Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the Start-Up world this week
📰 This week’s biggest news stories in the Start-Up world
🌶 How this Start-Up is bringing unapologetic sichuan flavour to the UK
🍟 How you can use complimentary products to run a winning marketing campaign
➡ A no-code platform that enables you to build forms and workflows

✨ Last week’s most clicked link, was this link taking you through to Passion Capital who are looking to invest £400k - £500k into Pre-Seed FinTech + Enterprise Risk startups.

Happy hustling,

Rich

🎤 Opportunities + Events

😇 Caspar Von Hayek is looking to write cheques up to $100k out of a16z’s Angel Fund, find out more here!

🤖 Prototype Capital are looking to write $200k - $400k tickets into European Pre-Seed frontier tech startups - reach out here!

🛰 Anada Impact Ventures are looking to write cheques of up to €3m into Pre-Seed - Series A frontier tech companies in Europe - connect with the team here!

We now have a community of thousands of Start-Ups and Founders, here are the hottest Start-Up job opportunities from the Innovators Uncensored community on our very own Start-Ups Job Board!

💼 Start-Up Jobs

🧑‍💻 Chief Technology Officer, Voxmind
🛠 Operations Associate, Factored
📲 Social Media Manager, AloYou

🔒 Aikido Security hits unicorn valuation with $60m Series B raise. Sifted

🥽 Meta officially shuts down the Metaverse. TechCrunch

☁️ AI cloud startup Runpod hits $120m ARR, and it started with a Reddit post. TechCrunch
 
🇺🇸 How will Trump’s tariffs hit UK Tech Businesses? UKTN

Planning a trip for business or pleasure?

Final Rentals, a pioneering car rental fintech headquartered in Wales, has revolutionised the industry with its innovative approach and product-centric strategy. By addressing key challenges within the car rental sector, Finalrentals has experienced remarkable growth, increasing its size sixfold in the past 12 months. The company's expansion is not limited to growth metrics alone; it has also successfully established a robust global presence, extending its footprint across the EU and the Caribbean.

Book your rental here!

Does your product/service have a complimentary product or service? If so, this is the campaign for you!

Heinz are very aware that the most complimentary product to their ketchup is fries, so that’s where this campaign went. They looked at fries as a product, and tried to identify the problem with them. They realised that most people find it annoying having the ketchup separate to the fries, so decided to tackle it - though this is most definitely a gimmick!

They created the next generation box of fries, with ketchup built it - and the internet went wild for it! Of course, they’re not actually launching or building this - it just creates awareness and conversation around Heinz as a brand!

How can you use complimentary products to drive attention to your business?

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our Start-Up community have recommended.

FlowGenie is a no-code platform for building forms and workflows using a visual, node-based flow editor. Inspired by Unreal Engine blueprints, logic lives in the graph, not hidden inside config panels. Build flows you can schedule, trigger externally, or run from form submissions. Designed for developers, founders, and technical teams who want automation without giving up clarity or control.

🌶️ Yep Kitchen: Bringing Unapologetic Sichuan Flavour to the UK

Yep Kitchen is a Chinese food brand championing bold, uncompromising Sichuan flavours. Founded by Tom, the business was born from a decade spent living in China - years that reshaped his palate and his understanding of what Chinese food really is.

After returning to the UK, Tom saw an opportunity to do more than just sell food. Yep Kitchen exists to demystify Chinese ingredients, give them the respect they deserve, and create a platform where authentic products can thrive. It’s built for the passionate foodie, the seasoned traveller, and the flavour-curious - anyone searching for something deeper, bolder, and more honest than the usual supermarket offerings.

A Solo Founder by Design

Tom chose to build Yep Kitchen as a solo founder, and for the most part, it’s been the right decision.

He thrives on moving fast, taking risks, and making decisions without friction. That independence allowed the business to grow quicker than many early-stage brands. Yep Kitchen is rooted in Tom’s lived experience, and sharing that journey, through food, has been one of the most rewarding parts of building the company.

That said, solo doesn’t mean easy. There have been moments where another fully invested mind would have been welcomed with open arms. Tom has balanced that reality by surrounding himself with strong mentors, leaning on experience and guidance when the weight of decision-making felt heavy.

The First Customers: Markets, Miles, and Real Conversations

Yep Kitchen was bootstrapped in the truest sense, with little strategy and even less polish in the early days.

Rather than obsessing over funnels or paid ads, Tom focused on getting himself and his products directly into people’s hands. That meant weekends spent at London farmers’ markets, telling his story face-to-face, cooking, sampling, and building trust one customer at a time.

Those real-world interactions became the brand’s foundation. Social media and email marketing only came later, once awareness had been earned the hard way. Tom is clear-eyed about the role of paid advertising - it can make a brand look great, but when the ads are switched off, only a real business survives. Early on, it was those human connections that mattered most.

Scaling Beyond the Stall

Once Yep Kitchen had established brand awareness and demand, the next phase was distribution.

Tom turned his attention to the independent grocery sector, working with premium wholesalers to place Yep Kitchen products in delis and farm shops across the UK. This move allowed the brand to scale while staying aligned with its values - quality, authenticity, and respect for the product.

Lessons in Focus and Freedom

One of the most important lessons Tom learned was to stop comparing himself to others.

Yep Kitchen is a deeply personal business, and that means the journey was never going to look like anyone else’s. Letting go of pressure, whether it was comparing listings won or lost, or worrying about where peers were at, unlocked a sense of freedom. Once the mission became clear, momentum followed. Looking back, Tom’s only real change would be setting that mission sooner.

Funding the Business: Intentional Bootstrapping

Tom launched Yep Kitchen with £15,000, alongside £25,000 in personal savings to cover living costs. That runway gave the business roughly a year to grow without the pressure of pulling money out too early.

Rather than drip-feeding capital into the business, Tom found it far easier to manage spending by knowing exactly how much he had to work with. That clarity helped Yep Kitchen grow to a stage where external investment became an attractive, and credible, option.

Raising the First Round: Look to Your Customers

The first investment round came from four individuals, three friends and family, and one external angel investor discovered through Yep Kitchen’s own customer base.

For Tom, this reinforced a powerful insight: your customers are one of your greatest assets. They already believe in the product. The challenge is showing them the bigger picture - why the business is different, how it wins, and where it’s going next.

Burnout, Factories, and Founder Reality

The hardest challenge Tom has faced isn’t competition or cash flow - it’s burnout.

In three years of building Yep Kitchen, he’s experienced it twice. The most recent episode came while building a new automated factory. Juggling multiple roles, switching context constantly, and lacking the resources to hire support pushed him past his limits. The result was illness, exhaustion, and mental fatigue.

Talking openly with mentors helped, but the biggest lesson was learning to be kinder to himself. Founders are experts at convincing themselves they can do everything - and then punishing themselves when they can’t. Tom’s perspective is refreshingly honest: you’re allowed to make mistakes. Growth doesn’t come from perfection, it comes from persistence.

Looking Back - and Forward

When asked what he’d do differently, Tom’s answer is simple: nothing.

Every mistake, every misstep, and every hard moment has shaped the business and the entrepreneur behind it. Doing things wrong made it possible to do them right later. Learning how to use those lessons, rather than avoid them, is what Tom believes builds great founders.

Yep Kitchen isn’t just a food brand. It’s the product of lived experience, hard-earned resilience, and an uncompromising commitment to flavour - and it’s only just getting started.

Next week I’ll be highlighting another awesome Start-Up, as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn…