'Don't be afraid to pitch your business to anyone'

It’s a challenge faced by every new start-up: how to secure the funding needed to get the business up and running. The solution, discovers Lucy Tobin, is to get your brand out into the market and find your very own guardian angel

- Lucy Tobin

AS one half of hip-hop duo Krept & Konan, rap star Krept is best known for tracks like Don’t Waste My Time — and it’s a mantra the entrepreneur has taken into his business life. Along side selling out the O2 Arena, Krept’s start-ups include Croydon restaurant Crepes & Cones, and a skincare range for infants, Nala’s Baby.

Krept says he learnt to hustle growing up on a council estate in Gipsy Hill, where he sold supermarket drinks, sweets and crisps in the playground to make money. Now he and Sasha Ellese Gilbert, co-founder of Nala’s Baby, are tackling one of the toughest issues for founders right now finding funding - at SME XPO, the Evening Standard's two-day event for ambitious business founders and decision-makers in April.