A three-day bootcamp designed to give aspiring entrepreneurs in the low carbon and environmental goods and services sector practical advice on how to accelerate growth, has proved the Midlands continues to be a breeding ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Organised by Inntropy at the Nottingham CleanTech Centre, the diverse group of emerging entrepreneurs taking part developed and pitched their enviro ideas to an independent panel of Dragons, as Dr Nick Gostick, MD of Inntropy who facilitated the bootcamp, explained:
“This was the fourth of our Enviro-entrepreneur bootcamps, and brought together a very diverse group of individuals, each at different stages of the development of their enviro ideas. The emerging underlying theme was around waste to energy technology, with some highly creative and innovative ideas, particularly in the field of anaerobic digestion of solid organic wastes.
“The final day saw our entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of Dragons, each of whom brought different skills and expertise to the discussions. The panel was made up of Graham Allen of Commercial Money Matters, Rob Cawdron of E-Synergy, BioSpring’s Nick Pope, Christopher Hall, The Hive Nottingham Trent University, and professional advisers Jill Evenden of EBS Accountants and Actons Solicitors’ Scott Farnsworth.
“The Den was the final session of the Bootcamp and each of the pitches was impressive and the Dragons were pleasingly very enthusiastic about the ideas, many of which were judged to be really good, commercial prospects.
“The economy needs to be re-energised by entrepreneurs who are often people who want to take control of their own destiny rather that work for big companies,” commented Dr Gostick, “but frequently the challenge is with setting up their own business and having themselves heard by individuals who can add commercial nous and guidance. The bootcamp’s programme ticked all of these boxes with practical information and advice on both the business and ideas aspects of our entrepreneurs’ plans.
“Everyone who attended enjoyed lively interactive sessions led by experts in pitching business ideas, securing finance, accountancy, intellectual property, marketing and social media,” he added. “All our delegates were extremely positive about the benefits, describing it as: ‘The most useful and inspiring opportunity I’ve had in years’, ‘Perfect for anyone wanting to look at starting their own business’, and ‘A fun and productive event’.”
More than half of Inntropy’s previous Enviro-entrepreneur bootcamps’ delegates have gone on to run their own businesses, including Keith Geary of LLEO and Assim Ishaque of EnvirUP Ltd, both now based at Nottingham’s CleanTech Centre.
Sponsors of the bootcamp were Actons Solicitors, CleanTech Business Limited, EBS Chartered Accountants, Hepworth Brown, Next Business Generation, NEP energy services ltd, Pera Technology and V Formation.
Inntropy’s next Enviro-entrepreneur bootcamp takes place on the 13th to 15th November 2013 at Nottingham CleanTech Centre.
