At her bright canalside offices near Old Street, Cassandra Stavrou gives every employee a toy frog to place on their desk while they work.
It’s a reminder of Stavrou’s personal motto, “swallow the frog” — tackle that one big task you’re putting off, and you can get on with your day.
It was advice given to the Propercorn founder by a friend when she was starting out, and she credits it for her success. In the past seven years, her company has grown from a start-up in her mother’s kitchen to a £16 million business selling three million bags of popcorn every month in 15 countries.
Last year, the FT ranked it as the fastest-growing company in Europe and now Stavrou wants to open the doors of her London HQ to help other self-starters. Next month, four budding entrepreneurs will be offered a week of desk space, mentoring and behind-the-scenes access at Propercorn’s offices to help kick-start their businesses.
“The early days of starting your own business are lonely,” says Stavrou.
“Without a team around you or office space, the bad days can be all-consuming and the good days slip by with little celebration.”
She was just 25 when she had her start-up idea. Inspired by a vintage popcorn-maker that her father had given her, she wanted to create a healthy snack to cater for the 3pm slump across London’s offices.
The 34-year-old says she would have given anything to have had access to a “buzzy office environment where [she] could reboot and get inspired”. Hence the company’s Pop In scheme, which runs from November 13-19.
Stavrou says she and her colleagues have run similar initiatives informally “since day one” but this is the second year it’s been offered as a formalised scheme. Last year’s entrepreneurs included Lucy Standing, whose platform ViewVo connects users with job-shadowing opportunities, and Olly Hiscock of Olly’s Olives.
Applications for Pop In opened last week — submit your answers online or send in a video. Stavrou says her focus is on attitude over experience. First, “is their business fundamentally fixing a problem or making something better?” She believes the world “has too much stuff” so successful start-ups will need to be “adding value” in some way.
Stavrou is pleased to see a more even split of men and women applying (Propercorn has more female employees than male) and as someone who was “lucky” to be young and living at home when she had her idea, she says she would particularly welcome older entrepreneurs onto the scheme. “It’s harder for people who have children and mortgages.”
Crucially, they’ll be exposed to Propercorn’s office culture. The company encourages table-tennis breaks and also hosts print-making classes, yoga and TED talks over breakfast. All 40 employees have lunch together every day from a resident chef who cooks local, seasonal food “because it’s important that everyone knows everyone and has good conversations over food,” says Stavrou. Her buzzword is “momentum”.
“It’s important, especially in the early stages of a business when you need to get those sales going, which then become your blood supply.”
The Pop In scheme runs from November 13-19. Entries close on November 5, properpopin.typeform.com/to/FJO6m0
