Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Our first guest, Radha Vyas, CEO and co-founder of Flash Pack, talks on everything from failure and closing down her company in the pandemic to why being a pregnant, Asian female CEO dissuaded her from raising capital sooner. Since then, the aspirational travel and lifestyle brand Flash Pack has recently closed a multimillion-pound funding round and is on target to hit £20M turnover once again in year one.
Each week, Jane Wakefield sits down with some of the key movers and shakers from the UK tech ecosystem for the UKTN Podcast. Learn growth strategies from both seasoned and up-and-coming founders, hear market sentiments from investors, and understand the tech policy affecting businesses across the country.
The UKTN Podcast provides insight into the most influential people in the UK’s innovation economy, exploring their personal and professional journeys and hearing their views on the hottest tech topics of the day.
INTRO
Radha
Trump decided to close his borders and revenue dropped 95% overnight. Our entire net worth as a family was tied up in the business on the edge of bankruptcy. We had thousands of customers emailing us, calling us asking for refunds. There's always a way to save your business, you've just got to find it.
Mark
Welcome to the very first UKTN podcast, I'm your host Mark McDonagh, for anyone who doesn't know me, I co-founded a company called The Start up Van where I interviewed over 3,000 founders which has gone on to receive over 60 million views online. My first guest on the show is an entrepreneur by the name of Radha Vyas, she is the co-founder and CEO of adventure holiday company Flash Pack. I invited Radha on the show because I wanted to talk about something most entrepreneurs can relate to, which is failure and closing down a company. I know I can relate to it because I had to close down the Start Up Van back in 2020. On the show Radha tells me how she was able to grow her business in just three years to over £20m turnover, she had four offers on the table with a £10m series A round going into lockdown - Covid hit and the offers were pulled. She lost 95% of her business over night, five months later, the company went into administration. She was then able to remortgage her house and buy back the assets to relaunch the business. She's recently closed a multi-million pound round and is on target to hit £20m turnover again in year one. This is the UKTN podcast.
Sponsor
Our sponsors of the show think it's crazy that for e-commerce businesses to fund growth through marketing, inventory or hiring they have to sell equity to VCs - especially when they know they’ll make that money back right away. Uncapped solved that problem and have already helped over 500 businesses worldwide. They offer up to £5 million of capital for a flat fee, you pay back only as you generate sales, with no dilution or loss of control. Founders simply apply online, receive a decision within 24 hours, and make monthly repayments that flex with your revenue. Head to weareuncapped.com/uktn to find out more. Use the code UKTN10 to get a 10% discount off your fees.
Now let's get into the show.
01:20.50
markmcdonagh
Might be a nice idea, if we could actually talk about how you grew um Flash Pack because you launched the company in 2014 and you built it right up but I'd love an understanding as to how you did that?
01:33.54
Radha
Yeah, well we launched officially in 2014 but it was pretty much a side hustle. We had, Lee and I the other co-founder, had other businesses that we were running so it was a bit of a side hustle and it was going really really well. We raised two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in 2016 and then we we basically folded our other businesses and went all in to Flash Pack at that point. So we'd only been running it full time since 2016.
02:04.90
markmcdonagh
What were the other businesses?
02:10.65
Radha
Um, Lee had a photography, he was a freelance, Um, photo journalist, so he was covering all the breaking world news, ah news stories across the world. So anything from just Japan tsunami to war in Libya. You know all sorts of crazy stuff and I had a fundraising business but fundraising for the third sector. Um. And we we folded those and went full time into flash pack and we grew the business essentially um ourselves to 55 staff or just under 60 staff and £20m turnover just before the pandemic hit so it was just under four years. And we've just completely bootstrapped it ourselves.
02:47.89
markmcdonagh
Well was that £20m a year you were you were bringing in turnover?
02:51.99
Radha
Yeah, so we hit £20m just before the pandemic.
02:55.88
markmcdonagh
And what was, what were previous years like? Like how long did it take you to build it up to that?
