Testing Sicilian cannolo recipes is quite the side hustle for an Italian corporate lawyer, based in Shanghai, and a Holborn-based GP.
But it’s exactly the mixed career that Matteo Cicero, a Sicilian lawyer who grew up with his grandmother’s baking, and London doctor Jonathan Hazon are juggling. Alongside their professional day jobs, the duo are behind an Italian bakery chain, Nonna, which has rapidly grown to 15 sites across China; they’re now targeting 15 UK sites over the next five years, starting with a first branch that opened last September in Holborn.
How did it happen? “I was living and working as a lawyer in Shanghai and I simply could not find the baked goods I was used to back home,” explains Cicero. “At the same time, I was watching coffee become enormously popular in China, a country with no (previous) coffee tradition whatsoever. That told me everything: if coffee can conquer China, then bread absolutely can too!”
The first branch of Nonna opened in Shanghai’s French Concession in 2022, with the brand scaling to 15 sites across China in three years thanks to a franchising deal. “It allowed us to move at a speed we could never have managed with a fully owned model, but also created headaches we weren’t prepared for – like franchisees not consistently following brand standards and failing to maintain the right atmosphere in their shops. Now we think keeping direct control over operations is the better path; it’s shaping how we’re approaching the UK rollout.”
That roll-out started in September, when Nonna opened in the UK in Holborn – steps away from Hazon’s GP practice, so he pops in before and after seeing patients. “Keeping our professional careers has taken the financial pressure off starting up a new business, which means every decision is made for the long term rather than out of necessity,” Cicero says.
The UK-China time difference adds another layer of complexity. “For the first six months, there wasn’t a single day off for us – working from six in the morning until midnight. It’s only now that we’re starting to build a healthier work-life balance.”
The duo first met on holiday in Sicily – when Hazon decided Nonna should spread to the UK. “My thinking was simple,” the GP explains. “If Italian baked goods are popular in the Far East in a culture that has no historical connection to Italian food, how could they possibly not work in the UK? After twenty years as a doctor, there was also a real excitement about building something completely new. I wanted to create something that would give me the option, in the long term, to step away from medicine.”
Nonna is currently bringing in revenues of £70, 000 a month from its British outpost. The duo say their day jobs help their entrepreneurial endeavour: “As a lawyer, Matteo is trained to read risk into everything; he approaches a negotiation looking for the worst-case scenario first, which means we rarely get caught out. As a partner of two GP practices, Jonathan brings experience in HR, finance and admin management. Running a medical practice is a business in its own right.”
While many founders wait to ‘exit’ their day job before scaling a business, the duo advise would-be entrepreneurs to plunge ahead. “Stop waiting for the perfect moment because it doesn’t exist,” Cicero says. “Your career isn’t an obstacle, it’s an asset. The discipline, credibility, financial stability it gives you are things most founders would kill for. Use them. Start small, prove the concept, and build around your commitments rather than abandoning them.”
How to shift your business from startup to scaleup, by Peony Li, of bladder health firm Jude
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Peony Li, founder of Jude
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“After my appearance on Dragon’s Den, our website traffic increased 20 times, and I saw a powerful opportunity. We made a decision to invest in our team, infrastructure, technology, and product marketing. Turnover jumped from £125,000 a month at the time the show aired to £1.3 million a month now – here are my tips on how to scale a fast-growth, disruptive business:
Hire for leverage, not just capacity. It’s easy to hire because the business feels stretched, but the real unlock is bringing in people who have the skills to build systems, raise the standard, and help the company scale beyond you as founder. Use AI to help you stay lean, and use saved budget to hire more senior talents into the team.
You have to keep investing in the things that do not always pay back immediately, but become your advantage over time. At Jude, that means things like science, brand, community, and trust. These things can feel harder to prioritise when you are focused on short-term growth, but they are often the reason a business can scale properly.
Be clear on your priorities. Founder headspace is so important. Some of the most important decisions do not come from being in back-to-back meetings. They come from having enough space to reflect, think clearly, and see what is coming next.
Be adaptable with your operating model. A lot of founders underestimate how often the operating model has to change as you scale. There are famous thresholds – 7, 17, 70 people – where what worked before starts to break. We are seeing that ourselves at Jude, having reached the 17 to 20 person mark. The structure, communication, and decision-making that worked in earlier phases no longer work in the same way. We’re having to change the whole structure of our team, hiring senior leaders to shift founder-led everything to functional ownership.The key is knowing that those breaking points are coming. If you anticipate them, you can redesign the systems, rhythms, and people structure ahead of time, instead of waiting until the business feels chaotic.”