A Life Well Lived
As part of our journey to redefine Wealth we are exploring what “A Life Well Lived” means: interviewing artists, entrepreneurs, explorers, and change-makers as they share their stories and ask “what is my life well lived?” Here we talk to Freddie Blackett, Founder of Patch, about his business and what living well means to him.
Freddie had the idea for Patch, the London based online garden center, in 2016 shortly after moving in to his girlfriends flat. Their mission is simple explains Freddie, “we want to make it as easy to connect with nature as it is to connect to the internet.”
On Founding Patch
“It’s not like moving into a new home where the quicker you can get to the walls and put up your posters you’re the winner. The only space I had to play with was the balcony, which at the time, was a bit of a dumping ground. I tried – and failed – over the course of a long weekend to do it up and noticed how difficult it was for someone with no experience of plants to get into gardening, especially when you live in a city like London where there are very few garden centers around.”
“I had spotted this problem, and thought somebody else was probably going to have a crack at it, but two years later, after I had gathered a bit more experience of plants, I thought now I am the right guy for this. I raised some investment and got started in 2016.”
On Milestones
“We started putting plant tags into our deliveries, because quite often our customers have never bought plants before so they don’t know what plant it is. It also helped our drivers to recognise what it was and where it was going; it solved two massive problems with this tiny little thing which costs less than a penny on a unit basis.”
“And now, every time someone joins us it starts a new chapter for our business. So speaking for my business partner and me, those are the moments we look at and go ‘Wow – this baby of ours is growing up’.”
On Success
“We’re not trying to conquer the world, but we’d like to conquer a good slice of it. If we can help more people get into gardening and get into plants, then I suppose that’s success for us. I just wont put a number on it just yet.”
On Being an Entrepreneur
“There is definitely this exciting perception of entrepreneurialism which exists – it is definitely there – but then also, the majority of my time is spent dealing with things that people don’t even think of when they imagine starting a business. The number of unfortunate daily processes I have to run – which you probably offload as you grow and so hopefully I will soon.”
“One of my processes for example is paying our drivers. 15 of them are out on the road on a daily basis and so I go through the process of checking their hours against what has been recorded, etc. etc. And that should feel like work really, but when I look at the list of drivers we’re paying on a weekly basis and that list keeps growing and that’s incredibly exciting. So that goes through my mind when I’m pressing send on a payment.”
“So no, I don’t think it feels like work, I never get out of bed and think ‘oh, another day at work’ but all that being said, my week is perfectly structured around five days at work, and two days at home with my family and friends.”
On Living Well
“But then being able to do something that you’re passionate about. But more than that, something that you’re passionate about, and good at. I’m finding that at the moment in leading a business that has a strong brand behind it, and is solving a problem that I am completely passionate about.”
On Retirement
“I think it starts with your family and having a strong unit around you, I’m completely blessed to have a great family around me, both my parents and my bother, but also more recently my wife and my young boy. Without that support system I don’t think anything else is possible, at least it doesn’t feel like that for me.”
“But then being able to do something that you’re passionate about. But more than that, something that you’re passionate about, and good at. I’m finding that at the moment in leading a business that has a strong brand behind it, and is solving a problem that I am completely passionate about.”
