We are delighted to be launching season five of the Piper podcast, How I Grew My Brand Legend. Since 2019, our host ITV news anchor Mary Nightingale has dug deep into the founder stories of the UK’s best loved brands. This season is no exception with the incredible founders of Little Moons, Curlsmith, Skin & Me, ME+EM, our partner brand The Thinking Traveller, and our very own Crispin Twedell, Chairman of Flat Iron and founder of Pitcher & Piano, Turtle Bay and of course Piper.
Across all our episodes, founders speak about overcoming personal and business challenges with a sense of purpose. This is definitely the case for the founders in the first episode, siblings Vivien and Howard Wong of Little Moons. Referencing our concept of 7, 17, 70, they talk about their exciting yet challenging Covid experience, growing from £9 to £27m in less than a year and powering through an inflection point that most business have years to navigate.
When their mochi ice cream brand went viral during lockdown, they had to sprint to meet demand despite social distancing and supply chain issues. It wasn’t something they could plan for. They reveal the struggles of having to increase production to an almost 24-hour day and hiring hundreds of people with no training processes in place. But riding this incredible surge in popularity wasn’t an option, they had to do it. Luckily, they not only had each other and support from their teams but a non-executive director who was able to pull on a black book of experts and whose advice and experience helped guide them to success.
Finally, they talk about what success means to them, something we ask all founders. For Vivien and Howard, coming from a family business and learning to work together as siblings, success is having their work create joy in their lives, about having time for life and family, to have purpose in work and find fulfilment from it, and being proud of their` business and continually improving and growing. This is exactly what they want their customers to experience, little moments of joy, created by a bite of mochi ice cream.
To hear this and so much more, you can find the podcast here and on all major podcast apps. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be releasing the rest of season five over the coming weeks.
