Monocle 24: The Entrepreneurs

Harper Reed shares his journey from CTO of Barack Obama’s re-election campaign to selling his company Modest to PayPal. We meet James Watt, co-founder of Scotland’s largest independent brewery BrewDog, who tell us about his book ‘Business for Punks’. We then head to the mountains north of Los Angeles to attend business workshops at Camp and unplug from the outside world.

A special episode from the Web Summit in Dublin. We sit down with the CEOs of Kickstarter and Deliveroo; Nicolas Brusson of BlaBlaCar and Philippe Botteri of Accel Partners explain the future of ride-sharing, IDEO’s Anne Pascual shares the process of innovation and the team behind Viewpop explains 3D photography.

We discover business lessons from the founders of British sunglasses label Taylor Morris and London-based Dum Dum Donutterie. Plus, we’re in New York to profile Alfred, the mobile app-based errands service.

Minneapolis-based entrepreneur Eric Dayton shares the story of his clothing brand Askov Finlayson, his award-winning restaurant Bachelor Farmer and the ever-popular Marvel Bar. We also profile the global literacy start-up Pobble. Plus: Winkreative’s Rachel Claire Steed discusses the uses and abuses of “heritage” within a brand’s story.

We meet Efe Cakarel, the founder of curated film-streaming service Mubi. We also visit Angels, the seventh-generation family-owned company that’s been outfitting actors in the theatre, television and film industries since 1813.

We stroll down Barcelona’s famous high street Passeig de Gràcia to see the results of an €8m facelift. Meanwhile, Italian entrepreneurs Rossella Frigerio and Silvana Molaro share their made-in-Capri sandals brand Sofia Capri. Plus: the Winkreative team discusses the future of fashion brand DKNY.

We meet Justin Hall, a fifth generation sock maker and CEO of luxury sock brand Pantherella, tell the story of Canadian publisher Coach House Books and speak to the authors of the new book ‘Friend & Foe’ who explain when to compete and when to co-operate in the workplace.

We explore the world of sonic branding with the CEO of Austria-based company Raven and Finch; Roo Rogers and Yves Béhar of fuseproject talk about the Spring Accelerator, a venture that supports businesses helping the lives of adolescent girls in East Africa; and the Winkreative team look at the branding and future of Danish design company Hay.

We sit down with Frank Muytjens, head of men’s design at J.Crew, and hear how the company transformed from a preppy catalogue brand into a consistently on-point icon in the global menswear market. We also talk to the British business duo behind superfood-infused chocolate brand Doisy & Dam. Plus: Freya Williams, author of ‘Green Giants’, explains how companies from Chipotle to Tesla are reversing the age-old wisdom that sustainability and profits can’t go hand-in-hand.

We visit the team behind American manufacturing company Knickerbocker and tour their Brooklyn factory; investigate the success stories of city governments around the world in promoting local entrepreneurship and innovation; and profile Swedish entrepreneur Noa Fridmark, who went from a high-paying corporate job to an isolated archipelago island and on to start-up success.

We visit Rio de Janeiro to see how city hall is working to keep classic retailers alive. We also tell the story of a Lisbon couple who left the big city to revive traditional wool manufacturing in the Portuguese mountains. Plus: the Winkreative team weighs in on a tale of two logos.

We paint a colourful picture of the art world’s framing superstars John Jones. Taking a journey from the company’s massive London headquarters to its bespoke wood mill outside the capital, we tell the story of this successful second-generation family firm as it preserves and protects everything from Warhols, Bacons and Banksys to treasured family photographs.

We talk to entrepreneurs and innovation experts Martin Amor and Alex Pellew about their new book ‘The Idea In You’, a toolkit for taking an idea and turning it into a business. We also meet Lorenzo Curci, who explains why he quit his job in equity derivatives to create the cycling clothing brand Huez*.

We survey the start-up scene in Lebanon and meet the founders of Detroit-based brand Floyd. Plus: the Winkreative team explores the future of content marketing.

We meet Jason Goldberg and Petrus Palmer of Berlin-based start-up Hem and talk to Phil Hutcheon of mobile app DICE about why transparency is the future of live music ticketing. Plus: we’re in the West Bank city of Hebron to profile the revival of the local leather-shoemaking industry.