Member Spotlight: Kat Molyneux, Founder & Head of Community – Cress

1. Introduce yourself

I’m Kat, I’m one of the founders and Head of Community at Cress. Cress is a new marketplace for sustainable children’s products. Created by parents, we wanted to create a hassle free platform for selling gently used items. We have a ‘done for you’ approach where parents send us a bag of their children’s items, and we do all the heavy lifting. No trips to the post office, or negotiating! It really is perfect for busy parents. We also retail new children’s products from small businesses if they are sustainable. We want to shine a light on the incredible people making great products for children.

My role at Cress is all about growing our community. I develop relationships, whether with customers, schools or sustainable retailers to help spread the word of our mission. Community is at the heart of everything we do at Cress, and we are incredibly passionate about giving back to local communities. We work with PTA’s to raise money for schools, including retailing preloved uniform commission free, we work with local charities to donate items and also work with other companies to help distribute items to children and families. This includes giving a free book with every order on our website. We’re passionate about all children having access to things we believe are essential, and removing as many barriers for parents as possible to attain these things.

We also partner with Play it Green to offset delivery carbon by planting trees at checkout.

2. Career highlight

A career highlight for me, aside from starting a business I’m passionate about, is winning the This is Manchester Award for Force for Fashion 2023. We were less than a year old and up against some amazing brands and much bigger names. It was a complete shock that we won and a really proud moment for me.

3. Name three words that describe your personality

Caring, Dedicated, Passionate.

4. What’s the best thing about pro-manchester

In the short time I’ve been a member, I’ve absolutely loved the community of Pro-Manchester, and meeting some incredible people. I was lucky enough to be recommended pro-manchester by a friend and I’m really excited to attend more events, and connect with more like-minded people. I always have a bit of imposter syndrome at networking events, and I’m definitely not a natural extrovert – so Pro-Manchester have been incredibly valuable in making these connections.

5. What are your priorities for 2024

My priorities for 2024 are definitely to grow our business. We are pre-seed funded by an Angel Investor and now doing our second round of investment to develop tech, and invest in marketing. We are keen to get this over the line and streamline our processes, and grow our community of parents.  At the moment it’s all about spreading our message, and letting parents know we exist.

6. What do you think are the most important things going on in Manchester at the moment?

Manchester is an incredibly creative city, and in the last couple of years in particular so many businesses have been drawn to the city, across all industries. It really is booming and feels like even bigger things are coming. One of the great things about Manchester is it can attract the best businesses and people, but it will never lose what it is to be Manc. So many businesses are currently starting out in Manchester and it feels a great place to be in that aspect.

7. Favourite meeting place in Manchester

This is so hard! There’s so many amazing places to meet in Manchester. I love the Refuge for its interiors. It’s such a beautiful building. Although i also feel that Manchester has such a cool scene, and i love having meetings in Yard & Coop. You can’t beat a chilled vibe plus everyone loves fried chicken!

8. Are their any particular types of businesses that you would like to meet

As we work with small sustainable businesses creating children’s products, schools, sports clubs etc i’m really keen to meet as many people in that industry as we can. Also any parents who want to hear more about what we do, or want to use our service (for themselves or their child’s school or club)

We’re currently investing some time in events and pop ups to tell people about Cress, so anyone that could help with this, or wants to create something great within their own team id love to hear from.

Also, as we are going for investment anyone that feels our vision aligns perfectly with theirs and wants to hear more about our business please get in touch!