How to build a brand with £600 from the kitchen table, with Julie Deane OBE, founder of The Cambridge Satchel Company - The Classic Collection

Conversations of Inspiration

Holly Tucker MBE

Education, Business, Society & Culture, Self-improvement, Entrepreneurship, Personal Journals

5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Julie Deane was Holly’s first ever guest and a truly inspirational way to kick off the collection.

Charting the rollercoaster ride that was the meteoric rise of the Cambridge Satchel Company, over the course of their conversation, Holly & Julie talked about the importance of a supportive family and what motivated Julie to start her business. They also delve into the difficulties of scaling a business and how companies change as they grow.

An incredible woman with such drive, a no-nonsense approach, and a brilliant sense of humour, her story will not only resonate with female founders, but as she shares the early stages of founding the company on just £600 this is a story that will ignite the imagination of anyone dreaming of building a life they love and following their passion.

Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? It's worth following Holly Tucker MBE and Holly & Co on Instagram, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter on our website, where Holly downloads her thoughts, and exclusively shares small business finds and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week I'm speaking to the utterly inspiring Julie Dean, founder and CEO of the Cambridge
0:05.8	Satchel Company. One of Britain's most admired entrepreneurs, Julie founded her company,
0:11.9	making quality leather satchels with just one goal to send her children to a better school.
0:18.6	Her satchels became an overnight success where they were spotted on the front rows of New York
0:24.1	Fashion Week and on the arms of countless celebrities. Her bags reached cult status and within the
0:30.7	next few years the company was worth upwards of £50 million. Julie was awarded an OBE,
0:38.4	became the star of Google's moonshot campaign and most importantly she realised the dream of
0:44.5	sending both children to a good school. I travelled to Cambridge to have tea with Julie where we
0:50.6	talked about the roller coaster ride and what it takes to build such an iconic brand. Enjoy!
1:05.0	I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to Conversations of Inspiration. Back in 2006 I founded not on the
1:12.0	high street from my kitchen table and since then I've gone on to launch Holly and Co. I'm the UK
1:18.1	ambassador of creative small businesses and I believe that having a business doing what you love
1:23.7	is the key to a happy fulfilled life. My dream is to help everybody start theirs. I'm here to offer
1:30.8	advice, inspiration, wisdom and encouragement and in my view the best way to do this is by sharing
1:38.8	stories. So I've reached out to my favourite small businesses, entrepreneurs and those who simply
1:45.2	inspire me and ask them to share theirs. Here are my conversations of inspiration.
1:53.2	Julie I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to meet a complete idol of mine and you're a hero
2:00.2	to I know many other women and actually many other mothers. When I told people I was coming to
2:05.2	meet you honestly people just grasped and that is the effect that you have had and I'm sure that
2:13.0	you've been told you'll be called many things wonderful things I'm saying but the queen of
2:18.4	British kitchen table business startups because building a business from a kitchen table I empathise
2:25.2	with that journey but actually you are someone who has gone above and beyond. I just wanted to start
	...

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