Transcript
[APPLAUSE]
JOSH LITTLEJOHN:
When I was a young guy. when I was about 13, 14, my form of a teenage rebellion was sort of lashing out at my dad and my family's wealth. My dad came from a working class background, but he was an entrepreneur. is an entrepreneur, and he set up a successful restaurant business.
So, me and my brother grew up in sort of, relative privilege. And my kind of teenage rebellion was sort of, almost throwing that back in his face and kind of saying, why is it fair that we have these flash cars and this big house when there's people sort of, starving in the world, and that kind of attitude. which was, in hindsight, was quite harsh on my dad because I think, the only reason he wanted to be a success, was to provide for his family. But that was sort of me as a teenager.
So, I went to uni and I studied politics and economics, with a view to try and change the world in some way upon leaving. So, I left university and I found that no one really wanted to give me a job. I struggled in the sort of grad scheme interview processes and things.
So, I sort of felt pushed down an entrepreneurial path to set up my own business. So, I decided to set up an event business. So, the first event that I ever did was an event called The Festival Fashion Show, where I created a fashion show during the Edinburgh Festival. To put this in context, I was 21 years old and I was single. So I thought, this is a great way to sort of, hang around with 10 beautiful models.
So, I would literally sort of, the date was set during the festival. So, prior to it, I would literally, if I saw a really attractive girl in the street, I would go up to her and say, hi, I'm the organiser of The Festival Fashion Show. Have you ever, you know, considered modelling? And so I got 10 models together. I was thinking, this is fantastic.
And I remember, prior to the event, we organised, like a press shoot. And we got this fancy car dealership called Kenny Dunn's to sponsor the event. So, I got Kenny to bring down an Aston Martin and I had all the models there. And we got about five or six newspaper, sort of paparazzi, shooting it. And I can sort of, look back in that time and sort of pinpoint the exact moment when I really realised that entrepreneurship was for me. And it was pretty much this moment.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
You know, it's a bit of a joke, but The Festival Fashion Show, you know, it was just something in my head. And that was the first time I experienced that something in my head became real. And that was a thrill and I think I've become slightly addicted to that thrill. And ever since that moment, I've just kept pushing the boundaries slightly further, and kept knocking on the doors a little bit harder and taking no for an answer less and less.
And there's a direct linear link between organising that little fashion show in Edinburgh and creating this big event, where we've brought Bill Clinton to Scotland, called the Scottish Business Awards. So from the fashion show I started organising other events and they got bigger and bigger. And I came up with this event called The Scottish Business Awards.
And a lot of people sort of asked me, Josh, how did you get involved in The Scottish Business Awards? And, if I'm honest, I have to sort of say to them, well, I created an event and I called it The Scottish Business Awards. And I think because it was called The Scottish Business Awards, everyone sort of assumed, it'd been around for a long time and was very prestigious, which I didn't correct.
And it sort of, became quite prestigious, it's ran for three years now. And it was the biggest business event, by far, in the UK the last two years and one of the biggest business events ever in Scotland.
The first year we organised the awards, we decided to raise money for charity. So, we put together a charity auction. So, I was trying to get some really big prizes for it and the notion kind of came to my head to think, maybe I could sort of, ask if we could get a meeting with Bill Clinton that we could auction off in the charity auction.
So, how did I go about this, I went on the Clinton Foundation web site and clicked the contact page. And it was one of those pages where there's not even an email address or a phone number, it's just a contact box. So I sort of typed in that, I'm organising this big event. We had 800 business leaders confirmed to come. What would be the chances of getting a meeting with Bill Clinton to auction off? Send.
The chances of something coming back from that are borderline zero. So, to my amazement, someone did email me back and asked a few questions. And they said, OK, what we could give you is not a meeting with Bill Clinton, but spend the day with Bill Clinton prize in New York. But the conditions are that you have to raise a minimum of 60,000 pounds and you have to donate half of it to the Clinton Foundation.
So I thought, well, there's nothing to lose. I don't know if that's realistic or achievable or what. But we had the prize, so we auctioned it off on the night. So it got to the kind of star prize and the auctioneer got it going.
