| There's no one way to start something – and that's what we're focused on today. A run club can become a talent agency, a coffee business can be the launch pad for an olive oil business and a love for data and illustration can turn into producing television. Plus, we go deep into what it takes to grow a business with three founders on the rise. *Special thanks to our sponsor Guru Conference. | | | 01. Paris-based Ruddy Trobrillant had 1,000 Instagram followers when Nike slid into his DMs. Now he has a running club meets talent agency. More here.
02. She's won a Pulitzer Prize and has an A24 documentary series coming out – all because she's illustrating data to an entirely new audience. From New York City, check out our exclusive interview and shoot with Mona Chalabi.
03. We brought together founders from completely different industries to talk about what it's really like to grow your own business. Everything from when to make the jump to getting your personal branding right (without making you cringe). The two-hour conversation also covers the late nights, the lonely moments, the times you have to check yourself. Featuring floral designer Emily Davies, chef and recipe developer Ben Lippett, product designer Andu Masebu and Courier's editor John Sunyer. Excerpts below (and full online feature here).
Ben 'Pain points come from the confidence, or lack of confidence, around knowing when it's time to take the leap. I'm still figuring out how to manage feelings like: "I feel secure. I can do this".'
Andu 'I actually need people to tear me down a little bit, to be honest. It's easy for people to tell you, "Oh, that's sick!" But I find it's hard to use that comment to push yourself forwards.'
Emily 'There are certain people in my life who, when I've turned to them, they're actually quite harsh. But overall I'm grateful for these kinds of responses, rather than being surrounded by yes people.'
John 'Agree. And there are times when people tell you they love something and it makes you think, "Huh, maybe this isn't very good after all." Because the thing they like about it misses the point. Or you receive lots of positivity about work you spent less time and effort on over work you put your heart into.' | | | Elevate your email marketing Are your email marketing strategies feeling a bit stale? It's time to level up! Join us for a career-altering two-day virtual experience at GURU Conference, tailored for marketers like you. No more guesswork, just real results. Register now for FREE and take your email marketing to the next level. Don't wait, register now! | | | 04. Cooking and fishing on the coastline of Marseille with one of France's most exciting chefs, Livingston's Valentin Raffali: 'My clients are always much richer than me,' he says whilst casting lines with no returns (fishing was Courier's idea 😳) . 'But I feel loaded in other ways. I love what I do and get to share it with my friends.' Full interview here.
05. Sticking with food… Plant-based chef Tara Thomas has created a career around food, fashion and creativity. She's a part-time model, co-founder of community food initiative Breaking Bread NYC and Chaotic Abundance Hospitality – a recent project included playful botanical popcorn boxes for fashion brand Essential Antwerp's New York store opening.
06. You can do a lot more than move with a big van – take Brooklyn-based Gerald Ortiz, who was looking to get rid of a collection of vintage furniture and clothes when he realized he could rent a van both for transportation and to set up shop. U-Mall is the result.
07. Another new way into vintage: the female-centric football and fashion platform systemarosa. Co-founder Naomi Accardi tells us, 'The blokecore trend is bursting and non-football fans are interested in incorporating kits into their wardrobes. Fashion brands are capitalizing through collaborations. Still, what really bothered us was that none of the vintage platforms catered to a female audience.'
The bigger vision, she says, is to 'create an ecosystem where football, fashion and community can thrive, giving people the opportunity to learn about the culture of the game and its design codes – it's what makes football such an interesting sport. We plan on working with designers and brands to create small, exclusive capsules that carry specific narratives.'
08. Another female-focused brand on our radar: DOLLY by stylist Molly Dilkes, who also designs tour merch for musician Olivia Dean. Inspired by the British seaside with a mid-2000s Hawaiian print twist and meant to be wearable by all (she even featured her 92-year-old grandmother wearing one of her patterned button ups), her collection debuted at Dover Street Market.
09. Irem Erdem was based in Berlin and working in marketing but found herself traveling outside the city more and more, especially drawn to cold locations and big treks. Soon she was planning trips for friends: 'It led to me thinking, ok why don't I take it to another level and make a business out of it?' Now she's launched Iremtour, where she leads trips and provides travel consulting. Multi-day hikes where people can 'bond with nature more and explore things about themselves' are her signature – she recently summited the Lobuche East peak in Nepal.
10. Related: the crossover between fashion and the outdoors is getting more specialized: technical Italian brand ROA is doing plenty of collabs at the moment. It teamed up with Aries on hiking boots a few weeks ago and just released some recovery clogs with Crocs.
11. An unexpected area getting a slightly NSFW treatment: baking. Flouxus Food just published its first cookbook, Recipes for Kinksters, featuring photography by Louie Van Nieuwenborgh, who's an active member of Berlin's renowned kink scene. Think: a loaf of chickpea flour gingerbread held in latex gloves. | | | Portfolios with 5% invested in art outperform How is the average person supposed to get access to an asset that has been the exclusive domain of the ultra-rich for centuries? The answer is Masterworks, an award-winning platform for investing in fractionalized works of art. Masterworks has completed 14 exits on their artwork, all of them profitable. See important Regulation A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd. Skip the waitlist. | | | 12. Set within the coastal redwood forests in California with Pacific Ocean waves in the distance, Salmon Creek Farm is spread out over sloping ground with orchards, organic vegetable and flower gardens. Eight mostly wonky, brightly painted wooden cabins – that recently became available to rent – are also dotted around the grounds. It's a homestay, an art residency and in multidisciplinary artist founder Fritz Haeg words, 'a queer-friendly farm-homestead-sanctuary-school hybrid' continuing the legacy of the area's hippie communes. We take a look inside.
13. A few years ago Michael Allpress sold his London-based coffee business for big bucks, and moved back to New Zealand to set up an olive grove on Waiheke Island. The resulting olive oil business also has holiday homes on site for people to rent, with plans for a tasting room, restaurant, meeting spaces and an event stage for an outdoor amphitheater.
14. Speaking of olive oil… we noticed a rise in independent brands that are taking a different route from the big legacy players. Think: premium packaging, lots of certifications, a story about the farmers who planted the trees. See: Unto, Branche and Masseria. 'We're going through our pantry staples, the things that we use every day, and starting to wonder where they came from,' says Citizens of Soil founder Sarah Vachon.
15. West Town Bakery in Chicago – a long-standing neighborhood cafe and bakery – just released a line of cannabis cake mixes, from pot brownies to spiked confetti cake. Yet another case study in how to take advantage of the legal weed boom, without just selling joints.
16. Emily Janus and Grace Ko used to stuff toilet paper in their ears to try and prevent sound damage while partying at loud clubs. Today, they're the founders of the earplugs brand Sets. The pair found success through high quality specs (unlike foam earplugs, their earplugs let in sound clearly), clever design (including a slick aluminum carrying case) and by selling where their customers were likely to be post gigs – like at a burger shop that stays open until 4am. Now Sets is expanding to the UK and Europe – and guess what, for those passing through London, they're also stocked at Courier Coffee (211 Hackney Road). | | | More from us (and elsewhere) 🥶 Cold plunges are hot in the business world.
📚 Literary it girls are redefining the book launch.
🛍 The rise of the 'zero consumer'.
🥫 How cans became cool.
💵 Why the US can't quit tipping. | | | | |
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