Grace Beverley, 28, is one of the UK\u2019s rising \u201cGen Z\u201d entrepreneurs. She is the founder of\u00a0womenswear brand TALA and fitness platform Shreddy. She is also co-founder of recently launched Retrograde \u2014 an \u201cAI talent agency\u201d. Originally a lifestyle YouTube vlogger, her entry into entrepreneurship began nearly a decade ago from her student digs at Oxford university, when she began leveraging her online cult following.<\/p>\n
Beverley has proved adept at building direct-to-consumer businesses, charting the twists and turns for her more than 1mn followers and podcast listeners.\u00a0She says her businesses are now collectively worth \u00a370mn, and she remains the majority stakeholder in each of them. \u201cThat\u2019s been very important to me,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
Although plans for TALA to expand in the US have been put on hold because of Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs, the brand opened its first store in London in May. Her businesses employ more than 85 people, with turnover last year in the tens of millions of pounds, she says.<\/p>\n
CV<\/p>\n
Born<\/strong>: London, February 16 1997<\/p>\n Education:\u00a0<\/strong>University of Oxford<\/p>\n Career<\/strong>: 2015-2016: IBM: New Client Acquisition Analyst<\/p>\n 2016-2019: University of Oxford<\/p>\n 2016 \u2014 Present: founder, Shreddy<\/p>\n 2019 \u2014 Present: founder, TALA<\/p>\n 2022 \u2014 Present: founder, The Productivity Method<\/p>\n 2023 \u2014 Present: co-founder, Retrograde<\/p>\n Lives:<\/strong> London, with her fianc\u00e9 and two dogs, Ziggy and Zeus<\/p>\n You started life as an entrepreneur at university. How did that play out? The previous year, I\u2019d published a couple of recipe ebooks for \u00a35 to sell to the few thousand followers I had. I\u2019d been interning at IBM on my gap year, spending every weekend cooking recipes for content. It was so time-consuming. I just thought: \u201cI need to monetise this\u201d. I\u2019d banked between \u00a3500 and \u00a31,000 from those books \u2014 called Eat My Instagram \u2014 overall.<\/p>\n So I thought, \u201cI\u2019ll try ebooks again\u201d. By then, I was focused on workouts, so that\u2019s what I did. I stayed up until 5am writing workout plans, paid my friend about \u00a350 to design them, and put them on sale for \u00a335 each on Boxing Day. Within the first hour, I\u2019d sold about \u00a31,000. It snowballed. Within two weeks, they\u2019d made \u00a380,000 in revenue. It was pure profit \u2014 there were no operating expenses. My tuition fees were more than covered. I remember being gobsmacked and thinking: \u201cGod, I\u2019ve got a real knack here!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But it was dribs and drabs for the first few years. I was a sole trader for a long time, selling guides and later some fitness resistance bands. I didn\u2019t make my first hire until the beginning of third year \u2014 a waitress I\u2019d met at a vegan restaurant became my personal assistant. It took time to morph into what is now\u00a0Shreddy (the fitness brand launched in 2020).<\/p>\n I was starting to think, \u201cWhat turns this into a career? What turns this into respect?\u201d I was wanting to make something sustainable, with longevity. I had this niggling feeling of \u201cthis is great but nothing lasts long\u201d. I never wanted to be a full-time influencer \u2014 I just didn\u2019t find it fulfilling enough.<\/p>\n So I started TALA in 2019 during my finals. A month before launch, I hired two people I found on Instagram and got an Airbnb in Oxford for us all to work from and plan the photoshoots for the\u00a0clothes. I\u2019d go to my classes and then return to the Airbnb. It was insane. I was just filled with this boundless energy.<\/p>\n What did generating that money so early in your career change feel like? I really lived as if that early success didn\u2019t exist \u2014 still buying \u00a31 shots on student nights out. I threw myself a nice 22nd birthday party, but I wasn\u2019t getting designer clothes or private jets \u2014 I still have never been on one!<\/p>\n I was so scared it was all going to disappear that I just kept it parked, and\u00a0didn\u2019t think about it.\u00a0I would still email brands about partnerships, pretending to be my own assistant. I\u2019d ask for free juice bottles in exchange for 30 Instagram posts. I eventually got a talent manager in my second year. But I was also still applying for full-time jobs and business masters ahead of my final exams, just in case.\u00a0<\/p>\n By graduation, I\u2019d sold around 200,000 ebook copies. You can do the maths. My most tangible purchase from that was my house in London. That felt huge \u2014 I was 22. I got a mortgage to renovate it, and I could self-fund my businesses. Buying property felt sensible \u2014 and there was this age-old dictum about it being the best investment, which I don\u2019t necessarily buy into now.\u00a0<\/p>\n TALA has been on a rollercoaster \u2014 going from breaking up with the original licensing partner, eventually raising \u00a39mn. What happened? I\u2019d had to start it in a way that could feed the amount of customers waiting. I used a licensing and manufacturing partner, as influencers often do.\u00a0When you have an influencer-owned brand, you get the benefits of immediate recognition but also the downfalls of needing to function as a big brand immediately, when you probably can\u2019t.\u00a0In effect, I\u2019d outsourced too much.