanvue
🧑‍⚕️ Founders Associate, Deblock
🧑‍💻 Fullstack Engineer, Sondr

🔬 UK climate tech Start-Ups are struggling for lab space, this new project could be the answer. Sifted

☄️ Softbank’s Masayoshi Son has been planning his comeback TechCrunch

🎶 Bytedance is shutting down TikTok music globally TechCrunch

🏦 Peter Thiel-backed investing app, Shares, shuts down in UK amid growing losses. UKTN

Stroodles: Transforming Sustainability into a Memorable Dining Experience

Stroodles is a company that creates sustainable, edible tableware designed to provide unique, interactive food and drink experiences. Their products, such as pasta straws, edible plates, and flavour pods, offer eco-friendly alternatives to traditional single-use plastic, while also turning meals into immersive, playful experiences. Stroodles serves a wide range of clients, including cafés, restaurants, event planners, and large corporate clients like Deloitte, by offering biodegradable, zero-waste tableware solutions.

Beyond tableware, Stroodles is also pioneering sustainable catering services, which help businesses achieve their sustainability goals while providing an engaging dining experience. Their flavour pods add a multi-bite, evolving sensory element to food and drinks, creating a dynamic experience for diners. For corporate clients, Stroodles Labs collaborates to develop scalable sustainability strategies, while for families and children, Stroodles offers kids’ activity kits that teach eco-conscious behaviour through fun, educational activities.

Finding Co-Founders: Partnerships in Sub-Businesses

While Stroodles itself does not have a co-founder, the company’s various sub-businesses, such as kids’ activity kits, the trustmark, and catering, have their own co-founders. For example, Caroline, who co-founded the trustmark, was met at a networking event, while Jo (on the kids' side) reached out initially as a customer, leading to a partnership over time. Stefan, who co-founded the catering branch, was met at a sustainable dinner networking event.

First Customers: Shopify and Trade Shows

Stroodles gained its first direct-to-consumer (D2C) customer within hours of launching their Shopify store, thanks to strong SEO and visibility through Google. Their first B2B customer came through an industry trade show, where the founder handed out fresh samples. This customer, a flagship bar in the industry, opened doors to new opportunities and business relationships.

Scaling: Persistence and Hustle

Scaling Stroodles has been a matter of persistence, hustle, and serendipity. In the early days, growth was fuelled by attending events, networking, and maintaining a big-picture focus. On the D2C side, advertising, PR, newsletters, and social media partnerships played a crucial role in expanding their reach. Stroodles’ B2B growth came from cultivating relationships with larger clients and focusing on high-value partnerships.

Lessons Learned: Focus on Big Clients

A key lesson from the Stroodles journey is the importance of focusing on large, high-value clients from the start. While smaller customers are valuable, prioritising the “big fish” could have driven faster, more impactful growth. Additionally, the founder realised that selling experiences rather than just tableware would have been a stronger positioning for the business from the beginning.

Funding: Bootstrapping and Crowdfunding

Stroodles was initially self-funded and later raised £214k through crowdfunding. The lead investor for the crowdfunding campaign came from the founder’s personal network, and the same applied to a small angel round. The rest of the investment was secured through Crowdcube marketing and LinkedIn outreach.

Challenges: Managing Focus Across Diverse Markets

One of Stroodles' biggest challenges has been prioritisation, as the company serves a wide range of clients across different sectors, including hospitals, festivals, bars, and end consumers, for both B2B and D2C. While this diversity is a strength, it makes it difficult to focus on one key market.

Biggest Lessons: Persistence and Serendipity

The founder’s key takeaway is the power of persistence and serendipity. Many of the company’s biggest opportunities came from being in the right place at the right time and hustling through relationships and events. Moving forward, Stroodles will focus on targeting large clients and following through more rigorously with them.

Planning a trip away for business or for pleasure?

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Book your rental here!

The more interactive your marketing is, more often than not the more engaging it is. Gymbox have absolutely nailed this interactive marketing piece.

Gymbox are a health and fitness brand looking to lead the way in the fitness industry, and with this marketing trick, they’ve managed to get people all over the UK to get involved with them.

By taking 2 advertising boards that are side by side, they’ve created a short race track for people to compete against each other on the side of the street. Not only has this brought people from all over to interact with their brand, but it’s also gone crazy on socials!

Can you create a marketing campaign that encourages people to engage with your business in person?

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

Ascent is the sales action tool that builds scalable growth for early-stage businesses. By going through an ultra detailed questionnaire about your current sales practices and processes, Ascent is able to provide you with sales guidance unique to your organisation.

Next week I’ll be highlighting another awesome Start-Up, as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn…