Api - Welcome to Home Grown

What do you bring to the club?
I am a brand strategist with a unique perspective. My previous career has given me a deep understanding of human emotions and how to connect with people on a personal level. I also have a strong background in business, which has given me the skills and experience to help businesses succeed. I am excited to join the Homegrown community and share my knowledge and expertise with others.
What makes you unusual?
As a brand strategist with a background in social work, I bring a unique perspective to the table. I understand the importance of emotional connection and how to build brands that resonate with people on a personal level. I teach that branding starts from within, and I can help businesses understand their target audience on a deeper level, develop clear and compelling brand identities, and create effective marketing and branding campaigns. I am confident that I can add value to other savvy business owners and am excited to share my knowledge and expertise with the Homegrown community.
What do you want from the club?
I am particularly interested in collaborating with others to create masterclasses and workshops on the importance of branding. I am also keen to meet with investors who share my passion for building brands that resonate with people on a personal level. I am confident that I can add value to the Homegrown community, and I am excited to see what we can accomplish together."

What do you bring to the club?
From a technical/business perspective, I bring a biomedical engineering background and expertise in taking healthcare products from concept on a lab bench to a product you can test in a human. The very hard-working, ambitious, and yet very friendly community being curated at Home Grown resonates with me and I’m keen to help uphold this through an openness to listen and support other members wherever I can. I'm quite a sociable person and looking forward to spending time with members over a coffee or a few beers/glasses of wine. I’m sure there will be good times to be had at the club!
What do you want from the club?
My interests in the club span formal business all the way to purely social. I want a physical space and access to events where I can network, spend time and learn amongst a strong and respectful business community. Equally, I’m happy to support other entrepreneurs and the wider community wherever I can. I want to see good businesses and people that put in the work succeed. I’m based in Birmingham, but spending more time in London and so a base to hold meetings would be very useful. I like the flexibility at the club to do business and socialise over a few drinks/food in a quality space that everyone respects. I’m looking forward to meeting and socialising with other members from all sectors and backgrounds.

What do you bring to the club?
With over 10 years experience in sourcing and product development within retail, I have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience from design conception to sourcing the right suppliers and supply chain. I started my career and a buyer in the film industry and then transferring to retail, in Habitat. From then, I moved to Saudi Arabia to work on a start up home interiors brand, where I developed a whole homewares department from scratch and when leaving, this was taking in 3 million annually on home accessories alone. I am now known for working with companies to build teams and processes to make an efficient and well oiled department. From this knowledge, I have started my own venture, Milly Sands. Milly Sands is an interior Ceramics and Homewares brand with an ethos to bring diverse culture back home, in a luxurious yet affordable way. Everyday essentials, with a beautiful story to tell. The patterns in each range have been carefully curated from travel inspirations around the world. I also work as a Product Developer, consulting, designing and sourcing interior products from conception to shipping. With this knowledge I can help others who are looking for product development and design, illustrations, interior and graphic design, retail forecasting, wholesale among many other services. I am also, always on the look out for potential customers for Milly Sands and wholesale opportunities. We do bespoke designs and work with a UK supply base for quick, bespoke turnarounds. My goal is for everyone in Home Grown to have their own Milly Sands mug!
What makes you unusual?
I am creative and quirky, always with a smile on my face. I am adaptable to different working ethos and love a challenge. I've been nicknamed 'the Swan' just for my calm nature in stressful situations and crazy workloads. I also have the friendliest dog, 'Beatrice'. She is a Cavapoo with a heart melting smile, so please come up and say hello, we both would love it!
What do you want from the club?
To network with likeminded people. Grow both Milly Sands and my consultancy work and basically be a sponge for knowledge from other members, as well as sharing my own knowledge and experience.

What do you bring to the club?
As a brand strategist, management consultant, board advisor, venture partner and Angel, I’m passionate about helping businesses deliver remarkable brand experiences, and empowering female entrepreneurship. I look forward to meeting founders & funders, particularly those with a mutual interest in health & wellness, longevity, sustainability, and fashion. I’m also keen to contribute to the Home Grown community by sharing my expertise in building remarkable brands.
What makes you unusual?
A former professional ballet dancer turned management consultant, I’ve had the privilege of living and working in 5 countries and partnering with ambitious clients of all sizes and multiple sectors and markets over a 25+ year career in brand building & business transformation. I’ve led a portfolio career over the past decade, running my own strategic consultancy business whilst building a ventures portfolio, mentoring some ambitious female entrepreneurs, writing a book on building extraordinary brand experiences (soon to be published), Guest lecturing in brand management at London Business School, and becoming a certified barre fitness instructor. To say I cannot be boxed into doing just one thing is an understatement! Next in my plan is a return to the stage, as I’d love to get the pointe shoes back on and perform again. It’s never too late to do what ignites the soul :-)
What do you want from the club?
Valuable professional connections, a beautiful and inspiring place to work and play, interesting events to learn something new and motivate me in my personal and professional pursuits. I also very much hope to meet some ambitious female founders and leaders of growth stage companies who would benefit from having a brand builder & customer experience transformationist on the Board!

What do you bring to the club?
From my background in book publishing, I developed an interest in the possibilities of digital publishing, and founded Cooper Digital Publishing. Further toward that goal of seeking new innovations to combine publishing with digital developments, I cofounded Immersive Publishing Ltd, to work with clients and their content, pairing printed material with an added level of augmented reality (AR) function in audio, video, additional text, illustrations, and three-dimension. We imagined how augmented reality could be employed in a number of especially exciting and imaginative ways joined with a wide range of printed material across numerous industries. As a member of Home Grown I hope to offer some ideas and discussion in the application of digital innovation, printing, and publishing.
What makes you unusual?
Maybe not unusual, but my interest in the centuries-old printed word and how to reinvent it for the 21st century, leads me to explore all things related to publishing.
What do you want from the club?
I am especially interested in the Home Grown vision: combining the venue of a club with opportunities to network and meet with those in business and entrepreneurial development.

What do you bring to the club?
With me, you will never have a ‘normal’ chat. I’m always in for a deep and reflective conversation, leaving you in a more apprehensive way or with even more questions than before. But both are fine because out of that awareness or bewilderment new thoughts and insights will arise. And that’s exactly what I see as my reason of existence: to make sure that in every conversation a slight enrichment is made to how someone looks at the world. A small change that will help you take the next step or grow to the next level, on an individual basis and/or with your business.
What makes you unusual?
My view on the world and my conviction of how business should be done. My mom always tells me -surprised- “you still believe in Legoland, don’t you?”. And I do! A world where people, planet, profit and purpose come together seamlessly, is a very reasonable thing in my eyes. So what others think is hard to reach, is just the baseline for me. A baseline to start from, to make a profound impact on the industry and the world you live in, building something for the better for all of us. These strong convictions, combined with my past as an -almost- Olympian athlete, create an attitude of believing that everything is achievable, as long as you believe in it strongly, work hard for it, and get the right support for those things you need to overcome.
What do you want from the club?
Conversations with and stories of true ‘philosopher leaders’: leaders who don’t quote others, but who create and live their own philosophy. Stories are fuel for our souls and seeing the artistry to come up with and create things that have never been done before, make us live in awe for the world. That is exactly what we need more than ever: inspire each other, support each other, and build upon each other. So that’s what I hope to bring to the club, and also receive from the club.

What do you bring to the club?
I bring a different perspective from lots of different experiences. I am passionate about inspiring & empowering people to change the world. People get so overwhelmed by the magnitude of what needs to be done to be more truly inclusive, equitable and diverse, and the easiest things to do is do nothing. I set up 'Purpose Driven Impact' to provide simple solutions and actions you can take in starting to become more inclusive. Simple, no nonsense & non-judgemental training, consultancy, organisational restoration and supporting with strategies for success. I've had a varied career and worked across the UK, USA, Australia & Africa in the commercial sector, professional sport, international development and international sport for development & charity sectors. As former CEO of Special Olympics Great Britain, I led a major transformational change programme culminating in a new strategic plan called “Inclusion in Action” which sets the roadmap for the future of the organisation. I am passionate about inclusion, diversity and belonging and creating inclusive environments which inspire people to be the best they can be. I bring some great stories and expertise to assist with breaking down barriers and helping people to make small changes which will have a huge impact. If nothing else, I bring an Irish Mancunian sense of humour!
What makes you unusual?
I am so uncool, that I am probably cool! I can drive a tractor & a digger, and once assisted a vet with a c-section on a cow (my folks have a farm in Ireland). I played football for Man United ladies in my youth, I was an Irish Dancer before it was cool, I brought the King & Queen of Lesotho to a T20 Cricket Match in Durham and I've been the only female president of a professional football club in an African country!
What do you want from the club?
I want to have some interesting conversations which light a spark. I'd like develop relationships and network with people who also want to change the world. If I can help people to look at creating more inclusive and diverse environments in a different way and inspire people to take action, then I will be happy. As a new business owner with huge ambitions to develop my business, Purpose Driven Impact, I want to be in a position to create paid employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for those who live with an intellectual (learning) disability, and create more environments and platforms where they can share their inspiring and empowering stories. Collaboration, Networking, Storytelling, Inspiring & Empowering.

What do you bring to the club?
An unquenchable appetite to always be at the leading edge of innovative best practice in digital marketing and to share that knowledge and expertise with the club, so our businesses can all thrive together. We put that into practice everyday as Home Grown’s digital marketing agency, looking after all aspects of the club’s email marketing, social media, SEO and PPC strategy.
What makes you unusual?
I’m good at being unusual! I’ve managed to turn a hobby into a source of income. I started my digital marketing journey at the age of 13 as a hobby to help out my mum and that has grown into Fast Online Marketing Experts. But I’m also unusual in the sense that my work is about more than just gaining an income. I want to make a difference, too. So, I also invest a lot of my time in eco-friendly living through the Eco Bravo business I run with my mum, and I’m committed to helping women to be successful in business by developing the FOME Female brand that’s dedicated to supporting female entrepreneurs through marketing.
What do you want from the club?
It’s not just about the business opportunities, important though they obviously are; it’s also about the access I have to my fellow club members – all of them remarkable entrepreneurs who together boast an exceptional range of knowledge, skills and expertise. Being part of the club means that every day feels like having an army behind me.

What do you bring to the club?
I have a trusted network of proven people who can help any business owner from their current focus or challenge to the life they are in business to achieve. Feel free to reach out and I'm happy to share as relevant. I'm a business planning & growth specialist and owner, with a vision to build a community of like-minded business owners all helping each other to succeed. I invest extensively in my development and am happy to share resources with anyone in the club who would like a coffee or drink. If you are struggling with your time, frustrated at the pace of growth or returns from business (profit and value) let me know and you'll get some help.
What makes you unusual?
I live by the Law of Precession. If I help enough business owners to succeed and achieve their goals, I'll be more successful than if I focus on my own success. It's worked so far! Also, that winning is always a team game, on my own is the harder expensive way. I'm also a QPR season ticket holder, quite unusual even in West London...
What do you want from the club?
To support my vision of building a community of like-minded business owners, all helping each other to succeed. Help others where it is welcome and to learn from others to accelerate my growth. The club is somewhere to meet and share my own network of clients and partners, host events and conduct business based on trusted relationships.

