Growth Conversations: Venturefest South and The UnEDited Podcast launch new series to mark 10 years
Venturefest South is marking its 10th anniversary with a new podcast series, Growth Conversations, made with The UnEDited Podcast. Host Ed Gould sits down wih founders, innovators and investors from across the South to talk honestly about what it really takes to build and grow a business, ahead of the Festival of Innovation at the Utilita Bowl on 18 November.
The latest two episodes
Bootstrapped to £3.5 Million: Sean Larsen on Building Labl.It Without Outside Investment
From flying helicopters to running a laser clay shooting range with a bar attached, Sean Larsen has tried more businesses than most people get round to starting. In the first episode of Growth Conversations, he talks about what happened when all of that experience, and a global pandemic that shut every bar he owned, led him and his co-founders to Labl.It: a device that automates expiry date labelling in commercial kitchens and now works with everyone from the NHS to film set caterers.
Sean talks candidly about building Labl.It to roughly £3.5 million in recurring revenue without ever taking outside investment, why he priced the product at under a pound a day when he had the market to himself, and what he’d tell a 20 year old thinking about starting a business today. He also gets into the pressure AI is putting on software businesses right now, and where he thinks Labl.It’s hardware pivot fits into that.
Spotify
Youtube
Bootstrapped to £3.5 Million: Sean Larsen on Building Labl.It Without Outside Investment
Duration
± 35 minutes
Wildflower Co on Biodiversity Net Gain and Scaling a 20-Year-Old Family Business
James converted part of the family farm from wheat and barley to wildflowers back in 2004, starting with a couple of square metres that didn’t work. Twenty years on, Wildflower Co is one of the best known names in UK wildflower turf, seed and growing medium, supplying everyone from private gardens to housing developers working to meet new biodiversity net gain requirements.
In this episode, James is joined by his son Ollie, who’s spent the last three years bringing the business into its next phase, for a conversation about what it actually takes to scale something built on science, patience and land. They talk about the early growing pains, from chaotic systems to learning how to market a product for the first time, the role R&D and their own seed growing plays in guaranteeing results, and why organic, self-funded growth suited a farming mindset better than chasing investment.
They also get into the realities of a family business handover, Wildflower Co’s expansion into the US and plans for Europe, and why James believes biodiversity net gain could be one of the most useful pieces of regulation UK business has seen, if it’s implemented with enough ambition.
Spotify
Youtube
Wildflower Co on Biodiversity Net Gain and Scaling a 20-Year-Old Family Business
Duration
±52 minutes
For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.
