Ben Kaye

SURREAL

Gimme a sec to settle into the role, and then I'll tell you what I've been up to!

Category & Commercial Manager

Spin Tennis App

• Drew up an events plan to add an additional USP and revenue stream for Spin Tennis App
• Creating and hosting events to further engagement within the Spin Tennis Community
• Sourcing venues to deliver an enjoyable experience for Spin members
• Initial events in 2025 have had 100+ attendees with a positive experience and demand for further events

Event Manager

2 Sisters Food Group

Category Manager within the Poultry division, working across a variety of retail customers:
• Responsible for analysis of all protein space & sales performance for a large convenience retailer, helping deliver "the best presentation across the supply base" (retail buyer), resulting in 20% incremental space and additional SKUs worth £m of pounds to the business
• Led and delivered the development of best-in-class insights reporting website, delivering the team’s category insight, in-store reports and data analysis all in one centralised place for customers
• Produced comprehensive consumer insight report to assist retailers in understanding Christmas purchase decisions
• Used data and analytics skills to redesign and rebuild the Co-op Sales Reporting process to give more profound and more powerful insights to the commercial team, resulting in the award of Employee of the Month
• Led the delivery of category insights for BBQ Season 2024, featuring new image-based market maps

Category Manager

Well Fruited

Co-founder of a drinks brand that used product innovation and fun to address the fact that only 28% of adults consume 5 portions of fruit & veg a day.

Some key accomplishments:
• Co-created the first fruit drink made using all of the fruit, designed to maximise fibre and nutrient content, whilst limiting sugar impact
• Bootstrapped the business through initial product testing phases by using self-taught skills such as web design, branding, financial modelling & prototyping
• Sold over 5,000 bottles as part of initial testing phase, through various channels such as D2C, B2B and live events
• 7m video views across TikTok, YouTube & Instagram
•Charted the growth of the brand alongside my insights into what makes a consumer-business stand out

Co-Founder & CEO

Unrest

Participated in the programme to help strengthen the foundations of the business and fuel the growth of the Well Fruited brand.

As part of the programme:
- Refined our Pitch Deck & proposition
-Built out Financial Projections & models
- Refined brand strategy
- Engaged in the wider Unrest community

Entrepreneur at Unrest (London)

Year Here

Working on solutions to societal problems to deliver positive impact and social change.

Mar - August 2021: Population Health Team, Bromley-by-Bow Health Partnership. Projects included:
• Project Best Start: analysing data to build a profile of young people within Tower Hamlets and help inform decisions on how to give every child the best start in life
• Project Ways of Working: delivered a report that assessed ways of working across the Health Partnership, with recommendations on how to improve ways of working across areas such as meetings, project management and document sharing
• Project Talking Food: organised and facilitated sessions around nutrition and healthy diet for local community members to help improve wellbeing, which results in some "life-changing" results

Sep - Oct 2021: Consultant on a project for Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation around equitable and representative employment for the local area

Social Innovation Fellow

Bakkavor

Working across UK & Ireland on one of the UK's largest retailers on multiple fresh prepared food categories.

Role included delivering first-to-market innovation, long-term strategic planning, stakeholder management, building customer relationships and commercial analysis.

Key accomplishments:
• Shortlisted for Bakkavor Group Innovation Awards for work on Post-Launch Review Process
• Led the introduction of a new software tool to deliver faster, more accurate and in-depth sales reporting on a weekly basis to transform the way the sales teams reported on performance, whilst saving countless hours of data collection
• Worked on a bespoke strategy for Tesco Ireland to adapt offerings to fit the market need, resulting in cutting wastage by 20%
• Launched new product ranges across multiple retailers, cuisines and tiers, worth over £10m in annual sales revenue

Testimonials:
• Attention to detail is fantastic and it’s been a great support

Commercial Manager

Managing key retailer accounts across a variety of Fresh Prepared Foods categories to deliver first to market innovation and profitable business growth.

Responsible for Category Strategy, Promotional Planning and International Projects, achieved through cross-functional working and a commitment to innovative and new working practices.

Key accomplishments:
• Improved forecasting accuracy by c.15%pt through the creation and implementation of an analysis tool
• Established a clear set of category information documentation that enabled the team to become category pioneers through easy-to-access information on product & promotional performance
• Grew an e-commerce account 28% YOY, ahead of the growth trajectory for the retailer overall
• Improve margin performance of at-risk lines through Product Development work to recover of £50k p/a

Testimonials:
Ben is a self-starter and is constantly looking at avenues and ways to add value to the business. 
He has proactively volunteered for add on projects and has been working with grit and determination on PLR (Post Launch Review) project which has been identified as a big opportunity.

