3 Young Entrepreneurs Share Their Stories & Secrets To Success

Along with his two co-founders, 31-year-old Finn Lagun started Pasta Evangelists in 2016 as a home delivery recipe kit business. Following a stint on Dragons’ Den and exponential growth during the pandemic lockdowns, it was bought by Italian food company Barilla for £40m in 2021. 

I made the mistake of trying to work for other people twice. I joined a grad scheme after university but I lasted three months. Then, I joined a German start-up, which I loved – that was the first time I really got to do my own thing without anyone bossing me around. But eventually the pressure of seeing all my mates in the City drove me to get a ‘proper’ job. So, I joined Amazon and realised I’d made the same mistake twice. I just knew I had to do my own thing and that's what I've been doing ever since.  

I'm not Italian, I'm from Newcastle. One of my other co-founders Chris is also English and then our third, Alessandro is Italian. The idea was technically Alessandro’s, but we all set up the business together. He knew first-hand how much craftsmanship goes into making real fresh pasta – he knew it was a product of love – and that was kind of the light bulb moment.  

The first thing we had to do was find customers. We started as an e-commerce business, so we didn't have any shop front to tell people where to come, so getting that first bit of online traction was quite difficult. Then you need to raise funds. We did an angel funding round in 2017, then we started some basic marketing and then the watershed moment came on Dragons’ Den in 2018. That was free advertising to four million people and the business completely changed after that.  

No one will ever say to your face that you are too young to know what you're doing. But I was 24 years old and had only worked for a couple of years – so I felt the implications of that in a boardroom setting. I realised I had to stand up for myself and not let people speak over me. The trump card we had over our investors was that we had grown up with social media and technology – we knew the digital capabilities inside out. Facebook ads were our primary marketing channel, and we tried to make money out of every customer we acquired. It was only a few years into the brand that we said we had enough budget to start doing more above-the-line media campaigns refocusing on just delivering brand messages.  

The pandemic really was a blessing for our business, commercially speaking. We were a home delivery service at a time when people didn't want to go outside. I remember sending an email to our database after the first Boris Johnson briefing saying don't worry, we're not going to run out, so you don't need to panic buy from us. I think it endeared our customers to us more because we were not taking advantage of the situation – we were encouraging people to consume responsibly. But in any case, between February and April of 2020, our business grew ten times over. 

It was chaos. Overnight your volume expands ten times but you don't have the staff and everyone's trying to work out the health and safety protocols. It was brutal and our investors wanted to know what the plan was. But no one knew anything about how long this situation would last. The only difference was our competitors were shutting down orders and we never stopped taking them. We knew this was such a ripe moment for growing the business. It was painful but it worked. 

Since the beginning, we’d been mindful about a possible exit. One company we had in mind was Barilla – a family-owned, iconic Italian business. It’s synonymous with pasta in Italy. After Covid, we had several interested parties but we chose Barilla because it’s the godfather of pasta. The deal felt extremely humbling. We were ecstatically happy as well – to know you got it right during your first stab at it, it's a great feeling. Equally, we were riding a huge pandemic business wave, so there was an element of right place, right time – but we did harness the opportunity in a good way. 

I've been doing this for almost eight years now, and I’m still learning every day. There are always new challenges and people do think you can turn your hand to anything, but the truth is, it doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur or founder or if you're sold a business – there's still going to be loads of things you're not very good at. But if you are a founder or entrepreneur, you want to be in the middle of the action, leading the way forward. I’ve always been focused on this business, and I still am today.  

We've changed our business about five times over our short life. We started as a direct-to-consumer recipe kit business, shipping directly to customer's homes. Then we opened a restaurant in Harrods, and then we launched on Ocado. So, you learn about retail, dealing with buyers, dealing with pack sizes and barcodes while simultaneously trying to curate a beautiful restaurant experience. Then there’s the takeaway business, dealing with Deliveroo and Uber Eats, and we've just pivoted the business again by opening what we call fast casual restaurants in London. We’ve gone back to learning everything from scratch.  

When I look back, I think it's okay to go and do something if it teaches you that it isn't for you. As long as you learn the lesson, leave quickly, and find some confidence and self-awareness, then that’s a positive. I've tried it and now I know that there's no alternative but to do this myself. It actually gave me more confidence to give it a go. So that’s the advice I’d give young people who aren’t sure about making the leap. If you know there’s no alternative, then it’s probably the right choice. 

Visit PASTAEVANGELISTS.COM