Students will receive help and guidance from leading business experts at firms across Kent on how to turn business start-up ideas into fully-fledged companies as part of a 12-week competition.
The Business Start-Up Journey is run by Kent Business School (KBS) for students at the business school, the School of Computing and the School of Economics. It requires students to pitch, develop and hone their business ideas and seek funding to get them off the ground to potentially generate jobs and boost the local economy.
To help with this journey KBS has drafted in leading local business personnel to oversee their progress. Among those taking part are:
- Laura Bounds, Managing Director at award-winning Kent Crisps and Kent Condiments
- Stefano Cuomo, Managing Director of Macknades Fine Foods in Faversham
- Ben Fitter, Studio Director at Canterbury-based Dodgems and Floss
- Daniel Rubin, KBS alumnus and founder and executive chairman of the international footwear brand, Dune London
- Adam Baker, University Relationship Branch Manager, Santander.
Students entering the programme were given words of encouragement by renowned investor and entrepreneur Tom Ilube, CEO of his own cyber security firm Crossword, at the launch of the competition on Wednesday 22 November (pictured above).
Previous entrants to the Business Start-Up Journey have gone on to launch businesses from ideas generated in the competition. Current student Jaye Graham is in the process of launching an app for her service called Pawfect Match, dubbed a ‘Tinder for pets’, that helps make it easier to search for potential pets from local homing centres in the Kent area.
Her business has received, to date, some £5,000 in funding and the app for the service will be released for iPhones shortly.