Harrow Business Den 2019

As a new business, we entered into the Harrow Business Den 2019 competition earlier this year. The competition had a number of prizes for the winner and the runner-up but this was primarily about the opportunity to explain more about the venture and get further external feedback.

The first stage involved submitting a written entry to explain more about what research had been undertaken before starting the business and what plans there were to grow the business. Over 25 entries were made and we were lucky to get selected as one of the final four companies that would be pitching in the Den with a live audience on 13 March.

The competition is run by Harrow Council but with third party judges: Shalini Gupta Patel (founder of Red Dot Jewels), Nick Howe from Natwest, Lee Westwood from Sopra Steria and Naima Omasta-Milsom from London Business Partnership Limited. Sponsorship and support for this year’s event was provided by Equita, GFL, Sopra Steria, APH Events, Virgin StartUp, London Business Partnership and Anita Gohil Thorp.

Our pitch was limited to 5 minutes and included the video below. This was followed by a 10 minute question and answer session.

While we didn’t win, we were delighted that the informal feedback from the judges largely covered features that we already have or have planned in our roadmap. Better yet, some of the audience said we were unlucky not to win overall!

Thanks to Harrow Council for a lovely evening and congratulations to Teresa Faley of Letterbox Brownies on the win. You can read more about the Harrow Business Den 2019 competition in the April 2019 edition of Harrow People.