03:01.89
Radha
So we hit our first million um in 2016 once we raised the £250,000 and then we were essentially kind of you know at times forexing the business. So just under three and a half years we got from 1 to £20m
03:16.56
markmcdonagh
How did you build it up?
03:19.73
Radha
And completely ourselves and but it was on social media. We're a social. We're a social first business.
03:26.88
markmcdonagh
Right? Okay, so like was there anything that really worked for you because I normally find when I talk to founders about how they how they grew their business they they were growing and depending on the business. It was growing at a certain percentage each year but then they normally find that there was one thing that really caused the company to, to accelerate, was there anything that that stuck out in your mind or that does stick out in your mind? What really helped you to to get to that £20m?
03:53.57
Radha
I mean there was an inflection point in our growth and it was, it did look like the perfect hockey stick. There was an inflection point. There were a couple, the the main one I think was in 2016 when we raised that money and we went full time into the business right? and which which makes sense. But we were were always a social first business. We launched the business on the back of a selfie, we were running out of cash. We invested initial kind of £15k/£20k in business and we're running out of cash rapidly in the first year nothing much was happening. You know we had a very, high average transaction value and trying to convince people to book with us was really difficult in the early days we had no reviews. We had no social proof and Lee had this crazy idea to spend our last kind of thousand pounds on flying to Rio just before the world cup and he convinced the archdiocese Um, of Brazil to climb Christ redeemer statue and he climbed to the top took a selfie and we sat on it for about a month and a half and released it to the press a month before the world cup
04:57.10
markmcdonagh
Yeah.
05:06.80
Radha
And it went insane I mean we got 10,000,000 hits to our website in a week, we were covered by every national newspaper in the world. He was running around doing TV interviews everywhere and I was, I spent an entire week emailing Journalists saying yes you can have the picture but please give us a backlink and that's how we got started. So we've always been a kind of social first viral business.
05:19.34
markmcdonagh
And that's when you were running. That's where you were running out of money so you spent the last thousand on the trip, you got the photo you got thousands of, what was you said, you got 10,000,000 hits to the website?
05:31.24
Radha
Yeah, 10,000,000 hits in just over a week I think yeah yeah,
05:35.99
markmcdonagh
And and what did that do for business?
Radha
just, you know we bookings were coming in initially we thought it was might be spam. You know it just went crazy. It just got us our ah our initial traction.
05:46.63
markmcdonagh
And how how did you because obviously you you said you got up to just under 60 staff and team members. How did you grow those then like what what's be like year one you had it I take it. It was it was both of you. But then when did you start. Hiring people and at what stage did the numbers start ramping up there?
06:05.79
Radha
Yeah, good question. You're taking me back a bit now but and we hired our first employee in 2016 I think in 2017 we had maybe like 10 staff 2018 20 staff and then we ramped up, to 60 staff within a year.
06:24.46
markmcdonagh
Okay, so I want to get on to the the point ah of Covid and the pandemic and and lockdown because the business that you're in is obviously one that's going to be affected massively um, traveling and also you're introducing strangers to each other, you know, so this ah for people traveling alone and meeting up with others, traveling with them, when lockdown first started and or when Covid first hit how long was it till you really felt the impact?
07:01.99
Radha
Yeah, we started feeling the impact in January 2020 because we had to start canceling all our adventures to China and Japan and for the first time in our history. Our growth started flatlining.
07:17.18
markmcdonagh
Okay.
07:19.10
Radha
We thought there was an issue with the website. We did this whole deep dive into website conversion and realised that actually customers were hesitating in booking any trips to Asia, which was our best performing part of our portfolio at the time, it dived like 67% or something. Um, so our growth started flatlining in Jan, growth started declining in February and we started noticing customers asking for refunds and hesitating on booking and then on March the 13th, Friday March the 13th. Trump decided to close his borders and revenue dropped 95% overnight, just fell off a cliff.
08:00.52
markmcdonagh
And and what did you do, because obviously you had you would team members that you were looking after? You were a business that you were building and it's never easy and because you're also in the position of giving money back with the refunds. So, Wwat did you do when that happens? Like because obviously there's a lot to address there really isn't there? You know, especially with, we're paying bills, paying staff. So, what way did you approach it?
