Meet the Founder and CEO

Clement (Clem) Akran is a strategist, storyteller, and systems thinker whose journey spans over two decades at the crossroads of community, creativity, and enterprise. His work began in grassroots training and empowerment—helping individuals and organisations unlock potential through skills development, capacity building, and collaborative problem-solving. From the very beginning, Clem has believed that when people thrive, communities flourish.

In 2016, Clem joined a team of UK volunteers on a month-long mission to Liberia, working with local leaders in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis. The experience left a lasting imprint.

“That experience was a turning point. It reminded me not only of the strength communities carry under pressure, but of the critical need to support them with tools that last.”

Since then, Clem has led digital transformation and strategic change across the charity and public sectors—refining business models, designing scalable programmes, and building systems that align purpose with performance. He’s known for his ability to turn complexity into clarity, challenges into opportunities, and vision into actionable roadmaps.

But Clem’s leadership isn’t defined solely by systems and strategy. At heart, he’s a creative thinker with a deep love for music, art, fashion, film, literature, culture, politics, philosophy, and storytelling. These passions shape his worldview and inspire his work—fueling his belief that creativity and commerce are not opposites, but partners in change.

That belief led to the creation of Founder Voices, a storytelling platform and podcast where Clem sits down with early-stage founders and social innovators to explore the real, raw journeys behind their ventures. It’s a space for honest dialogue about what it takes to build something meaningful—especially when you’re doing it outside the mainstream.

All of this feeds into Cottage Factory, the venture support studio Clem founded to help startups, SMEs, and charities grow with purpose. Whether co-creating a go-to-market strategy, mentoring founders, or designing efficient, scalable systems, Clem’s approach is grounded in empathy, innovation, and a commitment to meaningful impact.

Clem is always open to working with bold, values-aligned partners—people and organisations who care about building ventures that matter and doing so with creativity, care, and community at the centre.

If that sounds like you, get in touch. He’d love to connect.