This has been a great year for Bright Red Triangle. We opened the new Start-Up Studio at Bainfield in April, and it has been brilliant being able to work with our entrepreneurial talents face-to-face. This year we supported over 40 new start-ups, delivered over 50 events, and the BRT community has grown to over 850 registered members.
We also launched a new website and continue to develop our digital resources and support our community online.
Here is a snapshot into some of the things we’ve been up to in 2022.
Launch of BRT Start up Studio at Bainfield Student Accommodation
Located on the Union Canal by the University’s Bainfield student accommodation, the studio provides a welcoming environment where entrepreneurial Edinburgh Napier students, staff and alumni can come together to connect, develop enterprise skills, and collaborate on exciting new projects and ventures as well as form valuable relationships with the wider entrepreneurial community in Edinburgh.
Social Shifters Innovation Challenge Edinburgh Napier University Winner
In March as part of our partnership with Social Shifters, we hosted a pitch competition for our ENU students who reached the final of the Social Shifters Innovators Challenge sponsored by Firstport. Edinburgh Napier, Matthew Akinpelu won £1000 for the development of a platform to support international student recruitment.
Re-introduced Bright Red Sparks with a new-look
Bright Red Sparks has been re-envisioned as a monthly Pitch Competition series, that provides a platform for any Edinburgh Napier student, staff or alumni to pitch their idea and win a cash prize of £500. Since launching in March, we have heard from over 35 entrepreneurs sharing their ideas and given funds totalling £4000 to support the entrepreneurial ambitions of 9 entrepreneurs who pitched.
2022 BRS winners
Anibal Ravani - Sound engineering consultancy
Kiana Kalantar-Hormozi - musician and serial-entrepreneur – Readmore…
Ayobami Arotiba – NF Mask
Alana Robertson – Robertson Media
Marta Negro – Help the dog fly
Niamh McKeown – Ginny Reaper Film - Readmore…
Pavlos Papadopoulos – True Deploy
Fraser Payne - (software platform for training providers)
Gintare Surdokaite, Founder of Amberstone – Housekeeping and decluttering – Hear from Gintare on our Youtube
John Keogh, Founder of The Ootsider.
Professional Practice with ENU Product Design Student– Build up to Design Degree Show
In the Spring our team ran a series of workshops in collaboration with the Product Design team as part of the build up for the Design Degree show. The student groups were supported in defining their product, value proposition and perfecting their pitch. Our Business Advisers also delivered workshops on sales, finance and legal.
The series was rounded of with a pitch competition for the class group, we awarded 3 stand out pitchers with Amazon Vouchers:
Nathan Dunsire - TOTTi Totti monitors your cyber security health and tells you when something is wrong.
Ben Osborne - Ceremonial Light The ceremonial light can be used in times of reminiscing, oras an object that invites people to moments of togetherness.
Howard Burdon - The Viridis House Project An innovative approach to the culinary industry.
Launched the Appin Entrepreneurship Award
The Appin Entrepreneurship Prize was established this year to encourage and support the development of entrepreneurial ideas and concepts. The competition is open to Edinburgh Napier students and graduates who have participated in the 'Starting a new Business' module and would like to explore the possibility or take the next steps in launching their business idea. The Appin Entrepreneurship award was developed in partnership with Maggie Anderson at the Business School and ENU Alumni entrepreneurs Damien and Bing of Appin Sports.
The Winner of the 2022 Appin Entrepreneurship Award - Kael Begbie, with his business The Hoogie Man
Find out more about the award: https://www.brightredtriangle.co.uk/appin-entrepreneurship-prize
Start For Future AGORA international exchange programme
In May the following students attended the AGORA international exchange programme at the Strascheg Centre for Entrepreneurship in Munich along with students from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Italy, Portugal and the USA...
