Owner Managed Businesses

Tilly Kelly, Ella Darnell
June 2026

We recently welcomed Joe Roberts-Walker, sustainability champion and founder of Mejuicer, to speak candidly about how he has built a purpose-driven business from the ground up and the lessons he learned along the way.

Mejuicer is an award-winning cold pressed juice company built around conscious consumption, health and wellbeing, and giving back. Launched during the 2021 lockdown with just £5,000 in savings and production in his family kitchen, Joe has grown Mejuicer into a fast-scaling business which is now stocked by an impressive client lineup, including Google, ASOS, and Amazon to name a few.

Joe’s journey offers an insightful and practical look at what it takes to build and scale a business that keeps its values at the core of its growth. In this article, we unpack the key insights that early-stage founders can learn from to position your own business for growth.

The Power of People

Looking back on building Mejuicer from his family kitchen, Joe repeatedly returned to one simple but powerful idea: people are your most valuable resource.

  • Invest in relationships early.
    In the early days, networking was key. But what made those connections stick was Joe’s approach to contribute first, rather than just taking from a network. That approach to early goodwill built long term support systems for Mejuicer.
  • See competition as collaborators.
    Rather than seeing competition as purely adversarial, learning from and collaborating with others in the space helped Joe identify opportunities to improve and grow. Particularly in the niche and emerging market of cold-pressed juices, it helped expand Mejuicer’s product awareness and strengthen the market for all parties.
  • The commercial value of community.
    Trust built and strong word-of-mouth endorsement amongst Joe’s community meant that Mejuicer has actually spent almost nothing on advertising through the years. In Joe’s case, strong relationships were just as powerful as a marketing budget.

Embracing mistakes as an opportunity for growth

One of Joe’s key reflections was how an early mistake ended up reshaping the entire business model of Mejuicer. For Joe, some of the biggest steps forward came from getting it wrong first and being open to mistakes, so long as you know how to adapt from them.

  • Act fast, learn faster.
    Joe initially centred Mejuicer’s products around carrot-based juices, only to discover this had a shelf life of just two days. In contrast, ginger-based juices lasted up to seven, which prompted a quick pivot in product which is now what Mejuicer is known and loved for by consumers today.
  • Treat mistakes as data, not failure.
    Taking risks, being open to making mistakes and ultimately “just doing it” revealed insights Joe couldn’t have found through planning alone.
  • Cover the fundamentals, even if you’re learning on the job.
    Joe highlighted the importance of understanding every core area of the business early on, from operations and finance to brand and compliance. It’s okay to not be an expert in each, but leaving gaps at the outset can create risk before you’re ready to bring in support and grow your team to cover these areas.

Evolving pressure: how responsibility shifts with growth

One very real aspect Joe spoke about was how the pressure of building Mejuicer didn’t disappear as the business grew, it adapted. Personal risk quickly became responsibility for others, and this reshaped how he approached decisions and growth.

  • Pressure grows with your team.
    Early on, the stakes were personal and if things went wrong, it meant getting by. If it was beans on toast for dinner every night, joe could learn to live with it. But as Joe’s team grew, the priority shifted to ensuring salaries were paid and that his employees were protected.
  • From survival to stability.
    The focus moved from staying afloat to managing cash flow, consistency and building a business that could sustainably support others.
  • Structure becomes essential.
    Growth brought the need for a more proactive approach to managing financial risk, operational dependencies and team capacity in a way that wasn’t necessary at the start.

Navigating the UK business landscape

Whilst acknowledging the challenges that the UK business environment can present, Joe also challenged this negative perception. His experience shows there is key support available, but founders must choose to engage with it.

  • The support is there, use it.
    From funding initiatives to industry communities, founders have access to networks, organisations and support schemes at every stage of their journey.
  • Don’t build in isolation.
    Engaging with communities early opens up access to advice, partnerships and opportunities that are hard to access alone
  • Mindset matters.
    Joe emphasised that founders who are proactive, resourceful and open to collaboration are well positioned to benefit from what’s available.

In short, opportunities are there for your business, but you should actively engage with them. For a breakdown of the government’s recent UK SME growth strategy, published August 2025, and how your business can benefit from the reforms, see our previous Fineprint article.

Success is multifaceted

Joe concluded by challenging traditional perceptions of success as an entrepreneur, and offered a grounded perspective shaped by his own journey building Mejuicer.

  • Success is more than revenue.
    For Joe, success is freedom, building a strong team, and creating opportunities for others, not just hitting financial milestones. Particularly for a purpose-led business, this also meant staying closely aligned to his sustainability practices and other core values during commercial growth and scaling.
  • Define success on your own terms.
    Joe encouraged other founders to focus on what success genuinely looks like for them. You don’t have to be making millions to be successful right now, and defining success for yourself is often what gets you through the hardest stages.

Continuing the conversation
We’ll be exploring these themes in more depth at Ideas Fest, where Lawrence Stephens will be hosting a panel on Growth for Good, bringing together founders to talk honestly about how to scale a business without losing what matters.

If you’re heading to the field, you can join us there, if you haven’t yet got tickets:

Access our exclusive partner discount here