Where did the idea for Pott'd come from ?

Me and my partner Sascha found ourselves, like everyone else, spending a lot more time in the house during lockdown. We wanted to spend quality time together as well as get in touch with our creative sides. We played around with a few arts and crafts projects and found working with air-dry clay really fun, creative, therapeutic and rewarding. We knew we had something special that others would love as well, so decided to make it into a product that comes with everything you need to get started in pottery.

From there I used my skills from previous entrepreneurial ventures to find suppliers, create branding and pull the product together.

Pott'd is the beginners at-home pottery starter kit. Each kit includes everything you need to create your own unique clay creations at home. The perfect creative, mental health-enhancing gift for yourself or a loved one!

Frankie, as an experienced entrepreneur, what key skills did you bring to Pott'd that you didn't have  at the start of your first business

Mostly an attitude change to get moving quicker! I am a perfectionist and with my previous business I wanted to get everything perfect all the time. I've since realised that some things justify spending loads of time on getting just right, but most things are better just being done now and improved later. I apply the 80/20 principle. We've moved a lot faster with Pott'd which has been great.

On a more practical level, it helps to have lots of contacts that you can trust already lined up in key areas: fulfilment, design, operations, quality control for example.

Both of this massively shortened the time needed to develop the product and brand. I also had Sascha's help this time around.

Who does what in Pott'd?

I now run the business full time as CEO. Sascha has a full-time job in tech, so she is still involved in suggesting new product areas, testing and giving feedback, but in an unofficial capacity.

Emily is our Product Developer and works on creating new ideas and Kris is the COO and heads up all the operations. As a small team we all get involved across lots of areas as you can imagine.

Has the business left the building yet?

We have left the building, have lots of loyal customers and a fully scaled operation, selling all around the world. But we are all still home-based also. Lockdown has completely changed my opinion on WFH and now I love the flexibility and freedom it gives everyone. Myself and Sascha are still crafting together, but we do have to schedule the time in. It's easy to let the busyness of life pull you away from what's most valuable.

What's Pott'd world going to look like in 2023/24

We see Pott'd growing and scaling in a big way. As an entrepreneur, growth is fun. And the initial feedback and reviews have been so positive I know we can make this into a big crafting business. We want to make crafting cool again! We have loads of ideas to help us on our mission to inspire creativity and fun, and to strengthen relationships. We want to lean into this side more and partner with charities with the same goals. We've already worked with North London Cares, which runs events for elderly people and that so rewarding, they absolutely loved creating with the clay, we can't wait to do more."

For more information visit Pott'd