Account Manager

Part of the Commercial Team, working directly with two of the UK's largest retailers and a wide range of various stakeholders.

Worked across a variety of Fresh Prepared Foods categories on both projects with retailers and supplier-related projects. This has included forecasting, promotional activity, category management and using specific data sources and systems.

Key achievements:
• Winner of Graduate's Graduate Award (2018) for contribution to the business and experience of graduates on the programme
• Won monthly innovation award for leading a project to save M&S over £1m in food waste on their Italian ready meal category

Testimonials:
Ben has made an impressive start to his career at Bakkavor and is a pleasure to have on the team. His approach is humble, respectful, resilient and committed.

Commercial Graduate

Tesco

Primarily working on promotional strategy and ranging across the Plant-Based ranges within Fresh & Frozen. Helping to deliver double-digit growth in one of the emerging areas within the food industry.

Additionally assisted in the delivery of the 2019 Christmas Party Food Range.

Key accomplishments:
• Ranging recommendations delivered possible incremental sale of £31m and £14m margin for Tesco across chilled & frozen ranges
• Ensured timely launch of Christmas Party Food ranges to ensure all lines were correctly executed in-store

Product Analyst

The Holiday Place

Working in the Product Department which involves:
• Dealing with contracts with suppliers
• Content writing for the website
• Using the dedicated software to manage hotel and flight details

Administration Assistant

XpressionFM

I was:
• Head of Marketing at Xpression FM (www.xpression.fm)
• Xpression FM Saturday Sport Show pundit (www.facebook.com/xpressionsportshow)
• Producer of Highly A-Newsing (www.facebook.com/highlyanewsing)

Head of Marketing

💥 MY BACKGROUND
👨🏻‍💻 I work in Category Management across multiple customers, covering insights, sales analysis and consumer trends
🛒 I've worked with some of the UK's largest retailers on their own label ranges, launching over 100 products
📈 Focusing on sales growth, product assortment and category strategy
🍲 Seconded to work for the UK's largest food retailer in supporting the launch of two new brands
🍊Co-founder of Well Fruited; developing first-to-market innovation; a drink with half the sugar of a juice/smoothie, with 4k+ units sold and over 7m times across TikTok, Instagram & YouTube!
🎾 I once won the Junior Tennis Tournament at my local tennis club, so am always up for a game

💥 TESTIMONIALS
▶️ "The guys who created and make the product [Well Fruited] are extraordinary, they fully deserve the success coming their way!"
▶️ "Your ability to spot the smallest details in a giant spreadsheet of numbers is unreal"
▶️ "A deserved winner of Employee of the Month for going above and beyond in helping the team"

Feel free to connect with me to chat...or for a game of tennis 🤝

Co-Founder

Co-founder of a Food & drink brand using product innovation and fun to address the fact that only 28% of adults consume 5 portions of fruit & veg a day.

Some key accomplishments:
• Co-created the first fruit drink made using all of the fruit, designed to maximise fibre and nutrient content, whilst limiting sugar impact
• Bootstrapped the business through initial product testing phases by using self-taught skills such as web design, branding, financial modelling & prototyping
• 6m video views across TikTok, YouTube & Instagram
•Charting the growth of the brand alongside my insights into what makes a consumer-business stand out

Better Nature

Better Nature is here to save the world from so-so protein and get everyone eating supercharged protein: tempeh. Available in Tesco, Asda, Ocado, REWE, Globus, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic, and many more.

At Better Nature, we power you with protein, fuel you with fibre, and give your gut a good boost.

We do this through our tempeh (tem-pay), an ancient protein staple originating in Indonesia. Made with fermented whole soya beans and water, it’s food that sends you soaring, not snoozing. We call it supercharged protein.

Perfect in a stir-fry, salad or sandwich, our supercharged protein gives you a similar amount of protein to chicken, more fibre than apples and plenty of gut-friendly prebiotics.

We’re also a certified B Corp™ and donate 1% of our sales to tackle childhood malnutrition in Indonesia, where tempeh originates.

Our tempeh has a very low carbon footprint (verified by My Emissions) and is made using sustainably-grown, non-GMO soya beans.

So, forks at the ready. Get set. SUPERCHARGE.

