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Sahar Hashemi OBE is a renowned British entrepreneur, author, and speaker. She is best known for co-founding Coffee Republic, the UK’s first US-style coffee chain, which she helped scale into a major success. As a speaker, she captivates audiences with her insights into entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. Her engaging style and vast experience have made her a sought-after keynote speaker for events and conferences worldwide, where she inspires individuals and organisations to adopt entrepreneurial mindsets.
Sahar’s journey began with her co-founding Coffee Republic in 1995 alongside her brother. What started as a small venture quickly grew into a thriving business with over 100 locations and a turnover of £30 million. This success was followed by a listing on the London Stock Exchange, cementing Coffee Republic as a key player in the UK’s coffee culture. In 2001, Sahar made the decision to step away from the business, which allowed her to explore new opportunities and share her experiences with others. Her early career set the foundation for her expertise in entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership.
In recent years, Sahar has continued to innovate and inspire through Skinny Candy, a brand she launched in 2005 offering low-fat sweets and chocolates, which she sold in 2007. She has also co-founded Buy Women Built, a campaign that promotes women-founded brands and led to the creation of the first-ever women-built aisle on Ocado. Sahar’s impact has been recognised with an OBE in 2012 for services to the UK economy and charity, and she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Her books, including ‘Anyone Can Do It’ and ‘Switched On’, have been highly praised for their practical advice on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Sahar is hired for her ability to inspire and motivate. As a speaker, she not only shares her remarkable success story but also equips audiences with the mindset and tools needed to embrace challenges and achieve their goals. With a deep understanding of scaling businesses and maintaining entrepreneurial agility, Sahar offers invaluable insights that help companies and individuals thrive in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world.
Sahar Hashemi is regularly booked to engage audiences at events, read their latest feedback below:
“Sahar is a powerful catalyst to drive entrepreneurship within big corporations. This is not an easy topic, the risk of staying at theory level is high. The reason why I am actively endorsing Sahar is because she provided me and my organization with tangible tools to start making changes immediately. Her personal story is genuine, down to earth, super inspiring and extremely interesting to follow. She talks to people’s heart in a way that awakens the entrepreneur inside. She sells a mindset and she equips you to go make it happen. Her deep experience with corporations makes her suggestions and her collection for do’s and dont’s very actionable. She does not provide theory and that’s it. She is a change agent, a catalyst of change to drive entrepreneurship with a tangible and ready to use approach.”
“This is a wonderful book, full of ideas and practical tips on how to make the big established firm more entrepreneurial and innovative. It belongs on the shelf of all managers working in big firms.”
“I still remember the impact of Sahar’s speech at the LinkedIn Talent Connect London a few years ago – her story on creating an entrepreneurial mindset in large companies resonated with our audience and I am glad those tips are now turned into a book.”
“A must read book to help managers reflect upon and leverage their state of mind. Sahar Hashemi succeeds in reconciling the brain with the heart through common sense, thereby providing a toolkit to foster, build and maintain the entrepreneurial culture which established big companies need to survive in today’s world.”
“This book is about how big companies learn more from smaller ones than vice versa; the biggest learning should be how to be big but entrepreneurial, in other words create an organisation that is driven by its own form of “intrepreneurship” … these are the companies that will win!!!”
“Sahar Hashemi has a gift for storytelling. These pages radiate the warmth and humour with which she has passionately spoken so many times about her own experiences as an entrepreneur and subsequent conversations with ‘big business’. There’s an oversupply of frameworks and tools at the disposal of the 21st century ‘intrapreneur’, but this commonsense canter through 10 habits and no less than 34 small but significant ‘shifts’ is a well-crafted wakeup call to the dormant entrepreneur in all of us. Inspiring, human, humble. Just like the author.”
The High-Performance Speakers Agency is the UK’s leading bureau for teamwork, leadership, and marginal gains speakers. We hire speakers for corporate conferences and events across the world and cater to both in-person occasions and online webinars. Our roster includes sportspeople, business leaders, adventurers and more, to ensure audiences of all industries receive tailored, impactful advice on optimised performance.
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