So, it was 10, 15 grand, 20 grand, got up to 30,000 pounds. And there was a guy at the back of the room called Leo Koot, from an oil company in Aberdeen. He was at 30 grand and he was pissed, pissed as a fart.
[LAUGHTER]
So, at that point, no one else was bidding. You know, the auctioneer would say, we have to get to 60, or the prize is not happening. Who's going to give me 35? And no one else was bidding. So I was like, oh, shit. But Leo Koot, obviously, had a few glasses of wine. The people around his table were sort of holding his hand up. So he sort of bid up on himself to 35, to 40, up, up to 60.
So, it meant I could go back to the Clinton Foundation, I said 60 grand, there's your 30. Thanks very much. A few months later, we're thinking, right, who can we get to speak? We got Bob Geldof to speak the first year. And we thought, who could we get to speak? So I thought, I'll get back in touch with that woman at the Clinton Foundation.
So, I got in touch and said, look, what would it take to bring Bill Clinton to Scotland to speak at this event? And she said, well, basically, a massive donation to the Clinton Foundation. So, we bounced around a few numbers. And it came to the number of 210,000 pound donation to the Clinton Foundation.
So, I sort of thought, right, we can sell so many tables for such a price, did a bit of math. And I thought, we could just about cover that if we sell enough tables. So, sort of, full of beans, I've said yeah, let's go for it, 210 grand.
She said, well, it's not quite as simple as that. We can't just give you Bill Clinton's name to advertise, on the vague hope that you'll pay us the money. We don't really know who you are. So, if you want to do it, you have to pay us 50 grand in two weeks; another 50 grand in a month; and the rest prior to the event.
So, at the time, I had pretty much zero money in the bank. So, I kind of thought, oh, fuck it. Go for it. So, I signed the contract, sent it away. So, I had two weeks to raise 50 grand. So, basically, I phoned up anyone I knew with money. So, the first phone call was to my dad.
[LAUGHTER]
So I said, do you know that hard time I gave you about having money? Sorry about that. Can I have some of it, please? So, what basically what I did, I phoned, run anyone that was at the awards the previous year and said, look, here's the deal, we've got Bill Clinton confirmed. But we have to raise 50 grand in two weeks. Will you take a table? And, if so, will you pay me for it now? And enough people said yes. And we cleared the deposits. And it all happened.
So, the year after, I thought, how can we follow that? And I thought maybe we could look at getting Richard Branson. It'd be difficult because, obviously, he lives in Necker. But, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. And just a month ago it happened.
So, a sort of powerful realisation kind of dawned on me through this process that the world is completely malleable. You can create things and do things and people will sort of buy into it. And you can kind of make changes. And that was a really powerful realisation.
So, a few years ago I came across a guy called Professor Muhammad Yunus when I was reading his books, about an idea that he described as a social business. So, he basically talked in his book about how, in Bangladesh, he's created over 50 companies. And some of them have gone on to become very large, billion dollar companies. But he's never owned a single share in one of them.
Each company he's created has been to address a social problem. So, I was reading his books, I thought, wow, what an inspiring idea. And I got this bug for sort of entrepreneurship, but it was slightly hollow just trying to set about to make money. So, it really chimed with me, the idea that you could be an entrepreneur and create a business. But you could do it for a purpose. That chimed with me ever since but when I was a teenager trying to make a difference.
So, I invited Yunus to speak at an event we were doing. It was very difficult to establish much meaningful communication with him. So, I ended up flying to Bangladesh and I met him personally. And we spent a week there. me and my girlfriend Alice. where we toured around his different social businesses. So that was me there.
And that experience just completely inspired and changed the track of our lives completely. So, we sold the events business. the main profitable event that we did, which was a ski and snowboard exhibition, for 40,000 pounds. And we ploughed all the money, plus any other money that we could get together, into opening a social business, which was a sandwich shop in Edinburgh called Social Bite. And we've got a little video just to tell you what Social Bite is all about.
We are a sandwich shop. We compete with Pret A Manger, The Get Express, Subway, and we are winning.
ALICE THOMPSON:
But we are a sandwich shop with a difference. We are a social business. This means we give a 100 per cent of every single penny of the profits that we make are invested in different charities that we are passionate about.
