“A brand should have a point of view, and an impact, and a blast radius for far more than its product. “There are a lot of people and accelerators that start businesses, but very few start brands,” says Leonard. Leonard says the agency’s interest in Unrest lay in a desire to establish who each brand is as early as possible. The agency, founded in 2017 by WPP-owned Grey London vets Lucy Jameson, Nils Leonard, and Natalie Graeme, has created award-winning work for brands big and small, from UK brewer Brewdog, to broadcaster ITV, as well as work for PepsiCo, H&M, Allbirds, and Bumble. Vinegold says Unrest is focusing on building consumer brands because of a greater ability to make a bigger impact. Vinegold says each company is aligned to at least on the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals, including Black-founded Agnes Health, an AI-powered multilingual midwife platform, on a mission to transform maternal and neonatal health. More than 90% of the cohort’s startups are made up of mixed or all-female teams. Unrest is based in Uncommon’s London offices, and the first official cohort for the 16-week program will consist of 11 early-stage companies across industries like retail, health and wellness, and food and beverages. “Our top-line mission is we need to shift the culture of business to think beyond just making money for shareholders, but take into account the community, employees, and the environment we live in.” “We’ve got to this point in the world where if we don’t do something pretty urgently, pretty quickly, and pretty boldly we’re going to see habitats destroyed that won’t return, we’ll see mental illness at a level we’ve never seen, social and environmental challenges we’re not equipped to deal with, so we need to do more about it now,” says Vinegold. The accelerator is led by Orr Vinegold, a vet of working with startups as well as big brands like L’Oreal, who says Unrest’s goal is to help contribute to a broader movement. The new accelerator has already had success with its pilot program last year, launching Béa Fertility, which was listed as one of Wired UK’s Top 25 startups of 2021. The goal of Unrest, echoing Stanley’s advice, is to build and grow companies with their brand purpose baked in from the start. Now, London-based, award-winning ad agency Uncommon Creative Studio is kicking off the first official cohort of a new accelerator for purpose-led businesses called Unrest, backed by B Corporation and European equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs.