> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theopportunitydesk.blog/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Simon Squibb: If I Had 90 Days To Start A Business, This Is My Plan - URL: https://www.theopportunitydesk.blog/simon-squibb-if-i-had-90-days-to-start-a-business-this-is-my-plan/ - Published: 2026-10-01T01:56:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T01:56:58.000Z - Author: The Opportunity Desk - Tags: category: food-business, channel: simon-squibb Source: "If I Had 90 Days To Start A Business, This Is My Plan." Simon Squibb, published September 2026\. [Watch on YouTube →](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSqkYfcUZo8&ref=theopportunitydesk.blog) --- **THE OPPORTUNITY** Simon Squibb describes how he started a coffee business called Dream Brew with zero upfront investment over 90 days. He walks through an eight-step process: defining your purpose, naming the business, securing social media handles, getting product samples, finding a partner or co-founder, attracting an investor, testing market demand, and launching publicly. --- **HOW IT'S EXECUTED** 1. Identify a personal pain point that becomes your business purpose. Squibb uses his frustration with the education system as the foundation for Dream Brew, which funds people's dreams. 2. Name your business and claim all matching social media handles across platforms, using trademark filings if necessary to reclaim handles already taken. 3. Obtain a single product sample through any means available: buy retail and modify it, use AI mockups, or negotiate with suppliers for one unit rather than ordering thousands. 4. Find a co-founder or partner whose skills complement yours and who shares your purpose, offering equity rather than trying to own 100% of something that may fail. 5. Approach investors by asking for advice rather than money, positioning yourself as not needing capital while keeping personal and business expenses minimal to extend runway. 6. Test market demand by showing your sample to 10 potential customers or creating a landing page with an email signup to validate interest before scaling production. 7. Launch by telling everyone you encounter about the business, speaking as if it already exists rather than as a future plan. 8. Maintain commitment by continuing to promote and work on the business rather than stopping when obstacles appear. --- **WHAT'S CREDIBLE** Squibb's emphasis on starting with one sample rather than ordering inventory at scale is sound advice that reduces initial risk. His point about finding a co-founder with complementary skills rather than identical ones reflects standard startup wisdom. The landing page validation test he describes - collecting emails before building the full product - is a legitimate lean startup technique that costs almost nothing to execute. His claim about building Helpbank into a £55 million business in two years establishes that he has operated at scale before, though he provides no documentation of that figure. --- **WHAT'S OMITTED OR OVERSTATED** He says he invested zero dollars in Dream Brew but never clarifies whether that means he used existing resources, borrowed capital, or simply hasn't paid himself yet. The Gymshark comparison is misleading. Ben Francis did work at Pizza Hut early on, but Gymshark's actual growth came after he and his co-founders had already built a significant online following and secured outside investment. The one-shirt-at-a-time bootstrap story flattens a more complex path. Squibb tells you to "get an investor" but never explains how he actually found his own investor for Dream Brew or what he offered in return. The advice to "ask for advice and you'll get money" is a networking platitude, not a replicable process. He mentions using his wife as a partner because their skills don't overlap, but that assumes you have a spouse willing to work unpaid in your startup. Most people don't. He says commitment is why businesses succeed and giving up is why they fail, but he lost a million dollars on a comic book business he admits wasn't aligned with his purpose. That suggests the problem wasn't just stopping - it was starting something misaligned in the first place. He never addresses how someone without his existing audience, credibility, or network would get their first 10 test customers or their first investor meeting. He runs a YouTube channel with 2.45 million subscribers built over five years. That's not a neutral starting position. The Helpbank claim - £55 million in two years - has no supporting detail. Is that revenue, valuation, or transaction volume? He doesn't say. Without that distinction, the number is unusable as a benchmark. --- **BOTTOM LINE** This is a motivational framework, not a step-by-step business plan. The advice on testing demand cheaply and finding a co-founder with opposite skills is actionable. The rest assumes you already have access to investors, can afford to work unpaid while building, and can attract a partner willing to do the same. If you have those things, the structure here is a reasonable starting checklist. If you don't, the gaps between "find an investor" and actually having one are where most attempts will stall. --- **OPPORTUNITY DESK RATING** **Feasibility: 2/5** — Squibb says he started Dream Brew with zero investment, but he never clarifies whether that means he used savings, borrowed resources, worked unpaid, or simply hasn't counted his own time and labor as capital. The model skips the truly hard steps - how to get your first investor meeting without an existing network, how to work unpaid while covering living expenses, and how to attract a co-founder when you have no funding to offer - and treats them as solved problems. **Transparency: 2/5** — He claims Helpbank became a £55 million business in two years but never specifies whether that figure represents revenue, valuation, transaction volume, or another metric. Core figures like the Helpbank claim lack the qualifiers needed to assess them, and the zero-investment framing for Dream Brew is vague enough to be technically true while omitting material context about what resources he actually used. ---