We support three different charities. We support Shelter Scotland, the Microloan Foundation in Malawi, and an eye-care hospital in Bangladesh. Having only been open for a year and a half, we have so far funded a 100 eye-care operations in Bangladesh, funded 120 loans for women in Malawi to start their own business, and we have also made a significant contribution to Shelter Scotland
JOSH LITTLEJOHN:
With the help of the money we raised at The Scottish Business Awards last year, we have so far managed to open up four shops: two in Edinburgh, two in Glasgow, and a central production kitchen out in Livingston.
At the moment, we are employing 26 people. What's really unique is that 12 of those people used to be homeless.
IAN BROWN:
I was homeless for 14 years, then I [INAUDIBLE] I mean, when you're out, a [INAUDIBLE] never give you. And whether it rains nor whatever, you couldn't depend on it. The biggest thing in my life, it's I've got a job.
SONNY MURRAY:
When I first started, I was a bit apprehensive because I had to take methadone. I had to go [INAUDIBLE] The owners basically said to me, we work for Social Bite. It'll help with your problems. It'll give me a bank account and things like that, trying to get my passport.
JOHN BROWN:
When I first became homeless, I was 16. I met a girl and made [INAUDIBLE] with her. I had a child, got married, and then fell out with her, and ended back on the street again.
JOE HART:
I never had anywhere to stay, unless it was on a friend's couch or under a bridge.
PETER HART:
I used to sell the Big Issue on the [INAUDIBLE]. And that's how I met Jack, Josh, and Alice, obviously. Before then, I was homeless for six months, seven months. Then I met my mum and dad for the first time, moved in with them.
COLIN CHILDS:
Well, I was homeless. I was selling the Big Issue in Edinburgh. I knew a couple of the guys that were working for Social Bite. Joe said to me, would you like to come and distribute leaflets for the shop. I started on the dishes. Then he moved us up to the Central Kitchen here. It's stable now. It's got a flat through here, through Josh and Alice. That's brilliant.
JOE HART:
Every homeless person got a bad name, for some reason. Anyone can come here. It takes two wrong moves. You lose your job, can't pay your mortgage, you end up on the street. So it's an everyday situation that people don't realise.
JOHN BROWN:
I've had the keys for the shop. And I thought I would never be able to pay my debt. They'd close the shop up.
BILLY PAUL MCCONDOCHIE:
I do see a future here, a career. Because this is a start of something big. They're already on their third shop. And the fourth one's coming within weeks. So I want to do something big here.
JOE HART:
It's not just people like us that need it, but people come for other countries [INAUDIBLE] They know they can come in here and get a cup of tea, a sandwich, and they know there's money going out to the other countries, not just staying here. And that's [INAUDIBLE].
SONNY MURRAY:
I was needing a full-time kind of a job, especially with my girlfriend about to give birth. And ever since I've started at Social Bite, my life's totally changed for the better.
JOSH LITTLEJOHN:
The ultimate ambition for Social Bite is to try and replicate what we've achieved here, to create a large chain of sandwich shops to rival Pret A Manger or Subway, but do it completely for the social mission that we've established here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
Thank you. Thank you. The great thing about a social enterprise is that once you get the model right, we're not quite there yet, but if we can get the model right and get it sustainable and financially profitable, then all you have to do is replicate that and you can multiply the social impact very quickly.
In the traditional sort of charity model, I might go to Gurge and say, Gurge, I've got a great idea to help the homeless. Can I have 10,000 pounds to do it? And he might be a generous guy, write me a check, and give it. And then I'll go and spend it and do good work.
Then I have to go back to him and say, and he said, what happened to the 10 grand I gave you? Said, I spent it. That's what nonprofits do. Whereas, with a social business, you can frame it in a way where it's replicable, it's self-propelling.
So, I want to finish with a quote from Steve Jobs, the late Steve Jobs, which, I think, kind of sums up the message I want to try and get across, which is, ‘When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is. And your life is just to live your life and try not to bash into the walls too much. But that is a very limited life.
Life can be much broader when you discover one simple fact. And that is the everything around you that you call life was made up by people who are no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use.
Shake off this erroneous notion that life is just there, and you're just going to live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, and make your mark upon it. Once you learn that, you will never be the same again.’ That's true. Thanks.
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