SCALE WITH
SUBSTANCE.
MARK WRIGHT
Built a street-food stall into a nationwide restaurant brand with overseas franchises. Raised £1.2 million. Turned crisis into a cash-positive, scalable business model.
My journey in 60 seconds
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Launch 2014 - Took a single market stall and built multi-site operations in UK shopping centres.
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Raised £1.2 m in funding, opened across multiple cities, and hit seven-figure revenues.
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Reality check - Over-invested in the wrong sites, lost alignment in the management team — the growth model was a house of cards.
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Wipe-out (2020) COVID hit and exposed every weakness.
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Rebuild - Made tough decisions, restructured the business, refocused the team around a unique, high quality product, with clarity around cash-flow, and in control of our future.
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Today Rola Wala runs profitably from Leeds, as part of a deliberate shift to focus on high-performing shopping centre locations — the strategy that will define our future roll-out.
Rola Wala was always about more than food – it was about shaking up the norms and building something that serves with authenticity. That’s the approach I now bring to early-stage founders and indie brands.
I’ve lived the founder journey end to end – from branding and bootstrapping, to raising capital, building teams, surviving burnout, navigating legal messes, and adapting under pressure. I know what it takes to build something real – and how easy it is to waste time, money, and energy on the wrong things.
I bring strategic clarity, brand instinct, commercial grit, and lived experience. I’m not here to coach or coddle, and I work best with founders who give a sh*t about what they’re building — people who care about their craft, community, culture, or legacy. If you’re just chasing numbers, I’m not your guy. But if you're building with purpose, I can help you stay in control, focused on the output, and deliver real growth..
WHAT YOU GET
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Goal-based, strategic guidance across brand, product, operations, commercial modelling, marketing and more.
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Cash-flow discipline – build a business that funds itself.
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Commercial grit – P&L-first thinking, hard prioritisation.
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Brand instinct – position your brand to stand out in a crowded market, not just “look nice”.
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Lived experience – I’ve built a business, and rebuilt stronger.
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Real-time input on all aspects of your business.
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Accountability and structure to maintain momentum.
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You stay in the drivers seat: your decisions, your ideas, your equity.
WHO I WORK WITH
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Founders developing early-stage location based consumer brands particularly hospitality, wellness, lifestyle.
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Pre-revenue, through to fully funded businesses.
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Social media savvy founders, keen to develop real world execution skills.
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Operators shaping a concept but not ready for a full team.
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Concept developers needing fresh conceptual, product, or brand thinking.
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Experienced founders, looking for food and hospitality specific knowledge to support them in growing their business.