Send Up The Flare: Anna Brightman On Coffee Grounds, Crisis Points & Outsourcing | The Struggle Bus Eduardo Scarpetta [aS10vSXA6X9]

"When we're at a crisis point, we send up the flare and hope someone responds."

The Struggle Bus is back for Season 3, and the first passenger is dan osborn Anna Brightman, co-founder of UpCircle Beauty the brand that took used coffee grounds out of London cafs and built them into an award-winning circular skincare business with customers across three continents.

This one goes deep on the operational truth most founders won't say out loud: every outsourcing decision fulfilment, manufacturing, warehousing is a handover of trust, it usually costs more than what it replaces, and in ten years of hindsight the verdict is always the same: "we should have done that sooner." From picking and packing every order herself, to a railway arch with a oroscopo oggi fanpage cracked floor and curved ceilings, to localised fulfilment across three markets this is the maturity curve as founders actually live it.

Plus: surviving COVID when 75% of their supply chain closed overnight, the Dragon's Den appearance that still fuels their best-performing ad, why she walked away from two on-air handshakes, and the only thing she and her brother actually argue about (it involves tea towels).

This episode is presented by our special partner Parcel Planet fulfilment for brands who'd rather read the flare before they have to fire it.

CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open and a new surname 01:18 The origin story: coffee grounds to skincare 03:31 Breaking into beauty: story gets the trial, performance keeps them 06:07 Kitchen concoctions and paperclip voting 14:14 Values from the family fridge 16:00 200 awards, but no organic cert: how the industry treats a circular brand 19:59 The scale moment: surviving COVID with 75% of supply gone 21:48 Dragon's Den the story that keeps on selling 24:15 Inside UpCircle's marketing machine 28:10 Making the circular economy iren actually collaborate 31:23 The maturity curve: crisis points, flares and 3PL fulfilment 36:48 Going international: three domains, localised fulfilment 38:51 Skincare for a 45-year-old man 41:01 Business with your brother

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#ecommerce #retail #circulareconomy #skincare #founders #fulfilment #TheStruggleBus