About Us
A founder-led studio built around real-world experience.
Why we exist
Building a physical brand is different from building almost anything else.
Restaurants carry operational complexity that most advisors have never navigated personally. Consumer brands face margin pressure, distribution challenges, and capital constraints that generic business advice rarely addresses. The decisions that shape whether a business makes it to year three are not the ones that get covered in a business school case study.
Silverwood Rose exists because we have been in those rooms.
We have made those decisions. We have raised capital, managed teams, built brands from scratch, navigated the hard chapters, and come out the other side with a clear view of what actually makes a business strong.
That experience is the foundation.
Everything we do is built on it.
Our Team
Rachel Hugh | Founder
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Rachel Hugh has spent over two decades at the intersection of brand, creative, and business building.
She began her career in luxury fashion, working as a buyer at Harrods and Bottega Veneta before moving into one of the earliest luxury fashion rental businesses in the UK, joining at an early stage to lead buying operations before the category had any meaningful precedent.
Rachel then co-founded The Vurger Co, a plant-based restaurant and CPG brand, serving as CEO and running the full breadth of the business's creative and marketing output from day one. Everything creative was built in-house to a standard the brand became known for across the industry. At its peak, The Vurger Co was widely regarded as having one of the strongest brand identities in the UK plant-based food space. Coverage in Forbes, The Telegraph, Sky News, and Marie Claire. 10 million organic views. A HarperCollins cookbook that reached number one in food and cooking on Amazon. Over 500 press features and 50 industry awards.
Educated in France and the UK and fluent in multiple languages, Rachel brings an international view to how brands grow, how markets respond, and how companies communicate their value. Her work often centres on sharpening strategic narrative, aligning teams around clear direction, and ensuring that brand and business strategy work together rather than pulling in different directions.
Rachel combines strategic insight with a practical, collaborative style. She helps leadership teams see the bigger picture, make confident decisions, and move forward with clarity.
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★ Top ‘35 Women under 35 in Food tech’ Management Today
★ Top 10 Women in Food Tech - Forward Fooding
★ Top International Women Entrepreneurs of the Year 2024 - Great Companies
★ Business Connect: 40 under 40 Business Visionaries - The Business Connect
★ Top 101 most impressive successful founders in the Food and Beverage Industry
★ Food and Drink restaurant entrepreneur of the year Award
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Rachel has spoken at top events, including the Global Economist Open Future Festival main stage speaker, E-Nation - Entrepreneur summit, The Restaurant Conference, Vegan Women Summit, Vegpreneur and Forward Fooding Women in Food Tech Panel.
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Rachel has appeared on a business Sky News feature with Ian King as well as a panellist on the BBC Radio show ‘’The Bottom Line’’ with Evan Davis.
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Rachel also saw her work awarded prominently in the UK Startups 100 list for three consecutive years, along with winning awards like the Marie Claire award for Best Sustainable Fast Food Brand in 2022, Forward Fooding - Top ranking Sustainable business award - 2020, 2021 & 2022.
Rachel works to support clients across a wide spectrum of business challenges, and helps them strip away anything that is getting in the way of execution. She brings years of experience, and a full basket of skills and is relentless in making businesses the very best they can be.
Neil Potts | Founder
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Neil works with CEOs and leadership teams on strategic direction, financial clarity, and organisational performance. His background spans corporate leadership, financial and operational management, and building several companies across different industries.
Having lived and worked in the UK, the Middle East, and the United States, Neil brings a global perspective to how businesses scale, adapt, and make decisions under pressure. His experience ranges from guiding companies through periods of rapid growth to helping them navigate financial challenges, restructuring, and major strategic decisions.
Neil’s approach is direct and analytical. He focuses on cutting through complexity, improving decision-making, and shaping operating structures that allow the business to move faster. Leaders work with him when they need clear thinking, honest advice, and someone who understands both the numbers and the realities of running a company.
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★ Top 101 most impressive successful founders in the Food and Beverage Industry
★ Food and Drink restaurant entrepreneur of the year Award 2021
★ Virgin Start Up mentor since March 2020
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Neil has spoken at top events, including the Virgin Start up meet up on how to start and scale a food and drink brand. He has spoken at tech events regarding how to build the right tech stack for your hospitality success and also Well To Do start up business event panellist.
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Neil has appeared on a business Sky News feature with Ian King and featured on several podcasts over the years.
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Neil also saw his work awarded prominently in the UK Startups 100 list for three consecutive years, along with winning awards like the Marie Claire award for Best Sustainable Fast Food Brand in 2022, Forward Fooding - Top ranking Sustainable business award - 2020, 2021 & 2022.
Who we work with
We partner with founders and leadership teams:
Our Studio works best for founder-led brands that want their creative and marketing output to reflect the quality of what they have actually built.
Advisory works best for established businesses with real revenue approaching a decision that will shape the next chapter. A capital raise. A significant expansion. A structural change. The groundwork for an eventual exit.
We work across sectors. If you are not sure whether there is a fit, reach out and we will tell you honestly.
How we work
Operator-led. Direct. Strategic.
We bring lived experience into every engagement, working alongside founders to pressure-test decisions and create clarity around next steps.
We work with a focused number of clients at any one time. It means every client deals directly with us, not a junior team or an account manager. The people you speak to at the start of an engagement are the people doing the work throughout it.
We are based in Los Angeles.