What do you bring to the club?
Huckleberry Sport are global search specialists, mainly across Digital, Creative, Commercial & Tech with an enviable client list in the Sports & Gaming Industry. We place the best talent, with the best clients within Motorsports, Football, esports, Athletics, Golf, Sports Betting and Media Agencies, to name but a few! Myself and my team would love to support the HG community with any recruitment needs they might have, or happy to make any suitable introductions to our networks that might help your own businesses. Especially anyone looking to invest in exciting businesses from the sport and entertainment sector. I’m looking forward to meeting some new interesting people and seeing how we can help each other’s businesses thrive.
What makes you unusual?
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What do you want from the club?
2020 gave Huckleberry an opportunity to work differently and we embraced this, the HG/HH collection met all of our needs and was a no brainer for us! With this option, we can still offer a safe space for our clients and candidates to meet us face to face, and more importantly give our staff a better work/life balance having the option of both ‘their home’ or ‘home grown’ to work from. Having already introduced some business friends to the club who have since become members, I think the next year is going to be great fun! Huckleberry Sport also partner wish a consultancy who have an investment portfolio for anyone looking to invest in exciting businesses from the sport and entertainment sector. I’d be happy to make introductions to anyone from the HG community looking to invest in any of these businesses.

What do you bring to the club?
Huckleberry Recruitment are global Media, Entertainment & Tech talent search specialists, working with many of the household names bringing entertainment & technology into our homes. These include major Hollywood film studios, computer gaming giants, children’s entertainment brands, smart-tech start-ups & agencies. Both myself & my team are keen to help support the Home Grown community with their talent needs, as well as meet interesting people & have a lot of fun along the way!
What makes you unusual?
We all know how easy it is to get carried away in the noise of business, so for the last 5 years, I’ve always taken every Tuesday out to volunteer at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, as a “buddy” playworker on a ward for respiratory illnesses. The patients, families and staff there are simply inspiring & you can’t help but leave feeling humbled.
What do you want from the club?
2020 gave us the motivation to reflect on the way we do business & whether we could do more to promote a work/life balance with Huckleberry. When given all the options, our team unanimously decided a blended approach of remote working & Home Grown would be the best way forward. Since joining the club, we’ve managed to maintain collaboration & our company culture, as well as increase in productivity. More of that please!

What do you bring to the club?
I work with individuals, teams and organisations who are motivated to become more successful at making changes in their lives. My aim - and my passion - is to help people become more resilient and adaptable in the face of life’s stresses, adversity and trauma. By unblocking self-limiting barriers and empowering people to think clearly, feel positively and act purposefully we can transform performance and achieve positive, lasting change. So, if you’re finding lock-down tough, or would like to understand more about how to make change happen, then, by all means, get in touch.
What makes you unusual?
I seem to have developed a skill for bouncing back, re-inventing myself and also working with others in some very demanding contexts. I started out as a social worker working in the child protection arena prior to setting up services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Since then, I’ve lived a life of change, working in management consulting, financial services and innovative technology firms. I’ve come full-circle and I’m excited to transition one last time to launch my new business which is dedicated to helping others change and flourish.
What do you want from the club?
As a people person, I’m looking to build relationships based on trust and curiosity. When circumstances allow, and preferably over a good bottle of red, I’d love to meet, share stories and hear the adventures of my fellow members.

What do you bring to the club?
Proud to be an Ambassador of Home Grown and to have run several webinars with the club on strategy and growth. We are planning to make our Scale-UP Growth Diagnostic available to members during Spring 2021.
What makes you unusual?
I am a seriel idiot, having founded 7 businesses over 45 years. I am currently CEO of BoardroomAdvisors.co which provides part-time Directors for growing businesses. These can be NEDs and Chairs but our biggest piece is actually part-time finance, marketing, sales, operations and even managing directors - anything from 1 day/month to 3 days/week. Our clients are scale-ups and family businesses who need director-level advice but dont want, need or cant yet afford a full time person. I have been a judge for National Business Awards, Amazon Scale-Up, IoD Dragon's Den, etc and a speaker at many conferences and exhibitions generally around entrepreneurship, strategy, growth, funding and exit. I am based in Bristol but love staying when I come to town. You may also see my son James Courtney of Lux Rewards around the club - probably more frequently than me.
What do you want from the club?
I love meeting entrepreneurs and investors, connecting people from my extensive network built over the 109 years I have been in business.

