cranberry panda is proud to be a part of the ‘100 Stories of Growth’ Initiative

What a morning - one of my favourites since starting cranberry panda 8 years ago. I’m feeling very proud of what cranberry panda has achieved and this was cemented with the brilliant launch of the ‘100 Stories of Growth’ initiative at the London Stock Exchange. The room was filled with exciting founders, all with the continued aim of accelerating their businesses.

This all started a couple of months ago when, via the team at The Supper Club, I was asked to be one of the stories which celebrates companies in the SME market. Obviously I was delighted and doing the interview helped me to reflect on where we are and the opportunity ahead.

Today’s session started with Andrea Griffith MP, Minister for Small Business, talking about the importance of SME’s in the UK business world and the huge impact they have on employment, progress and true innovation. Following that, Declan Curry perfectly chaired a panel of 5 Scale-Up founders whose Stories were individually inspiring but also shared the similarities faced when growing a company.

On the panel were…

• Celia Francis - CEO, Rated People
• Dr Kris Naudts - Founder and CEO, Culture Trip
• Bernhard Niesner - CEO and co-founder, busuu
• Rachel Carrell - Founder and CEO, Koru Kids
• Dr Simon Hay - Co-founder, Firefly

What a line up! Having cranberry panda be part of this group is what made me so proud.

To be able to get here has been tough at times, but nearly always good fun! It has happened because of a team of pandas who live our values and push themselves every day to be the best recruiter, team member and specialist they can be – that is the real reason I’m proud.

Sometimes things happen and what initially seems like a small thing can quickly become more profound - today was one of these days which I was keen to share and celebrate.

Thank you to the pandas and to everyone who has helped us build our story to the point we can share it and be included in this exciting group.

Check out some highlights from the day on Twitter!