1. Would you describe Covid 19 as a catastrophe or an opportunity?

It’s fair to say it’s been a bit of both! At Habito, we were fortunate that we already had a business that was 100% online. It’s how we built it, five years ago. Although we had a culture of working from the office, all staff were already set up to work remotely if they needed to so the transition was seamless. Plus, with highstreet brokers closed, our business was in the best position to make the most of consumers turning online for their goods and services during lockdown.

Photo courtesy of Jamen Percy

After starting my career at a hedge fund (Clareville Capital, acquired by Tosca Fund), I soon turned my attention to disruptive tech businesses to flex my entrepreneurial spirit: Karma Cans, Feast It and Airtasker. Having helped launch the rental kitchen business Karma Cans, I moved to support in a director capacity, the business recently closed a successful Series A. I am also an early investor and on the board of events marketplace Feast It, where I continue to learn from a very experienced board of operators. But it was at my most recent role as VP International at $140m GMV Australian jobs marketplace Airtasker, where I brought the brand to the UK as GM, that I met my co-founder, Sam Bradley, and was exposed to the decorating industry and its challenges.

I’ve had a few genuinely transformational moments in my career; I’d love to say that they were all born out of positivity, inspiration and amazing mentorship. Alas, they weren’t, but they were critical all the same.

Shoppers no longer enter a store with the same expectations and needs. This was the case before the pandemic and has now become an inevitable aspect to be considered in business strategy. Retailers’ presence across different channels is no longer a competitive advantage and this is why deploying an effective omnichannel has become a priority.

Ah, “athletes”. What a broad term. Most only see the athletic prowess displayed on the court, field or track. What’s not typically seen is the attributes that lead an athlete to success and dominance on and off the field. These same principles can and should be implemented by entrepreneurs.

The stark reality of the COVID-19 virus is that it has had a devastating impact on lives, economies, businesses and livelihoods. However I’m keen to try and look at this event, and think about what it has uncovered across the world of business and what this can teach us about the pressures businesses are under, our approaches to dealing with them and how we can learn to be more resilient in the longer term.

I started Taster three years ago last Sunday (28th June), so it feels like an especially good time for a look back at what an incredible adventure the past three years has been, and to explain what inspired me to launch our first delivery-only restaurant brand in Paris, back in 2017.

This week a huge step has been made in the UK as the DfT has updated legislation paving the way for cities to trial for e scooter operators and thus legalising e scooters. The last few years we have been proactively pushing for sound legislation at a city level so that micro-mobility can become a safe and sustainable mode of transport in urban areas. We have seen countries and cities reacting differently, with French cities being very tender focused, whereas Germany and the Nordics are not quite there..yet. We believe in the tender approach and we actively support cities should they decide to opt for this approach. From our side, we have worked diligently to improve the lifespan of our e scooters, going from a few weeks to a minimum of a few years, as well as slimming down our operational costs – allowing us to be able to operate the most efficient fleet in our industry.

Let’s be clear: there’s no going back to ‘business as usual’. However, does this mean UK business needs to be at a standstill?