RetailCraft - digital retail, ecommerce and brands - Retail Podcast

This episode is for founders, brand builders, and retail leaders interested in how a genuinely accidental business becomes a credible, structured consumer brand. Lucie McLeod started Hair Syrup in her parents' conservatory while at university, posted one TikTok video that hit 600,000 views, and built from there — without a business plan, without investment, and without a roadmap. 
However this is no tale of luck, or a hapless fortune. To listen to Lucie it's clear that the brain, drive and character were ready for the tasks, the test and the chance to build her business. Cometh the hour, cometh the leader.
Ian Jindal chats with Lucie about what it actually takes to grow a DTC brand through social, how to respond to a very public rejection on Dragon's Den and turn it into a marketing moment, and where Hair Syrup is heading as it moves from a single hero product into a full wash-day brand with retail distribution through Boots.

Key themes
Accidental origin, deliberate growth: Hair Syrup started as a personal solution to Lucie's own scalp problems, formulated using academic research and natural ingredients she sourced from health food shops. The first TikTok video was not a launch strategy. It was a genuine personal post that went viral from a standing start. The business followed the demand, not the other way around.
Problem-led product development: Every product in the range maps to a specific, common hair or scalp problem — length, grease, breakage, dandruff. This was not a range strategy imposed from above; it was Lucie solving her own problems and extending outward. When she eventually worked with a chemist, he told her the formulas she had developed independently were already production-ready.
Community over clinical claims: Hair Syrup has clinical efficacy data and dermatologist testing, but its primary marketing tool is customer before-and-after photos. Lucie is explicit that she dislikes prescriptive beauty content and avoids invalidating individual experiences. The community is built on openness and expectation management, not on performance guarantees.
Dragon's Den as a marketing asset: Hair Syrup appeared on Dragon's Den in summer 2024, received six rejections, and then turned the episode's broadcast in January 2025 into one of the most-discussed brand moments of the year. The team trolled the dragons back on TikTok with memes — the sad hamster among them — generating 24 million profile views in under 48 hours and 100,000 new followers. The Sunday Times named Lucie Young Founder of the Year shortly after. The lesson she draws is blunt: you cannot engineer this. It worked because it was authentic.
The hidden operation: The public face of Hair Syrup is Lucie on TikTok — informal, funny, behind-the-scenes. The private face is an SLT with experienced heads of sales, finance, and logistics, an in-house 3PL, and chemists with serious CVs. Most of their audience has no idea the latter exists. Lucie considers this balance a strength.
Brand building beyond the hero product: Hair Syrup launched in Boots in late 2024. The NPD pipeline is structured around extending the brand's core peppermint oil product into a full wash-day system — shampoo, conditioner, scalp serum — all sharing the same scent, colour scheme, and purpose. Leave-in oils have not landed as hoped and are being rethought. The direction is deliberate specialisation rather than category sprawl.
⠀
What you'll learn
Why solving a genuine personal problem is still one of the most defensible starting points for a consumer brand.
How to build a community that stays loyal even when the product does not work for everyone.
What a rejection on Dragon's Den can teach you about the gap between conventional investment logic and TikTok-native brand value.
How to structure a post-crisis response for a team that is depending on you, when you are not sure yourself what comes next.
How to maintain creative authenticity and brand character while building a grown-up operational structure behind the scenes.
Why gut instinct and structured decision-making are not opposites — and how to use both at the same time.

⠀
Chapter structure
Introduction — Who Lucie is, Hair Syrup's age and origin, and what the brand stands for today
The accidental start — A personal hair problem, lockdown, a viral TikTok from a standing start, and the slow realisation that this could be a business
Formulation and early product range — Research, chemistry, working with a professional chemist, and extending the range along problem lines
Brand positioning — Accessible, inclusive, mid-market, solution-driven, and community-centred
Dragon's Den — Six rejections, the edit, what it felt like, the conversation with the team, and the decision to turn it around
The TikTok counter-offensive — Trolling the dragons, the sad hamster meme, the BBC's reaction, 24 million views in 48 hours
Structure and scale — What Hair Syrup actually looks like behind the TikTok page, and the role of a senior leadership team the audience never sees
2026 and beyond — Boots, NPD, the wash-day range, international ambitions, and staying open to where the brand might go

⠀
About the guest
Lucie McLeod is the founder and CEO of Hair Syrup, a UK haircare brand she started at 21 while studying at the University of Warwick, where she graduated with a first. She began by hand-making pre-wash hair oils in her parents' conservatory and built the brand through TikTok before establishing a wider social and retail presence. Hair Syrup now sells through Boots as well as direct-to-consumer, runs an in-house 3PL operation, and has a senior team spanning sales, finance, logistics, and product development. She was named Sunday Times Young Founder of the Year following the brand's Dragon's Den appearance in early 2025, in which she received six rejections and subsequently turned the episode into a widely covered brand marketing moment.

