Calypso founded Clippykit in 2004, a bag that has pockets that can be filled with photos and memento’s. Clippykit launched selling in London’s famous Portobello Road market and is now a huge success, the range has been sold in Harrods, Selfridges and other iconic retail stores.
Outline your business and entrepreneurial skills, including your relative achievements to date in running a business *
Calypso Rose founded the giftware company Clippykit in 2004, by making a bag on the kitchen table. It was made from PVC and had pockets you could fill with Polaroids and memento’s. Calypso was stopped in the street wherever she went, everyone wanted the bag. Calypso left her day job, and sourced a U.K factory to make up an initial order of 200 bags. From a stall in the Portobello Road, and two weekends later the bags had sold out. From these small beginnings Calypso went on to sell the range across Europe, USA and Japan. Department stores, lifestyle boutiques and online sites all stocked the bags. With no business experience behind her, Calypso had to be a fast learner. As anyone with a gift company will tell you you become all things. Sales,marketing, export and import manager, stand builder and dogs body, and that is before you start on the designs. Calypso went on to win ‘London Young Business Person of the Year’ and also won awards for export. Clippykit was also used for promotion, as the bags could be used for different branding. L’Oreal, Nivea and Carmex all used the bag, and they were sold through museums and gallery outlets. Calypso Rose personally drove the brand forward. From the market stall the range went on to be sold in Selfridges, Harrods, Bon Marche , Bendalls and Tokyo Hands as well as over 400 independent shops in the UK alone. Calypso set up trade stands all over the world to promote and sell her brand. Ventures included a tie up with Mattel and the iconic Barbie, and guest appearances on QVC. The products were now manufactured in China, selling in the thousands. All this was achieved with a workforce of 3. Last year feeling that she had taken the brand as far as she could, or wanted to, Clippykit ( now Clippy London) was licensed. Calypso wanted a change of direction, and to become involved with people rather than products. Always one for a challenge, and keen to develop skills in new areas, she has founded another start-up company – The Indytute.
Why do you have the ability to be an inspiring role model? Provide examples to illustrate
Clippykit became a hit with teenagers. The range included pencil cases, make-up bags and files, all with plastic see through pockets, so that the girls could customise the bags with their own drawings and photos. The handbags became used as school bags and Calypso Rose started to receive requests from schools to go and speak about business and entrepreneurship. Calypso has now done many school talks across the country. The girls related to Calypso and the company. They could see that by application they could have their own business. As with any role model they aspired to be like Calypso and turn their dreams into reality. Calypso also worked with the organisation ‘Make Your Mark’, sponsored by government and later lost in the raft of cuts, ‘Make Your Mark’ worked with schools across the country to inspire young people into business through enterprise. Clippykit started a competition through them called ‘Pocket the Problem’. Teams in school had to fill a large bag ( 24 pockets) working on issues that concerned them. 650 girls aged between 14-15 from schools across the capitol decided to enter filling the bags provided. When the bags were returned they had covered topics ranging from bullying, gun and knife crime,forced marriage and global warming. The bags were a testament to the skill and intelligence of the girls concerned. Calypso set up an exhibition for the project, arranging sponsorship for the bags to be photographed on large scale format, and organising an exhibition at County Hall, opened by Baroness Scotland. All the girls concerned turned up with their teachers for the opening night. One of the teachers remarked ‘ Competitions like this are very important. They give the girls a forum to express themselves, that they would never get under normal circumstances’. We were delighted that the Metropolitan Police decided to award funding to the winning team, to reproduce the bags to be used as a resource to other schools. The theme was ‘Gun and Knife crime’ and they had developed the bag specially to be used as an educational tool. Calypso has the experience to continue to inspire young people and her newest business project presents many opportunities to work with teenagers and promote enterprise.
What is your business / idea and what would you use the £5,000 towards if you were to win *
Calypso Rose is a girl with a deep love for a pop-up.The kind you run to on a wet night in November and skip to when the sun comes out The Indytute ( www.indytute.com) was founded because having worked in the gift industry Calypso recognised that times were changing.Shops could no longer rely on just opening the door. Retail needed to work harder to attract and keep their customers. The Indytute supply ‘Brilliantly Inspired Lessons’.We offer the best workshops and lessons in inspiring locations, working with companies and individuals who benefit by association with other design-led,quality driven brands. The Indytute had a soft launch last year at Selfridges in the Christmas department. We sold gift vouchers against experiences and organised workshops around a small,glittery table. Over 9 weeks The Indytute brought in 500 new customers who spent £26,000 in store. Since the start of 2014 The Indytute have now put workshops into Benefit,Cath Kidston,Oasis,Wishbone,The Shoreditch group,Queen of Hoxton and The Hospital Club, as well as running their own classes.We have worked on a regular basis with Fairground, a pop-up extravaganza in East London. The Indytute also ran a series of ‘Shop Talks’ for Clarion Events, at their Pulse exhibition, engaging both visitors and exhibitors with short 20 minute talks to inspire and fire. We are currently working with Everyman Cinemas and Street Feast on a fantastic summer project, taking place in the front of the ionic Battersea Power Station- the last time the public will be able to visit the building before it is re-constructed. We are also partnering with Not on The High Street, selling workshop gift vouchers. Calypso Rose is the driving force behind this start up,launched with £2000 seed capital. Calypso is in charge of all areas of The Indytute, so how will she use the £5000? Develop a B2B booking system-companies such as Geronimo Inns have asked The Indytute to program hundreds of workshops. Our online system would need to be automated to manage the booking logistics. Calypso runs her business on a shoestring. Achieving results that others might spend thousands on. If she can do it herself -she will. One thing is certain, if Indytute is awarded the prize money, not one penny will be wasted.
