Katie Lopes is the co-founder of Stripe & Stare, an incredible company based on the simple concept of creating underwear women would like to wear!

Beyond the brief: The story of Stripe & Stare with Katie Lopes

Podcast

 quote I, and many others, wholeheartedly agree with. And it comes from the founder of 

Co-founder, Katie Lopes, has grown this business from her kitchen table, sampling products and testing them at a small scale up to the multi-million-pound company it is today, that names Fearne Cotton and Oprah (yes, THE Oprah) amongst its fans.

But it's been a rollercoaster. From serious debt to the highs of customers investing in the brand, growing the business and team and as you'll hear, it's clear that Katie really is just getting started.

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Stripe & Stare is based on the simple concept of creating underwear women would like to wear!

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<h1>Hi. I&apos;m Bev Hepting</h1>
An award-winning, International, TEDx speaker, and coach.
I have always been a chatterbox.   So much so that many people said I could speak for England and win a gold medal.
However, as I got older I realised that I was opening my mouth and words would come out, but they had no meaning to the people I was talking too.   I did not really know what it was I wanted to say.
It was then I realised that talking was just the stuff that came out of my mouth when the brain had disengaged.
I needed to speak.  I needed to learn how to craft what I wanted to say so that people heard me and acted on the information I gave them.
<h2>Once I had figured that out, everything changed. I started winning competitions. I started building a bigger business and I learned that I could change the way I spoke to get new clients and speaking gigs.</h2>
And the trick is really easy.  It is about not being too clever.  It is about having the confidence to just say what it is.
From my background in Theatre, Teaching voice and speech to adults, winning speech competitions, and speaking at a variety of events, along with my experience of working with community leaders, project management and helping fundraisers get the message right to attract sponsors, I learned that business relies on getting a clear message to the customer or client you work with.  I also learned that many people just did not know how to do that.
<h1>That&apos;s when The Message Maestro was born.</h1>
I started talking to people about what it was they really wanted to say to people.  When networking I realised people would give a great job title and job description, but I still didn’t know what they did.  The problem we have is that we all want people to think we are really clever.  So our message gets complicated and we forget that our potential clients or customers do not understand the language we use in our own industry.
I started working with business owners who suddenly found a great way to talk about their business.  It resonated with their future clients and customers and suddenly they were not afraid to get up and talk in public to groups of people.
It suddenly became fun to talk about their business.
<h2>And me!</h2>
I continue speaking to groups.  They have became bigger as my business has grown.  People now pay me to speak and I speak on the international stage.   My story telling skills enabled me to do a TedX and I continue to build my speaking business as well as coaching more business owners how to speak to grow their business.
.

Dynamic Speaker ? Business message finder Extraordinaire ? competition winner ? Get you speaking wit

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Hello, I&apos;m Olly,&nbsp;
A multi-award-winning business coach, adviser, and mentor, recognized four times by Enterprise Nation as one of the Top 50 Business Advisors in the UK.&nbsp;
My approach focuses on helping individuals apply their knowledge in ways that create real impact, rather than just accumulating more information.
As Co-Founder of HUM4NS, I am passionate about empowering business owners and entrepreneurs to develop their leadership skills, self-awareness, and confidence, supporting them to break through barriers to scale their businesses while living happier, healthier, smarter, and kinder lives.
Before launching HUM4NS, I led the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator across the Midlands, South West, and Wales, where I trained and coached a team of business experts to deliver impactful leadership and business growth programs. During that time, I supported hundreds of entrepreneurs on their journey to success, personally coaching them for thousands of hours and helping them scale their businesses.
With nearly two decades of leadership experience, combined with my background as a former teacher, a Master’s Degree in Professional Development and an ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching qualification, I specialise in bridging the gap between what you know you should do and actually doing it - turning insight into action and driving sustainable success.

Cofounder, Business Coach, Consultant and Trustee

HUM4NS Empowered Leadership Programme

Over the years, we’ve coached hundreds of business owners for thousands of hours and have consistently found that knowing your strengths, habits, and values equips you to make better decisions, build authentic connections, and lead with integrity.

It’s that kind of self-awareness that sets exceptional leaders apart and drives them to continually evolve and inspire which is why we’ve launched the HUM4NS’ Empowered Leadership Programme (H.E.L.P.)

This programme is for you if you:

- Are ready to

Serial entrepreneur and innovation director across multiple verticals, with a technology and sector agnostic approach to consulting. Currently consulting to various ventures ie Medtech, CPG, FMCG, Fintech, Adtech, HeathTech etc

Having been deeply immersed in the Startup / SME EcoSystem for approximately 25 years, in 2 distinct sectors and countries with various business models. Providing both product / services for b2b and b2b segments has allowed me to gain a solid amount of diverse knowledge and understanding.
This entrepreneurial experience also allowed to gain insights of the innovation value chain and operational requirements of building / scaling ventures, for product market fit. The critical component of fundraising through various mechanisms, is an area that I understand well, having bootstrapped businesses and then raised circa 3m Euros across angel, Venture Capital and the European Development Fund (EDF).
The full spectrum of the fund-raising process was arguably the most challenging aspect of venture building for a multitude of reasons and it was a definite grind to get it done. Learning to dealing with brutal reality was a crucial part of success and helped test / fortify my resilience and growth mindset.
The last venture Zveetz had a regenerative aspect with a mission to make a dent against sugar pollution and its consequences to people and planet. Working cross functionally with a stellar team of individuals including food and behavioural scientists to deliver an impactful value proposition was highly rewarding. The business model was multifaceted with transactional, subscription and asymmetrical revenue streams. We were able to move the needle on sugar reduction and enabled people to be more sugar smart, thereby hitting multiple impact and revenue KPI’s.
Previously to that, I had the privilege of deep diving into the world of AI, machine learning &amp; ontologies to build a recommendation engine SaaS for the e-commerce sector, although there were multiple future use cases for the technology. This immersion and venture was very challenging for multiple reasons but ultimately the outcomes were net positive, so the juice was worth the squeeze.
hankfully, I have been able to transition into the role of an Innovation Director and apply skills / experience to provide consultation across the Oxford Innovation ecosystem to various stakeholders.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Performed 96 one to one business support sessions and workshops for students, faculty, startup and SMEs teams.</li>
<li>Consulting with the KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) department to revamping program offering and positioning to meet desired Research Excellence Framework (REF 29) standards.</li>
<li>Supporting faculty members across the UnIversity’s different schools, on commercialisation of their research and various potential fund-raising strategies.</li>
<li>Working with the AI Research group within the University to develop their strategic roadmap.</li>
<li>Supporting the establishment of “Managementfest”, a student led innovation &amp; entrepreneurship conference and accelerator programme at BNU.</li>
<li>Regularly meeting with the university leadership committee to report all innovation initiatives and results.</li>
<li>Leading Oxford Innovation AI working group with a remit to i) develop a wholistic adoption strategy for competitive advantage. ii) Steering AI integration and operationalisation across the org, towards ISO42001 (trustworthy) compliance.</li>
</ul>

Innovation Director

Vishal Kawatra

Serial entrepreneur and innovation director across multiple verticals, with a technology and sector agnostic approach to consulting. Currently consulting to various ventures ie Medtech, CPG, FMCG, Fintech, Adtech, HeathTech etc

Having been deeply immersed in the Startup / SME EcoSystem for approximately 25 years, in 2 distinct sectors and countries with various business models. Providing both product / services for b2b and b2b segments has allowed me to gain a solid amount of d

Beyond the brief: The story of Stripe & Stare with Katie Lopes

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