08:27.34
Radha
Yeah, it was utter chaos. So just to take a step back, Um, just before the pandemic we were in the middle of our series A £10m, series A as you can imagine. There aren't that many businesses that can bootstrap to £20m turnover um
08:45.51
markmcdonagh
Not many at all. Not many.
08:47.28
Radha
And yeah, not many so we were pretty hot property. We were being solicited by VCs on both sides of the Atlantic we had four offers from UK European VCs, we had Silicon Valley VCs telling me they'd fly over to London to meet us as soon as covid was over and they weren't taking covid seriously. Had presents and gifts in the post from excel, from index, I mean we were flying high. Um.
09:12.60
markmcdonagh
When was this now, what dates are we talking, January and February, March?
09:16.21
Radha
Yeah, so in January as soon as a Christmas was over Lee and I went out and started doing teaser kind of meetings with VCs all throughout January and then in February we had selected four to take through to the next dd stage. Um. So we so that was in Feb and then, you know, we're just about to go into Dd in March when the borders closed and everything fell through.
09:42.30
markmcdonagh
What type of a sponsor were you getting from VCs because as you were you were at a travel company a venture travel and you know there was the impact that was happening within China, you know, going into lockdown over there. And with covid hitting, so, what type of response were you getting from them because obviously had people that were interested in they were saying when once covid is over but were others you know, just kind of got look. We don't want to talk about this at all until we know what's happening.
10:15.31
Radha
Until March the 13th nobody over here was taking covid seriously, to give you an example we were in a meeting with excel and they asked us what keeps us up at night and Lee said macro issues like covid and they brushed it off they laughed and said. Oh no, you are, yeah sure, sure, sure, what else? Um, so there, nobody was taking it seriously.
10:35.74
markmcdonagh
Um, so did I am some went into lockdown what happened then with the VCs?
10:44.45
Radha
So everything fell through you know all the meetings in the diaries got canceled. Everyone was panicking right? Nobody understood what the impact was of covid on their business. The entire travel industry were trying to manage, everyone was trying to manage their own losses. We had thousands of customers who we had to repatriate that were stranded abroad abroad in Costa Rico, Morocco you know everywhere we had thousands of customers emailing us calling us asking for refunds. It was, it was absolutely crazy, in tandem we had to think about downsizing our team. Because revenue had dropped off a cliff.
11:22.65
markmcdonagh
So with down sizing the team, how how much of the team were you thinking of letting go?
11:31.24
Radha
Yeah, um, well initially I think for the first couple of days we thought, oh we just need to, you know, we just need to cut a bit of fat, then we thought no okay, probably need to cut down to the flesh, and then a few days later I mean things were happening this fast we realised we're going to have to cut down to the bone. It was, it was devastating we had to keep on a kind of core lights on team to support customers. But essentially we furloughed everyone except a core team of 15 people.
11:58.96
markmcdonagh
What what do you think would have happened if, you know, if you if you had a gone looking for money say in December and you closed something in January and your business still would have been affected right? But do you think you would have just had the money sitting there keeping the lights on. Um, because you know we're, we're what, we're, we're over 2 years in now and things are starting to come back now slowly and short but surely on probably you know you you you better have ah, you'd have better data on that than I would but. Do you do you think the business like obviously they you wouldn't have gone into administration. But what do you think might have happened there because you would have had to close the doors while all of this panned out?
12:46.31
Radha
Yeah, exactly I think we would have been in a totally different position if we had just started fundraising earlier or if Covid had hit later and at the timing was brutal. Um, we. Probably would have been forced to downsize the team because no matter how much money you've got in the Bank, you can't just, you can't just kind of swallow those costs right? If you're making no revenue but we would have been in a position where we could have made strategic acquisitions. We could have focused on building better infrastructure and and tech. You know things that were difficult to do while the the kind of planes in the air. Um, so yeah, we would have been in a fantastic position.
