In Startups.co.

uk

Bigger Feet
A 16-year-old entrepreneur in the media glare, Oliver Bridge is keeping his feet on the
ground
Many of us can see business opportunities that arise from every-day frustrations. It takes a shrewd
entrepreneur to exploit such gaps in the market. When you achieve this when you are just 16 years
old, however, its little surprise that the media beat a path to your door.
Oliver Bridge, a schoolboy from Cambridgeshire, has found himself in front of the cameras of the BBC
and CNN, as well as seen his face staring back at him from various newspapers, since starting up
Bigger Feet earlier this year. Despite his tender years, Bridge has not been daunted by the exposure
he has gained, displaying a business brain that belies his years. He has a plan and has put it into
place and he understands that gaining good publicity is an important part of that plan.
Were not interested in getting a venture capitalist on board, because they would want a big part of
the business, but there are other avenues (to expanding the business), he tells Startups.co.uk,
matter-of-factly. We could get a private investor on board by saying, weve been on the BBC and
CNN and got massive coverage - do you want a piece of the pie?
Bigger Feet is an online shoe retailer for people who are larger than average below the ankle. The
business was born from Bridges own frustrating experiences.
I was sitting in a shop saying its annoying that I couldnt get any shoes and that someone should sell
them, he explains. My mum just said, why dont you just start up your own business then? When I
thought about it, I thought, yes, thats a possibility.
As I know someone who has set his own business (Paul Wilkinson, who is now Bridges business
partner and adult guarantor for banks who get jumpy dealing with under-18s they cant retrieve money
from) it was a bit more realistic, its not one of those millionaire things you will never be able to reach.
So I thought Id give it a go.
After realising that several people at school also required large shoes, Bridge dug up some research
and found that about a million people in the UK have large feet men over the size of 12 and ladies
upwards of size nine. He decided to go for it.
At first I was a bit worried, I thought I wouldnt be able to run the business and do my schoolwork at
the same time and that I should put it off until I was older, he confesses. But I thought I should go for
the opportunity, it cant do any harm, its not going to cost that much money and if it gets too busy, we
can always hire staff.
Theres been a great response, theres only been a few comments about my age. People seem to
treat me as an adult and, if anything, they respect me more because Im young and going for it.
Setting up in the family home with a small office space to store the shoes, Bigger Feet could be held
up by internet providers as a demonstration of the low-cost flexibility of the web.
So far, weve only put 4,000 into the business from our savings, which is a really tight budget,
Bridge says. A website allows you to put something across very professionally at a very low cost. Our
website probably rivals a medium sized business, when in fact were working from a tiny office.
Its so flexible. Because its all internet-based, we are going on holiday to Barcelona in a couple of
weeks and we are going to be running the company from Spain.
When you hear about the deal Bridge cut with a wholesaler to supply him with shoes, its again hard
to believe he cant yet legally vote or drink. After going to various trade shows in the UK and Europe,
he agreed with UK Distributors to sell him shoes as and when he needs them. He therefore rarely has
more than 30 or 40 pairs of shoes in his possession, cutting down on overspend.
Because we werent ordering massive quantities in advance, they said that would be OK, we are not
a credit risk to them, Bridge explains. We are only placing relatively few orders so if it all goes belly
up, they are only going to lose a bit of money.
We get them in as we need them, so we cut down on liability. If we get no orders for a month, all it
costs us is out phone bill we wont go out of business, well be stagnant for a month.

A significant headache for Bridge has been the reluctance of Nike and Reebok to supply him with
trainers. Despite approaching them directly, he got short shrift.
They didnt want to hear it at all, he says. We went up to a representative of Reebok at a trade
show and he gave us a business card and basically told us to get lost.
We wrote a few letters to Nike, and they just shoved us from department to department. The big
brands arent interested in small business because they think it tarnishes their image.
Its silly really, they should be selling to everyone they find, because ultimately people are going to
get hold of Nikes directly or indirectly. They would surely make a better profit if they sold directly to
us.
The media interest (and Google advertising) has understandably boosted sales the 10 previous to
this interview generated 2,500 of business, compared to the 15 sales in the first 10 days of trading.
Bridge insists Bigger Feet is a friendly, personal company and has certainly benefited from the niche
market and cheap prices he is able to generate, although he insists on quality We dont import stuff
from China thats rubbish.
With his family happy to step into the breach when his workload increases with A-levels and an array
of impressed school friends, Bridge would be forgiven for thinking he has a career made. But he plans
to go to university before making any decisions.
The business may be able to pay off my tuition fees, which would be great, he says. I dont think
that it will grow into a multi-million pound business empire, although you never know there arent
many big shoe retailers out there.
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In Startups.co.uk

