🚀 Your Weekly Slice of Food, Drink & Wellness Startups #5

Hey 👋

Welcome back to the Startup Slice!

From donut collabs to startup drama, we’re breaking down the brand moves worth watching. Including why being founder-led isn’t always a flex, and a few things from the feed you might’ve missed. Let’s get into it.

If you’re tight on time, there's a 15-second TL;DR at the bottom 👇

📱 From the Feed

What we posted on our socials this week:

🍫 Pip & Nut move into chocolate hazelnut spreads. Just like they helped clean up the peanut butter aisle, they’re now tackling a palm-oil-heavy category with a plant-based, 63% nut, 0% palm oil alternative, powered by ethical cocoa 🔗 read here

🍩 Black Milk x Krispy Kreme. The pistachio overload donut of dreams launched into Tesco express sites 🔗 read here

👀 ICYMI: Brand Moves Worth Watching

⛳️ Drinks brands out and about at a golf championship. This week, The MANORS Championship (a golf championship held in Bristol) delivered a day to remember with several startup brands involved. Despite the rain, 88 golfers with a strong lineup of partners managed to create some great moments. Brands included Rekt & Botivo. It was a perfect blend of sport, style and community. More evidence that smart brand activations can work wonders when getting you up front with your target audience.

💡 Bitesize Playbook for Startups : The double-edged sword of being founder-led

You’ve probably seen Odd Muse on your feed. Clean aesthetics, structured tailoring, and a strong slow fashion stance. Aimee Smale (Founder & CEO) kicked it off as a TikTok side hustle during lockdown. Fast forward to now, she has stores in London & NYC, 50+ employees, £22.5m revenue, £3m profit in 2024.

The brand’s been all about “slow fashion ” with dresses starting at £125+ and a promise of better-made fashion with higher quality materials and a sustainability focus. Aimee’s the face, voice, and engine of the brand. From TikToks to podcasts, she’s documented it all from supplier hunts, strategy pivots, big wins to breakdowns. It's textbook founder-led brand building, and it’s worked… until now?

💥 What Went Down

Odd Muse’s recent US launch brought a new crowd and new criticism. A popular (and brutal) TikToker known for calling out greenwashing set her sights on Aimee, accusing the brand of overstating sustainability claims. She picked apart the materials, the marketing, and the mismatch between brand promise and product reality.

Cue the backlash. Hundreds of videos, heated comments, and accusations of greenwashing. Aimee was personally dragged into it all. Why? Because when you are the brand, you can’t hide behind it.

🚨 The Lesson

Being strongly associated with a business builds trust, but it also concentrates risk. And this is the case whether you’re the founder or an employee of a startup. You’re not just building a business; you’re building a public persona that’s tightly tied to your startup’s reputation. Which means when one comes under fire, the other does too.

🧠 What do we think?

Founder-led brands are definitely trending, and slowly becoming a norm. They can drive growth, loyalty, and social traction. But don’t romanticise it. If you or your brand catch heat, the fallout is shared. Being front and centre means you're always in the firing line. It can be high risk, high reward.

📌 The Noticeboard

📚 Read/Listen

Simon Squibb. You’ve probably seen him pop up on your feed, the guy who stops people on the street and asks, “What’s your dream?” Or the one with the Ring doorbell where people pitch their startup ideas.

He’s built a platform around backing entrepreneurs, sometimes literally handing out cash to help them get started. Worth a follow if you haven’t already. Inspiring stories, unexpected moments, and the occasional funding opportunity.

⚡️ TL;DR: This Week’s Takeaways

• ⛳️ Brand activations out and about directly with customers are still thriving, recently multiple startup drinks brands appearing at The Manors Championship

• 🚨 Founder-led brands: blessing or curse? Odd Muse’s US launch sparks greenwashing drama, reminding us that when you're the face of a brand, you're also the target.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition! As mentioned, check out our LinkedIn for more regular updates.

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