Kate Cotterill and Lucy Hutchings set up She Grows Veg when they saw a gap in the market for heirloom seeds. The business launched in November 2023 and has been thriving and growing ever since.
Can you tell us a little about your background and your company?
I set up She Grows Veg with Lucy Hutchings, a former jewellery designer to the stars (think Cheryl Cole and Kylie) and I’d worked in marketing for 25 years. She Grows Veg is an heirloom seed brand with a clear aim to inspire and educate people to grow their own heritage veg that is more flavoursome, colourful and interesting than anything you can buy in the shops.
What inspired you to start your business?
Lucy and I met seven years ago. We were doing a garden design course. During our year’s studying Lucy started @shegrowsveg on Instagram. She got a sense while she was doing that that there was some potential in the seed market to sell unusual varieties. She came to me about 2 years ago with the idea and we did some research and saw a clear opportunity for a really interesting and new approach to being a seed company.
How did you create awareness for your brand?
We did some crowdfunding very, very early on, we raised just over £20,000 through crowdfunding to get the business off the ground, and this was absolutely crucial. It paid for things like our initial marketing comms, our first office, buying some of our first seeds, even the desks in our office, so it was absolutely vital.
What was also brilliant is that we had this sort of springboard in the following that Lucy had created on her Instagram, which was great, because actually a lot of people on Instagram were really interested in seeing a company like us get off the ground and were happy to back it. And so the people who crowd funded actually were the first people to receive seeds. So they were effectively buying seed packages, or they were buying the participation to become one of our trial growers.
What strategies helped you secure funding and scale your business? What challenges have you faced, and how did you overcome them?
There were actually lots of challenges! Securing a bank account and business loan due to general gender bias was a huge hurdle. We went out to all the high street banks and no one wanted to let us open a business account. Really still to this day, we don’t particularly know why, but we managed to get an account with Monzo, which has functioned okay, but it’s not really sophisticated enough for us.
Where the real gender bias issue came in was actually when we were trying to secure a business loan. We were going out for around £25,000, not an enormous amount. I tried everything. I approached banks and loan companies. Some of the loan companies that would lend us money had a rate of around 40% percent, which is absolutely outrageous and untenable for a small business. Eventually I ended up chatting to a broker who said to me, I’m really sorry to say this, in 2024 which it was at the time, but actually, as women, you’re going to find it harder to secure a loan, which I found absolutely shocking.
We finally managed to get a loan through the biz Britain, British business bank, and they were superb. It was a very rigorous process, they checked our business plan and everything we were doing, but they were the only people that would lend. In the end, we couldn’t get a loan that was below 40% interest from anywhere else. So, they’ve been superb, and they really backed us and helped us out.
What have been your biggest successes so far?
Lucy and I did that small business thing of doing a little dance when we got our first orders through, we couldn’t quite believe it, and that was an unforgettable moment. But I think one of the pinnacles, particularly last year, was exhibiting at Chelsea Flower Show in our first year, for the first time, and if we look back on it now, we were winging it and actually applied before we even had any seeds!
We applied in August 2023, and we started selling seeds in November, and Chelsea gave us a chance, and we exhibited, and we actually won gold in our first year, and we had the most incredible reception from all of the visitors, and media coverage and TV coverage, the works, and it really put us on the map. It was a very, very exciting time for the business.
What are your plans for the future?
We never stand still and have so many great, really interesting new seed varieties coming down the line. We never stop innovating on that. We’ve just launched a subscription service, so we send people the right seeds at the right time to sow them with all the growing advice on a QR code and that has really taken off very fast. So we’re very excited about that.
We are looking a few years ahead and want to develop a She Grows Veg app and we are looking to grow the business and our gifting range. We are investing heavily in marketing and we’re looking to double our revenue this year. So there’s a huge push on growing the business and fast.
What advice would you give to aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Our motto is to ‘grow big or go home’, and I think I tell myself that all the time. I think positive affirmations and positive self talk are really, really important for women in business. You are the only person that can remind yourself that you are absolutely capable of executing on anything you want to do. I talk to myself all the time and say ‘you deserve to be here, your ideas are amazing, look at what you’ve created’. All those positive affirmations are really, really important.
I also think looking for networks like Female Founders Rise, or even mentors, is really important. Women need sounding boards to just give the reassurance they’re on the right track and they’re doing the right things. So I’d advise building a network of mentors and sounding boards, so you can touch in with people when you need to, to help you make decisions. And have courage in your conviction; if you’ve done the research and see a market opportunity, if you have a strategy and have considered your marketing and your budgeting, then go for it! Let go of imposter syndrome, which, by the way, men also have, they just ignore it more efficiently than us.
What are your top three tips for entrepreneurial success?
1. Learn a type of self discipline to keep yourself positive and keep you driving on and believing in yourself.
2. If you’re having a wobble, touch in with that network, question it, talk about it and get that support.
3. If you’re even thinking of starting your own business, do the research, make sure your idea is good and sound and it’s what the market wants, think it through, do the planning, do the strategy, and just go for it! If you believe in yourself and back yourself and get good people around you, the chances are you’ll do really, really well.
Who are five people who inspire you the most, and why?
- Cheryl Sandberg – Lean in was the best advice I could have got at a certain stage in my career. It enabled me to be bolder and see that I had a right to sit at the table and speak up.
- Ilona Andrews – A phenomenal female rugby player who is an incredible role model for women and girls and is 100% herself even at the tender age of 28
- Emmie Faust – founder of Female Founders Rise – she’s a multi exit entrepreneur who is dedicating her working life to supporting other female entrepreneurs and helping them to raise investment. I recently attended one of her events at Google in London and it spurred me onto find our first angel investors with confidence
- Anne Boden – founder of Starling Bank – taking on financial services as a female led startup takes guts and she’s smashed it
- My Coralus Cohort – I’ve been lucky enough to be chosen as a Coralus venture (1 of 11 startups globally). The other 10 are all social enterprises, sustainability and socially conscious ventures. All of them are doing exceptional things in the world and I’m looking forward to being part of this accelerator with them
What are your favourite inspirational or motivational quotes?
- “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop
- “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” — Steve Jobs
- “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.” — Michelle Obama
- “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” — Thomas Edison
- “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” — Walt Disney
Where can our readers connect with you?
On Instagram @shegrowsveg
