It used to be that, when entrepreneurs launched brands, they felt under pressure to open their own shops as quickly as they could. Investors seemed to care more about square-metres and footfall than about products, where they came from, what they were made from, who made them and how. For months on end this year, shops went dark and any shopping for luxury goods that people were able to do was online. The chief executive and founder of The Cambridge Satchel Company, Julie Deane, says one of the changes that may result from this is an increase in consumer interest in the products themselves. Julie Deane founded The Cambridge Satchel Company in 2008, launching the company from her kitchen with "seed funding" of £600. In its most recent accounts, the company's turnover was just under £9 million (it has been higher). The brand achieved global popularity quickly and, by the middle of the last decade, Ms Deane was on all the best lists. She was one of a select group of entrepreneurs invited to travel to China on a 2014 trade mission with then UK prime minister, David Cameron. The following year, Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, asked her to be the keynote speaker at the first in a series of conferences aimed at promoting entrepreneurship among women. Then, in 2016, Virgin Business Media asked her to be part of a panel for the longest-ever business pitch marathon, for which she listened to 160 presentations in 29 hours. Orders began to flood in soon after the bags turned heads at New York Fashion Week in 2010. Ms Deane found that the initial manufacturing partners she was working with were unable to keep up with demand, meaning she had to search for a larger manufacturer. It proved possible to find a company that was skilful enough to make the bags the way she wanted and big enough to help her meet growing demand, but there were other challenges with the new supplier and the relationship was short-lived.
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