One had start-up experience under her belt, the other had an in-depth knowledge of holistic beauty products. Together, they've created Sip, a flavoured still-water with vitamins and antioxidants

Kate Cazenove
Kate came to me with the idea for Sip three years ago—I thought it was bloody brilliant. I had some experience in start-ups and we always used to talk about entrepreneurialism and thought it would be good fun.

We've had to learn about bottling, labelling, flavouring, working out which botanical extracts and antioxidants would work and dealing with manufacturers. When you don't know the industry, you don't know what's impossible, you just go for it. We've gone from standing still to full-blown production in two years. 

We've made lots of mistakes, but I wouldn't change that. They were useful learning experiences. With hindsight, the one thing I would make sure was properly sorted was the trademark. We had an objection and our business nearly failed. If you don't have a trademark, you don't have a brand and no-one's going to invest in you.

We have clearly defined roles: Kate's the sophisticated PR guru, I'm the lary salesman. We share responsibility for creativity and manufacturing. Our roles merge because it's just the two of us. But we both have absolute knowledge about every part of the business. We trust each other implicitly.
We've hated each other, we've screamed and shouted at each other but we would never have been able to do this without each other. We are yin and yang—we are so different but it works. The thing I find irritating about Kate is her hesitation in making big decisions quickly. It is not a bad thing but she knows that it irritates me.

I admire Kate's skill in her profession. She is a well known journalist in her industry and is well respected. I admire her for moving into something completely new. It's not easy being poacher turned gamekeeper and she has done that with aplomb. She constantly gets Sip great coverage in all the magazines and we were at this year's London Fashion Week. She has done all this on her own and while holding down her weekly Daily Telegraph column. She is doggedly determined.

The thing that motivates me now is when I see our sales rising. I'm results and sales driven and I want to see Sip everywhere. We're going into Eat in January and Monoprix in Paris. I just want to see those bottles shifting and our turnover increasing big time.

Kate Shapland
The seed of the idea came up six years ago when I was working as beauty editor on the Daily Telegraph. The idea of holistic beauty was beginning to build momentum with companies learning how to make products for women in a holistic way. The idea was to make a water that had added beauty benefits. We wanted to produce something that was delicious to drink and good for you.

I was one-dimensional in my experience of business, so I took the idea to Kate. Fortunately, she said "yes". Keeping up the momentum when you're doing a day job is really hard but Kate and I are both of the mind where if something has to be done it will be done. We had no predisposed ideas. We were completely ignorant and so were not frightened about the process. We egg each other on if the other is flagging—this is an invaluable part of the relationship.

We originally funded the business ourselves—we each put in £20,000. I continued to work at the Daily Telegraph—we thought it was important I kept one foot in the door. We had just got to the point where we were in absolute despair about our finances and then we agreed a deal with investors Avonmore Developments.

I enjoy the excitement of having a fantastic brand and the fact it's our very own and it's up to us to make it work. I love having the freedom to achieve our dream. It sounds cheesy but it's true. We want to take it as far as we can go.

We have rows but rarely over steps we're going to take in the business. We both come up with the same ideas at the same time but with a different spin.

We're both pretty clueless about technology so at the beginning we often argued over who was going to cut and paste documents, but we've got to grips with that now.

I admire Kate for her tenacity, patience and tolerance. She always sees the good in people. She is very personable and that's why she's so good at sales. Her understanding of business in the early days left me gob-smacked.

The most annoying thing about Kate is her ringtone. When she does answer the phone she talks at the top of her voice and it drives me insane—I just want to hit her.