As an event all about inspiring, supporting and celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship in the West Midlands, it was fitting to invite past finalists of the Minerva PitchUp competition back to VenturefestWM 2024 to talk about their subsequent story.
It was an exciting session with four excellent speakers and a brilliant chair, Paula Whitehouse, Aston Centre for Growth. This session was all about learning, reflecting and taking inspiration from past Pitch Up competitions. It focussed on supporting one another, not seeing another business as competition, but as a peer who you can learn from and may even collaborate with one day.
The panel session explored where past winners and finalists are now and what helped and hindered them along the way. Key discussions covered topics such as did they get investment, (was it what they needed), what is their ultimate piece of advice for those looking for investment, and how connections make all the difference. The panel speakers were (from left-to-right):
Kameese Davis, Nylah’s Naturals (hair care/hair loss business)
Mark Platt, Figura Analytics (Healthcare, clinical studies)
Dhruvesh Ranpura, tuck (Cash back app, currently live in 3 cities)
Surlender Pendress, Love Writing Co (Making learning to write quicker for children)
What motivated you to enter Pitch Up?
Paula opened the discussion by asking this all-important question. Kam (first place winner of Pitch Up 2023) spoke about her journey being part of the Aston University’s Growth Programme and being encouraged to enter the Pitch Up competition. After weighing things up, she decided to go for it and became proactively invested and has never looked back.
Dhruv talked about how he put together a 4-week strategy for growth using LinkedIn, attending events and networking, which helped with long term growth. He met with potential investors to build on the strategy for growth and then focussed back on operations.
Surlender, a previous Pitch UP runner-up, spoke about how she gained confidence to be investment ready by connecting with the right people, being seen by people, going out of her comfort zone, working on two licenses (talking to Paramount) now looking at investment and match funding.
Mark benefitted from the Pitch Up journey during lockdown and ended up winning the challenge in 2022! It involved networking, training sessions, working with the community, having a technical network and surrounding himself with like-minded people. The key to his success was hiring in talent to plug his skillset gaps.
Kam spoke about the importance of changing the strategy of your business. As hers grew, she had to make decisions making her more visible to the right people so that they could invest in her as much as the business. She hired former Head of Gym Shark’s Marketing Director. Just some of her valued pointers included:
- • Investors are looking to achieve targets
- • Put together a strong business proposition
- • Become visible to the right people
Surprisingly to the audience, Kam confessed she is naturally reserved and shy but had to put herself out there and developed confidence to grow her business. “The worst thing you can get is a “no” in business but it’s OK. Just get feedback and learn what to do to get a “yes”, work on it and come back stronger” were her wise words.
What were your business support and communications choices?
Dhruv’s advice was to go to your networks for support, seek advice, rely on them, look at the market, send hyper personal messages to get people on board and get their attention. A single message on LinkedIn can make all the difference. You have access to the top CEOs of major firms. Put your ego to one side and learn from advice given, in his own words “Be a sponge” and soak it all up, most of all – learn from it.
Surlender advised it is essential to look at your business model and adapt to make it impactful and scalable, talking to people, networking and educating yourself. Her journey started at the age of 47, proving age is no limit, on the Natwest Accelerator programme and Pitch Up. By speaking to people, learning from them, accepting sometimes you can fail and how to learn from it. She admitted going through funding is hard, and where possible taking positives from a “no”.
Has the cost of living affected your business?
Kam has seen an increase in production, selling hair growth product is seen as tackling a wellness issue. As a result, customers have stayed committed and loyal. She now has the capacity to bring in new staff and increase R&D. she has previously had challenges to raise funds but advised to have the investor conversations and to challenge the unconscious bias.
The panel agreed they would like to see more support access to grants and programmes that teach entrepreneurs how to use money wisely in business, and to increase SICS to 3 years.
Audience questions to the panel:
What was the biggest challenge during your journey and how did you overcome it?
- • Mark advised, when things go wrong learn how to deal with it and keep positive.
- • Dhruv’s tip was to understand people and your teams – learn how to get the best out of them, managing staff and teams – he used HR contacts to get advice on how to deal with it.
- • Surlender advised to block out the noise just focus and become resilient.
- • Kam said her last year’s challenges was money and funding, this year it’s multi-faceted- do not allow challenges to impact you emotionally and learn to perform under pressure in stressful situations.
How do you stay true to yourself and your morals?
- • Dhruv said no money is better than “bad” money. If something seems “too good to be true”, then it probably is, and always trust your gut. Never have a bad relationship with anyone, be open and transparent, people will respect you for it.
- • Surlender said to always ask yourself and remember why you started this journey?
- • Kam advised to make informed decisions and take your time weighing up pros and cons.
- • Mark said when it feels right, just go for it (speaking from experience as a previous academic needing a bigger challenge, which he went for!).
So, it’s fair to say the Venturesfest 2024 Pitch Up past finalists session did not disappoint. It was an insightful, honest, impactful and encouraging session full of excellent advice to anyone who is looking to or has started their business journey.
Dolly Chakraborty, SuperTech WM
Slingshot