BEYOND
THE BAKE
When Ryan Panchoo started making tasty dairy-free treats for his children at home, he couldn't have known where those treats would take him: today he's the boss of Borough 22, the award-winning treats brand with concessions in Selfridges Oxford Street Food Hall, regular appearances at major pop-ups and festivals, and coverage in the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent and Vogue.
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hat success means that Ryan spends a lot less time in the kitchen and a lot more time on the move with his constant companion, his HP Omnibook Ultra with Snapdragon X2 Elite. "Since getting the HP Omnibook Ultra with Snapdragon X2 Elite, life is so fast,"
T
Ryan says. "It just makes it really easy for me to work in the way that my
brain works."
Ryan didn't set out to start a business. He was trying to do something much more important, and more personal. "When my daughter was born we found out that she had a dairy allergy, and then four years later the same thing happened with my son," he says. When they went places with their friends, "as soon as the food was brought out they were completely isolated. And for me as a parent, just to see that, it's like: oh my goodness, I just want you to feel normal. I don't want you to feel different. And nobody was doing anything about it." So Ryan stepped up. "I was like: if no-one's going to do anything, I'll try and do something."
Chef and Author
Chris Baber
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How Snapdragon helps Borough 22 founder Ryan Panchoo
to take his business to the next level
Snapdragon branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.
Ryan Panchoo, Borough 22 founder
“If no-one's going to do anything, I'll try and do something”
Teaching himself to bake, Ryan set out to create the perfect doughnut. "It took me eight years to come up with that recipe," he says. "Eight years of pretty much doing the same process every single day... every day that you're doing it, you're chasing that perfect bake." He laughs. "I'm greedy and I've got a sweet tooth, so I don't mind."
Ryan was aware of the stigma surrounding "free from" foods, particularly gluten-free food, and didn't want his doughnuts to be anything less than delightful. He set himself three goals. "First of all, it had to be safe for my kids to eat," he says. "Secondly, it had to be visually appealing. And then the third pillar, if you like, is that it had to taste excellent."
As Borough 22's many delighted customers will attest, he succeeded on all
three counts.
Ryan Panchoo, Borough 22 founder
“If I've got sugar or glaze on my hands, I can just tap it with my knuckle”
What began in Ryan's kitchen is now a multi-award winning business, and that means Ryan's spending less time in the kitchen and lots of time on the road. Once again Ryan is self-taught, and learned the ins and outs of entrepreneurship as he built the team that helped him make Borough 22 a highly acclaimed and successful business. He's still thinking about doughnuts, but he's also thinking about the bigger picture – and that means constant communication by voice and video as well as extensive planning, scheduling and strategising.
"My laptop is my most essential piece of kit," Ryan says. "The battery life on this is excellent, and that's handy for me because I'm often: close-laptop, onto a different location or a different area running errands, and then I pop it open and I'm ready to go. It's seamless."
Ryan's laptop also has to deal with something that most laptops don't encounter when he's doing research and development. "The good thing about it is that it's touchscreen as well, so I don't have to worry about typing stuff out on the keyboard. If I just want to tap the screen, especially if I've got sugar or glaze on my hands, I can just tap it with my knuckle and drag it around."
Ryan Panchoo, Borough 22 founder
“The best thing for me is when you interact with people”
One of the challenges for Ryan is to build and strengthen his brand without losing touch with what made him start Borough 22 in the first place. His laptop powered by Snapdragon enables him to focus on the things he says he's "really, really good at": sharing the Borough 22 story, meeting retailers and wholesalers, building relationships and finding the next opportunity. But he won't be keeping his sugary hands off his laptop any time soon. "I will go back into the kitchen," Ryan says. "The goal is to get back in there a couple of times a week – I like to do at least two shifts a week for R&D. We're constantly trying to evolve and update our product."
Once again Ryan has set himself three goals, this time for his business: its mission is to create safe snacks that give people "the confidence to indulge
and share life's sweet moments with peace of mind"; to be inclusive by design so that no-one feels left out; and to deliver uncompromising taste. "Free-from should never mean missing out," Ryan says in his mission statement. "Every treat is crafted to deliver exceptional flavour, texture and indulgence from
the first bite to the last. No compromises, just pure joy that happens to
be free-from."
For Ryan, success isn't something you measure on a spreadsheet. "The best thing for me is when you interact with people and they're like, 'thank you for making this doughnut' or 'I haven't had a doughnut for like forty years," he says. "Those are the things that power the brand, that power me forward."
