Before launching mash of brands®, I spent 25 years as a marketer, publicist, and entrepreneur. While at university in Edinburgh, I launched my first successful business, supplying bands to venues*. After receiving a degree in marketing, I studied at Le Cordon Bleu. My first job upon leaving Cordon Bleu was as the personal chef to the Dutch Ambassador. Later, I became a publicist, working at the Brunswick Group in London and the Portsmouth Group in Dubai before becoming Head of Media and Communications in an in-house role.

By my late 20s, I felt lost and realised my life lacked purpose. I no longer wanted to sell out and spend my life climbing the corporate ladder. One day I said fuck it, walked out of my safe job and began to pursue the purposefully dumb idea of importing the world’s finest teas.

I launched my first artisan tea brand after sourcing thirteen loose-leaf teas from small farms in China and Taiwan. Despite critical acclaim, sales were slow. With limited funds, I spent a year validating various concept brands. My second tea brand became an “overnight success,” inspiring a global product category and hundreds of copycat brands.

Within a few years, I had grown a small business selling tea on eBay into multiple globally successful brands. I would go on to sell this business to a private equity investor.

After selling my company, I took some time off. Bored and once again lacking purpose, I began providing startup advice on Reddit; this was to become the start of a mash of brands®.

Jamie Ewan Henderson
Founder of mash of brands® | Purposefully Dumb Ideas™

*Run from a £20 a month mailbox, this remains one of my best dumb ideas ever.