In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Sam Jukes, the founder of CACTO Drinks – the UK’s first cactus water brand using real prickly pear puree. What started as a spark of inspiration from a TV programme turned into a multi-year journey of innovation, market education, and bold ambition.
CACTO Drinks offers a sustainable, healthy alternative to coconut water and is on a mission to break into an industry dominated by big players – with an exotic but approachable drink that's already gaining nationwide traction.
This conversation is packed with insight and inspiration, structured in three parts:
- The Business Journey – From bootstrapping and recipe development to navigating the competitive drinks industry and standing out with a completely new product.
- Scaling Challenges – Including educating a sceptical market, raising SEIS investment in just 31 hours, and learning the ropes in a complex supply chain.
- Quickfire Round – Where Sam shares thoughts on business, growth, and what he wishes he’d known earlier.
The one key thing from this episode?
👉 When you're disrupting an industry with something unfamiliar, education isn't optional – it's your biggest growth lever.
Make sure you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts.
For now, continue listening for the full story from Sam.
Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.
If you would like to be a guest on ScaleUp Radio, please click here:
https://bizsmarts.co.uk/scaleupradio/kevin
You can get in touch with Kevin & Granger here:
Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!
Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.
More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/
Sam can be found here:
Resources:
Willow Talk podcast - https://www.everand.com/podcast-show/731153089/Willow-Talk-Cricket-Podcast
Diary of a CEO podcast - https://stevenbartlett.com/doac/
ZoHo - https://www.zoho.com/
Google Tasks - https://tasks.google.com/tasks/
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