When investing, your capital is at risk.
“Poor Colin the Caterpillar. He’s been at every childhood birthday party you can remember. Now the poor guy is sitting on your office kitchenette wondering whether he’s going to catch a break.”
Whilst it may seem as though Anna’s motivation to join her sister and start CakeDrop was a humanitarian mission for saving a poor chocolate caterpillar from another birthday afterthought, there’s actually a lot more to the story.
CakeDrop is a cake scheduling and delivery platform enhancing workplace culture. It allows companies to order freshly baked cakes from local artisan bakeries for their employees; a much more efficient solution than the office manager running down to the local supermarket with the company card! It’s an important addition to the burgeoning “employee perk” industry. In Anna’s own words; “It felt like such a simple thing for companies to do better at, and it would have a big impact on the employee experience.”
Anna and Nicola decided the opportunity was there to start a business together, and they forked out the initial money for a website and started hustling for orders in the London startup community. The sisters have a strong founder relationship built on “28 years of learning how to communicate with one-another”. They have very specific roles as a co-founding team, too. In Nicola’s own words; “I tend to be really vision-oriented, always thinking about the big picture and coming up with new ideas, and she’s the ‘OK… let’s do it, and here’s how…”.
But it was when Nicola started fulfilling her first few orders, which she delivered herself, the opportunity really began to dawn on her…
“I think we realised how incredible the CakeDrop offering was going to be when we started looking at bakeries to partner with as cake suppliers. We uncovered a huge array of artisan bakeries and cake shops in London, largely founded and run by women who had followed their passions and set up these amazing baking businesses, each with their own unique style. We knew if we could bridge the gap between these bakeries and the cake-loving corporate market, we’d not only be providing something game-changing for offices but we’d also be supporting some brilliant businesses.”
Fuelled by the belief that both sides of their marketplace were in desperate need of a boost, the business began to move from strength to strength. They raised £10k on Kickstarter in 2018, made £20k revenue in the first year of operations and had an 84% customer return-rate. All while both sisters were still working other jobs.
With growth moving apace in 2019, the next encounter would take the business up another gear. Fran Garcia, a business consultant and experienced entrepreneur, contacted Nicola and Anna to get involved in the business. Fran had been analysing the B2C cake delivery scene in continental Europe as, he too, saw the opportunity to link local bakeries with customers through technology and delivery. He was so impressed by what Anna and Nicola had achieved in the UK with such limited resources, he invested and came on the board.
With Fran’s backing and a record H1 in 2020, Nicola and Anna have decided to go full time, and they are now raising £100k on Seedrs to take CakeDrop to the next level.
—
To find out more about CakeDrop can check out their campaign.