What do you bring to the club?
Originally from Cape Town South Africa where he studied hospitality, Duncan has more than two decades of global luxury hospitality experience. During his career Duncan was a member of the pre-opening and opening team at the now famed Corinthia Hotel London where he held multiple roles. Duncan has also held roles with Jumeirah and St. Pancras Renaissance and more recently he played a key role in the rebrand, repositioning and launch of the highly successful luxury lifestyle boutique hotel The Trafalgar St. James. Throughout his career Duncan has been privileged to work alongside some of the most exceptional hoteliers and has also developed long-standing, close relationships with clients and partners across multiple sectors. Duncan believes that by leveraging past experience and continuing to build on existing relationships, @luxurylondonguy is perfectly poised to provide tailored and individual support to each of our clients.
What makes you unusual?
With over 25 years of experience in global luxury hospitality coupled with an entrepreneurial mindset I bring desire, hunger and passion for the travel sector to investors, entrepreneurs and idea creators allowing them to focus on what they do best. I do this by providing hassle free travel planning with an understanding of what is important to a start up or business going through a growth phase.
What do you want from the club?
I seek connections and opportunity to take my existing travel company to the next level.

What do you bring to the club?
The opportunity for change we face right now is to create brands that matter. I am available to any entrepreneur that is looking to create positive disruption so that the world we live in is a better place for future generations.
What makes you unusual?
At a business level, I have created over 570 brands in the last 35 years and in doing so I have become a specialist generalist. This experience has enabled me to advise over 20 boards including getting one to listing on the Frankfurt exchange and invest in a number of businesses. I also am priviledged to be carrying the work forward of The Brand Bucket, a proven way for organisations to become marketing led. At a personal level I work on two probono projects a years. I am a Founder Freeman of The Company of Entrepreneurs, with roles on The Court, in Outreach and for Sponsorship of The Company.( do ask if you want to access to entrepreneurs in the CIty). My second role is to fund the construction of a school in East Africa which I am increasingly close to being able to do. Finally I am a huge fan of Disney, ride a Vespa scooter, adore skiing and collect fossils with over 10,000 in my collection. OK, I know what you are thinking but try and reserve judgement until we have met.
What do you want from the club?
There is much work to be done to help the next generation of enterpreneurs.Given the knowledge economy it is not acceptable for early stage businesses to make the mistakes that I have made in running a successful business. They need to be making new mistakes no-one has made before. For me the club will become a safe place to share ideas, find help and be of help to others in return. That would make me feel at home.

What do you bring to the club?
I bring two different design solutions to the members of Home Grown ... • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- Through Eau Rouge Ltd. I create strategic, targeted and beautifully designed branding for businesses, plus any ongoing graphic design for print. I also design and build gorgeous and modern Squarespace websites. My websites are future-proof - We could start with a simple site designed to appeal to your target audience, and then - if and when it suits the business - add features such as a shop, a blog, a newsletter, or paid-for content in a membership area. I design websites that my clients can totally edit and update themselves, without it getting all too techie, or having to pay to outsource minor changes. • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- • -•- • -•- •• -•- As Jade Thomas Jewellery, I design one-off pieces of luxury jewellery, featuring diamonds and rare or unusual coloured gemstones. I have a range of ready-to-wear pieces on my website, but I also design bespoke commissions and redesign inherited jewels into new pieces.
What makes you unusual?
With my design business, the answer is that I'm able to step into the mindset of your ideal clients really quickly, in order to create designs that appeal to them. With my jewellery, most of my gems are so traceable that I can tell you the exact day and location they were discovered and show you an image of how each gemstone looked before cutting and polishing. They are truly one-offs and make amazing gifts or a treat to celebrate a success!
What do you want from the club?
Firstly, having a beautiful, safe and central location in which to meet clients or simply use as a base when in London is a fabulous benefit to me and my businesses. It's also an inspiring place to meet business owners and entrepreneurs, and it is so, so much nicer than staying in a random hotel room on my own - I've also made some fab friends here! The staff are wonderful, friendly and I'm so happy to be a member. Whilst we've all been at home the webinars have been inspiring and thought-provoking, but I look forward to staying at HG again when possible.

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