Meet the Investors: Paul Bolwell & Steve Mills
Kicking off our investor spotlight series at Vape Guardian, we’re proud to introduce two absolute powerhouses in the world of e-commerce: Paul Bolwell and Steve Mills, co-founders of Green Snow.
Before Green Snow, both Paul and Steve played instrumental roles in building wiggle.com — helping scale it from a niche online retailer into a global force, right through to a successful exit. For those who know the e-commerce space, that journey speaks volumes.
These two aren’t just investors. They’re battle-tested operators, visionaries, and strategic minds who’ve navigated the full journey of high-growth, high-impact business building. And they haven’t just done it once.
By any metric, Paul and Steve are among the best e-commerce operators in the world — and we’re incredibly lucky to have their backing, insights, and belief in our mission to tackle underage vaping and protect indoor environments.
1. What’s your background and what do you focus on outside of Vape Guardian?
Both of us have been working within the e-com channel for what seems like a lifetime now, in fact, we could probably celebrate 25 years of direct-to-consumer service this year! Our business Green Snow manages e-com sites for a number of well-known brands within the Sports and Well-being space, which we combine with running our own brands in wider channels. Our sweet spot is doing the bits that brands don’t typically want to focus on, from building Shopify stores, managing all the stock, fulfilling orders around the globe and taking care of the customers to the very highest of standards.
It is through these connections we got chatting with the Vape Guardian team about how we could help, and a few months later we invested ourselves.
2. What made you decide to invest in Vape Guardian?
As parents it’s clear to see there is a growing problem amongst young people with Vaping, coupled with that, many of these low-cost Vapes contain harmful and illegal ingredients such as THC, which is a real worry for the next gen.
We believe that the solution needs to come from far greater awareness and deterring Vape usage, particularly around schools and shared spaces, rather than waiting for regulations to change, as that won’t happen anytime soon, despite the huge problems Vaping brings.
Our investment in Vape Guardian was centred around their unique products & solutions they have developed, the sales opportunities and the amazing feedback the products has received from early adopters of the brand.
3. Where do you see Vape Guardian going in the next few years, and why are you excited about it?
There is a lot to be done, that is for sure, but to continue the rapid growth in its key sectors is the plan, at the same time, pushing into new industries and expanding globally is super exciting, though we might need to wait a little longer till pushing into the US 😉
4. What advice would you give to other investors looking at early-stage startups like Vape Guardian?
Like all investments in new brands / channels, it’s not without its challenges and that is what makes an investment in Vape Guardian exciting, you’re involved with something that is disruptive, that’s not been done before and is carving out a new norm and with that comes rewarding returns in the long run. This is a British start-up, created by a smart individual with a real product that works and in our opinion, opportunities like this are worth considering and supporting.
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