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Founders Factory Ltd

Founders Factory is Europe's leading early-stage startup accelerator and incubator having just won the 2018 Europas Award for the 'Hottest Startup Accelerator'. By working with our corporate sponsors which include easyJet, Guardian Media Group, Aviva and more, we give our portfolio companies unfair advantages to scale and grow their businesses. I help the investment team at Founders Factory source the world's best early-stage startups in the travel, media, AI, and retail industries.

Investment Analyst

McKinsey & Company

• Developed a comprehensive understanding of the Upstream Oil & Gas industry having worked with one of the world's largest O&G players.
• Worked directly with the client to implement a company-wide transformational programme expected to unlock $2-3bn in value.
• Offered a full-time contract having consistently delivered work of exceptional quality.

Summer Business Analyst

CapitOx

• Led a core team of 8 to grow the society, offer value to our members, and host a sell-out conference at Corpus Christi College.
• Increased our membership by 20% from 2,000 to 2,400 students over the course of the year by focusing on delivering exceptional content.
• Designed and launched the inaugural CapitOx Consulting Curriculum - an 8-week comprehensive series of events aimed at introducing the field of consulting to the Oxford student body, and preparing final-year students for the demanding application process. Hosted representatives from Bain & Co., Strategy&, Simon-Kucher, and Bright Network to offer interactive discussions, case study workshops, and interview practice sessions. 
• Laid the foundation for the society to expand and offer similar curricula for the fields of AM and IBD.

President of CapitOx - Oxford's Premier IB, AM, and Consulting Society

Better Nature is here to save the world from so-so protein and get everyone eating supercharged protein: tempeh. Available in Tesco, Asda, Ocado, REWE, Globus, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic, and many more.

At Better Nature, we power you with protein, fuel you with fibre, and give your gut a good boost.

We do this through our tempeh (tem-pay), an ancient protein staple originating in Indonesia. Made with fermented whole soya beans and water, it’s food that sends you soaring, not snoozing. We call it supercharged protein.

Perfect in a stir-fry, salad or sandwich, our supercharged protein gives you a similar amount of protein to chicken, more fibre than apples and plenty of gut-friendly prebiotics.

We’re also a certified B Corp™ and donate 1% of our sales to tackle childhood malnutrition in Indonesia, where tempeh originates.

Our tempeh has a very low carbon footprint (verified by My Emissions) and is made using sustainably-grown, non-GMO soya beans.

So, forks at the ready. Get set. SUPERCHARGE.

Aside from my work at Better Nature, I am an avid cyclist and marathon runner. In 2022, I cycled the full length of the UK and in 2023, I ran the Paris and Valencia Marathons - all fueled by tempeh of course - to raise money for YUM, a charity based in Indonesia tackling infant malnutrition.

Christopher Kong

HUGE news - we’ve just brought Dom Maskell on board as an investor in Sarah AI (YC W26)! 🙌
 
Dom and I 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 briefly overlapped at McKinsey years ago...and that's where the trajectory of our careers completely diverged 😂

Since then, he’s gone on to found and exit Runna, one of the most impressive consumer fitness apps out there! Watching that entire journey from the sidelines has been hugely inspiring.

Dom and his team's disciplined execution, world-class product thinking, and crystal-clear understanding of what users actually want, catapulted Runna to insane heights, ultimately resulting in a phenomenal exit to Strava!
 
To now have him backing Sarah AI is honestly surreal.
 
Founding a fast-growth startup is a wild ride to say the least. 

So having people who’ve been through it - who know the highs, lows, and the emotional chaos in between - makes all the difference.

Dom’s belief in what we’re building means so much to us. And his insights will undoubtedly be invaluable as we scale, much more so than his money!

Dirk Breeuwer and I recently had breakfast with Dom and over the course of an hour, we unlocked a completely new way of thinking about pricing and positioning Sarah AI 🤯

This is just the beginning. Dom, it's so awesome to have you in our corner. Let's gooo!! 🚀

Building AI for CPG | YC W26 | Forbes 30U30 | Co-Founder of Better Nature 🌟

The older I become, the clearer it gets: friends are the real measure of success.
Not money. Not titles. Not investment rounds.
Friends.
 
Last week, I hosted a small goodbye party before heading to Y Combinator to build Sarah AI (YC W26).

I expected a casual catch-up. Instead, I was almost moved to tears 🥹

Friends rearranged schedules, travelled across town, and carved out precious time just to wish me well before this next chapter.
 
It reminded me of something we don’t talk about enough in the startup world: friendships. 

Friends keep you grounded when things get chaotic, they remind you who you are beyond your pitch deck, and make the journey infinitely richer.