The App Factory: David Carter

The 18-year-old college student on why conquering the mobile apps industry is just
the first step in his entrepreneurial plan
Tell us what your business does: The App Factory is a mobile application development business.
Along with building applications for our clients we also have our own portfolio of applications.
Worldwide we are a well-known developer on the Android platform, having brought over 70 of our own
applications to that platform alone. We build applications for the following platforms and devices:
iPhone, iPad, Google Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and
Amazon Kindle.
Where did the idea for your business come from? I had heard of applications on the iPhone that
had downloads in the thousands for $0.99 per download. When you do the maths you can tell it is a
way to make money and in the long term a business based around that. At the start it was simply a
way to make some money, as things grew I began to build a business around it.
What were you doing before starting up? Im currently a student at Manchester College, coming to
the end of my course. I have, in the past, worked at a waiter, cleaner, and office temp. From these
jobs I acquired the money needed to start the business.
Have you always wanted to run your own business? The ownership attached to running my own
business appealed to me greatly. I have a greater choice of what I should spend my time doing, which
is obviously an appealing factor to anyone.
What planning did you do before you started up? I spent some time looking through the most
popular applications on all mobile platforms. This gave me an idea as to what would sell well, and
generally what appealed to people the most. I think it is very important however to just get started.
Too many people spend all their time saying Im going to. or once we do this. without ever
actually getting down to it. Planning is vital but it is only the preview to the main event, which is
actually doing something.
Where is your business based? I run the business from my bedroom. At the moment I love my work
so I dont really see home and work life as separate, which can be a good and bad thing at times. I
aim to spend a set amount of time working each day on the business, then a set amount of time with
my family.

How have you promoted your business? Thus far I have done little promotion. Companies such as
Apple and Google who carry our apps on their devices tend to do great jobs of advertising our apps
themselves. However as the business has now developed, we are looking at new promotional
methods which look positive.
What about staff? I initially employed college students, however as the complexity of the applications
increased I had to seek out professional developers. I enjoy working with others in my business. I
learn a great deal from those who work with me. Without their help my business, without a shadow of
doubt, would not exist today.
What has your growth been like? I started 2 months ago with no development experience or
knowledge of the area. All I knew was people download applications and paid per download. From
this I have created, to my knowledge, the second largest portfolio of applications on Google Android
powered phones the number one company is a large software organisation based in Los Angeles. I
now have client work from very well established companies within the UK and abroad. Growth has
been amazing, especially considering I have done this while in full-time education.
What was your first big breakthrough? The day a senior manager at a FTSE 100 company invited
me to lunch to talk about my business was a turning point for me. I realised I must have grown this
into something fairly impressive if it was catching that kind of attention.
Where do you want to be in five years time? For anyone reading this they may think Im a
technology person, but really I have no attachment to a particular industry. In the future Ill probably
try things in other sectors. Im always keen to learn about new business models and therefore it is
hard to say where Ill be in five years time. In terms of an exit for The App Factory I currently have
nothing planned as Im very much still building it.
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In GreenSavers.sapo.pt - ECONOMIA VERDE, PORTUGAL - Publicado 28 Fevereiro de 2014

Letra, a cerveja artesanal minhota

Em 2010, Filipe Macieira e Francisco Pereira, colegas da Universidade do Minho, comearam a
pensar numa cerveja artesanal, made in Minho. Quatro anos depois, o sonho est a comear: os dois
investigadores do mestrado integrado em Engenharia Biolgica na Universidade do Minho so
os proprietrios da Letra, uma cerveja artesanal minhota lanada em Outubro.
S utilizamos materiais naturais e no fazemos nenhum tipo de adio para estabilizar nem ajudar
na fermentao. Todo o acar fermentado proveniente do cereal e o prprio gs 100% natural e
proveniente da fermentao, explicou ao Economia Verde Filipe Macieira.
A Letra no filtrada nem pasteurizada: 100% real, continuou o produtor da cerveja.
Para j, a Letra tem quatro variedades: a letra A, uma weiss cerveja maioritariamente de trigo ; e a
letra B, uma pilsener que leva um lpulo checo que lhe d um sabor completamente diferente das
cervejas comerciais, que tambm so do tipo pilsener. H ainda a letra C, uma stout cerveja preta
com a espuma muito cremosa uma cerveja preta completamente diferente das outras, avana
Filipe; e a letra D, que uma cerveja ruiva e a mais alcolica de todas 6%.
Hoje, a empresa tem capacidade para at 7 mil litros de cerveja por ms e vai apostar na exportao,
sobretudo o chamado mercado da saudade Frana ou Sua. A fbrica est localizada em Vila
Verde e, a partir de Junho, abre portas a quem queira visit-la e degustar esta cerveja artesanal
minhota.
O projecto dos dois portugueses aprovado por Sbastian Morvan, do Brussels Beer Project. Tem
muito potencial e um produto novo. Estou muito contente por ver que, tambm em Portugal, existe
o renascimento da cerveja artesanal, explicou o responsvel.
Na Blgica, h cerca de 100 empresas cervejeiras artesanais. Em Espanha so j 80 marcas e
Portugal comea agora a apostar nesta estratgia, j com 20 marcas. Sovina (Porto), Vadia (Oliveira
de Azemis), Maldita (Aveiro), Zagaia e Tarrafa (Ericeira) e Acelera Vacas (Pombal) so algumas
delas.
A empresa FermentUM ganhou o prmio Start Up do ano de 2012 no sector agro-industrial.