🚀 Your Weekly Slice of UK Consumer Startups #8

Hey 👋

Welcome back to the Startup Slice!

🥵 The weather in London has hit highs for this year, and we’re loving see brands using this to get out there with customers. Notably, we’ve seen drinks brands offering their ice cold cans to customers on the street (check out our From the Feed section).

Regulars of the newsletter might have noticed a small change to our title this week… this change has come about because we felt that you were missing out on great brand moves and content inspiration. We’ll still have a focus on food & drink, but we’ll spread the net and include moves from wider consumer startups.

Keep an eye out on our LinkedIn this week, Wimbledon is looming and we’ve spied some GREAT tennis-related content from brands 👀 

📱 From the Feed

What we posted on our socials this week:

🚀 FEBE Growth & Watch Lists are out! We picked out the founder-led brands that stood out to us on the Watch List. 🔗 read here.

🍔 Taste of London is over. What a few days. We shared some of our favourite artisan producers. 🔗 read here.

😳 Nuud gum’s unhinged content series. Chewing plastic gum until they have enough to build a coffin out of it. 🔗 read here.

🎶 XOXO Soda x Will Smith. XOXO Soda handed out some cold cans during Will Smith’s surprise performance with DJ AG. 🔗 read here.

👀 ICYMI: Brand Moves Worth Watching

🍺 Days Brewing Wellness Competition: Ice Baths, Runna Membership, Puresport supplements & Hylo running trainers. Increase brand awareness and get associated with other strong brands, brilliant initiative. 🔗 check it out here.

🍹 Pimentae Drinks are dialling up their OOH this summer, with multiple brand activations at 10 festivals across the UK this summer, from Glastonbury to On The Beach. They’ll be out and about directly interacting with their customers and reaching new audiences. It’s a brilliant way to get customers trying your drinks and associate them with having a good time 👀 

💡 Bitesize Playbook for Startups : Bamboo Tree Effect

The bamboo tree effect is a metaphor commonly used to describe the journey to success.

The bamboo tree does a funny thing. Once it’s planted, for around four years after planting the seed you see nothing above ground.

During this time, the bamboo tree is building elaborate root systems underground.

There’s nothing above ground, it seems like it’s not growing.

But suddenly, after five years of seemingly no growth, its grows to 80ft above ground within 6 weeks.

This is often used as a metaphor for success.

You put in the work everyday and see no visible results. For months, or even years of hard work, you put in the late nights and the early mornings. The stressful calls and the endless to do lists.

And suddenly, you have a breakthrough.

People often call it an overnight success, but they didn’t see you building the roots underground.

They didn’t see all the work that’s gone in behind the scenes.

So this is your reminder, every little thing you’re doing behind the scenes is pushing you forward. You might night see the results straight away, put keep pushing along and trust the process. And one day, maybe people will be calling you an overnight success!

📌 The Noticeboard

Your weekly list of things to check out:

📣 Events

• BCB London 30th June - 1st July: where the bar and beverage community gathers to shape the future of drinks. Celebrating premium spirits, innovative products, and international trends, this vibrant event connects UK and global industry professionals through unmatched networking, cutting-edge education, and a showcase of the best in the world of beverages. 🔗 check it out here

• Bread & Jam Fest 15th - 16th July: 400+ pitching slots available to pitch to buyers including Iceland, British Airways, easyJet, Ocado, Harrods & many more. 🔗 sign up here

📚 Read/Listen

Angela Duckworth is a MacArthur “genius” grant winner, researcher, and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. She’s got a TED Talk on YouTube with over 16m views discussing the importance of grit when predicting success. If you’re tight on time give her TED Talk a watch, otherwise we definitely recommend giving her book a read and getting into the detail of the importance of grit and how you can develop it.

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

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