What makes a business successful? How do you start one? And how do you stay afloat during the most challenging of circumstances?
Whether you're at a crossroads in your career and searching for inspiration; needing advice about the current job market or looking to take the plunge and start your own company, How They Made It (Through) will feature nuggets of advice from those who have been through it all.
Angelica Malin, Editor in Chief of About Time magazine, will interview young Jewish entrepreneurs about the stories of their success and how their businesses survived COVID-19. Each entrepreneur will share insights into how their team responded to this crisis and what lessons they learnt during lockdown.
In our next session on 2 November, you'll be hearing stories and tips from David Benigson (Signal AI), Nick Goldstein (SushiDog) and Dina Behrman (PR Strategist). You can read their biogs below.
So join us for an online evening of socialising, networking and the opportunity to ask questions to the team.
This series is generously supported by Genesis Philanthropy Group.
Entrepeneur Biogs■
David Benigson (Signal AI)
David Benigson (Signal AI)
David Benigson founded Signal AI in 2013 in his parents North London garage. Since then, he has taken Signal AI through multiple rounds of funding totalling over £40m, built their customer base to over 450 of the worlds largest organisations such as British Airways, Deloitte, HSBC, Barclays and has grown the company from just 3 people to over 150 across three continents. Led by David, Signal AI has won numerous awards including New Business of The Year and the AI Pioneer Award at the National Business Awards in 2017 and 2018, Hottest B2B SaaS at the 2018 Europa Tech Awards.
David is a Forbes 30 under 30 alumni and a Young Ambassador of the Princes Trust. David believes that AI has an important and positive role to play in every industry, supporting decision-making in every role with better data, insight and tools to discover the ‘unknown unknown’ risks and opportunities facing every business. He speaks regularly on the meaningful impact of A.I., new media, SaaS, startups and fundraising.
Nick Goldstein (SushiDog)
In August 2017, Nick Goldstein and his best mate Greg started complaining about their jobs and how they needed a change. For a while they had both been coming up with different business ideas but nothing had ever come to fruition. Until they heard about these big Australian sushi rolls. Maybe it was the idea, or that they loved sushi, or that the timing was just right but they decided to quit their jobs and go for it. The idea was simple, develop a concept based around sushi that's fresh, customisable and easy to eat on the go.
By December 2017, they had a solid brand, business plan and concept. They started pitching the concept to shopping centres and got lucky, securing a site in Westfield London. With the site secured they had four months to build a kiosk, learn how to run a food business and turn their concept into a reality. On May 21st 2018 they opened and sold our first SushiDog. Greg and Nick spent the next 6 months working all day everyday in our kiosk. It was mentaly draining but essential for the business's success.
Within 6 months they tripled their revenue and had started to build a strong customer base and brand. Next they turned our attention to opening a second site. This wasn't so easy to find. But they finally go there in December 2019 and signed the lease on a small unit in Covent Garden and commenced our three month fit-out. The new branch opened on March 13th this year and promptly closed a week later when the government announced the national lockdown.
Dina Behrman (PR Strategist)
Dina Behrman is a journalist-turned-PR strategist. She helps coaches, consultants and service-based business owners land media coverage that converts so they can stop being the internet's best kept secret. Through her programmes and packages she empowers her clients to secure consistent, high quality media coverage so they can grow their followings, become the 'go to' expert and make more sales. Dina spent 10 years working as a journalist and has been published in virtually every national UK newspapers and many leading magazines.
