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NOVEMBER EDITION:
WHO SIGNED THIS OFF?!
How do you get the balance right between a brilliant product and hype? Can you have one without the other? Why is longevity so important in PR? And why should everyone be writing for intelligent 12-year-olds?
These and many more questions were answered at Harpswood’s breakfast panel event last Thursday. Held in the impressive, light-filled Conservatory at Fora on Folgate Street, How PR Can Support Business Growth was well-attended and well-received (particular thanks to the generous guest who complimented Harpswood as “clearly a team of polymaths” - too kind!).
Our panellists Anatolii Papulov, CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit, Matthew Blain, partner at Voyager Ventures, Jess Jones, senior reporter at The Times and our own James Clench, Harpswood founder, shone light onto the lesser-known aspects of publicising startups. And the bacon rolls really hit the spot.
Welcome to two new Harpswood clients! Halo, an enterprise software specialist, has built an incredible $2 billion business without taking any external investment. Founder and CEO Paul Hamilton is passionate about hiring people based on attitude rather than experience – and the average age of a Halo employee is 24.
SOLR AI also joins us. Founded by Stanley Wilson and Anna Chabokdast, the team is developing artificial intelligence that helps energy companies, commercial property owners, investors and installers plan solar projects in minutes rather than hours. It automates everything from assessing land and rooftops to designing systems and preparing grid connection paperwork.
📺 PM ON GOGGLEBOX
Andy Burnham’s latest man-of-the-people PR move came with an appearance on a charity special of Channel 4’s popular Gogglebox. The PM, casually dressed in a navy cardigan and white t-shirt, and clutching a pint of lager, shared a sofa with his pal Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool. He immediately joked that Happy Mondays Shaun Ryder and Bez – two other northern regulars on the show – might make more sense. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch loudly asked how the PM has time for these larks. But Burnham’s eye is firmly on the polls. They show Labour maintaining the lead he has generated and his personal ratings remain net positive.
✂️ BBC SHRINKS
Cuts continue to dominate at the BBC, where BBC Three and BBC Scotland are both coming off air to move solely online. (If this sounds familiar, BBC Three was moved online in 2016 before coming back on air in 2022.) It follows the controversial decision to scrap BBC Radio 4’s You And Yours consumer show and its international news show The World Tonight. A report of the cuts in The Guardian had one BBC insider refer to a continuing “doom spiral”.
🤖 FAKE-US GROUPS
Brenda from Bristol is being replaced by Claude from Anthropic. That’s right, politicians are testing their messages out on AI-generated focus groups. Bloomberg reported on a number of startups offering the service, including the London-based Synthetic Respondents (which sounds like the greatest eighties’ indie band that never was). One of the early adopters of the tech is Kanishka Narayan, Britain’s AI minister, who said he had used it to challenge arguments in his own draft speeches. Not everyone is a fan. Luke Tryl of polling firm More In Common highlighted the “idiosyncrasies and nuances” of real people.
📰 JOB LOSSES AT TELEGRAPH
Up to 100 jobs are going at The Telegraph to enable its transformation into an AI-powered business. High-profile Sunday Telegraph economics columnist Liam Halligan has announced his departure, while controversial daily columnist Allison Pearson is rumoured to be negotiating her exit. German publisher Axel Springer acquired the title in June.
FOUNDERS UNFILTERED
“A HEALTHIER RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR PHONES STARTS WITH CHANGING OUR ENVIRONMENTS”
In this edition, Nadav Jacobs, CEO and co-founder of Novi is in the hot seat.
Novi is a digital wellbeing and classroom management app that blocks distracting apps, websites, and cameras on students' phones during the school day, while giving teachers a monitoring dashboard.
Novi was founded at university, after Nadav and his co-founder Matt realised just how dependent they had become on their phones and technology, and how much it was affecting their attention, focus and everyday lives. They want to help the next generation build a healthier relationship with technology.
What’s the scrappiest thing you’ve done so far to make progress?
We heard about a Bristol event where ten startups were pitching to investors, but we had neither an invitation nor a pitching slot. We emailed the organisers and people in our network, asking to attend as students interested in entrepreneurship. Once inside, we turned conversations into an opportunity to pitch Novi on stage. That pitch introduced investors who later backed us.
What’s your current biggest challenge?
Getting in front of school leaders who are already stretched for time, and showing them how Novi can make phone-free policies easier to enforce while giving teachers more time to teach.
In one sentence - what was your lightbulb moment for starting the business?
Realising that a healthier relationship with our phones starts with changing our environments- willpower alone isn’t enough.
What mistake are you glad you made?
We initially tried to build for several industries at once, which spread our focus too thin. It taught us to choose a clear starting point, and helped us recognise schools as the place where we could make the greatest initial impact.
What’s one book everyone should read?
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. It makes you question what a childhood shaped by smartphones means for young people, and what we can do differently.
NEWS-O-METER
🤩 NAILED IT
“Bravo” to the PR team from Mutti tomatoes who landed a glowing long-read in the Sunday Times Magazine, complete with Andy Warhol-style image of its tins. It’s a story of quality over quantity, stunning branding and tomato fandom. The piece finished with an image of Emily Calland from Wigan showing off her Mutti tattoo - a tribute to her mum, who loved the tomatoes.
🥶 FAILED IT
Binance dealt a blow to the reputation of cryptocurrency after it suffered a $6.3 billion hack. North Korea has been accused of masterminding the breach. A lone engineer’s compromised laptop is believed to have been the way in. Binance customers subsequently withdrew $3.6 billion. Tough times for crypto credibility.
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
👑 WORD OF THE YEAR
“Mogging” has been announced as Word of the Year by Collins English Dictionary. Nothing to do with Jacob Rees-Mogg (remember him?), mogging means outshining or upstaging someone or something (often in a photo).
🔥 HOT TAKE
“Be alert… but not alarmed.” That was the message from Defence Secretary Wes Streeting as he launched the “Be Ready” campaign. It’s aimed at building resilience in the face of a natural disaster, cyber attack or state-sponsored terrorism. Households are being encouraged to stock up on three-days’ worth of supplies including tins of food, bottled water, a sleeping bag and a torch. Not an easy one to balance the tone between readiness and panic. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner brought some levity with a joke about stashing the essentials of sauvignon blanc and mascara.
HARPSWOOD IRL
MEET OUR LONDON TEAM THIS NOVEMBER AT:
📆 Sustainability Breakfast, Barclays Eagle Labs, 5th November
📆 Founders Connect, Canada Water, 5th November
📆 Satellite Futures Summit 2026, London, 10th November
📆 The Business Show, 11th - 12th November
📆 London EV Show, 18th - 19th November
📆 Climate Tech Time, The Conduit, 25th November
📆 London Build, 25th - 26th November
📆 Birmingham B2B Growth Expo, 26th November