{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Brand Growth Heroes","title":"Why TrueStart Coffee Chooses Profitable Growth Over Scale | Founder Helena Hills","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2265,"description":"We don't often hear about Challenger brands that are PROFITABLE...So let's do it! *** Find out more about the NEW Brand Growth Heroes September Sprint 4 week programme just launched June 2026 - applications are open through June and July***In this fab interview, I chat with Helena Hills, co-founder of TrueStart Coffee, about how she and co-founder Simon have taken a once-niche healthy coffee idea and turned it into a fast-growing challenger brand now on a £12m revenue run rate, profitably. So for those of you who are wondering if it's possible, here's some BRILLIANT insights, advice and experience!What I loved about this conversation is Helena's clarity around this decision, her conviction. And that TrueStart didn’t suddenly appear from nowhere. It spent years doing the hard, unglamorous work: testing the proposition, building a community at sports events, learning where the brand had real pull, and being incredibly choosy about what to invest in before stepping into scale-up mode.We talk about the contradiction at the heart of their growth: this is a coffee brand that didn’t lead with coffee culture, but with energy.Helena explains why TrueStart tests for quality and purity markers (I honestly didn't know this was important), why caffeine consistency matters (nor this, but it makes complete sense to me now!), how COVID became a light-switch moment for the brand, and why their Series A fundraise with Jam Jar felt like a full-circle moment after first naming them as a dream investor back in 2015. For founders building consumer brands, this is a brilliant conversation about patience, timing, culture, focus and what it really means to scale without building on sand. What You’ll Learn Why TrueStart built its early community through sports and fitness events.  How a niche proposition became more mainstream as health, ethics and quality became more important to consumers.  Why profitable growth became a deliberate strategic choice.  How Helena and Simon divide...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/0ozOtqRzcBWmBZEqvRDok1E7iKs6EmkwTVPod03PH6o/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS82YzI2/ODgyOTczYWUxZTg4/YmUxMzI3MzUxMGM5/NmExOC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}