Cassandra Stavrou MBE

From startup idea to £100m in sales

Cassandra Stavrou MBE is the founder of PROPER Snacks, the company behind PROPERCORN and PROPERCHIPS. Over more than a decade, she spearheaded the healthy snacking boom and built the business from an ambitious startup into Europe’s largest independent healthy snacking brand, reaching more than £100 million in sales.

Her entrepreneurial story offers a first-hand look at what happens when a challenger enters an established industry with the determination to do things differently. Rather than following the conventions of the snack category, Cassandra developed a distinctive proposition and created a business capable of competing with established giants.

As a keynote speaker, Cassandra Stavrou brings audiences inside that journey. She shares the decisions, challenges and lessons that shaped PROPER Snacks, giving leaders and organizations an insightful perspective on entrepreneurship, business strategy, innovation and sustainable growth.

Building a brand people believe in

A successful challenger brand needs more than a strong product. Cassandra’s experience demonstrates the importance of creating an identity, culture and community that people genuinely want to be part of.

While building PROPER Snacks, Cassandra developed a loyal, almost ‘cult-like’ community around the brand. This ability to turn customers and employees into enthusiastic advocates became an important part of the company’s growth and differentiation.

Her experience also includes leading the creation of the first-ever B Corp snacks company, bringing together commercial ambition, company culture and a clear approach to how the business wanted to operate.

For organizations navigating competitive markets, Cassandra provides valuable insights into how businesses can establish a distinctive position and build the culture needed to support their ambitions. Her perspective is grounded in more than a decade spent taking an idea from its earliest stages through significant growth.

Entrepreneurial leadership and innovation

Book Cassandra Stavrou for your event to hear practical lessons from an entrepreneur who has experienced the realities of building and scaling a disruptive business.

Her keynotes explore themes including:

• Entrepreneurial leadership and the mindset required to turn an idea into a growing company
• Challenging established market norms and finding opportunities to disrupt mature categories
• Innovation as a driver of differentiation, relevance and long-term growth
• Scaling a startup while protecting the qualities that made the business distinctive
• Building a strong organizational culture and creating a loyal community around a brand
• Navigating setbacks, uncertainty and the challenges that accompany ambitious growth
• Developing business strategies that enable challenger brands to compete with established players

Rather than approaching these subjects purely from theory, Cassandra draws on her own experience of developing PROPER Snacks and competing in a category dominated by much larger businesses.

Turning disruption into growth

Cassandra Stavrou’s entrepreneurial journey provides a clear example of how fresh thinking can reshape an established market. Through PROPERCORN and PROPERCHIPS, she helped redefine expectations around healthy snacking and demonstrated how an independent company could establish itself alongside major industry players.

Her experience is particularly relevant for organizations looking to innovate while they grow. Building a startup is one challenge; scaling it into a major independent business brings a different set of questions around leadership, strategy, culture and maintaining momentum.

Cassandra explores these challenges through the lens of someone who has lived them. She addresses how entrepreneurs and leaders can remain focused on what makes their business distinctive while responding to changing demands, increasing complexity and greater competition.

The result is a keynote rooted in real entrepreneurial experience, with lessons that audiences can apply to their own organizations, whether they are developing a new venture, scaling an existing company or seeking ways to bring more challenger thinking into an established business.

Book Cassandra Stavrou for your event

Cassandra Stavrou combines entrepreneurial experience with insights into innovation, brand building, culture and transformative growth. Having taken PROPER Snacks from startup beginnings to more than £100 million in sales, she understands both the excitement and the difficult realities involved in turning an ambitious idea into a significant business.

Audiences gain an inside perspective on how a challenger brand can break into an established industry, create a loyal following and maintain the entrepreneurial energy required for continued growth. Cassandra also explores the leadership decisions and challenges behind the headline successes, making her keynotes relevant to entrepreneurs, executives and teams facing their own periods of change and expansion.

Book keynote speaker Cassandra Stavrou MBE for an engaging exploration of entrepreneurship, innovation, scaling businesses and challenging established market norms. Her story shows what it takes to build a distinctive brand, develop a powerful culture and turn entrepreneurial ambition into meaningful commercial growth.