- Pavlos Papadopoulos
- Alana Robertson
- Daniel Lakats
- Joseph Roberts
Alana Roberston touches on her experience with BRT and the international experience in this video:
The programme detailed above (Start for Future) which we partner with won an award at the Triple E Awards Ceremony - "TripleHelix Collaboration of the Year"
The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts towards the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education. It is the first award to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities' third mission." You can read more here: https://europe.triple-e-awards.com/
APE Network Product Design Challenge 2022
In June, we welcomed a group of talented international students and alumni from the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship in Munich as part of the Product design challenge for their academic entrepreneurship Programme (APE Bootcamp) event focused on Product Design.
The Product Design Challenge for our international cohort - If you were asked to enhance canal-side life, how would you do it? 4 products were designed as a result and pitched to improve canal side life.
Edinburgh Napier success in the 2022 Converge Challenge
6 of our ENU entrepreneurs made the semi finals of the 2022 Converge Challenge.
Semi-finalists at Napier in the main Converge Challenge...
Peter Barlow & Robert Goodfellow – PlusPEP - Pioneering a new approach to tackling the common cold.
Pavlos Papadopoulos - TrueDeploy - TrueDeploy aims to improve security, bring trust, and transparency to the software supply chain.
Mark Dorris – Mercel - Mercel is a spin-out company from ENU making a range of sustainable material products using patented seaweed nanocellulose technologies.
Semi-finalist in the Kickstart Challenge...
Kat Pohorecka – Mude - Mude is a collection of underwear for female insulin pump users.
Semi-finalists in the Create Challenge...
Marta Negro – Help the Dog Fly - platform which connects families who want to adopt dogs from abroad with travel volunteers who will travel with the pets.
Erin Reid - LU Innovations - LU Tackles the problems surrounding storing, applying, cleaning, and disposing of menstrual products in a safe, hygienic way
In September 3 of our ENU entrepreneurs were announced as finalists in the Converge Final
Whittled down from an initial pool of 200 applicants to just 28 finalists, our entrepreneurs were finalists competing for a share of this year's £310k prize pot at the Awards ceremony on 3 November.
- Project: PlusPEP; Robert Goodfellow
- Project: LU Innovations Ltd; Erin Reid
- Project: Mude Underwear; Kat Pohorecka
BRT attended the Converge Challenge Final in Edinburgh.
Winners included Edinburgh Napier University graduate, Erin Reid of LU
Innovations – a menstrual hygiene start-up designing period products for women who enjoy outdoor activities or who work in remote environments. Erin won both the Create Change Challenge and the Rose Award, a special stand alone prize sponsored by The Royal Bank of Scotland designed to boost female
entrepreneurship in Scotland. Erin’s joint prize package included £40,000 in equity-free cash, over £10,000 of in-kind business support and a one-to-one mentoring session with Alison Rose, NatWest Group CEO and author of the Rose Review on female entrepreneurship.
New partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network and the Scottish Business Network
In August, we formed a partnership with the Scottish Business Network and the Global Entrepreneurship Network to launch a city of Edinburgh Startup Huddle Chapter which we run on a monthly basis. We
launched the first one in August and welcomed over 35 local entrepreneurs and members that build great connections and shared challenges and solutions with one another. These have since been running on a monthly basis.
Partnered with Scottish International Week 2022
BRT partnered with Scottish International Week and as a result will have BRT workshops and events promoted internationally and featured as part of the enterprising agenda of activity alongside other partners such as CENSIS, Digital DNA and Scotland IS.
National Inclusion Week – OutBritain Partnership & Launch of DIB in Business Roundtables
As part of the week’s activity we delivered an event in partnership with OutBritain (the UK’s first LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce) to look at being a LGBT+ business or business owner, and how you can connect with other businesses and those looking for diverse suppliers across the globe.
