Meet Tim Keaveney, co-founder of Homethings

Homethings is a B-corp certified brand creating next-gen Eco Home Care products founded by University friends Tim Keaveney and Matthew Aubrey. The brand has scaled rapidly since its launch in 2020 after wow-ing the Dragons on BBC 1's Dragons Den, gaining tens of thousands of subscribers in its first year and launching nationwide into Waitrose early this year.

Tim Keaveney talks company’s rapid growth and how they’re looking to clean up the cleaning industry - for good.

What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?

I first came up with the idea for Homethings whilst living in a flatshare in London. Every person in the flat had a range of products clogging up space in the bathroom and kitchen – shampoos, shower gels, cleaning products, you name it – and each product was packaged in single-use plastic. So originally, the plan was to come up with a solution that meant we could still use the everyday products we need without creating so much plastic waste. But this turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

As I started researching the market leading brands, I was shocked to discover that most cleaning spays and solutions are actually made up of around 90 - 95% water, which is being produced, packaged and shipped half way across the world to make it onto supermarket shelves. That’s bonkers, right? Think of the carbon emissions impact of shipping +800,000 million gallons of water unnecessarily around the world every year - all in single use plastic bottles and containers. Suddenly, the problem I wanted to solve was bigger than plastic, it was about shaking up the whole production and shipping model for home care products. 

Then the eureka moment came - why not just create and sell the 10% of the stuff that people actually need? After all, everyone pays a water bill and everyone has a kitchen sink. So why sell someone water when they have it ready to use at home and can JUST ADD TAP™. It all just came together and Homethings was born. 

What does your business offer its target audience?

In a nutshell, we offer people powerful, planet-positive home care solutions that actually work and that are fundamentally better for you, your home and the planet. Since we launched with our three kickstarter cleaning sprays; Allthings, Baththings and Shinythings, we’ve grown our range to include floor cleaning pods, laundry and dishwasher tabs and most recently, an innovative new powder-to-gel washing up liquid created in partnership with Innovate UK. The goal is to provide a water and plastic free solution to every household cleaning item on the shopping list.

The thing we really worked hard to avoid when we started Homethings was to try to be as accessible and affordable to as many consumers as possible. We know that millions of people share our concerns about the planet, so it was always our mission to be a business that fundamentally changed the way people consumed. . 

That means enabling people to switch seamlessly and effortlessly to more planet-friendly, sustainable alternatives with minimal effort and that are competitively priced with the leading market brands. Creating products that activate when people JUST ADD TAP™ water, meant we could tap into a resource that everyone has right there in their homes, therefore limiting the need to ship water in single use plastic. It sounds simple, because it is - when you’re asking people to change their behaviours, it needs to be easy. 

We started the business, like many start-ups direct to consumer but it was important for us to secure a supermarket listing. This is where most people think about home care purchases so visibility within the category was always going to be key in raising awareness of our brand. We achieved this in March this year, with nationwide distribution in Waitrose stores, making it easier to access and purchase our products than ever before. 

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?

The truth is, there’s a heck of a lot of greenwashing that we see from so-called eco-friendly brands these days. At worst, it's purely unsubstantiated and lazy marketing claims and at best there is incremental efforts that aren’t fundamentally going to move the needle on the environmental crises that we face. Take market leading eco brands such as Method and Ecover for example; despite their eco-credentials and use of recycled plastic materials, they are still shipping ready-to-use products in single use plastic that contain up to 95% water. The vast majority of their sales still comes from single use bottles sold on supermarket shelves. We built Homethings to be different. We remove the need to ship water around the world altogether by only sending you the active ingredients that you need, with the option to keep refilling at home again and again. All our ingredients are sourced, manufactured and packaged right here in the UK and EU with traceable supply chains, so we can guarantee their origin. We are a B-Corp certified, carbon neutral business and we are also certified by the Vegan Society and Cruelty Free International (Leaping Bunny). 

What’s more, supermarket retailers can really benefit from introducing a brand like Homethings onto their shelves. Our entire range can appear on shelf in less than a third of the shelf space that brands like Ecover and Method might need. That means more sales generated per square meter of shelf space and a better return for retailers overall. 

What was the journey like when you decided to raise funding for your startup? And what tips would you give to early-stage founders getting ready to take the same path?

For us, having that early stage investment was crucial for product development - and anyone who’s ever tried to create a new product from scratch will know how expensive it can be. So, we knew we had to start by getting investors on board who shared our vision. At first it was family members and friends who invested, then we opened the pool up wider.

In March 2020, we launched our first campaign through Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform that helps bring ideas like ours to life. It allowed our community to buy our product before it was ready for market. This massively helped in the early days and subsequently has given us a vocal group of early adopters who offer us rapid feedback on our formulations. 

We later went on to do another couple of funding rounds through angel investors and CrowdCube, which meant we were able to grow our team and to continue to invest in more NPD and marketing to get the brand and our proposition out there.

My main advice to any founder led business wanting to raise cash is to be single minded about your product, understand and articulate your USP, demonstrate there is a market need and a problem you are going to solve and present a realistic and achievable business plan that shows where any investment will be spent.   

What’s the single most important decision that you made, that contributed to your business?

That’s a tough one, but I have to say one of the big game changing decisions for us was to take the business onto BBC1’s Dragon’s Den in spring 2021. We believe so passionately in our mission and products, and we wanted the whole of the UK to know about Homethings so we decided to take our chances in the Den – and luckily for us it paid off. 

Anyone that’s experienced the Den knows that on the day anything can happen, so you need to be prepared for all outcomes. But I don’t think we were quite ready for the amazing response we got from all five dragons on the day. They all made offers and it was incredible! And while we originally accepted a joint offer from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, we actually decided not to move forward with it after the show and continued instead to use Crowdfunding as a means of expansion.  

The appearance undoubtedly put us on the map in a way that not much else can do when you’re at that early launch stage. We’d caught the eye (and the wallets) of five of the most incredible entrepreneurs in the UK. That alone made investors, stakeholders, retail buyers and consumers alike sit up and listen. After we appeared on the show, we saw a huge sales spike in the weeks following and in general awareness of our brand and our innovations.

How well versed were you in the planning and strategic growth of your business? Did this come easy to you?

Matt and I both have quite a bit of experience working with startups and helping them thrive, so we’re pretty well versed in things like growth strategies. That said, things are always a little different when you’re managing your own business. It’s always a tough balancing act in the early stages as to where you invest the bulk of your time, effort and money. There’s never enough to do everything. 

Our growth strategy was to bed in the launch products and continue to invest in R&D and new product development which we enabled with partnerships like Innovate UK who supported us with joint funding to develop our market first powder-to-gel washing up liquid. 

Nailing mass market distribution was also a strategic play for us. We started off by selling D2C online through our own website, allowing us to test our products rapidly and get direct feedback from our customersHowever, we knew we had to expand to mainstream retail if we wanted to have the impact of changing the way the world consumes Home Care products. E-commerce platforms like Amazon helped us expand our product availability and brand visibility massively, as well as investing in  PR, marketing and social media to get even more eyes on the brand. 

But getting our first supermarket listing with Waitrose in April this year was a game changer, because now people see our products right there on shelf while they’re actively thinking about making those home care purchases. 

Working with a co-founder can be tricky, so understanding and compromise is important. How have you both found the process of building a business together? What makes it work?

Matt and I have been friends since University and we both have a lot of experience, ideas and strengths that we bring to the table and it’s that combination that’s helped to get this business to market.

Prior to starting Homethings, I was VP in the Consumer and E-commerce team at Barclays where I led the coverage of D2C scale ups and disruptive brands. I’ve always been passionate about sustainability, purpose-led brands and the B Corp movement having worked extensively with NGO One Young World since 2016. 

Matt on the other hand takes on the role of COO within the business. His background is in Impact investing and sustainability having worked his way up to Partner and operations manager at Bethnal Green Ventures. He has deep early-stage operational expertise and a wealth of knowledge in sustainability. He is a passionate environmentalist and was ‘that guy’ cycling round London to fill up his home care stuff from zero waste stores before founding Homethings.

We both come from the same place and have the same goal and mission – to make the world a better place - so we respect and play to each other’s strengths.

What plans do you have for Homethings over the next two years?

We have some big growth plans for Homethings over the next two years and some pretty punchy financial targets to go with it. In the immediate future, we know that we need to grow both our brand and our ‘concept’ awareness because our products are so innovative and new for shoppers. So working to get even more eyes on our brand and products is going to be key. That means increasing our distribution and investment in marketing - where we can continue to educate consumers about how bonkers it is to ship a product that is 95% water in single use plastic around the world. 

And we’ll continue to innovate, as that’s in our DNA and the only way to ensure our products make a difference in the world.

What would be your top marketing tip, to grow a business that is niche?

From our experience, its key to really deeply understand what your brands stands for, your why and who you’re trying to resonate with. These are the fundamental building blocks for successful marketing so trying to get a message in front of customers without understanding this first is likely going to be an expensive mistake. Your brand is about so much more than your logo and aesthetic and going through this process of really understanding what your message is and how to communicate it is key.  

Why do you think now is the right time for the world to begin exploring and adopting technology that aids sustainability?

We all have an obligation to care for the world around us and to do our bit to protect it. Is now the right time? Realistically 25 years ago was probably the right time. But we are where we are and we know it’s not too late. There’s a lot technology out there that we can use to produce products that are better for the planet, and it’s innovative businesses like ours that are pioneering new ways of consuming that just make sense. There’s a market of around 11 million shoppers who we refer to as “everyday changemakers” in the UK - a group of people who are ready and willing to try new things and make sustainable swaps. This group represents approximately £57 billion of spend annually in the UK grocery market, so it’s no longer a niche category designed for a select few - it’s now a movement that’s becoming a norm.. So yes, now is the time to start really harnessing the technology and innovation that businesses across the board possess to help people make the changes they want to make. 

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur?

Trust your gut. As founders we get lots of different advice all the time from different people - customers, investors, industry heavyweights. Your job isn’t to act on it all. It’s to listen to it all and then trust your gut to do what’s right for the vision of the business that you want to build. Having a clear idea of that vision and being single minded in its pursuit helps!