Maria Harding

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Bio

Maria Harding is an export growth specialist who helps drinks brands expand into international markets without burning cash or energy. Through her consultancy, Four31 Digital, she combines two areas that are often split - export marketing and export operations - so founders can build a joined-up approach from market selection through to delivery, distribution and repeatable growth.

Maria has worked in the drinks industry since the 1990s and cut her teeth in export operations and marketing early in her career. She later completed an MBA and held senior leadership roles in SMEs, before returning to the drinks sector and founding Four31 Digital in 2017. She particularly enjoys working with startups and scale-ups, and has expanded her work into coaching, mentoring and pitch mentoring - helping founders sharpen their story and commercial plan for angels, crowdfunding and other growth funding routes.

Maria is known for bringing founders back to fundamentals - especially clarity on the end customer, the right channels for that customer (not just the latest platform trend), and the operational reality of fulfilling growth plans. She also brings a strong change-management lens, helping founders build capability inside their team rather than creating dependency on an external consultant.

Focus of 1-2-1 Session

Maria is best suited to drinks founders who have product in market and some UK traction - typically with initial distribution (on-trade and/or off-trade) and a functioning DTC presence - and are now thinking proactively about export. She’s less focused on pure idea-stage concepts, and works best when there is already something real to build from.

A 1:1 with Maria is a practical working session and typically focuses on:

  • Export readiness + foundations - what you need in place operationally and commercially before you push into international markets (and what to fix first if the UK basics are still wobbly).
  • Target customer clarity - who you are really selling to in each market, and how that changes your message, channels and route to market.
  • Market and channel strategy - choosing the right first/next market and the most realistic route (distributors, direct, partnerships), rather than reacting to inbound orders without a plan.
  • Commercial realism and resourcing - pressure-testing whether the plan is doable with current time, team and budget, and what needs to change to avoid founder overload.
  • Pitch and story refinement - strengthening the “why it matters” and “why switch” logic in your narrative, so customers and investors can quickly understand what’s different and why it will win.

It would be helpful if you can provide a few lines (in an email) in advance of a session with Maria, outlining the business issue you would like to discuss in your 1:1.

Maria works flexibly depending on what the business needs - from a one-off clarity session, to a short sprint, to a more structured engagement (often around a 12-week process) designed to build in-house capability and leave the business stronger, not dependent.