Quotes
"I was ignoring all of the signs. I had people saying, you could sell me this, and I think if I was an entrepreneur, my business brain would have thought, right, I'll take 20 quid, let's do it."
"The moral of the story is make the best of a bad situation. The moral is not: try and do really badly so you can redeem yourself."
"Behind the curtain, it's a really serious operation — with a lot of extremely skilled people dealing with distributors, international expansion, NPD, chemists with impressive CVs. And people just have no idea."
"I wonder if I didn't have a team, if I was doing this by myself — might I have given up?"
"I don't like the idea that brands ever have to be pigeonholed. As long as you're open, honest, transparent and reactive, you can enjoy the ebbs and flows."
--  Run time: 44 minutes
INFORMATION:
[ 🖥️ ]
Hair Syrup - https://www.hairsyrup.co.uk/
[ 👨‍👧 ]
Lucie McLeod: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucie-macleod-775a60159/
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

This episode is for retail operators who believe that the store estate is an asset, and that the people running it are the brand. 
Ian Jindal chat with Shannon Osman, Head of Retail at Footasylum, who has built her career from shop floor to leadership and brings a practitioner's clarity to questions that often get buried in strategy decks: how do you actually recruit, retain and develop a predominantly Gen Z workforce at scale? The conversation covers Footasylum's distinctive hiring model, its social-first content machine, the Locked In franchise, and a franchise expansion into the Middle East — all through the lens of a retailer that has won Retail Employer of the Year while opening stores, not closing them.

Key themes
Rethinking recruitment from first principles: Footasylum scrapped the CV-led process and replaced it with group in-store interviews. No CV submission, just availability, knockout questions, and a live group exercise. The best candidate on the day gets the job, eliminating unconscious bias and filtering for exactly the communication skills the role demands.
Retention as proof of concept: Staff turnover dropped from 107% to 75% after the new recruitment model was introduced. Seasonal hires - historically the hardest to retain - are now routinely offered permanent roles at the end of peak. The data follows the culture, not the other way around.
Progression without a title change: Shannon is direct that promotion is not the only form of progression. Recommending a book, setting personal goals alongside professional ones, giving people a voice in operational decisions - these are the mechanisms Footasylum uses to keep people invested. The goal-setting process (two work goals, one personal) runs from February, reviewed quarterly, owned by the individual.
Communication at scale: With almost 70 stores and around 1,300 staff, Footasylum adopted Zipline as its internal communications platform - chosen because it looks and behaves like social media. Execution and readership rates are tracked, but the rationale was engagement, not surveillance. The platform was used to run a company-wide vote for Store Manager of the Year, generating 1,300 responses.
Social as a commercial engine: 1.2 billion organic views across social media last year, up 35% year-on-year. Footasylum sits in the top 5% of TikTok users globally, alongside the BBC and Sky Sports. Its Locked In series - influencers and content creators in a house format, competing and generating content — drives 200,000 additional app downloads per run and feeds directly into in-store footfall and on-site conversion.
Middle East expansion via franchise: Footasylum has signed a franchise agreement to enter the Gulf region. Shannon visited the Mall of Emirates, Mall of Dubai and Dubai Hills ahead of the announcement. The market's appetite for elevated retail experience - and the presence of a significant UK expat base - makes it a credible fit for the brand's positioning, which sits above the mass market without claiming luxury.

⠀
What you'll learn
Why removing CVs from the hiring process can improve both the quality of hire and long-term retention and how to structure a group interview that actually tests for the right things.
How to build a communication infrastructure that reaches every layer of a large store estate, not just the management tier.
What "progression" looks like when you can't always offer a title or a salary uplift and why that matters for a Gen Z workforce.
How a content-first social strategy translates directly into measurable commercial outcomes: app downloads, footfall, and omnichannel conversion.
How to approach franchise expansion into a culturally distinct market while preserving brand DNA and why the right partner matters more than the right playbook.
Why listening to store managers is not just good culture but good operations: some of Footasylum's most efficient decisions in the last 18 months have come from the shop floor up.

