Hey 👋

Welcome back to the Startup Slice!

We wanted to write a quick thank you this week! The response to our newsletter and socials has been amazing. Yesterday we hit 500 followers on LinkedIn 🥳 after only just a few weeks since launching. We really appreciate your support on the journey and hope we can continue to provide you all with value! As mentioned, we always welcome and encourage feedback so hit reply to this email with any thoughts. 💙 

In this week’s newsletter, we’re exploring why doing the important but non urgent things in your business will reap the rewards down the line as well as big moves for the frozen aisle.

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:

🥣 The Good Grain’s tapping into an underrated customer base. Everyone’s dream is to get that supermarket listing but if one big supermarket pulls the plug then you’re toast. GG have done a great job of laying the foundations of their B2B trade by stocking corporate offices. 🔗 read here

🧇 Griddle secured £500k in investment, huge news for the future of the frozen aisle. We think it’s an overlooked category that has bags of growth potential. 🔗 read here

🍳 OGGS rebranded, a rebrand can often be quite daunting. Whether it’s a complete overhaul or a modern refresh it can be difficult. Check out how OGGS used their customers to get the data they needed to make all the difficult decision on rebranding. 🔗 read here 

👀 ICYMI: Brand Moves Worth Watching

🥊 It’s Punchy o’clock in Waitrose. Punchy drinks have been launched at several supermarkets recently and we’ve been impressed at how they’ve been announcing their new listings. The drinks brand collaborated with Waitrose Rushden staff for their launch video. Which was essentially the avengers assembling all the benefits of the drink, hydration, vitamins, real fruit etc. Very engaging way of selling the product 🥳

🎥 The stats are in, newly launched YouTuber brands. Shades by Niko Omilana has sold 1M (yes, 1 million) packets of sweets and Rodd’s 100,000 bottles of iced coffee in just 2 weeks. Crazy numbers and only time will tell if they can sustain this. Creators are stay a valuable outreach for new customers, whether they’re launching they’re own brand or as sponsorships for brands.

💡 Bitesize Playbook for Startups 

Here’s a little secret that can change everything: not all tasks are created equal.

It’s the non urgent, important tasks that often get neglected but these are then tasks that do the most for your business. 

The 80/20 rule (officially called the Pareto Principle) says that 20% of what you do will drive 80% of your results. The trick? Figuring out which 20% matters most, especially when you’re juggling a million things.

At a startup, this can mean that whilst everyone is trying to spread themselves thinly everywhere, instead use the principle to focus on the 20% of the things on the to do list that will drive most of your progress.

For example, let’s say your business is launching a new product. According to this principle, 20% of your planning will contribute to 80% of its success. The idea being that you might have 100 things on your to do list for the launch. But realistically, only 20 of those will contribute to the majority of the launch’s success. The others are nice to have, but not essential.

This principle is a great way to tackle your never ending to do list and make real, tangible impact.

Some examples that you could implement:

• Check your daily to do list, it’s likely that only 20% of the items will actually keep you pushing forward and the others are nice to have.

• Keep strengthening your key customer/business relationships, rather than spreading yourself too thinly across them all.

These tasks don’t always feel urgent or like the most important, but they’re the ones that set you up for real growth. So next time you’re staring at your to-do list, ask: Is this in my 20% that will give me 80% growth?

👉 Work smarter now, so future you can chill (a little).

📌 The Noticeboard

📣 Events/Opportunities 

• Future of Food: Entries are now open for the 2nd Future of Food Competition, a free, inclusive event spotlighting bold ideas that could transform the way we grow, eat, and think about food. Pitch your concept live to industry leaders, connect with top investors and innovators, and compete for prizes at the Grand Final on 27th November 2025 at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Apply now and shape the future of food!

• Taste of London returns to Regent’s Park from 18–22 June 2025, bringing together the city’s top restaurants, chefs, and artisan producers for five days of culinary celebration. Enjoy signature dishes, live entertainment, fire-fueled theatrics, and hands-on workshops in the heart of London. Don’t miss your chance to taste, learn, and experience the best of the capital’s food scene!

📚 Read/Listen

Angela Duckworth is an American academic, psychologist, and popular science author. She’s won multiple awards and is excelling in her field. The key reason we’ve picked her out this week is her book - Grit: Why passion and resilience are the secrets to success. It’s a brilliant book that explores the importance of grit in success, discussing how we can become more gritty and how to implement methods into our own lives. A great read!

⚡️ TL;DR: This Week’s Takeaways

• 🧇 Griddle lands £500k in investment - the frozen aisle heating up

• 🥣 The Good Grain cracks B2B distribution via offices

• 🥊 Punchy launches in Waitrose with a clever collab

• 💡 Startup tip: Focus on the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of growth (Pareto Principle). Work smarter, not harder.

• 📌 Events: Future of Food comp + Taste of London back in June

• 📚 Read of the week: Grit by Angela Duckworth. Passion + perseverance = power

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

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