Spotlight on: Sourcery
We spoke to Zoe to get the inside scoop on Sourcery!
How did Sourcery come about? What’s your story?
After 3 years in the charity sector and studying a masters Political Economy of Late Development, it became clear to me that creating lasting positive social change meant changing the way we live our daily lives. A lot of this is tied to how our economy works and businesses are run, so I changed my career direction and spent the next 10 years working in the business sector to understand this better. During this time I was working as a management consultant launching new products & services for big corporations like IKEA, J&J and Michelin, but I also worked with 7 different startups across different sectors. Having accumulated all this experience, I’d been trying to find the right opportunity to build my own social impact business.
The idea came when I spoke to a friend who manages a restaurant last December. She was complaining about how difficult it is to source sustainably - she spent a lot of time researching different products, ended up procuring from 200 small suppliers, which became an admin nightmare and was working hard to consolidate it down to 80 suppliers. As she spoke of her troubles, I thought "there must be a better way!". I believe that more businesses would source from local & sustainable suppliers if it was easier to do so, which sparked the idea of Sourcery - an online wholesale marketplace for local & sustainable products, with the vision to create a decentralised network of local and sustainable suppliers across the UK.
What is Sourcery seeking to achieve? How does it have impact?
Sourcery is on a mission to make local and sustainable sourcing accessible and scalable. By making it easier for small shops and businesses to buy from independent eco-friendly British brands, we promote eco-friendly products, champion local SMEs and reduce transport carbon emissions.
Who makes up your team at the moment? Are there any gaps/vacancies you wish to fill soon?
At the moment I am the only full time person on Sourcery. I also have a contractor who helps with marketing, as well as friends who act as subject matter experts who come in to help on specific tasks - e.g. I worked with my friend Toby who works at C40 as a sustainability researcher to create our sustainability criteria, and Dan who is a digital marketing manager at Battersea Cats & Dogs helps me with SEO and analytics. We're currently hiring a Sales & Marketing Assistant - this will be a Kickstart Placement for a 16-24 year old who is passionate about sustainability. This new hire will have a pivotal role in growing our business to help get it off the ground. They will work on a wide range of activities across marketing, sales outreach and operations, and we'll also provide coaching/mentorship to help them grow the skills they want for their next role.
What are you most proud of about Sourcery so far? What’s your biggest achievement?
Getting from an idea to having a fully operational platform with 250+ products and almost 100 business customers in less than a year! We've been really lucky to have met such wonderful new friends along the way - the suppliers, customers and partners that inspire us and support us are really what gets me out of bed everyday.
What are the current challenges you’re facing?
Balancing daily operations and investing in strategy/improvements to grow the business in the longer term. Someone once told me that creating a startup is like building a plane while in the air. I'm definitely feeling that now.
What support or expertise could you do with right now?
Help finding a Sales & Marketing Assistant, a Co-Founder with wholesale experience in selling to retail businesses and a mentor with entrepreneurship experience in this space.
What are you doing when you’re not running Sourcery?
Exploring new recipes, trying out beers at local breweries and hanging out with my god-dog-son Hobnob.
What advice would you give to new impact entrepreneurs/ What do you wish you knew when you started your business?
Focus on the journey and what you're learning. Really understand your customers/stakeholders' wider context and motivation beyond your product/service.
How can you see Better Space helping your business?
Better Space has been brilliant at connecting us with relevant contacts in their network, and have acted as a sounding board to talk through challenges.
Check out sourcery’s great product range here and share it with your local independent retailer! Catch Zoe and her brilliant social media content here on Instagram too: https://www.instagram.com/sourcery.uk/