⠀
Chapter structure
Introduction — Who Footasylum is, its 20-year history, near-70 store estate, and core Gen Z/Alpha consumer
The store in 2025 — Why physical retail still matters, and what it means to have Gen Z staff serving Gen Z customers
Rethinking recruitment — The CV-free group interview model and the results it has produced
Growth and expansion — New UK stores (including Merthyr Tydfil), and the Middle East franchise deal
Retention and culture — Retail Employer of the Year, goal-setting, and the meaning of progression
Communication at scale — Zipline, why it works, and how it changes the relationship between head office and the shop floor
Locked In and the social engine — The Locked In series, 1.2bn organic views, and the omnichannel flywheel
Shannon's own journey — From football coaching in the US to Head of Retail; the constants that haven't changed; what's on the learning list for 2026

⠀
About the guest
Shannon Osman is Head of Retail at Footasylum, the UK apparel, footwear and accessories retailer with almost 70 stores and a Gen Z–first positioning. She has spent the majority of her career in store-based retail, moving through the operational ranks to a leadership role with P&L responsibility for the entire physical estate. Since joining the role, she has overhauled Footasylum's recruitment model, introduced a scaled communications platform, and helped lead the business to Retail Employer of the Year 2025. She is also part of the team driving Footasylum's first international franchise expansion into the Middle East.

Quotes
"The staff members on the shop floor are the most vital employees in the business. They are what represents you as a company — that's the face-to-face interaction your customers are having, ultimately."
"Our staff retention has gone from 107% down to 75%. We are retaining people now because the people we're employing want to stay with us."
"Anybody can open a door for you. It's up to you to walk through it."
"Everyone thinks progression is going for the next job title. Progression is reading a book your line manager sent you that you never even knew existed."
"Every single mall I entered just felt like Footasylum should be there." — Shannon Osman, on her first visit to Dubai and Abu Dhabi
--  Run time: 35 minutes
INFORMATION:
[ 🖥️ ]
Footasylum - https://www.footasylum.com/
[ 👨‍👧 ]
Shannon Osman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-osman-84bbb2260/ 
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

Tesco Media's Director Strategy, Proposition & Measurement, Florian Clemens, explains how a focus on win-win-win outcomes (value for shopper, advertiser, and retailer) guides the strategy for Tesco's retail media business. The discussion centres on measurement, omnichannel innovation, the legacy of Clubcard data, and Tesco's position as a market maker in UK retail. Practical examples highlight transparent loyalty incentives, creative brand partnerships, and the challenge of delivering differentiation on a large scale. The conversation closes with what's next for Tesco: building truly omnichannel, science-driven media and exploring the real-world impact of AI on habits and shopping behaviour.
 
 Points of Note on Tesco Media
 •Tesco holds 28% of UK supermarket sales, reaches nearly every UK household, and operates at a scale matched by few retailers.
 •Clubcard's integration with Dunnhumby's data science powers Clubcard Challenges; over 80% of in-store revenue is attributed to identified shoppers.
 •Tesco Media runs as an internal joint team: Tesco, Dunnhumby, and external talent.
 •More than 25 ad products: coupons, search, store screens, Clubcard Challenges - designed for relevance, transparency, and incremental value.
 
 Key Quotes
 "This win-win-win needs to be right for the shopper, right for the advertiser, and right for the retailer. That just takes longer to figure out, but it's what we're building"
“Clubcard changed the face of British retail… suddenly it was about data-driven engagement.”
“It’s only a real win if it’s truly better for people. I don’t think we’ve seen that at scale - yet.” “If I started making a list of all our sources of inventory, turning delivery vans into ad products would have been number 35… but being a UK-focused decision maker lets us try it if it feels right.” “With Clubcard Challenges, customers choose which brands to engage more deeply with, and advertisers only pay if people convert - a transparent, zero-risk proposition.” “Tier-one platforms can build direct relationships. Further down the list, you have to aggregate for economic reasons - otherwise agencies simply don’t have the bandwidth.”   
Episode Running Order • 00:00 — Introductions, context, Tesco’s leading market position • 01:00 — Tesco Media’s joint strategy, scale, and data science • 04:00 — Clubcard’s legacy and retail media’s evolution • 07:00 — Team structure: Tesco, Dunnhumby, and new hires • 09:00 — The win-win-win foundation; Clubcard Challenges as example • 12:00 — Differentiating Tesco Media from a decade of programmatic and performance marketing • 17:00 — Brand partnerships: creative campaigns (Christmas grottos, branded vans) • 20:00 — Complexity in omnichannel: 25+ ad products, need for self-optimisation • 23:00 — Future vision: scientific omnichannel planning and implementing AI in commerce • 29:00 — Price sensitivity, habit, and the real test for AI and automation • 34:00 — Closing thoughts, next steps, and invitation for a return discussion on AI 
 