\u00a0<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t working the way I wanted it to. In 2021, I decided to restructure and bring everything in-house \u2014 a very long and costly process. I cut ties with my original partner and branched out independently. I reacquired the TALA assets using a new holding company. TALA\u2019s journey technically began in 2019, but today\u2019s TALA started in 2021. In effect we started again from scratch.\u00a0<\/p>\n We had all that going on combined with Covid, factory shutdowns and iOS updates that affected our marketing. Each week I was working out how we were going to make payroll. This went on for about six months.<\/p>\n One time, I realised we definitely weren\u2019t going to make payroll. I got on a website and sold my car the next day, then put that money into the business to cover the wages. We turned it around very close to the line. But the effect on my health was horrific. I had one day where I physically couldn\u2019t speak and just sat doing a jigsaw all day without checking my phone.<\/p>\n TALA has since come a long way, opening its first physical store in May. It was so special to meet customers in person and to see actual TALA shopping bags.<\/p>\n How do you split your time across your various businesses? Two of my businesses \u2014 TALA and Retrograde \u2014 are backed by venture capital, which is a completely different ball game from the other two, which are essentially lifestyle businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Honestly, I had to get good at managing my time while I was at university \u2014 work on the side wasn\u2019t strictly allowed. So I\u2019d plan my days to a T. I also have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, so I don\u2019t like having dead space.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a huge privilege to be passionate about your work. But I didn\u2019t have a passion when I was younger. I didn\u2019t have something that I particularly wanted to do, or feel called by anything. I just wanted to be on the right path, getting good grades, being on all the sports teams.<\/p>\n How do you\u00a0manage your finances now? I\u2019ve also talked openly about the importance of financial planning in romantic relationships. I\u2019m getting married this year, and think pre-nups are a good idea. You\u2019re signing a contract anyway to get married, so why not design your own? I\u2019ve built these businesses with lots of support, but they\u2019re my assets. If something happened, it seems crazy that my future husband would be entitled to 50 per cent of my shareholding. Investors wouldn\u2019t like it. I think that pre-nuptials can be looked down upon as a bit pessimistic and they\u2019re horrible to talk about. But if you ever have to use it, you\u2019ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n I also like to vote with my money. I\u2019m very aware that only 2 per cent of venture capital investment goes to female-founded businesses, so I want to help change that. I\u2019ve invested in several women-led start-ups, as well as\u00a0consumer businesses.\u00a0I\u2019ve already had an exit in Wild, a deodorant company. That was my first angel investment. In total, I\u2019ve backed\u00a0around a dozen.\u00a0I can offer what I\u2019m best at \u2014 social media and digital marketing strategy.<\/p>\n But the bulk of my investment goes into index funds and stocks and shares. I also invest in some venture capital trust funds.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always associated money with the freedom to do what you want, at work. And now I do \u2014 it\u2019s a luxury\u00a0to do fulfilling work.\u00a0US businessman Ben Horowitz wrote that building a business means you\u2019re either in a state of euphoria or terror. It\u2019s true. But I\u2019m trying to live more now in the in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grace Beverley, 28, is one of the UK\u2019s rising \u201cGen Z\u201d entrepreneurs. 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<\/strong>I got an email during the 2016 Christmas holidays saying my first-year student finance hadn\u2019t come through for tuition, and that I couldn\u2019t return to campus until it was paid. I panicked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/strong>It was weird because I was a student, and suddenly I had this windfall. It felt like I\u2019d won the lottery; the guides were a gold\u00a0mine. I didn\u2019t know what to do. I didn\u2019t tell people. I was almost embarrassed. I had this little \u201c\u00a31mn in sales\u201d plaque by second year, which I turned around so nobody could see.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/strong>TALA was immediately popular, generating more than \u00a35mn in sales in our first year, without any marketing spend.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>There\u2019s no fixed division. It varies week to week. I have a chief executive at TALA, but I\u2019m still the chief executive of Shreddy. I know what I\u2019m really strong on in the process and what I\u2019m good at. It\u2019s never been \u201cstart, move on, new shiny thing\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I still eat microwave meals and I bring my dinner in Tupperware. My chief executive at TALA used to joke that she couldn\u2019t even convince me to upgrade my laptop. She tells me I\u2019m \u201cjust the most simple person\u201d. I think I\u2019m sensible to a fault. I\u2019m definitely the \u201cmum\u201d friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n