{"id":2966,"date":"2021-03-11T13:49:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T13:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/?p=2966"},"modified":"2021-03-11T13:49:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T13:49:34","slug":"business-start-up-journey-finalists-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2021\/03\/11\/business-start-up-journey-finalists-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Start-Up Journey Finalists Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\">The finalists have been chosen for this year\u2019s Business Start-Up Journey pitching finals, with start-up plans including a vegan e-commerce site, swimwear, nutrition and fitness app and a portable light ring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\">A panel including ASPIRE Project Officer, Rebecca Smith, and ASPIRE Investor in Residence, Karen Winton, selected 9 student business ideas to go through to the virtual competition which will be held on March 31 on Zoom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\">Students who will take part in the contest come from Kent Business School, Economics, Sport and Computing and were chosen from a strong field of candidates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Mercy Adeniji<\/strong> (Economics with German), <strong>Jessica Lambert<\/strong> (Sport and Exercise Science), <strong>Emmanuel Ojo-Williams and Miguel Cardona Polo<\/strong> (Computer Science), <strong>Geraldine Nyathi<\/strong> (Computer Science MsC) <strong>Shanice Edwards, Viktoria Bogos, Naavyaa Rangen, Daniella Coxall<\/strong> (KBS) will prepare 5-minute pitches to be sent to the judging panel ahead of March 31. Then on the live Zoom competition, they will present a two-minute elevator pitch and face questions from the judges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\">The judging panel is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Daniel Rubin<\/strong>, founder and CEO of the global footwear brand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dunelondon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Dune London<\/span><\/a> and University of Kent alumnus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Laura Bounds MBE<\/strong>, owner of award-winning food companies <a href=\"https:\/\/kentcrisps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Kent Crisps<\/span><\/a>, Kentish Oils, Kentish Condiments and A Little Bit Food Co.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Dean Johnson<\/strong>, Managing Director of international medi-tech company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.haag-streit.com\/haag-streit-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Haag Streit UK<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Emay Enemokwu<\/strong>, founder of the street-wear brand\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jehu-cal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Jehu-cal<\/span><\/a>, former Business Start-Up Journey finalist and Kent Business School alumnus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Nadia Simpson<\/strong>, founder of natural beauty brand\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nadiaesi.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Nadia Esi<\/span><\/a>, former Business Start-Up Journey finalist and Kent Business School final stage Accounting and finance student.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\"><strong>Kevin Bardwell<\/strong>, Relationship Manager at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.santander.co.uk\/universities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Santander Universities<\/span><\/a>, which supports the Business Start-Up Journey<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\">The winner of the pitching competition will receive \u00a31000 to help start their business, with two runners-up prizes of \u00a3500 each. While the judges decide on the winners, finalists and the audience can compete in a fun quiz with the chance to win \u00a3100 to spend at selected ASPIRE start-up businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\" style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"color: #201f1e\">Previous Business Start-Up Journey finalists have gone on to run successful businesses, including KBS alumnus Vasu Sarin, founder of medi-tech company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tab.care\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">TabCare<\/span><\/a>, Politics graduate,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: black\">Tobi Kolawole-Olutade, founder of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.revivalresurrection.co\/shop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">RR Collective<\/span><\/a>, Ruth Vanderfaille, co-founder of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/realbrides.org\/?fbclid=IwAR0jp_oPHxDPWHxRy4T9CGNMss8MSO5CbqTj1brLc0y-QOxYjM9HYHRQyXs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Real Brides<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Esther Asaolu, Jelikatu Kamara and Fatima Kamate, co-founders of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/shadybeautyco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0563c1\">Shady Beauty<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The finalists have been chosen for this year\u2019s Business Start-Up Journey pitching finals, with start-up plans including a vegan e-commerce site, swimwear, nutrition and fitness &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2021\/03\/11\/business-start-up-journey-finalists-announced\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56138,"featured_media":2969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118124],"tags":[164121,74],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2966"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2972,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2966\/revisions\/2972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}