Young entrepreneurs from Teesside have been celebrating their success as recent graduates of Teesside University’s Launchpad Fuel programme. The free scheme, now in its seventh year, is part of Launchpad, the university’s hub for entrepreneurs, and it is open to current students, graduates and staff at Teesside University.
Teesside University is aiming to be the most entrepreneurial university for business start-ups in the creative industries, with leadership from its School of Arts & Creative Industries.
The seven-week summer programme gives talented entrepreneurs the knowledge, support and mentorship opportunities they need in order to turn their bright idea into a viable business.
At the end of the seven weeks, participants have the chance to pitch for a share of £30k in funding; no small amount for young people who often come into the programme with little more than a good idea, their own talent and a lot of dedication.
Zara King is one of six successful pitchers this year, all from the Tees Valley. A recent graduate in product design, she came up with an ingenious reusable bedpan, the EasyMode, after hearing from her wife - a nurse - of the difficulties and indignities she has observed with her patients.
“I want to tackle those subjects that people find it uncomfortable to talk about,” she says. “Disposable pulp bedpan liners make a lot of people's lives hell, so I developed a new kind of bedpan that people can roll on and roll off without it spilling, and it's really comfortable when you're sat in it.
“I'm going to use a lot of the funding to fund a working prototype, and hopefully - with the help of Teesside Uni - we'll get it made.”
Louis Mac Robert is a fellow product design student, currently in third year at Teesside. He is also the director of Pixlcade, a nonprofit that turns old computer equipment into retro arcade machines, bringing people together through a love of gaming while raising money for a charity that distributes devices to people in digital need.
He started the project as part of a careers module at university, and was encouraged to apply for Fuel by his tutors, who could see the potential of Pixelcade. “Our business grew through the Fuel programme,” he says.
“The amount of people and associates we could speak to, the game developers, the people that could put us in contact with potential buyers... There are so many people we met through the programme. It's brilliant, and it's really helped us launch.”
That view is echoed by Abigail Dennison, editor-in-chief of the biannual print magazine Sunday Girl, which she initially launched as a “passion project” in 2016, alongside her day job as a lecturer in fashion and journalism at Teesside.
“We learnt so much - how to network, how to set up our business from scratch. It was just so brilliant and such a great opportunity,” she says. “And then the opportunity at the end to pitch for funding is just like no other.
“For those of us who got the funding, our businesses have taken off so much since the course ended.”
Abigail says that as a “creative driven” person, she was a complete newcomer to the ways of running a business. The same is true for all of the entrepreneurs we spoke to, and in the case of Jack Holmes of Northern Made - a creative studio specialising in creating videography, photography and podcasts for small- and medium-sized businesses - his own business idea actually took shape during the course itself.
“I went through so many changes in terms of my business proposition, the business name,” he says. “There are so many factors as to how Fuel has helped me out, but one of the biggest ones is the confidence I think it gave me.
“When I started, I felt like a fish out of water - everyone had these business ideas that they were talking about and I was like, 'I don't even know what it is I want to do'. But going through the seven weeks, I quickly felt that I do.
“The friends I've made and the connections I've made have led to work elsewhere, which is incredible.”
The whole experience, says Jack, was “life-changing” - and as Zara King points out, there’s nothing to lose by giving it a go.
“You meet some amazing people and you get some really good advice, and it could change your life,” she says.
“I'm not the most confident person and it was daunting to put myself out there, but just go for it because you literally never know what's going to happen.”
For more information and to register your interest in the 2024 edition of Launchpad Fuel, visit the Launchpad website.
