New Ideas and New Ventures Winners

New Ideas and New Ventures Competitions

SIE would like to congratulate the winners of this year’s annual New Ideas & New Ventures Competitions!

The winners were announced on Wednesday 17^th March, 2010 at the Gala Awards Event, held at the Supper Club, 29 Exchange Square, Glasgow. Members of the business community, representatives from SIE’s partner Higher Education Institutions and the competition Sponsors joined SIE in celebrating Scotland’s entrepreneurial student talent.

This year SIE has created six sector based categories within the New Ideas and New Ventures Competitions; Social Enterprise, Product/Design, E-Commerce/Retail, Services, Arts and Cultural, and Science, Engineering or Technology.  The two competitions run in the following ways: the New Ideas is for students who have an idea but have not taken it toward the business planning stage or secured intellectual property rights; whilst the New Ventures is for those students who are near or already trading.  With 378 entries into the New Ideas Competition and 42 entries into the New Ventures Competition nationwide, the winners have done exceptionally well in achieving their awards. SIE is confident that both the winners and finalists will go on to blaze a trail of success for others to follow in these financially uncertain times, and wishes them every success in their future endeavours.

New Ventures Competition

The overall winner of the New Ventures Competition was Flaminia Cavallo, from the University of Edinburgh, with Theory Mine. Theory Mine will be an ecommerce site giving customers the opportunity "discover" a novel mathematical theorem and have it registered in their name.  Cavallo was awarded £6000 of business funding and will receive additional business start up support.

New Ventures Competition Category Winners
Category winners of the New Ventures Competition are awarded £1000 cash, a place on the SIE Company Acceleration Programme and will receive additional business support.

Jonathan Millin, from the University of Edinburgh, won the Social Enterprise category with Zoomatelo.  Zoomatelo solves the problem of people not car-pooling with a simple, closed social-network.

Tom Duncan, Edinburgh Napier University, won the Arts and Cultural Enterprise Category with his film company All the Rage. Tom devises, develops and delivers video content for the corporate, creative and educational sectors.

From Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen, Glenn Buchan and Kilian Palop from Adspad, won the Services Category.  Adspad is a marketing business, which connects external businesses with the student market through advertising on A3 placemats placed in university canteen trays.

In the E-Commerce and Retail category, Flaminia Cavallo and Chanita Seedaket from the University of Edinburgh won with Theory Mine. Through a system which generates and proves completely novel mathematical and scientific theorems, Theory Mine offers the consumer the opportunity to order and name their own theorem.

Also from the University of Edinburgh, Richard Burton has won the Science, Engineering or Technology Category with Nudge. Nudge will offer a simple tool which plugs into your email account allowing you to keep track on when you were last in contact with your sales leads.

An Honourable Mention was made to Alice Ratcliffe and James Deer from the University of Aberdeen for their website Shop Pulse.  Shop Pulse delivers live updates of the latest fashions hitting designer and high street stores.  Ratcliffe and Deer received a prize of £500.

The New Ventures Competition was sponsored by: 4CDesign, a Glasgow-based product design consultancy; Harper MacLeod, a young and dynamic full service commercial law firm and a progressive approach to law; and Harrison Goddard Foote, a UK-based firm of Patent and Trade Mark attorneys.

New Ideas Competition Winners

The overall winner of the New Ideas competition was Samuel Smith and Andrew Morrison from joint degree at University of Glasgow/Glasgow School of Art, with Vac-u-Loc. VAC-U-LOC has come up with a novel bike carrier system which is easy to use, flexible, modular, highly secure and competitively priced.  Smith and Morrison were awarded £1000 business funding and will receive additional business start up support.

New Ideas Competition Category Winners
Category winners of the New Ideas Competition are awarded £500 cash, a place on the SIE Bootcamp Programme and will receive additional business support.

Callum Graham from Edinburgh Napier University has won the Social Enterprise Category with Charitable Student Recruitment.  CSR is a not-for-profit organisation which recruits skilled university students, late in their university studies, to carry out professional jobs for charities.

From joint degree at University of Glasgow/Glasgow School of Art, Ian Guy has won the Science, Engineering or Technology Category with Air Free.  Air Free is a low cost, widely applicable redesign of a common component used in intravenous drip lines which will increase patient safety.

Also from joint degree at University of Glasgow/Glasgow School of Art, Samuel Smith and Andrew Morrison have won the Product/Design Category with Vac-u-Loc. VAC-U-LOC has come up with a novel bike carrier system which is easy to use, flexible, modular, highly secure and competitively priced.

Kian Golzari from the University of Glasgow has won the E-Commerce/Retail Category with KG Covers. Kian’s idea is for car headrest covers to be manufactured with English and Scottish football club branding (for all the major teams), being sold directly to the football clubs to sell in their shops as well as to high street sport retailers.

Ry Morgan from the University of St Andrews has won the Services Category with Appfax. Appfax is a mobile phone "app" that acts as a digital promotions and advertising service. It allows clients to advertise their business direct to customers through deals and promotions which appear on the consumer's handheld device.

From the University of Glasgow, Ben Kerr has won the Arts and Cultural Enterprise Category with Corsairs Wares. Corsairs Wares supply and develop products based on historical items as well as running specialist education programs instructing in both historical crafts and the historical European martial arts,

The New Ideas Competition was sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an international car rental company with a multi-billion pound turnover, which values employee training and growth and high customer satisfaction.

Read about the Intern and Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year Awards.