How this entrepreneur turned an obsession with beans into a successful startup

Jennifer Sieg speaks to Amelia Christy Miller, founder of premium bean business Bold Bean, to find out how she turned her obsession with beans into a successful UK start-up.

We all have our favourite hangover cures: a croissant from our local cafe, a sausage roll (or two) from our local Greggs or maybe the first decent meal package from Deliveroo.

But entrepreneur Amelia Christy Miller might be the only one who puts her faith in a spoonful of beans.

Christy Miller, 31, founded luxury bean business Bold Bean in 2021 with a mission to reduce meat consumption by getting the world hooked on the “best” beans.

Since securing a £50,000 investment on Dragons' Den earlier this year and winning a £150,000 grant as the first place winner in the Stelios Charitable Foundation's inaugural Young Entrepreneur Awards a month later, she appears to have made a name for herself and her beans.

In 2023, the brand achieved both operating profit and B Corporation certification (a certification given to purpose-driven businesses that meet high standards for social and environmental performance), achieving 100 percent growth over the previous year.

So what's so special about this bean, and where did the idea to start a business around it come from in the first place?

The “eureka” moment

The idea for Bold Bean Co dates back to a “fateful” hungover morning in Madrid, when the young entrepreneur found nothing in his fridge except a jar of traditional butter beans.

“I tasted these amazing traditional butter beans in a jar and they were totally different to anything else I'd ever had. From that moment on, I looked at beans differently,” she says.

“I realised that what I needed to emulate in the UK was finding really good beans and letting people know that beans are really good and cool, and that that experience is what I needed to bring to people.”

Entrepreneurial spirit seems to have been stimulated all around, and Bald Bean's beans are now sourced directly from Spain, where the idea originated, as well as other countries such as Mexico, Poland and Canada.

Last year, Christy Miller released a best-selling cookbook, “Bold Beans: Recipes to Get Your Pulse Racing,” which complemented her own recipes and helped her establish the brand.

The secret to Bold Bean Co's success

Social media buzz can't come at you with reality unless the buzz is legitimate, and this is where Christy Miller's inner foodie instincts come into play.

“We are very careful with our sourcing, specifically selecting thin-skinned varieties, selecting for size and flavor, and inspecting each harvest,” says Christy Miller with a smile.

“Also, we cook the beans very quickly from the day of harvest, which is a very small thing, but beans last a long time, so in other situations you might choose dried beans that have been sitting out for a few years, and that has a big impact on the texture, the cooking, everything.”