13:25.92
markmcdonagh
Yeah, because I know I read in an article that VCs had valued the company at £55m at that stage. Um right? Okay so November 2020, I think it is when you actually cease trading what was that like? Because I too went through something similar with with the startup fan when we we closed down due to covid for a um number of reasons but I remember that feeling of this is actually happening. We're not going to be, you know the startup van anymore. And we're moving on and ah ah with a lot of things close and then that's when the work starts because there's so much perhaps to happen in the back in the backend and but I'd love to get an understanding how you felt how both you and your husband Lee felt when you decided right, Because I know you did it as a ah so a strategic move as well, Um, but how did you feel that day?
14:28.95
Radha
Um, just pretty numb to be honest I think we had spent six or seven months at that point speaking to 62 different investors. We'd run a kind of dual process. We continued. Fundraising. There were still a couple of VCs who were still interested in investing in us or you know said they were interested in investing in us probably saw quite a big deal right? It had to climb down from the £55m valuation that was getting just a few months earlier so we continued that process, in tandem we tried to kind of do a fire sale get an acquisition. In total we spoke to 62 investors. Everyone said no over the course of six months and then the day came where we just had to face facts that we had tried everything and it was time to call it a day. That day was pretty horrendous, I have to, I have to admit and then the day we actually put the business into administration Lee decided the strategy would be to be completely transparent about it to our community and announce it on social media and send ah out a, send out an email to our database and that was harrowing um just you know, because we could have, we were a big brand amongst our demographic but we weren't a huge kind of household brand and in the UK, so, we could have flown under the radar. But Lee was adamant that we had to own the narrative ourselves and be transparent to our community which is the way we had kind of dealt dealt with covid throughout. We were really honest with our customers with what was happening within the company that was really nerve wracking. But once we had ripped the plaster off. Our whole community of customers came to our, like, came to support us. You know there was a whole wave of support on social media. Amazing positive emails and that really supported us during that darkest time.
16:28.24
markmcdonagh
Telling customers and and and users is one thing. It must have been difficult talking to the team, letting people go, what, what size were you at this stage because I know you would, you would but reduce the team slightly. So on the day you decided you were going into administration. Um, how did you go about telling other team members and because I ah take it at this stage, everyone was still, you know, ah online working remotely like did you have to do it over Zoom, were you calling people, did you did you do it and in a group call? I'm just curious as to, because I know these things are difficult.
17:08.97
Radha
Yeah, it was um yeah, that was really really difficult so we I feel like we made a really good decision when the borders first closed. We didn't panic and make everyone redundant. We waited. Was just a gut feeling that we should wait and luckily the furlough scheme came out three weeks later and we're able to just put everyone on furlough to give everyone some breathing space. The last thing I wanted to do was send our employees out there on the open market when the whole travel industry was pretty much decimated. That gave everyone a lot of time breathing space and then we kept up communication with the team on a weekly basis letting them know what was happening with fundraising every time we had new meetings with funders. We would tell them. We had new meetings if they didn't go well, we would tell them when another door had closed. Try to keep them as informed as possible so they could make the right decision for themselves by the time we went into administration many of them had left and moved on like thankfully the Flash Pack brand was, was, you know, it was a powerful kind of. Ah, brand on your CVs and most, most staff had found jobs outside of the travel industry. There were still a few left and we had we had to make redundancies over, over Zoom and it was really difficult. We did it on an individual basis. Um. You know, just try to thank everybody for, for everything they'd done. Many of them had worked tirelessly to support our customers with no reward at the end of it, right? The company has still kind of failed. Um and that was a huge responsibility on mine and Lee shoulders and it was really difficult to do it over Zoom. I mean I'm not ashamed to admit that when we did initially furlough everybody I shed a few tears and so did most of the team and but, you know, I'm, I'm just thankful that most of them were able to, they had some time to move on and we didn't make them redundant as soon as a pandemic hit.
19:08.94
markmcdonagh
Yeah, no, of course and as I said it's never easy to to do and like it's one thing you making a decision to go into administration and you knowing that you're this is a decision that you're making and what you're doing. It's the knock-on effect. That that's never easy having to pull people aside and and and kind of tell them what's happening and seeing them upset because as you said they've invested time and energy and effort into the business as well. Um, any any anyone take it badly?
