Eve Kekeh, Founder of Bundlee: “Stop clothing waste and create a better future for our little ones to grow into“
Meet Eve Kekeh, CEO and Founder of Bundlee
1. Describe your startup in two sentences?
Bundlee is the UK’s first rental subscription service for baby and children’s clothes. We give families a sustainable, affordable and space-saving way to conveniently access premium clothes.
2. What gave you the inspiration?
I’m the eldest of my family and was so shocked by how quickly my little siblings outgrew their clothes. Mountains of outgrown clothes started popping up all over our home!
We need to stop our children’s clothes from contributing to the climate crisis. I started Bundlee to stop clothing waste and create a better future for little ones to grow into.
3. What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?
I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved this year, especially with our small (but growing!) in-house team. We’ve already grown subscribers by over 175% so far this year! Plus we’ve partnered with some of the best childrenswear brands, most recently adding Stella McCartney Kids to our list of brands available to rent on Bundlee. But I think the greatest success has to be that our customers love what we’re doing, and we now have customers who used our service for their first child coming back to use us again for the second - it’s so cool getting to be a part of their family’s growth!
Now our main challenge is that our small team is quite stretched and we need to grow the team so we can keep building on the momentum, increasing our subscribers and creating new brand partnerships. Which is one of the reasons that I’m raising investment.
4. What kind of impact is your business having and how do you measure it?
What’s great about Bundlee is that we’re a sustainable switch that also helps in other aspects of family life! Whilst reducing clothing waste and the associated carbon emissions, families are also saving space in their new homes and saving money.
5. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
A dancer or starting a business - or a combination of the two!
6. If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?
I’d probably be working in a startup or starting another company with impact at the heart - I love making ideas come to life!
7. Who is your role model/ greatest influence? And why?
I’m very inspired by Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia) and Marc Randolph (Netflix). Yvon built impact into the heart of Patagonia whilst Marc pioneered the rental subscription business model - I highly recommend both their books! Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard and That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph.
8. What is your happy track?
Sister Act 2 finale song… iconic! Always try to do the dance moves along with them.
9. What’s your motto?
Our company values are:
Do Good.
Customer first.
Ideas from everywhere, action from everyone.
My motto comes from my mentor, “shy bairns get nowt”!
10. What are you most looking forward to in 2022?
This year’s whizzed by already! I’m most looking forward to continuing to grow the team - we started the year as a team of 2 and it’s been amazing adding talented people who believe in our mission. I love walking into a full office - it makes the momentum feel very tangible!