Some business ideas begin in boardrooms.

Here We Flo began with two friends talking in a bathroom at the London School of Economics.

Tara Chandra was struggling to find organic cotton tampons in the UK, while Susan Allen wanted to build a business with purpose.

That conversation became a company founded in 2017 around a deceptively simple proposition: period care could be better designed, more sustainable and far less embarrassed about what it was for.

The resulting brand is loud where the category was traditionally discreet.

Its packaging has included tampons presented in ice-cream-style tubs, and its tone is deliberately funny, feminist and frank.

That irreverence, however, sits on top of a serious commercial story.

Recent reporting puts annual sales at £10.6 million, with the company employing 32 women and selling through major retailers in both Britain and the United States.

The products now extend beyond periods into sensitive bladder care and sexual wellness.

The interesting part is that Here We Flo has managed to make purpose part of the operating model rather than an advertising afterthought.

The company pledges 5% of profits to organisations supporting people and the planet and makes regular product donations to communities in need.

Its own impact reporting says more than 214,000 pads have been donated so far.

The business is also female-owned and led, and has used its voice to challenge the awkwardness and stigma that still surround menstruation and other intimate health issues.

That includes a partnership with Chelsea FC Women aimed at making conversations about periods in sport more normal.

None of this means every sustainability claim in the wider personal-care market should be accepted uncritically.

What makes Here We Flo interesting is the attempt to combine product design, humour, commercial growth and measurable giving in one brand.

It also feels particularly London in its willingness to be polished without being polite.

The company is selling practical products, but the larger proposition is confidence.

For London Favourites, that makes this more than a founder-success story.

It is an example of what conscious business can look like when the mission is woven into the product, the tone and the way the company spends its money.

Not bad for an idea that started between lectures on a trip to the loo.