--  Run time: 38 minutes
INFORMATION:
[ 🖥️ ]
Tesco Media - https://www.dunnhumby.com/tesco-media-insight-platform/ 
[ 👨‍👧 ]
Florian Clemens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florianclemens/ 
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

This episode examines how PerfectTed has introduced ceremonial-grade matcha to the mainstream UK market, covering product origins, retail strategy, lessons from Dragon's Den, and building a challenger brand in the FMCG sector. The conversation touches on the history of matcha, the reality of category management, and making niche products accessible to a wide consumer audience. PerfectTed (
www.perfectted.com) 
Sold in major retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett, Planet Organic, and Ocado.​
Stocked nationally in coffee chains: Joe & the Juice, Black Sheep Coffee, and Café Nero.​
Product range covers organic, ceremonial-grade matcha powders and sparkling matcha energy drinks (with three flavours, including Great Taste award winner).
Sourced from single-origin growers in Japan, using young, shade-grown leaves.
Every batch is handpicked, stone-ground, vegan, gluten-free, organic, and non-GMO, with 68mg caffeine per serving.
The brand was featured on Dragon's Den in 2022, receiving investment offers from all five Dragons and accepting Steven Bartlett’s offer. Full episode on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpwc1GqehZU) and Stephen Bartlett's follow up video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCcDNArBASw).
Co-founder Marisa brought her personal focus on ADHD and anxiety to the energy drink formula, aiming for clean energy without jitters or crashes.
Episode Topics & Timestamps 
00:00—Opening
00:59—Introduction to Shani, her career move, and the PerfectTed mission
02:34—History and basics of matcha; ceremonial vs. lower grades
05:00—PerfectTed’s retail and coffee chain distribution
08:30—Sales career progression and negotiation insight
11:00—Dragon’s Den: pitch day and investment outcome
12:30—Post-Dragon’s Den impact and rapid growth
15:30—Brand identity, consumer niche, and quality promise
16:30—Retail trading, innovation, and working with buyers
18:00—Consumer education, Instagram trends, and matcha recipes
22:00—Product range, taste profiles, and development stories
23:30—Purpose, clean energy, and values-driven marketing
24:30—Closing thoughts
Key Quotes
"Our mission is spreading positive energy through matcha products."
"Ceremonial grade is the first flush—the youngest leaves. You get that vibrant green and a sweet umami flavour rather than a bitter, grassy taste."
"You always have to prioritize quality. We focus on 100% pure ceremonial-grade matcha because if you have a bad experience, you won't come back."
"Dragon's Den was 90 minutes of filming that became 14 minutes of air time. We received all five investor offers and accepted Steven Bartlett's investment."
"You won't be liked by everyone. What makes you special is your niche."
"Matcha is like coffee—you can have a bad experience, or you can find a quality source and come back forever."
 
--  Run time: 39 minutes
INFORMATION:
[ 🖥️ ]
PerfectTed's website - www.perfectted.com
[ 👨‍👧 ]
Shani Higgs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanihiggs/
Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/
[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal

In this short, sharp RetailCraft conversation, Ian Jindal chats with Timo Boldt, founder and Chief Executive of recipe-box innovator Gousto, to explore how a self-proclaimed “data company that loves food” is reshaping dinner for millions of UK households. In 20 minutes they unpack Gousto’s 13-year journey from kitchen table idea to profitable £308 million enterprise, its foray into B2B software via the Bento subscription platform, and Boldt’s ambition to raise Gousto’s UK “share of stomach” from 0.2 percent to 1 percent1. Listeners will enjoy candid reflections on everything from Netherlands expansion and AI-driven menu personalisation to the zen of walking factory floors at 5am.

