Sahar Hashemi

Co-founder of Coffee Republic

Sahar Hashemi speaker, keynote speech, conferences
English

In 1995 Sahar Hashemi together with her brother Bobby founded Coffee Republic, and built it into one of the UK’s most recognised high street brands with a turnover of £30m.

Sahar Hashemi’ s message is Anyone Can Do It! With her passion and enthusiasm, she motivates and inspires corporate audiences and at the same time demystifies the entrepreneurial process through a step-by-step ‘system’ that anyone can follow and without use of intimidating business jargon. She proves that passion is all you need- ‘it’s your fuel!’ which turns you into an entrepreneur.

Giving up highly professional jobs, she a lawyer in London and he an investment banker in New York, they staked everything on a dream – and made Coffee Republic one of the main players in the ‘coffee revolution’ that transformed a nation of tea drinkers into one obsessed with ‘triple decaf half-caf lattes’.

How they came to build a nationwide coffee chain is a fascinating and inspirational tale of the ups and downs of following your dream. From the first conversation when the seed of the idea was planted, to getting a DTI Small Firms Loan Guarantee, finding a name and opening the first store, it is a personal story about two people who stopped ‘thinking about it’ and ‘did it’.

Sahar Hashemi left the day to day management of Coffee Republic in 2001 and has written a book, ‘Anyone Can Do It’, which has become an instant bestseller The book is ‘suggested reading’ for the London Business School entrepreneurship course.

She is a speaker ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and has spoken as keynote speaker at various high profile events including the Institute of Directors Women’s 2002 Summit, Wall Street Journal Europe Summit and Enterprise 100. Sahar Hashemi lectures at the London Business School Entrepreneurship summer school. She has been named ‘100 most influential women in Britain in 2003’ by the Daily Mail and ‘20 most powerful women in Britain under 35’ by the Independent on Sunday.

As a keynote speake Sahar Hashemi’ s energy is infectious, delegates leave the event inspired and motivated to stop ‘thinking about it’ and ‘get on with it’!