Before launching mash of brands®, I spent 25 years working 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 then the Portsmouth Group in Dubai before I became Head of Media and Communications at an in-house role.

By my late 20s, I realised I didn't want to spend my life climbing the corporate ladder. One day I said fuck it, walked out of my safe job and began to pursue the dumb idea of importing the world's finest teas.

After initially sourcing thirteen artisan teas from China and Taiwan, I launched my first brand, driftwood tea®. While critically well-received, driftwood's sales were slow. With limited money coming in, I spent the next year bootstrapping strategies to validate new concept brands. When my second brand, The Skinny Tea Co®**, came to market, it was an "overnight success" and inspired a global category of products and hundreds of copycat brands.

Within a few years, I grew a small business selling loose-leaf tea on eBay into multiple globally successful brands - which I would go on to sell to a private equity investor.

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

Jamie Ewan Henderson
Founder of mash of brands® | The Startup Studio For Dumb Ideas™

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

**The Skinny Tea Co® sold hand-picked organic oolongs blended with a ceremonial grade matcha. It was never a cheap senna-based laxative "tea" that this category was to become known for.