University of Kent business student Amy Brooks has been identified as one of the UK’s top 100 young entrepreneurs.
Kent Business School undergraduate Amy co-started her own company to support students with a range of new specialist mobile-based learning tools – and then found herself selected as one of 100 young entrepreneurs to watch across the country by accounting software company Intuit.
21-year-old Amy, who is studying for a BBA in Business Administration (Marketing), was identified as having a winning business idea as part of the Intuit100up project and attended last month’s Global Enterprise Congress (GEC) in Liverpool.
Amy’s company, Spark.Ed, plans to work with academic experts to convert core text books to different formats making use of mobile phone applications.
She said: ‘As someone with dyslexia, I’ve recognised that education should not be restrictive. There are various challenges in learning with traditional text books and the future is very much in mobile applications.
‘I didn’t even realise I was an entrepreneur until I did an enterprise course here at the University so I was delighted to be chosen by Intuit as one of their top 100 young entrepreneurs. It was amazing to have an opportunity to attend the Global Entrepreneur Challenge, where Richard Branson was the keynote speaker.’
Spark.Ed has already attracted interest from potential investors and Amy and her co-founder Greg Mackelden, who is a University of Kent alumnus, now hope to develop it further.