Of course, I am beyond excited for what’s ahead at YC. 

But I’m even more grateful for the people who’ve walked with me up to this point and continue to, no matter how hectic life gets.
 
If success is measured by the quality of the people around you, then I can retire! I've achieved all that there is to achieve, and the rest is just a bonus.

My heart is so so full. Come what may, I am so grateful to be able to call these amazing people my friends ❤️

I'll see you all soon and will do my best to make you all proud!!

I emailed SeedLegals support.
The founder & CEO Anthony Rose replied.
I did not have that on my 2025 bingo card 😂
 
I’ve been a SeedLegals superfan since 2018, back when I had just co-founded Better Nature and long before I started Sarah AI (YC W26).

As a small, scrappy and ambitious team with limited funding, SeedLegals helped us navigate fundraising and legal docs extremely cost-effectively. It was a total game-changer for us! 
 
So, as I was getting Sarah AI off the ground, I immediately subscribed to SeedLegals (not least because they just launched in the US too!) and emailed the support team for some help.

Not in a million years did I expect to get a reply from the Founder & CEO Anthony Rose himself! 

At first, I was sceptical. I was emailing him at midnight and getting replies almost instantaneously. There's no way that the founder of a business serving 30,000 customers is replying to customer queries directly and so quickly 😅 

But after numerous email exchanges, I asked if we could get a coffee and he agreed. A week later, there he was in real life! 

Meeting someone you’ve admired for years, and finding them as sharp, generous, and down-to-earth as you hoped, is something truly special 🥹
 
This whole episode was a reminder that the startup ecosystem (especially in London) is small, serendipity is real, and the people you look up to are often far more accessible than you think.
 
But it was also an incredible lesson in 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗯𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.

It was humbling to know that the Founder of an incredible legal-tech startup, with a 100+ person team across multiple geographies, is still the person responding directly to customer queries!

Thank you so much for the chat Anthony - you are truly an inspiration for all aspiring tech entrepreneurs. 

If responding directly to customer queries is what it takes to build a business as great as SeedLegals then I will certainly be doing the same!

When your design partner says these things about you, completely unprompted, you know you’re doing something right!!

Too often, founders build products looking for a problem to solve or a market to cater for.

But in the wise words of Paul Graham, the Founder of Y Combinator, our mantra from Day 0 has always been to “build something people want”. 

The genesis of Sarah AI (YC W26) stemmed from my first-hand experience of our supply chain challenges at Better Nature. 

Countless hours spent jockeying Excel spreadsheets instead of speaking with end-users and customers.

Innumerable weekends spent tackling ops crises instead of recovering from the brutal reality of scaling a CPG brand.

But the real test of a viable business is if those same problems exist more widely. 

And wow, we’ve been overwhelmed by the degree of supply chain pain that every CPG brand we’ve spoken with experiences on a daily basis!

It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Giulia Berretti, Leah Smith, Jean-Paul Lemonnier and the whole Sunny & Luna team over the last few weeks to resolve their pain.

There’s nothing like shipping new features daily which instantaneously delights them 😍

Dirk Breeuwer and I are hell-bent on helping CPG founders, like Giulia, do more of what they love by completely automating their supply chain management processes end-to-end.

If you’re interested in giving Sarah AI (YC W26) a try, please comment below. We’d love to show you how we can help!

Does anyone actually like OPS???

Haha, not my biggest strength – but I've certainly had to learn a lot over the past two years!

Between Brexit, fresh product logistics, extra customs duties, trucks stuck at Calais, and even wrong barcodes on the wrong cases (yes, that has happened), things spiral quickly. 

And of course, we can’t forget the endless Excel spreadsheets... I'm convinced they're the reason I started wearing glasses. 👓 

But we're finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel – or at least the end of the endless spreadsheets!

Christopher Kong and Dirk Breeuwer are building an incredible tool - Sarah AI- which is set to make operations for CPG brands easier, faster, and less labour-intensive (which, yes, also means more cost-effective). 🚀 

It's been such a pleasure being their design partner and having genuinely fun sessions, focused on speeding up our order processes and improving workflows – not just doing operations, but actually fixing the constant stream of problems that come along with it (as someone once told me, an ops job is essentially problem-solving on repeat, and I couldn't agree more).

So here's to the devoted entrepreneurs making our lives easier and much more organised!

If you feel the same way as me be sure to get in touch with Dirk and Chris (seriously, they have the power to make your life a whole lot easier!) 💭

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Christopher Kong's LinkedIn Performance

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