Sponsor:
A Quick sponsor reminder, if you're looking to fund growth without having to give away equity, Uncapped solved this problem. To find out more go to weareuncapped.com/uktn And to avail of a 10% discount off your fees, use the code UKTN10.
19:40.33
Radha
Yeah, you know I think everyone understood, but it's really hard in these situations not to take it personally when we furloughed most of the team and kept on a core kind of 15 I think some individuals felt, why wasn't I kept on, I worked really hard but you know, it, it was never an easy decision. It wasn't personal. It was just very strategic on what work, what tasks need to be done and who's most specialist at doing those tasks and that's how we made the decision, right. But I think it is hard like any kind of redundancy situation even in such an extreme situation of covid, people do take it personally, they they loved working for Flash Pack and they were heavily invested emotionally invested in Flash Pack. So um, but I do, I do think, you know, after time had passed everyone realised that it was, it was inevitable and it wasn't personal.
20:31.57
markmcdonagh
Were there government grants you were able to take advantage of?
20:35.20
Radha
No, we fell through the cracks of everything, so, we had, I can't remember what the scheme's called now because it feels like such a long time ago, but it was, there was a scheme wasn't there where your funders could put in 50% and the government would match? Whatever, whatever your VC had put in but we didn't have any VCs to turn to, um so, we fell through that we weren't profitable so we couldn't, you know, we applied for Sibel's loan but we were, we failed um, failed the test for that we fell through absolutely every scheme that was out there.
21:05.92
markmcdonagh
Um, as I said like I went through something similar and there was so much work that needs to be done with the accountancy side of things I've never put a company into administration. So I don't know how much work is involved there, does it take a lot of your time? Ah, going into administration on what you need to to do, going through the book sitting down with accountants the whole lot.
21:30.18
Radha
Yeah I mean we were dealing I think we're still dealing with some aspects of the administration so it takes in all, it's taken just over a year to fully complete it I think the business has now been properly liquidated. But um, it was, it was very complex in our case because Lee predominantly spent pretty much every single day for a year helping customers through quite a complex refund process to ensure that nobody lost out. So yeah, it was a huge amount of work.
22:00.43
markmcdonagh
I was going to ask and I don't want to get personal on these things, but it's it's a husband and wife team there. There's both of you in it meaning that when the company is gone into administration, both of you are being affected and both of you are being affected financially. Um, and this is the side of lockdown that is, is, you know, so unhealthy where you're living together, you're working together and now you're going into administration together, I'm sure that brings some sort of relationship stress because you, you had a, a baby girl I believe, um and both of you are trying to run the business, save the business at the same time, they go into administration and you're working in the morning your, husband Lee is looking after your your daughter and then you're looking after your daughter and your husband Lee is working on the business. So, what was that like mentally for both of you?
22:58.11
Radha
Um, it was a humongous strain on our on our relationship, on our mental health, on our relationship with our toddler. You know we're battling guilt that we couldn't spend time with her. She had just turned one and learned to walk and we were putting her in front of the tv, I mean, I can't, can't listen to Cocomelon anymore because it takes me straight back to that dark time and but you know she was watching a lot of TV while we were trying to juggle VC meetings. We haven't got any support in London, family support I've got my sister around the corner and she tried to help as much as possible. But obviously we were restricted in terms of bubbles. When the lockdown first happened we did have to send our toddler to stay with my sister in Milton Keynes for two weeks because we needed to spend every waking hour on trying to save the business and we just couldn't and a toddler. No and we huge. We missed her so much and and it was really difficult to kind of see her on the end of a, the end of a call, you know, face time every day but we had to kind of prioritise and get through it but then during the whole pandemic. Um, we you know we live in a London flat so we're just constantly on top of each other so I would lock ourselves I'd, I'd lock myself in our basement in the morning and try and find a funder to back our vision for community travel, just months after we'd gone bankrupt, and then we'd swap in the afternoon and Lee would look, you know, look after customers and try and save the brand and it was so tiring it was so tiring while also trying to stay positive to try and you know try and manage our own stress I mean look I, we were, we were just, we weren't sleeping, we were eating too much, we were drinking too much. You know, it was, it was, it was horrendous.
