Ben Kaye

SURREAL

Gimme a sec to settle into the role, and then I'll tell you what I've been up to!

Category & Commercial Manager

Spin Tennis App

• Drew up an events plan to add an additional USP and revenue stream for Spin Tennis App
• Creating and hosting events to further engagement within the Spin Tennis Community
• Sourcing venues to deliver an enjoyable experience for Spin members
• Initial events in 2025 have had 100+ attendees with a positive experience and demand for further events

Event Manager

2 Sisters Food Group

Category Manager within the Poultry division, working across a variety of retail customers:
• Responsible for analysis of all protein space & sales performance for a large convenience retailer, helping deliver "the best presentation across the supply base" (retail buyer), resulting in 20% incremental space and additional SKUs worth £m of pounds to the business
• Led and delivered the development of best-in-class insights reporting website, delivering the team’s category insight, in-store reports and data analysis all in one centralised place for customers
• Produced comprehensive consumer insight report to assist retailers in understanding Christmas purchase decisions
• Used data and analytics skills to redesign and rebuild the Co-op Sales Reporting process to give more profound and more powerful insights to the commercial team, resulting in the award of Employee of the Month
• Led the delivery of category insights for BBQ Season 2024, featuring new image-based market maps

Category Manager

Well Fruited

Co-founder of a drinks brand that used product innovation and fun to address the fact that only 28% of adults consume 5 portions of fruit & veg a day.

Some key accomplishments:
• Co-created the first fruit drink made using all of the fruit, designed to maximise fibre and nutrient content, whilst limiting sugar impact
• Bootstrapped the business through initial product testing phases by using self-taught skills such as web design, branding, financial modelling & prototyping
• Sold over 5,000 bottles as part of initial testing phase, through various channels such as D2C, B2B and live events
• 7m video views across TikTok, YouTube & Instagram
•Charted the growth of the brand alongside my insights into what makes a consumer-business stand out

Co-Founder & CEO

Unrest

Participated in the programme to help strengthen the foundations of the business and fuel the growth of the Well Fruited brand.

As part of the programme:
- Refined our Pitch Deck & proposition
-Built out Financial Projections & models
- Refined brand strategy
- Engaged in the wider Unrest community

Entrepreneur at Unrest (London)

Year Here

Working on solutions to societal problems to deliver positive impact and social change.

Mar - August 2021: Population Health Team, Bromley-by-Bow Health Partnership. Projects included:
• Project Best Start: analysing data to build a profile of young people within Tower Hamlets and help inform decisions on how to give every child the best start in life
• Project Ways of Working: delivered a report that assessed ways of working across the Health Partnership, with recommendations on how to improve ways of working across areas such as meetings, project management and document sharing
• Project Talking Food: organised and facilitated sessions around nutrition and healthy diet for local community members to help improve wellbeing, which results in some "life-changing" results

Sep - Oct 2021: Consultant on a project for Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation around equitable and representative employment for the local area

Social Innovation Fellow

Bakkavor

Working across UK & Ireland on one of the UK's largest retailers on multiple fresh prepared food categories.

Role included delivering first-to-market innovation, long-term strategic planning, stakeholder management, building customer relationships and commercial analysis.

Key accomplishments:
• Shortlisted for Bakkavor Group Innovation Awards for work on Post-Launch Review Process
• Led the introduction of a new software tool to deliver faster, more accurate and in-depth sales reporting on a weekly basis to transform the way the sales teams reported on performance, whilst saving countless hours of data collection
• Worked on a bespoke strategy for Tesco Ireland to adapt offerings to fit the market need, resulting in cutting wastage by 20%
• Launched new product ranges across multiple retailers, cuisines and tiers, worth over £10m in annual sales revenue

Testimonials:
• Attention to detail is fantastic and it’s been a great support

Commercial Manager

Managing key retailer accounts across a variety of Fresh Prepared Foods categories to deliver first to market innovation and profitable business growth.

Responsible for Category Strategy, Promotional Planning and International Projects, achieved through cross-functional working and a commitment to innovative and new working practices.

Key accomplishments:
• Improved forecasting accuracy by c.15%pt through the creation and implementation of an analysis tool
• Established a clear set of category information documentation that enabled the team to become category pioneers through easy-to-access information on product & promotional performance
• Grew an e-commerce account 28% YOY, ahead of the growth trajectory for the retailer overall
• Improve margin performance of at-risk lines through Product Development work to recover of £50k p/a

Testimonials:
Ben is a self-starter and is constantly looking at avenues and ways to add value to the business. 
He has proactively volunteered for add on projects and has been working with grit and determination on PLR (Post Launch Review) project which has been identified as a big opportunity.

