I’m sure anyone that’s heard our amazing founder Mel’s whirlwind, emotional rollercoaster story of founding Kiwi & Co can agree she’s literally wonder woman, and the strongest person everrrr, and if you haven’t heard her story, buckle in (and grab a cuppa). 🗣️
Mel was recently the guest speaker at a conference for the POI society, which stands for People of Influence, in Glasgow's Princes Square (we somehow resisted spending our entire paycheques at Space NK, I know, we're so brave 🛍️). Anyway...back to POI, which is an incredible, inspiring networking event developed to bring talented women together and help each other to success - and we just adored the buzz in the room and seeing cool women, doing cool sh*t.
The event, and company itself, was founded and hosted by the amazing Jaqui Blair and Stacy McNabney (we love you queens 💌). Each owning their own businesses, Jaqui with her amazing marketing agency JB Marketing Consultancy, and Stacy with The Social Coach, and eventually co-founding POI.
POI's main goal, was to build a women-only networking society and to 'empower women in business and tackle the loneliness of being self-employed'. They enforce the idea that regardless of their field, all women are welcome, which has brought people from a huge variety of careers and backgrounds together 🫶🏼.
Jaqui and Stacy strongly believe in providing ambitious women with the helping hand of community and networking, and that the 'power of bringing females together in a room is unmatched.', and empowering female voices and women in business in a society that tends to neglect them (as a female led HQ, we love this 💐).
But anyway, back, to why you're here, and Mel's incredible answers to Jacqui's fabulous questions, which will answer to all your curiosities and give you alll the Kiwi tea 🥝.
💭How did Kiwi & Co Start?💭
“I was made redundant, and began to think what do I really want to do...I saw people were developing businesses where everything was digital and pushed solely through socials, and I immediately thought, I could do that.”
“It initially started as vintage resale, then I began developing my own products. During covid we exploded, everyone was shopping online and social media had our undivided attention, so influencers became the key, and a lot of them were happy to accept gifting at the time, which meant with their posts we quickly blew up to 40k followers.”
“Jess Hunt wore us, we were on TOWIE, the business was thriving, and then everything fell apart, and our Instagram account was deleted - which was our sole driver to the website. At this point, I was also in the process of Dialysis after two kidney transplants, I ended up getting a blood clot and going to hospital for a small operation to get it removed, which ended up not going well and my artery ruptured.”
“During my hospital recovery, I took a fall and woke up to herds of people around me and learnt I’d broken and dislocated my neck. While this was happening, we’d just come off the back of a new drop which featured a jumper which was completely blowing up."
"So my Mum and Sister had to take over, packing 100’s of orders while I was in hospital. Then when I left hospital, I was on Dialysis for 2 years, while still running my business and showing up to work every day."
💭Tell us about some of your wins?💭
“There’s been so many, and I’ve reflected on my journey a lot lately. I feel like sometimes when you’re in the moment it’s hard to take a step back and see the success, like when we launched our first T-shirts which went crazy, or the Jumper going viral when I was in hospital. I think having the right thing at the right time, and rolling with what people like is key, and what it takes when it’s time to scale the business.”
“We’ve got a warehouse now, and a great team, and it’s taken time to mould the team to align with Kiwi’s vision. I’ve also had a journey as a manager, at the start I felt I was too laid back, like suuuuure take a 2 hour lunch, but people need structure and that’s what makes businesses strong.”
💭Take us to where Kiwi is now, because you are now selling on…💭
“ASOS! They contacted us 2024, to which I immediately said yes, despite timing and my health. I’m very much the type of person that thinks everything will work out how it's meant to, so just say yes and figure it out later.”
“Then it nearly killed me, I had no idea how much it would entail. They placed a hugeeee order, which we then had to find the money for, for development and design, which as a small business we didn’t have, all our money was on the shelves, everything went back into expanding the business.”
“I’ve always shopped on ASOS, and it’s crazy to think we would be there, I have a bit of imposter syndrome, it’s crazy to think this thing I started for fun has turned into this.”
💭Finally, if you could give your past self one piece of advice, what would it be?💭
“RELAX. I feel everything, and there’s been so many times I’ve been panicking like crazy, and then it’s worked out. Even if it doesn’t work, you need to enjoy things, what’s the point if you don’t enjoy it and are constantly like next thing, next thing, next thing.”
"I remember my Dad was dropping me to work one day, because I had another medical episode and couldn’t drive. And he told me, you’ve done so well, you are so resilient, most people would have given up. My mindset is that if you want something enough, don’t give up. Resilience is 100% the secret to doing well.”
To summarise...✍🏼
Firstly, I hope you can all now see what we see, and understand why we say that Mel is literally wonder woman, going through the worst health issues while still being a BOSS (not girlboss, a full on BOSS) and building one of Glasgows most successful businesses.
And secondly, take this as a crucial lesson, that if you think you can't do well because of hard times, don't let it be a roadblock, let it give you grit and make you stronger. 🎀
Finally, as Mel said it best, BE RESILIENT (because who knows where life could go). 💐
