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Q&A

SUSAN

GAFSEN

After a career as a city firm lawyer, Susan realised a long-held desire to become a food entrepreneur and co-founded healthy snack brand Pep & Lekker.

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ABOUT SUSAN

Susan was inspired to start Pep & Lekker when she discovered the food products that she was buying for her vegan son were far from healthy. Joining forces with her sister-in-law, they launched a range of seed bars full of flavour and nutrition which are now stocked by major UK supermarkets and wholefood stores.

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Always interested in entrepreneurship, Susan decided to do an MBA after her 20yr career as a City lawyer in preparation for starting her own business and then launched Pep & Lekker in 2016. 

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Their journey hasn't been bump-free; Pep & Lekker originally included a range of tasty soups but realising the constraint of a seasonal window and the more complex storage and distribution challenges they decided to focus solely on seed snacks for their first phase.

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Q&A

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

01

market

gap

Pep & Lekker's range is a perfect solution for the growing vegan, gluten-free and health-conscious consumer markets. Their flavoursome protein-packed products standout in a healthy snack sector where the majority of options were high in sugar or bland in taste. 

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I knew I could do better.

02

shared values

Susan's co-founder (& sister-in-law) Juliette is an ex-psychotherapist. She credits their complementary skills and shared 'healthy living' values as a major reason they have been able to achieve so much in a relatively short space of time. 

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Make sure you have complementary skills.

03

80/20

rule

Susan's advice to new startups is to avoid falling into the trap that everything has to be perfect before you launch. 80% there is good enough because as soon as the product is out there it will change and evolve with feedback anyway.

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Don't wait for everything to be perfect.

04

mentor match

Seeking out mentors and organisations that could help connect Pep & Lekker to interesting opportunities has been a fruitful strategy. Susan won a place on the Seed Fund programme which led to relationships with experienced food entrepreneurs who have been invaluable in providing advice.

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Fear. The difference between people who start and those who don't.

05

fear

factor

At Business School, Susan was told the main barrier to starting a business was fear and to know that this was an inevitable part of the start-up journey.

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Susan has learnt to combat feelings of self-doubt and anxiety through meditation and 'fierce exercising' (!)

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