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For Starters is the essential weekly briefing for the next generation of small business owners. Inspiration and ideas, every Friday – for free. It’s curated by Danny Giacopelli, formerly of Monocle and Courier magazines.
Hey, starter! Read on for…
Inspiration ➠ Fragrance & football
Advice ➠ Business ownership 101
Ideas ➠ Outrageous optimism
Resources ➠ Food trends to know
Town Hall ➠ Subscriber shoutouts
➠ Get inspired
1. A scent of place. In 2022, Delhi-born, London-based poet and entrepreneur Arpit Kaushik survived a serious cycling accident that changed how he viewed life — and left him unable to wear traditional alcohol-based fragrances. The experience pushed him to create something real, meaningful, and personal. So he launched a brand called Dilli House, which recently debuted its first product: an alcohol-free fragrance called Prem Rouge. It’s the first of many high-quality, design-led creations Arpit’s already dreaming up. If this one’s any sign, he’s just getting started. 👀
→ I met Arpit at the launch last week — he’s a genuinely thoughtful, fascinating guy with a fresh perspective on business. One to watch.
2. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Meanwhile in Vienna, there’s an ‘intergenerational cafe’ called Vollpension where half the employees are senior citizens. It was co-founded in 2012 by Moriz Piffl-Percevic, who once ate a piece of dry cake in a Viennese coffee house: “Dismayed and nostalgic for the much tastier cakes he remembered from childhood, he began a journey to, as he says, ‘bring the feeling of grandma’s cake back to Vienna.’” After pop-ups with his own grandmother and touring the country in a VW bus, he opened a brick-and-mortar spot soon after. 👵
The cafe’s notable alumni include oma [grandma] Beata, a mother of five known for her buchteln (fluffy buns stuffed with plum jam and doused in vanilla sauce), who spontaneously traveled around the world in her mid-50s; oma Christine, an expert at vegan cakes who worked for many years as an actress; and oma Charlotte, who gained acclaim for her elegant Sacher torte (glazed chocolate-apricot cake) and once saw a member of the Rolling Stones naked while she was working at a hotel.
3. Lightening the load. Nicholas Esayian has spent his life around speed and impact — first as an American football player who went semi-pro, then as a race-car driver. Years later, he wondered why football players still wore heavy, outdated helmets when every other piece of sports gear had evolved. So he teamed up with a group of designers and engineers to build something better: a lighter helmet that uses advanced materials to reduce impact without compromising strength. His California-based company, Light Helmets, is now shaking up an industry dominated by legacy brands like Riddell and Schutt. Pretty fascinating David and Goliath story. 🏈
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➠ Starter wisdom
“Being an entrepreneur is like pulling on warm cashmere socks to find a family of scorpions inside.”
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➠ Good idea!
Burpees for your brain
1. Creative hobbies → Science says they’re probably very good for your brain health.
2. Related: Craft nights → They’re everywhere. At least they are in Philly…
3. House calls → TALD, a platform for hiring local architects, builders and interior designers, has got a cool event series called House Calls. Sit down with a local pro designer, whip out a floor plan, and walk away with ideas, for free. A good way to draw people into the platform.
4. Paying to work for your dinner → Our peasant ancestors would be very confused by this:
Some high-end tourists are turning to posh properties where they can fish, forage and harvest their meals – and immerse themselves in local culture in the process.
“How does one attain iW-S? In the same way people say a four-year-old could make a Jackson Pollock, it’s tempting to say that all contemporary marketing could be done by a Content Farm of Zoomers plucked right out of college. So what makes something wabi-sabi and not just common or shittily-made? More or less, the answer is about two things: Skill and Charm.”
6. Outrageous optimism → Building a business is hard. “Everything that can go wrong does go wrong,” says Andrew Gazdecki. “Being able to dust yourself off and say, ‘Let’s keep going,’ is super important.” What does this mean for you? It means an unusually high amount of optimism is what you need to cultivate. You also have to really believe in what you’re building.
7. Private label coffee → It’s on the rise.
8. Pomalo → A Croatian slow living concept that emphasises “a relaxed, unhurried approach to life”:
In Dubrovnik, [pomalo] influences our daily rhythms – coffee is not rushed, conversations are not interrupted and life flows at its own pace.
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➠ Toolbox
🛠️ Resources
Mobbin: design inspo pulled from 547,900 screens and 1,150 apps
Whole Foods has dropped its top food trend predictions for 2026.
📚️ Reads
A year in the making of a rookie’s first restaurant. NYT (this is incredible)
How to Build a Vintage Watch Empire With Your Friends. Highsnobiety
Let’s talk about AI art. The Oatmeal
Thinking About Taking the Founder Leap? Here’s How to Prep for the Emotional Gauntlet. First Round Review
The Rise of Stores With a Story. Elle Decor
Meet the Small Business Owners Electrifying Maine’s Rural Coast. The Daily Yonder
The Privilege In Owning a Restaurant. A Chef At Last
41-year-old’s clothing resale business brings in $6.5 million a year: ‘You don’t need a lot of money to start’. CNBC
There’s Never Been a More Exciting Time for Filipino Baking. Taste
‘Devastating’: What 7 months of tariffs have done to one promising local business. SF Standard
Meet the “French Cowboys” Buying Up Hill Country Hotels. Texas Monthly
Can a small country build a space industry from scratch? Rest of World
Inside the Restaurant Powered by Nonnas. Bon Appetit
🧠 Findings
30% → The percentage increase of US sales of Medjool dates in the past year. US searches for the food hit a 20 year high, too.
57% → The percentage of Gen Z’s total income, incredibly, that comes from side hustles.
10% → The percentage decrease of For Starters #35’s open rate from our average open rate. The likely suspect: the subject line was ‘Back to school’ and it got stuck in promo folders! Lesson learned… 🤷
🙃 Fun
An infinite scroll of design objects from Kelly Wearstler’s new project, Side Hustle.
Look at these gorgeous home offices.
A translucent digital camera from our pals at Manual, and a ‘zero waste disposable camera’ from FOTOFOTO.
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➠ Town Hall
1. Newspaper Club helps you print your own newspaper. Have an idea that you think should be in print? They’ll make it happen. It’s a company I’ve admired for a while — and their team members are For Starters subscribers! — so I was interested to see they’ve launched a new magazine-style format called the midi. It’s full-bleed, stapled and printed on real newsprint. I asked Sarah Belfort, their brand and community manager, to tell us more…
“It’s a great match for the starter spirit,” she says. “You can make something real without worrying about polish or perfection. Print a small batch, share work in progress and tell the story behind what you’re building as it takes shape.”
They’ve also very graciously shared a discount just for For Starters subscribers: use the code STARTERS10 for 10% off your first order, up to a maximum discount of £/$/€100. Valid until 31 January 2026. Thanks team.
2. And subscriber Sam Lauron writes in to say…
“Another inspiring issue! The mention of the former schoolhouse for sale [in For Starters #38] reminds me of The Baker School here in Austin — a renovated 1911 schoolhouse turned creative hub from the founders of Alamo Drafthouse. A dream!”
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