Episode Summary
Gousto’s path has tracked—with uncanny timing—every macro-cycle in ecommerce food: mobile adoption, pandemic surges, funding booms and busts, quick-commerce exuberance, and the current shift from growth at all costs to durable profitability. Boldt explains why Gousto remains “deeply profitable” while many peers falter, how its eco-design “Eco-Chill” packaging saves 23 percent CO₂ per meal, and why he believes Bento can do for physical-goods subscriptions what Shopify did for storefronts.

At the heart of the episode is the tension every modern retailer navigates: providing limitless personalisation while operating a ruthlessly disciplined supply chain. Gousto’s answer is a vertically integrated tech stack, four automated fulfilment centres, and predictive algorithms that cut food waste, hold gross margins above 53 percent, and power a menu now exceeding 200 recipes per week.

We also chat about Timo’s personal journey: leaving a hedge-fund VP role at 26, moving into student housing to save cash, running early routes himself, and leaning on “learn-a-holic” instincts to conquer operations, funding, B-Corp certification and, most recently, AI.

About the Guest
Timo Boldt

Founder & CEO, Gousto (2012–present) — certified B Corp meal-kit pioneer valued at over £1 billion in 2020, now refocused on profitability and mainstream mass-market expansion.

EY UK Entrepreneur of the Year 2022, World Entrepreneur Class of 2023.

Member, Unilever Digital Advisory Board.

Executive MBA, Cambridge Judge Business School; undergraduate training in statistics fuels his obsession with data-driven iteration.

Key Topics & Timestamps

00:00 – Cold-open & scene-setting

Recording in a “glass atrium” at Retail X; quick intro to Gousto and its 13-year trajectory

03:00 – Market purpose & climate math

The 40 percent food-waste statistic and Gousto’s mission to remove hassle, guilt and CO₂ from dinner

05:00 – Growth vectors & 1 billion-meal TAM

Boldt’s “share of stomach” framing; path from 5 recipes a week to 200; next-day delivery at £3.20 per portion

08:00 – Personalisation at scale

Custom menus, 10-minute recipes, Wagamama tie-ins, protein-heavy “XL” range for hungry teens

11:00 – Founder back-story

From Rothschild analyst to food-box evangelist; giving up salary for three years; California culinary inspiration

13:00 – Ireland launch & localisation learnings

Seven weeks in market; podcast discovery channel; “zero-to-one” done, now “one-to-100” scaling

14:30 – Bento SaaS platform

Packaging 13-years of tech for external merchants selling physical-goods subscriptions—beauty, liquor, pet food

16:00 – AI, automation & factory tours

Four fulfilment sites, 80 million dinners per site per year; invitation to Ian for a 05:00 walkthrough

17:30 – International options

Cultural hurdles in Germany (“dinner bread”), promise in Scandinavia, Netherlands and Australia

18:45 – Subscription advice for brands

“Developer-to-domain ratio” heuristic; outsource generic infrastructure, focus resources on differentiated CX

20:00 – Future vision (next 10 years)

Raising share of stomach, household-level nutrition kits, more plant-forward range, and fully recyclable packaging

22:00 – Favourite recipe & wrap-up

Boldt’s vegetarian obsession, 10-minute meals, spice pre-portions, and the joy of never buying mystery jars again.

Quotes

“Our share of stomach is 0.2 percent—a drop in the ocean. Getting to 1 percent feels eminently possible if we obsess over value for money.”

“Forty percent of UK food is binned. Every Gousto box saves 7 kilograms of CO₂ compared with supermarket dinners.”

“Quick commerce is gone. We’re sitting on a £400 million business, deeply profitable and cash generative.”

“Developer-to-domain ratio matters: don’t burn engineers on generic subscription plumbing—buy it off the shelf.”

“I view Gousto as a data company that loves food.”

“The pace of change will never again be this slow; it only accelerates from here.”

 

--  Run time: 20 minutes

INFORMATION:

[ 🖥️ ]

Gousto's website - www.gousto.co.uk 

Gousto on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gousto/ 

 

[ 👨‍👧 ]

Timo Boldt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timo-boldt/ 

Ian Jindal: www.linkedin.com/in/ianjindal/ 

 

[ 📷 ] (c) Ian Jindal / www.instagram.com/ianjindal