2020's Winning Ideas

1.     Amdalat Jinadu - My business idea is an ergonomic feeding bottled with the capacity to repair and prevent damaged latching. The motivation for the idea was my personal experience as a parent, realising that this product would facilitate easier combined feeding for disabled/ill or working mothers and would allow fathers to be more involved.     

 

2.     Andrew Martin - I am launching a Half Marathon in Chelmsford, Essex. The event should raise significant money for charity and has many societal benefits. My motivation for launching the business was spotting an innovative opportunity to launch a business that is not only sustainable but also community focused.

 

3.     Andrew Wood - The Vintage Warehouse Company is the UK's first personalised fashion subscription box specialising in branded vintage clothing. The motivation for starting the company was to provide better value for vintage clothes shoppers whilst fuelling the circular fashion economy. Hand in hand with the subscription model, we will be launching a vintage wholesale operation in the coming months - and the OU's / Santander grant will help support us in researching our market, refining our proposition and building our supply chain before launching.

 

4.     Bethany Waters - R&JRenovations would be a family business that would look to renovate furniture for people and have a focus on upcycling. I've always had an interest in upcycling and being creative, I was interested in taking my father's existing carpentry business and potentially working with him to provide new upcycling and renovation services. 

 

5.     Craig Smith - I have worked with homeless people for over 20 years and wanted to find a way of streamlining access to vital information and services when they need them most. My app, Street Smarts will allow those who find themselves vulnerable to obtain immediate advice and support, hopefully making the whole process easier and shorter.

 

6.     Fatimah Bah -  My business is about offering outstanding Cleaning Services, while using high quality, non toxic products for the Safety of cleaners, clients and the environment.  I am motivated to start this business because I love cleaning and a clean environment, I think it's healthy and hygienic. So helping people to have a clean and organized environment, means for me giving them more quality time to spend with their loved ones.

 

7.     Floris Schirmer - The idea for Bristlebox was conceived on a shopping trip to Boots, where I noticed that although other personal care categories had a huge variety of well-designed & eco-friendly products, the dental care aisle was dominated (and has been for decades) by three brands with virtually no creativity & innovation. I felt inspired to create a dental care brand that combined beautiful design with eco-friendliness & the convenience of direct-to-consumer delivery.

 

8.     Gregory Burrows-Delbarry - "Our business provides accurate transport data to Transport Planners and local authorities to help their decision making for urban infrastructure. I started the business because I saw a great opportunity that no one else was doing and which would really benefit my customers."

 

9.     Hannah Ellis - As someone who's always wanted to start a business, whilst also having a great interest in the design process, the competition proved just the motivation I needed to take the next step. My goal is for 'Say It With Vinyl' to provide niche gifting solutions to the music sector and offer consumers a personable option in place of more traditional goods. 

 

10.  Jacob Robinson - Our business is a service that delivers a portable, party photo booth that’s super easy to operate and is designed to capture your moments of fun at all kinds of event, in beautiful quality! We started this business from a love of design (our product) and a love of sharing our happiest and most enjoyable moments.

 

11.  James Markey - I started Universal Simulation wanting to really revolutionise university education by making haptic and VR simulations available to university students across the world. Many universities want to incorporate haptic and VR technology but can't afford the current high investment that these simulators require and that's where I saw an opportunity for an affordable universal desktop simulator which we could distribute and develop high quality simulations on.

 

12.  Jane Sturrock - I started a pet gift hamper business called Gifts Unleashed at the end of 2019, because pets are such a huge part of people's lives. I believe in providing high quality gifts that reflect how important pets are to their owners as members of their family, and for their overall wellbeing.

 

13.  Judy Phillips – Draigarian’s aim is to develop a small product to enable the average home to use wind and rain along with solar to create a modular, sustainable energy source for use in the home ort as part of the social energy grid. There is currently nothing available on the market, in such a combination, which is simple, affordable or effective.  The plan is to market this alongside a 'free' advice website and resources bank whilst developing and selling the solution along with further sustainable energy consultancy reports, project management of solutions and eventually maintenance plans for the installations.

 

14.  Leonie Gittins - We aim to provide a professional, down to earth Consultation and Education service adaptive to our clients’ needs, taking science and relaying it in a easy to understand format to encourage people to implement Agricology/Permaculture management practices. Whether they be a hobby smallholder or working farm business. We would even like to encourage the same methodology in the equine sector too. Our emphasis will be working from the ground up, first with soil health, leading on to pasture, livestock, trees and biodiversity management through 1-2-1 consultancy, providing clients an in depth report and guidance on how they can implement the practices, half and full day group courses consisting of mixed classroom and practical field work, public speaking and presentations. To compliment these services, we aim to provide information guides, videos and articles, some materials being free to encourage engagement, later, an e-commerce shop of products and DIY kits, providing the tools to empower clients to be able to make changes themselves.

 

15.  Mandy Lovell – Story Builders is a series of online and face to face workshops for adults who wish to learn the craft of writing and writing for well-being. All workshops focus on fun. There will also be a series of workshops for children of all ages with a focus on creativity and productivity, rather than academia.

 

 

16.  Narelle Gibbs - The I CAN Journal - Two of my children have disabilities and Special Educational Needs which can make communicating with them very difficult. They were my motivation for creating the I CAN Journal. The journal helps to develop a growth mindset to allow children to be the best that they can be, and it is a safe space to write down thoughts and feelings and to reflect on the day. 

 

17.  Rosemary Boddie - Be Some Boddie CIC was set up to develop and deliver products and services to the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) community groups.  We provide tools for mindset development to achieve excellence in four life areas of Mental & Emotional Stability, Health & Wellbeing, Educational Attainment and Social Cohesion; using the ‘Mindset First' training model as the basis for achieving excellent outcomes in these life areas. My motivation for setting up this business was driven by my own experiences of growing up in the UK being part of the BME community and seeing that the same challenges that I faced growing up had not changed, in particular the with regards to unemployment, lower educational outcomes etc, still being prevalent in the BME community after all this time. The Governments Disparity Audit, 2017 highlights the challenges that Be Some Boddie CIC has been created to change. We want to work with local schools and education provisions by providing learning workshops and education programmes that engage and inspire their student. These learning workshops and education programmes will be particularly beneficial for those young people who may be displaying challenging behaviours or at risk of underachieving.

 

18.  Tanja Brueckmann-Rath - Mudpuddle Adventures is an outdoor based educational, interactive and fun activity pack for the whole family. It provides information about different topics relating to science and nature, is linked to the national curriculum and designed with the environment and sustainability in mind. Motivation: Raising our own children in an increasingly fast paced technology led world, we want to give them the right tools to access and appreciate the natural world.'

 

19.  Tomas Mock - Athletissimo is a global endurance running tournament where runners can compete against each other fairly and objectively, win valuable prizes and raise money for numerous charities. I have been running for couple of years and realised that fair competition gets the best out of me and helps me to stay focused and motivated throughout the year.

 

20.  Yana Parikos - YourStudio.Yoga is 100% sweatshop free, eco-friendly company that will put a yoga mat in every hotel room and provide video-based fitness training, meditations, yoga classes for guest access in a privacy of the room.  


Last modified: Monday, 11 May 2020, 1:35 PM