24:40.95
markmcdonagh
See it's reasons like this that I do the podcast and I love talking to founders because no one sees what's happening behind closed doors. You know, no one really has an understanding what you're going through, you know and you're lucky in a way as well that you have each other that you're going through this together that you're able to support each other. But again, you also both, you're both going to have a bad day on the same day. You know, can't always be one up one down and you're you're able to to help each other out so it must be extremely difficult when you're both having a bad day. As said you didn't even get to see your child for two weeks
25:18.96
Radha
Well, well that's exactly it. So the great thing about being in business together is that you never feel misunderstood that you never have to explain why? why? why? you're in a bad mood. So that's a good thing but when you're, you know, when you're kind of feeling depressed and you're in a dark place you're in it together so you can't pull each other out of it. So that's really difficult and then also there's a financial strain right? taking huge financial risk being in the business together. We had been living off founders' salaries for years. Our entire net worth as a family was tied up in the business on the edge of bankruptcy we didn't even know if we'd be able to go out there and find a job that entire industry had been decimated. It was. Yeah, it was crazy I mean we're having chats about moving back to my parents in Milton Keynes because we're on the edge of losing our home.
26:14.61
markmcdonagh
Yeah, because like I suppose that when people hear that the turnover of £20m they think that everything is going great. But I think I read somewhere that you were turning over £20m but you were you still weren't profitable yet. So as you said, you're still on founder salaries. Um, and now you're going. You're you're in lockdown then going into administration. Um I don't know if you're able to furlough yourselves at that time, um can't, can't to be an easy but let's talk now about and the relaunch. Ah, you were able to um, buy back The assets for the company. So as you could bring Flash Pack back? um. How did you do that because I did read somewhere that you you re-mortgage the house and and you borrowed money from friends and family. Um, how how was that was that difficult?
28:48.54
Radha
Yeah, it was and making the decision was difficult but we felt that we were already on the edge of financial ruin and we take a huge financial risk and we were not ready to give up the business. We loved so when there was an opportunity to bid on the assets. We just had to go for it. But as you can imagine being a £20m turnover business in 2019 and we knew we knew we'd have to raise like quite a bit of capital to buy back the assets so we borrowed some money from Lee's parents and some and and some, my family and friends as well. We had some equity in the property and then we essentially remortgaged our house for, for the rest to raise the funds. Luckily we just made the highest offer we could and luckily we were the highest bidder of three bidders and when we got the news. It was like a nerve-racking two weeks and when we got the news, we were the highest bidders, it was like, we just, we were just elated I mean we just went out and drank champagne that day it was, it was amazing feeling to get the business back.
29:49.54
markmcdonagh
Um, did, did you know that this was going to be a potential plan or was it just one day decided should we do this and try and save the business.
30:03.92
Radha
Yeah, no, we didn't even know that we would have the ability to um to bid on the assets as part of the process. So when the administrator said well, look did you know you could, are you going to, do you have the funds? We just scrambled around for about three weeks to a month I think we had to raise, to raise the money.
30:24.52
markmcdonagh
When was that when did you find all this out?
30:27.10
Radha
Um I think it was just end of September/October and and then the business went into administration on the fourth of November.
30:34.94
markmcdonagh
So when you, when you wonder, the, the and and you were able to buy the assets back what next where do you start from there because obviously you you knew that there was going to be an opportunity. We weren't going to be in lockdown forever What what was the next step?
30:51.60
Radha
Yeah, the next step was finding a funder because essentially we were left holding the baby. We had very little personal runway. We had to take our toddler out of nursery we couldn't afford to pay her nursery fees any longer. So, that's when Lee and I decided okay, let's divide and conquer I'll take the mornings in the basement. You take the afternoons and um, eventually we found a funder who completely understood that all the trends that we had been capitalising on pre-covid you know, kind of, isolation wanting more connection wanting more meaningful friendships in your life, these were all trends that were going to be even more relevant after covid and um, yeah, so we we found a funder we were in talks with them for a few months and we completed the deal in June 2021 and just before the money hit the bank Lee and I, it's no exaggeration, to say Lee and I had £200 left in our joint account.
