Just Paddy and I, a black lab called Jessie and an old two kilo roaster named "Old Smokey." No customers and no idea how to market the business. We didn't even have a name for the company. We were on a mission to create coffee we wanted to drink; coffee that tasted great with grappa; coffee you'd want to drink with friends: Slow roasted, hand packed and delivered from the boots of our cars.

"This coffee should be one of the top 10 items you keep in your larder. Slowly roasted by two guys called Paddy and Scott based in deepest Suffolk, trust me, its amazing." Those were the actual words penned by the Sunday Times food journalist. Light the blue touch paper: Our phones started ringing off the hook. We suddenly needed a proper home for the company so we convinced the bank to lend us some money and bought a dilapidated 18th Century flint and weatherboarded Suffolk Barn and started the refurbishment. The Bean Barn, although now increased in size is still our home today.

Waitrose and Tesco were the first supermarkets to list our coffee; our crew growing to 5 as we continued to expand. Our days were spent driving the length and breadth of the UK, attending shows, events and organising coffee tastings. Things were really starting to hot up, we decided to put our faces on the bags with the slogan "Seriously, it's good coffee" Until then no one had really taken us seriously! Let's do it team; lets take on the big guys!

"Have you ever thought of selling in to large companies? Would you consider building a cafe in our business?" Hell yeah, tell us where to go and we'll get the tools out! Our first in-store cafe was CEME, a tech campus and catalyst for economic growth within East London and the Thames Gateway. It was a great success. The head offices of BMW, HP and Google soon followed. We were on a roll and starting to become a thorn in the side of Starbucks and Costa who dominated this sector of the market....The march North was next on the map!

Instore cafes, FTSE 100 FM companies and retail parks, a new MD and head of training, the growth continued..."Guys, we're gonna need more desks!" Hotels, restaurants and bars were becoming a key target market, Michelin-starred chefs were ringing us to develop unique blends; our coffee was being exported to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Moscow. Our wings were becoming iconic and I was named as EADT Business Person on the Year.

Our first trip to the world coffee growing regions on a mission to buy our own farm. India, Brazil and Columbia were target countries. We soon learned it's a dangerous business; fraught with pitfalls, tribes and cultures. We came back empty handed but learned a lot, unscathed and full of ideas. A plan was hatched but investors were required. What if we would encourage our customers to co-own the farm with us, maybe own a tree?

Paddy & Scott's Cafes Ltd - A UK Top 250 Company, that sounded good! When you get a call from the Prime Ministers Enterprise Advisor, Lord Young and ex Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy asking you to become part of Accelerate 250, a community of the UK's top 250 companies geared for growth you kind of take a deep breath. "Oh yeah! - Lets crack open the champagne!" This year also saw us open 67 branded coffee shops for B&Q with our flagship Poole store; our largest store to date.

So we were now supporting over 100 UK branded Paddy & Scott's in-house cafes, bars and coffee shops and thought the time was right to open our own espresso bars. Designed around our company history, each cafe sported a red brick wall paying homage to the old stable block where it all started; a living room as a nod to where we sketched out our first business plan, community tables and a buzz bar . Our first little coffee shop opened in our home town of Framlingham with two more following in quick succession at Bury St Edmunds and Hadleigh in the beautiful county of Suffolk

Our first franchise model was launched and successfully managed through a contract catering partner. Coffee sales up 28%, food sales up by 33%. We got interested parties from Holland, Australia and the Middle East all looking to franchise the Paddy & Scott's brand. We experienced our first little spell of business turbulence. We realised that controlling the quality and the customer experience will be the key if we are to carry on this growth trajectory. We stopped supplying the supermarkets and went back to basics of delivering an amazing experience and concentrating on sites we own and control.

We proudly launched the Paddy & Scott's Barista Academy: "Let's ensure crafting a brilliant cup of coffee is at the heart of what we do." We also designed our own smart phone app to allow us to carry out regular 55-point quality control checks. Using photo integration and auto-scoring software, common problems such as dirty steam arms and grinder settings can be recorded and pinged back to our HQ within seconds. We won an industry award for this innovation with our Academy becoming the envy of the industry. We reached 100 branded fuelling stations!

2017 has been our most exciting year since we founded the business. Our new brand Fuelling Ambition is launched to a rapacious audience, we finally lift the curtain on our Kenyan Farm project; creating a world-first direct collaboration between a farm and consumer with over 4000 membership plots. We sign Heads of Terms for Paddy & Scott's UAE which will see our brand expand into the MENA region. We raise a glass to the next decade!