During the week we also launched our new BRT series of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Business Roundtable’s will run on a quarterly basis. The aim of these roundtables is to offer a safe place to our
community to discuss DIB related issues, share stories, resources, and discuss challenges and practical solutions we could all takeaway from the conversations. Join us in January 2023
Launch of BRT Incubator Programme – Disciplined Entrepreneurship
The incubator guides entrepreneurs through a practical stepby step process to maximise chances of success & ultimate impact. The cohort are equipped with the necessary tools to quickly and efficiently iterate their way toward the best solutions. Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, the programme improves your odds of making a product people want – and need – to buy. The incubator currently has a mix of 10 Napier students, academics and international students on the Start for Future programme.
Launch of our Build your Student Side Hustle Programme
Our student side hustle programme guides entrepreneurial students through the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, provides opportunity to hear from experts and inspirational guest speakers and shares practical insights, support and tips to bring side hustle businesses to life.
The programme currently has 15 students creating small digital businesses: https://www.brightredtriangle.co.uk/start-your-student-side-hustle
Recruitment of BRT Student Ambassadors
We have started our outreach to build a team of Edinburgh Napier student that will advocate for BRT, promote events and support member recruitment efforts. 2 Ambassadors have been selected and will be officially announced in January. If interested, get in touch
Global Entrepreneurship Week
We hosted a startup huddle in partnership with Gen UK and SBN as part of the week to bring our entrepreneurial community together to share challenges, advice, good news stories and connect with a supportive community in the city.
We also captured video advice from some of our entrepreneurs that can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2tfJQl8fU-hoCow2gdk7QKfpkbBNAENn
Start for Future 2 day Summit - Munich
BRT’s Nick and Pete attended the Start for Future 2 daySummit. The Summit provides a space where participants can bring ideas to life through hands-on co-creation towards expanding their ecosystem network. The summit promotes partnerships and collaborations, that drives sustainable business development and economic growth for large and medium size companies, as well as startups emerging from different industry sectors. The summit welcomed 150+ guests including corporates, startups and 30+ International SFF Partners. The BRT team connected one of our members, Colin Campbell of Unlocking Potential who made the trip with international partners who could benefit from his ecosystem software.
International Collaboration with APE ProgrammeStrascheg Center for Entrepreneurship
In December, we welcomed 20 German students over from the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship in Munich completing the APE programme. The 3 day programme hosted at Merchiston campus
and around the city seen Edinburgh Napier Product design students team up with our international student visitors to create a new product for one of the following themes: Money, Fashion, Food and Music. The groups toured the city meeting entrepreneurs and businesses operating across these themes and exchanged knowledge from home markets that could create a Scottish/ Munich mash up
product.
The students worked in groups to ideate, film and pitch their new products for the market themes set. The programme aims to educate students and professionals in design thinking, lean startup methods,
entrepreneurship and innovation. Being teamed up with students from different cultures and countries has pushed the groups to overcome language barriers and cultural differences.
Santander University Fund Awards
We are grateful for the brilliant financial and in-kind support we get from Santander Universities and their generosity this year enabled us to provide grant support to some of our entrepreneurs.
- Pavlos Papadopoulos - Truedeploy
- Gintare Surdokaite - Amberstone – Housekeeping and decluttering
- Franco Stefano - Bull Project
- Thomas Meachan - G53 Studios
- Arron Bolton - Social Media Consultancy
- Tess Elders - Techie Tessie
- Erica Marchetti - Crafts for kids
- Kat Pohorecka – Mude
- Kael Begbie - The Hoogie Man
That’s our snapshot of 2022!
We would also like to say thank you to our supporters and collaborators…
SantanderUniversities, Shepherd & Wedderburn,The Moffat Charitable Trust, Appin Sports, Amazon Web Services, Converge Challenge, Start For Future, Global Entrepreneurship Network UK, Scottish Business Network, Stratcheg Center of Entreprenuership, Social Shifters. Our teammates in Research, Innovation & Enterprise, Student Futures, accommodation services and all the colleagues and friends across the Edinburgh Napier family.
We are looking forward to what’s to come in 2023!