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Michael Flacks and the price of being unwanted
From factory-second clothing in Manchester to industrial carve-outs, Michael Flacks has built a career buying what other owners want to leave behind. The bargains come with obligations, and the next chapter reaches from steelworks to a football club.
Cate Woolsey and the art of changing her mind
Before joining Alumni Ventures in Manchester, Cate Woolsey studied computer science, played midfield for Middlebury and painted modern versions of old masters. Her next change was leaving the New York she had promised to keep.
Nxdia
Nxdia (born Nadia Ahmed) is an Egyptian-British alt-pop and pop-punk artist based in Manchester and London whose bilingual English-Arabic songwriting, queer identity, and confessional lyricism about obsession, desire, and self-discovery have made them one of the most exciting emerging voices in UK indie music. Known for hooky, pulsating tracks like 'She Likes a Boy' and 'Jennifer's Body', Nxdia's debut mixtape 'I Promise No One's Watching' surpassed 100 million Spotify streams by August 2025, and their 2026 single 'Cool' cements a more confident, genre-blurring new era.