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Join us in this great opportunity to meet like-minded people and learn more about what it takes to start a sustainable arts business.
Start-up Stars is a series of quarterly events where scale-up graduates from the Get Ready for Business Growth programme and our previous scale-up programme share their expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sector.
This event will be a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and learn more about what it takes to start a successful arts business.
Book Here
Do you want your creative business to be more eco-friendly? Perhaps you’re looking to start-up but want to build in purpose from day one. Whether you’re sustainability-lead or just looking for tips on how to be greener our next Start Up Stars event will have something to inspire you.
Rasheed Ogunlaru talks with our panel of four business owners who have put sustainability at the heart of their small businesses; from upcyclers and activists, to business owners who have found small changes make a big difference. Join us to learn how they started sustainably and get some top tips on how you could do it too.
Get ready to be inspired and learn how others have succeeded in this challenging industry!
Speakers:
Deepak Ravindran | Co-Founder at Oddbox
Deepak co-founded Oddbox, with a core mission to cut food waste in the supply chain by connecting farmers directly with consumers. He focuses on new business development and is working on bringing own branded CPGs to the market.
As a certified B Corp, Oddbox underscores its commitment to environmental and social responsibility, having saved the equivalent of 96 million meals (over 40,000 tonnes of fruit & veg) .
The company collaborates with charities like Fareshare and CityHarvest to distribute surplus produce to those in need.
With Series B funding, Oddbox has delivered 8 million boxes to over half a million customers nationwide, proving that a sustainable business can also be scalable and impactful.
Two lives is a purpose-led brand and a consultancy delivering projects for clients that span from ideation, design, product development, sourcing, production coordination, supply chain management to manufacturing.
Having worked for a vast array of international companies such as Levi’s, Allsaints, DC Shoe Co., Quiksilver, Timberland and Abercrombie & Fitch, Niklas has an in-depth understanding of the industry and the technicalities of the corporate world. His expertise lies in design, creative direction, brand strategy, trend analysis, sourcing, product development, and project management. With a passion for brand building, he has an understanding of what the journey of building a start-up into a large organisation entails – a clear vision, mission and putting systems in place to enable scalability and growth.
Ben Goldsmith is the Director of Designs Woodcraft Ltd, which was founded in 2021, following a lifelong passion for creative carpentry. He previously spent over 20 years in the Hospitality Industry in varying roles, including heading up award-winning restaurants, before moving onto Operations Director within multi-faceted business across hospitality, retail and FMCG. However, following Covid he decided to make changes to have a more fulfilling work life and to focus on his true passion, woodwork.
Design Woodcraft’s main priority has always been to ensure that every piece of furniture is manufactured and installed to absolute perfection, using local sustainable woods to produce artisan pieces for both individual clients and the Retail and Hospitality industries. Based in the South Downs, their ethos is to use local timber, so they work alongside the Farm Estate that their business workshop is situated in to mill their own timber off the local land to use within their creations.
This event will be moderated by Rasheed Ogunlaru, coach, speaker and author.
The event will take place on Zoom and you will be sent the access link 24 hours before the start of the event.
The panel will also be on hand to answer any questions you have. If you would like to submit a question, please email it ahead of time to start-ups@bl.uk.
