Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
Complete responsibility for Smartex’s Top-Down Strategy - including ecosystem engagement, product development, business model & operations - and Marketing Operations. We're here to upgrade fabric tracking & quality for garment facilities & fashion brands by causing a ripple effect in the fabric supply chain.
Laid the foundations of Smartex's Top-Down Strategy. Engaged & expanded Smartex’s network of innovative garment facilities & brands, designed & executed full supply chain pilots across multi-geographies, and worked with our marketing & sales team to clarify our problem-solution communications. Now let’s scale :)
Fashion For Good is the global initiative to make all fashion good. I managed our Global Innovation Programme and Alumni Network. Our annual bespoke Global Innovation Programme drives 8-12 sustainable and social innovators forward in the fashion industry through developing and project managing pilots with our brand partners (adidas, Levi Strauss & Co, PVH and Kering), matching them with long-term strategic and technical FFG mentors, connecting them with the right financing and promoting their successes through our strong social media channels. I also set-up and managed our Alumni Network, which included over 150 later stage innovators (Renewcell, Natural Fiber Welding, Spinnova and Oritain to name a few) that have come through our Innovation Programme or Projects since our 2017 launch. Focus here was to help these pioneering innovators overcome implementation barriers so they can make sales and create impact. Fashion has to change for us to hit the crucial Paris Climate Agreement targets. Fashion for Good is here to act as a catalyst for that change by sparking and scaling innovation & helping commercialise it.
Growth equity fund that invests £5-£15m in high-growth consumer brands. Highlights include: • Managed origination across a variety of sectors including meditation, behavioural health, eSports, gin and personalisation. Understood market fundamentals, developed bespoke screening criteria and initiated relationships with target companies and key people within the industry. • Led and executed key DD on Taylor & Hart, an engagement ring company, to determine extent of differentiated proposition. Broke down customer journey, performed mystery shop to build hypotheses and validated through customer survey. Conclusions significantly contributed to our £3.6m investment in August 2019.
Managed personal investment portfolio of Karen Jones (hospitality industry entrepreneur). Highlights include: • Prepared Josh Wood Colour for $6.5m investment raise. Compiled business case for external entities, identified key gaps in financial transparency, developed key metrics, found efficiencies to lengthen cash runway. Subsequently increased book value of firm ahead of eventual investment from Index Ventures. • Dropped into distressed group of London cafes. Performed analysis with FD to uncover growing cash hole, which resulted in my strong recommendation to sell £210k Soho site leasehold. CEO and FD agreed. Refinanced company successfully sold in early 2020.
While at Brown University, scaled up a Cape Cod goat farmer’s recipe to create an award-winning hard seltzer most recently valued at $15m in September 2019 Series A. Stepped back after four years to pursue my career aspirations in Europe. Highlights include: • Co-managed our successful $1.5m investment raise at $7m valuation. • Tripled company revenue each year, hitting $750k in 2017. • Won the 2017 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition and ranked in Top 20 at MassChallenge 2017 (out of 128 teams). • Successfully managed 60,000 “exploding” cans that were already in stores and warehouses. Led recall logistics, distributor & retail relationships and PR. Situation sorted quickly and effectively, and saved our first summer of sales.