Account Manager

Part of the Commercial Team, working directly with two of the UK's largest retailers and a wide range of various stakeholders.

Worked across a variety of Fresh Prepared Foods categories on both projects with retailers and supplier-related projects. This has included forecasting, promotional activity, category management and using specific data sources and systems.

Key achievements:
• Winner of Graduate's Graduate Award (2018) for contribution to the business and experience of graduates on the programme
• Won monthly innovation award for leading a project to save M&S over £1m in food waste on their Italian ready meal category

Testimonials:
Ben has made an impressive start to his career at Bakkavor and is a pleasure to have on the team. His approach is humble, respectful, resilient and committed.

Commercial Graduate

Tesco

Primarily working on promotional strategy and ranging across the Plant-Based ranges within Fresh & Frozen. Helping to deliver double-digit growth in one of the emerging areas within the food industry.

Additionally assisted in the delivery of the 2019 Christmas Party Food Range.

Key accomplishments:
• Ranging recommendations delivered possible incremental sale of £31m and £14m margin for Tesco across chilled & frozen ranges
• Ensured timely launch of Christmas Party Food ranges to ensure all lines were correctly executed in-store

Product Analyst

The Holiday Place

Working in the Product Department which involves:
• Dealing with contracts with suppliers
• Content writing for the website
• Using the dedicated software to manage hotel and flight details

Administration Assistant

XpressionFM

I was:
• Head of Marketing at Xpression FM (www.xpression.fm)
• Xpression FM Saturday Sport Show pundit (www.facebook.com/xpressionsportshow)
• Producer of Highly A-Newsing (www.facebook.com/highlyanewsing)

Head of Marketing

💥 MY BACKGROUND
👨🏻‍💻 I work in Category Management across multiple customers, covering insights, sales analysis and consumer trends
🛒 I've worked with some of the UK's largest retailers on their own label ranges, launching over 100 products
📈 Focusing on sales growth, product assortment and category strategy
🍲 Seconded to work for the UK's largest food retailer in supporting the launch of two new brands
🍊Co-founder of Well Fruited; developing first-to-market innovation; a drink with half the sugar of a juice/smoothie, with 4k+ units sold and over 7m times across TikTok, Instagram & YouTube!
🎾 I once won the Junior Tennis Tournament at my local tennis club, so am always up for a game

💥 TESTIMONIALS
▶️ "The guys who created and make the product [Well Fruited] are extraordinary, they fully deserve the success coming their way!"
▶️ "Your ability to spot the smallest details in a giant spreadsheet of numbers is unreal"
▶️ "A deserved winner of Employee of the Month for going above and beyond in helping the team"

Feel free to connect with me to chat...or for a game of tennis 🤝

Co-Founder

Co-founder of a Food & drink brand using product innovation and fun to address the fact that only 28% of adults consume 5 portions of fruit & veg a day.

Some key accomplishments:
• Co-created the first fruit drink made using all of the fruit, designed to maximise fibre and nutrient content, whilst limiting sugar impact
• Bootstrapped the business through initial product testing phases by using self-taught skills such as web design, branding, financial modelling & prototyping
• 6m video views across TikTok, YouTube & Instagram
•Charting the growth of the brand alongside my insights into what makes a consumer-business stand out

Huw Thomas

Rainmaking

Leading Growth and Partnerships at Rainmaking Innovation and Startupbootcamp, where we are accelerating the solutions to climate change by aligning, connecting and supporting corporate resources and entrepreneurial talent via commercialisation, venture building and statup pilots.

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We are a global innovation consultancy specializing in venture-building and fostering strategic partnerships between established businesses and startups. Our mission is to empower companies to unlock their full potential by harnessing the innovative energy of the startup ecosystem. With our unique blend of industry expertise, cutting-edge technology, and agile methodologies, we not only help businesses collaborate with startups but also assist in creating and scaling new ventures from the ground up. By combining the power of startup agility with corporate resources, we enable companies to stay ahead of the curve in today's rapidly changing world. Partner with Rainmaking Innovation and let's co-create a future where your business thrives, fueled by the entrepreneurial spirit, strategic alliances, and venture-building expertise.

Head of Growth & Partnerships

Startupbootcamp

Partnerships and Business Development

Better World Consulting

I offer support to early-stage companies and entrepreneurs, focusing primarily on the intersection of the future of food, sustainability, animal welfare, and biotech. My assistance ranges from paid to pro-bono, and I also participate as a judge in several prestigious competitions. Alongside this more practical support, I have also acted as a contributing author to the world's first textbook on Culivated Meat, published on the University of Oxford platform.

