#129: Innovate like Willy Wonka with Smith&Sinclair's Melanie Goldsmith - a podcast by Alex Chisnall

"The minute the website launched, two days later, we had an order for 20,000 and that was very much the pivot because that became very full-time, very quickly. Emile and I were both in the kitchen all day, every day for about 3 months, and in the evenings to keep our cash flow afloat we were working as Secret Cinema selling the gummies, with the help of a couple of friends. It was this very vicious cycle of wake up, make, pack, go to an event, be back at 1 am, do the same thing, until we could get the 20,000 out and then we could structure what the business would look like."

On today's show, I chat to Melanie Goldsmith, Founder of Smith & Sinclair, founders of the World's first alcoholic sweets and the UK's first edible fragrance.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Melanie has won Natwest's 'Every Woman' award in 2018 and has also been a winner at the National Business Women's awards and The Great British Entrepreneur awards as well.

Smith & Sinclair are the founders of the alcoholic gummy and are on a mission to make 'adulting', as they say, more fun. They create innovative products and experiences that range from patented alcoholic cocktail gummies through to effervescent tablets you can drop into prosecco and turn into a mind-blowing cocktail. What started out as an ice-breaker for events has scaled to a lucrative 500% growth trajectory and ambitious plans to launch in the US by the end of the year.

Pretty incredible story, I hope you're going to enjoy this interview as much as I did. I met Melanie back in 2015 at a Virgin party and she has no recollection of me being in the photo booth with her, she probably thinks I had far too many of their alcoholic sweets. 

Anyway, more information about their story and about all things #Screwitjustdoit, including our upcoming 3rd birthday party which we're celebrating with a live event and some very special friends, head on over to the Facebook page for #Screwitjustdoit and you'll be fully up to date.

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