{"id":22725,"date":"2025-04-02T17:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T16:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/?p=22725"},"modified":"2025-04-09T17:12:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T16:12:20","slug":"business-start-up-journey-pitching-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2025\/04\/business-start-up-journey-pitching-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Start-Up Journey pitching finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>The winners<\/h3>\n<p>Kent Business School student, Danika Hossain, and her business partner, Arshia Bhatnagar, were crowned winners after a slick presentation of their start-up business, Bhangra Blends, a ready to drink cocktail combining traditional recipes with Indian flavours.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/files\/2025\/04\/University_Pitching_Finals_2025_390.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-22727\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/files\/2025\/04\/University_Pitching_Finals_2025_390.jpg\" alt=\"Danika and Arshia, Winners of the BSUJ competition\" width=\"1200\" height=\"844\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Danika said afterwards: \u201cWinning the competition was an incredible experience for us, and we\u2019re truly grateful for the opportunity. We had a fantastic time participating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Danika and Arshia win \u00a31000 to support making their start-up dream a reality.<\/p>\n<h3>The runners up<\/h3>\n<p>Runners up in the competition were Kent Business School students Toyin Sanyaolu with Wonder Lab an immersive STEM teaching programme and Akash Ramakrishna Iytha with Stitchcraft, a customised tailoring business aimed at the Indian wedding market.<\/p>\n<p>They both win \u00a3500 to support their business journey.<\/p>\n<h3>The finalists<\/h3>\n<p>In total, eight Kent students entered the dragons\u2019 den in to impress judges, including the founder of international fashion brand Dune London, Daniel Rubin.<\/p>\n<p>They were selected following the inspiring 15-week Business Start-Up Journey programme.<\/p>\n<p>The other worthy finalists were<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jane Davidson (History) with Positive Procrastination \u2013 time management tools<\/li>\n<li>Felicity James (LSSJ) with Dive Right In \u2013 an inclusive swim school<\/li>\n<li>Aamir Khokhar (KBS) with Khocars tours \u2013 inclusive sports car road trips<\/li>\n<li>Rhoslyn Singh (Engineering) \u2013 Rhoslyn\u2019s Art \u2013 direct to consumer hand-painted artwork<\/li>\n<li>Likith Reddy Ramidi (KBS) \u2013 Gigamesh \u2013 hybrid digital marketing agency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All the finalists competed in the pitching finals in Sibson on Wednesday 19 March.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/files\/2025\/04\/University_Pitching_Finals_2025_250.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-22728\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/files\/2025\/04\/University_Pitching_Finals_2025_250.jpg\" alt=\"BSUJ Pitching Finals 2025\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>The judges<\/h3>\n<p>The judges were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Emay Enemokwu, KBS graduate and founder of JEHUCAL streetwear brand<\/li>\n<li>Nadia Simpson, KBS graduate and founder of Your Amora and NuEleFa beauty brands<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Rubin, KBS graduate (second 500), Kent Hon Doc and founder Dune London<\/li>\n<li>Alex Ford, Computer Science graduate, serial entrepreneur and founder Claro Wealth<\/li>\n<li>Laura Bounds MBE owner of award-winning brands Kent Crisps, Kentish Oils, Kentish Condiments and A Little Bit Food Co<\/li>\n<li>Debbie Zaman, Angel investor and mentor for the Innovation RCA incubator at the Royal College of Art, and supporter of women in business and (Exited) Founder of With, PR agency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The finalists worked with mentors to help them prepare for the pitching finals. Mentors include owner of Garage Coffee, Luke Underdown, owner of Macknade Fine Food Hall, Stefano Cuomo and Dan Crooks, MD of iFruits.<\/p>\n<h3>ASPIRE pop-up market<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/files\/2025\/04\/University_Pitching_Finals_2025_109.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-22729\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/files\/2025\/04\/University_Pitching_Finals_2025_109.jpg\" alt=\"ASPIRE pop-up market\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"article__content\">\n<p>Alongside the pitching finals, the ASPIRE pop-up market saw students from across campus showcase and sell their wares with start-ups including fashion, jewellery, crochet, food and drink and a virtual reality world.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/student.kent.ac.uk\/careers\/aspire\">Learn more about the Business Start-Up Journey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The winners Kent Business School student, Danika Hossain, and her business partner, Arshia Bhatnagar, were crowned winners after a slick presentation of their start-up business, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2025\/04\/business-start-up-journey-pitching-finals\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79181,"featured_media":22769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[170949,177066,9875,124],"tags":[164121,169090,178809,19176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22731,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22725\/revisions\/22731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}