I have collaborated with organizations such as Entrepreneur First, Founder Institute, EIT Food, FoodShot Global, Zinc, iGEM, Impact Hub (Feeding the City programme), OX1 Incubator, Oxford Garage (the incubator program of Europe's largest student entrepreneurship society), Founders Factory's 'Founders of the Future', Oxford ARC Social Enterprise Accelerator, and more.

As a mentor for the Cambridge, Oxford, and LBS teams participating in MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network and Training), I help MBA students learn about impact investing through a global program. Additionally, I regularly serve as a judge in the Finals at Wharton Business School, Philadelphia. More information can be found at http://www.themiint.org/.

I am also a judge for the EIT Food Accelerator Network (run in collaboration with MassChallenge) in Cambridge and a mentor for the EIT Seedbed incubator program, where my mentees were recognized as one of the best companies on the program.

Details about other companies in my mentorship portfolio can be found below.

Founder

Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust

One of the most prestigious scholarships worldwide for higher education at the University of Oxford.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weidenfeld-Hoffmann_Trust

Entrepreneurship Coach

Village Capital

Advisory Board Member, Greentech Europe

Climate First

Climate First is a climate tech accelerator that supports the most ambitious founders solving the world’s most pressing problems. As a Climate First mentor, I support a cohort of ten highly promising companies that are developing sustainable and scalable products that will accelerate the world’s transition to net zero emissions.

Mentor

Unreasonable

Unreasonable focuses on harnessing business to ensure a regenerative and just future. As of July 2024, the 419+ entrepreneurs in the "Unreasonable Fellowship" have raised more than $15 bn in financing, are shaping trillion-dollar industries, and are uplifting the lives of more than 1.6 bn people. They handpick and privately invite the world's most impactful growth-stage ventures into the Fellowship. As an Unreasonable Mentor, I am humbled to have the opportunity to help scale the efforts of these history-defining ventures.

Business Mentor

Airband Technologies

HealthTech. Pollution monitoring and intelligent personal routing hardware and software platform developed by a very talented team from St Paul's School. Ultimately, acceptance into the top Russell Group and Ivy League universities broke the team and slowed progress.

Strategic Advisor

NXT LVL PZA

https://vegconomist.com/products-launches/nxt-lvl-pizza-secretly-vegan/

VC Lab

Highly selective 'incubator' for VC funds.

Cohort 9 Member

I thoroughly enjoy creating connections. Despite my background as a founder and engineer, I firmly believe that solving many world problems is as much about coordination as technical solutions. In line with this belief, I'm fully committed to making it significantly easier for corporations and startups to collaborate for the greater good. I find nothing more fulfilling in my professional life than discovering ways to help others address the world's most pressing challenges.

My professional experience encompasses the critical factors driving climate change, particularly in the energy industry, where I've been involved in innovation strategy and investment management at National Grid and other organizations. Additionally, I have been active in the biotech and foodtech industry, as the COO of the world's first venture-backed cultivated pork company, New Age Meats, and the world's first 'alternative protein'-focused startup studio / venture builder, Counterfactual Ventures.

#Innovation #Collaboration #ClimateChange #StartupLife

I offer support to early-stage companies and entrepreneurs, focusing primarily on the intersection of the future of food, sustainability, animal welfare, and biotech. My assistance ranges from paid to pro-bono, and I also participate as a judge in several prestigious competitions.

I have collaborated with organizations such as Entrepreneur First, Founder Institute, EIT Food, FoodShot Global, Zinc, iGEM, Impact Hub (Feeding the City programme), OX1 Incubator, Oxford Garage (the incubator program of Europe's largest student entrepreneurship society), Founders Factory's 'Founders of the Future', Oxford ARC Social Enterprise Accelerator, and more.

As a mentor for the Cambridge, Oxford, and LBS teams participating in MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network and Training), I help MBA students learn about impact investing through a global program. Additionally, I regularly serve as a judge in the Finals at Wharton Business School, Philadelphia. More information can be found at http://www.themiint.org/.

I am also a judge for the EIT Food Accelerator Network (run in collaboration with MassChallenge) in Cambridge and a mentor for the EIT Seedbed incubator program, where my mentees were recognized as one of the best companies on the program.

Details about other companies in my mentorship portfolio can be found below.

taplio

The Battle

Ben Kaye

Huw Thomas

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