31:53.30
markmcdonagh
Wow, you know so like, like that's like, talk about coming just at the right time and it's an exciting time as well, because the way I look at this is you nearly get to do it all over again, but with the learnings from version 1. So you're going into this, number one, with all the learnings and now with funding which you didn't manage to close for version 1 um, did I read you also were able to bring back a lot of the original team.
33:00.38
Radha
Yeah, that's right, we've rehired um a core team of 10 people from the previous business which was fantastic, 98% of our suppliers have come with us on the journey for Flash pack 2.0, as we're lovingly calling it and we have an amazing community of customers many of whom have rebooked as soon as we relaunched.
33:26.17
markmcdonagh
Your social media. You still have the original social media handles meaning you still have the original followers. Um, what is the engagement being like on that now that you you were able to come back has has it picked back up again because sometimes if, if they're not being engaged with it. Ah, it falls off a little bit. So have you seen that come back?
33:46.13
Radha
Yeah, I don't think it's the engagement is at the the levels it was pre-pandemic because our engagement was insanely high and so we have had to do a lot of kind of warm-up campaigns, but it's definitely high for the fact that we haven't posted or engaged with our community for a year we've hardly lost any followers I think we've only lost a hand, you know, a couple of hundred across our social media and following and the engagement on our CRM database is also very very high.
34:16.31
markmcdonagh
There must be some impacts on the basin that you're having now as I said that you've learned from from version 1.0, we'll call it, that you're bringing in to to 2 what what immediately springs to mind when you think of. The way you are running things now compared to how you ran the first one?
34:35.32
Radha
Oh God So many lessons learned so many um and it's ah seriously so many I could write a whole book on it.
34:40.70
markmcdonagh
I'm sure we could do a podcast and that alone.
34:53.62
Radha
The main lesson learned is take the money when you don't need it. There's nothing worse than scrambling around trying to find funding funding when you are desperate. We should have fundraised so much sooner, we bootstrapped for way too long. That's my biggest lesson learned and that's what we'll be kind of addressing in the new business. We'll just keep on raising and even if we don't really need it. We'll behave as if we don't have it, right, because constraints are really, really good and VCs now, I mean, things have changed right VCs Really want to see businesses that can do a lot with a little, um but we, but we will, we will definitely fundraise when we don't really need to.
35:28.81
markmcdonagh
I've interviewed a number of VCs in the past and the number one thing they always say is to raise money, as you just said, when you don't need it because when you need it, it's normally too late and things take, take time something happens like the pandemic happened completely knocked and knocked us around for you and if you when you're looking back now, Why do you think you bootstrapped for so long?
35:55.88
Radha
Look if I can be completely honest, I wasn't confident that as an Asian female, who was pregnant in two thousand, early 2019 which is when, all the VCs started soliciting us right? I think our name just got out there and we started getting inundated with interest from VCs but I had just become pregnant, I didn't feel that um I would be able to raise the kind of capital at the valuations that I would have wanted to um.
36:18.14
markmcdonagh
Yeah, yeah.
36:28.84
Radha
Being Asian, being female, and being pregnant and that was the reason we waited.
36:32.30
markmcdonagh
Um, would it have been you going out alone trying to raise money.
36:36.69
Radha
No, it would have been Lee as well. But as the CEO of the company I felt that that it would go against me.
36:45.87
markmcdonagh
So you were, were you pleasantly surprised and when just before lockdown when VCs were willing to invest and they valued the the company of £55m?
36:56.25
Radha
Yeah, you know, and it didn't, it wasn't lost on me that I was probably one of the you know 2% of women that were getting funding and I think the stats were even lower for ethnic founders and but yeah, that definitely wasn't lost on me but, I, it was this, tt was a deliberate strategy I felt that we had to create a business that was completely irresistible that the VCs could not ignore for us to get those kind of valuations.
37:23.46
markmcdonagh
Is there any advice you'd give to to any female founders listening to this now that might be thinking the same way you were about raising money?
37:34.64
Radha
Yeah I think in hindsight I would have gone out there and tested the waters, I was making assumptions rather than going out there and having conversations, I would definitely have the conversations first and see what the reaction is. I think there's a lot of, you know, work being done now in the VC community to shine a light on female-led businesses. How diverse you know, diverse teams are more successful teams and profitable companies and so they might be pleasantly surprised. You know I still think there's a long way to go but definitely go out there and test the waters and have the conversations rather than making the assumption like I did.
38:16.30
markmcdonagh
I had also read that you're expecting near enough the same turnover from from 20 to or from 2019 to happen either this year or in early. Ah, 2023 is is that going to happen. Do you think?
38:33.69
Radha
Yeah, we're currently tracking 80% of pre pandemic levels. It's pretty insane, we're going to have to get back to a team of 40 to 50 by the end of this year and the demand is incredible. Yeah, we're 10 at the moment. Yeah yeah.
38:45.55
markmcdonagh
From 10 at the moment. Wow.
38:52.82
Radha
Challenges is intense but we've done it before we know how to scale. Luckily we're not going to be caught off guard by growth. We know how to do growth and we've got more money in the bank now than we've ever had before, right? So we're in a good position. Lots of lessons Learned. We are very experienced founders now. So I'm not worried about the challenge. It's just intense.
39:17.00
markmcdonagh
You've scaled before but you probably haven't scaled at the speed that you need to now. So, how how are you planning on on finding the talent that you need and growing the business, as you said, you're roughly 10 now wanting to get to 30 or 40 by the end of the year, if not more, how do you plan on on scaling that quickly?
39:34.98
Radha
Yeah, good question and we have been doing a lot of the recruiting so far ourselves but that is, that is really hard. In Flash Pack 1.0, we didn't have the funds to hire a senior leadership first, who could then hire the teams underneath them. Now we have money in the bank I'm hiring the leadership team first so they can help with hiring and hiring their own teams, which is a much more attractive proposition for new talent coming in especially in the tech Team. We've just hired a head of product. We're looking for a head of engineering who can then build out the entire engineering culture and you know, the team beneath them, so that's the, that's the strategy and then working with very good recruiters to, to help us accelerate that plan.
40:21.81
markmcdonagh
It's a great story. Um, what, what, you've done what you've achieved and how you built it from from bootstrapping, it beginning in 2014 getting it right up to turnover of twenty million in 2019. Unfortunately the pandemic hitting, causing you to go into administration and not many people are hearing the side of the story that you're getting to tell today and it's great that you've been able to come back even stronger than ever and so congratulations on that. One question I want to end with is, and I asked this to to a lot of founders, what book have you read and that has had an impact either positive or negative um on the business and that can either be back version 1 or it can be be version. 2.
41:14.21
Radha
Um, in version. 1 The hard thing about hard things, like that was an incredible book and it was I reread I've read it twice and I reread it and during the pandemic and there's ah, there's a there's a page in there. Which says you know there's always a way to save your business. You've just got to find it and that's what inspired me and motivated me to find the solution in saving our business. Um, and in 2.0 I've just finished reading radical candour by by Kim Scott and I truly believe. By creating a culture where everyone feels safe giving and receiving feedback in a really caring and nurturing atmosphere that that will create the kind of competitive advantage against our competitors through our culture right? and I really recommend anybody who hasn't read it to read it because it's. I think it will be the 1 thing that will completely differentiate flash pack 2.0 from flash pack 1.0.
Mark/Sponsor
Thank you for listening, before you go could you please take a moment to push the subscribe button wherever you're listening to this podcast, I'd really appreciate the support. And remember, our sponsor Uncapped offer up to £5m of capital for a flat fee. You pay back only as you generate sales, no dilution or loss of control. Apply online, decision within 24 hours. Make monthly repayments that flex with your revenue, head to weareuncapped.com/uktn to find out more and to avail to a 10% discount of your fees use the code UKTN10 .