If you’re following the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge then you’ll have seen our five finalists announced recently. These talented young entrepreneurs will go head to head at our Grand Final on 1st March, competing for the £10,000 Grand Prize!
We wanted to get to know our finalists a little better, and allow you to get an insight of who they are and what they’re about.
Today we talk to our fifth and final finalist, Alexander Witty from the United Kingdom. Hi Alexander, tell us a little bit about yourself!
“Hi everyone, my name is Alexander, I’m 24 and a recent product design graduate from the University of Brighton. I’m now based in Bath and developing my own sustainable sneaker brand ‘Compound’ – shoes that convert waste tyres and fabrics into recycled and fashionable footwear.”
Tell us a little more about your future ambitions?
“I’m ultimately driven by the desire to create truly great, sustainable products, and I strive to help build a cleaner and greener tomorrow, not only for ourselves, but also for future generations.
I want to build something that’s fun, exciting, and something that people can not only enjoy, but be proud of – and really want to show off to the world.
I want to do my part when it comes to helping save our planet, create something that benefits as many people as feasibly possible, and inspires others to take a similar path to create a better future.”
How did you hear about the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge?
“I heard about it from a business development network (SetSquared) that I am a part of. I had been sent an email just before Christmas about the challenge and thought the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge was the perfect place to showcase my vision for a cleaner, more sustainable world.”
How did you find the application process?
“The application process was a useful challenge. It asked questions of me and my business that I hadn’t considered before, and forced me to improve areas of my work that I didn’t even know needed fixing.
I am fortunate enough to have an incredibly strong relationship with my parents, so much so that we discuss the development of Compound frequently and applications were no exception to this.
When you start a business from your bedroom during lockdown you take all the help and extra eyes you can get!
The process has been a great deal of fun and I have enjoyed every aspect of it, from the late nights spent sweating over word counts and the optimal choice of synonym for my sentence to planning and shooting fun, high octane, creative videos to better translate my business to a wider audience.”
What inspired you to come up with your business idea?
“Compound is very much a personal passion of mine. I’ve always loved motorsport, growing up watching my Dad immerse himself in the sport with his work, falling in love with the smell of molten rubber on the track, and the sounds of V8 engines roaring past at 200mph.
Twin that love with a passion for sustainability which my Mother instilled in me from a very young age – as she shared unbelievable experiences and stories with me from her time working with the BBC Natural History Unit, alongside the likes of the great Sir David Attenborough.
All of these experiences paired with my affinity with design led me to specialise in “sustainable design” at University, which enabled me to have the freedom and support to study what problems the world faces, and taught me an understanding of how one can try and fix them.
Compound was created out of a culmination of all of these factors. Seeing the waste within motorsport, and the current state of our climate led me to try and find a solution using the skills I possessed from a mix of University, childhood experiences, and personal passions.
After reading Victor Papaneks book, “Design for the real world”, I became obsessed with the study of circular economies and how, in fact, sustainability isn’t just great for our planet – but also great for business. Pair that with a love for trainers and a project was starting to form in my head.
This led me to create Compound, a unique brand of sustainable sneakers that takes wasted tyres and converts them into recycled, fashionable footwear.
I am determined to inspire others to look at design and product ‘end of life’ differently, and question how ‘rubbish’ can be turned into valuable products, limiting the need for fossil exploitation.”
If you win – how do you plan on investing the prize money?
“If we were lucky enough to win The Young Entrepreneurs Challenge, the £10,000 prize fund would be spent on prototyping, further research and development, and product testing in the lead up to our crowd funding launch next year.
With the help of the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge we can take the next big step – to prototyping, production and protecting our planet.”
Alexander thank you so much for talking to us. We wish you the best of luck in the Grand Final on the 1st March!
Don’t forget to follow the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge on Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest news, links and information.
Click here to visit out Twitter channel!
If you’re following the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge then you’ll have seen our five finalists announced recently. These talented young entrepreneurs will go head to head at our Grand Final on 1st March, competing for the £10,000 Grand Prize!
We wanted to get to know our finalists a little better, and allow you to get an insight of who they are and what they’re about.
Today we talk to our fourth finalist, Lisa Rossi from Italy. Hi Lisa, tell us a little bit about yourself!
“Hello everyone, my name is Lisa Rossi, I am 24 years old and from Rome in Italy. I am currently a PhD student in Engineering at the University of Cambridge.”
Tell us a little more about your future ambitions?
“My ambition is to improve health and circularity through the use of digital technology. I would like to explore the various ways in which digital technologies can help to reach sustainability objectives in order to make the world safer and to use available resources more effectively.
I would like to deploy my project because it tackles hearing loss in industry, affecting workers and people in the workplace, hence it will make a positive impact on people’s lives, and the wellbeing of staff.”
How did you find the application process?
“I found the application process was pretty straight forward! I did ask some questions to the Unloc chat team who were super responsive and helpful, therefore I would like to thank them!”
What inspired you to come up with your business idea?
“I have worked in the manufacturing and Oil & Gas industries where I witnessed this noise problem first-hand.
Industrial environments are really loud making it really difficult to communicate. In fact, fellow colleagues were taking off their hearing protection to hear, exposing themselves to hearing damage.
I realised that this problem is irreversible with drastic life-changing consequences so decided to tackle it with my teammates.”
If you win the Grand Prize, how do you plan on using the funding?
“If I win the competition I would like to use the funding to build an MVP that can be tested in industrial environments to gain customer engagement, validate our product-market fit, and improve our technology.
Testing the technology in the field and engaging with workers would bring us closer to enhancing safety and communication in the workplace with SoundLence.”
Lisa thank you so much for talking to us. We wish you the best of luck in the Grand Final on the 1st March!
Don’t forget to follow the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge on Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest news, links and information.
Click here to visit out Twitter channel!
If you’re following the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge then you’ll have seen our five finalists announced recently. These talented young entrepreneurs will go head to head at our Grand Final on 1st March, competing for the £10,000 Grand Prize!
We wanted to get to know our finalists a little better, and allow you to get an insight of who they are and what they’re about.
Today we talk to our third finalist, Naomi McGregor from Northern Ireland. Naomi tell us a little bit about yourself!
Hi i’m Naomi, I am 25 years old and from Northern Ireland. I graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2020 with a 1st Class Masters in Product Design Engineering.
I’m the founder and CEO of Movetru, a multi-award-winning technology startup. I have received awards from the Royal Academy of Engineering, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and Innovate UK.
I was a recipient of international travel scholarships, including training from CDIO, a world-renown engineering framework from Stanford University.
Within industry, I have experience in product development, autonomous vehicles, production, manufacture process, and sales. As a passionate STEM ambassador, I have dedicated hundreds of hours into voluntary work and published a TEDx Talk.
What are your future ambitions Naomi?
My hope is for Movetru to change the lives of people across the globe with revolutionary technology that will optimise performance, reduce rehabilitation time, and prevent injury.
With Movetru, we will save money, save time, and save careers using the latest groundbreaking innovation. With future developments already planned, I am excited by the ability to be at the forefront of the wearable technology industry.
On a more personal level, I aspire to continue being a STEM ambassador and to advocate for women in STEM of all ages. I have always felt that it is so important to be able to use my voice to share my story and inspire others.
In 2020, I had the amazing opportunity to give a TEDx Talk. I chose to discuss the topic of women’s struggles in STEM positions and my own personal experience with this. The speech was entitled ‘Why Women Shouldn’t Be Engineers,’ and the feedback I received from this was so rewarding!
Not only do I want to change lives with my technology, but I want to do it with my voice as well.
How did you hear about the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge?
I actually know previous winners of the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge from being in the start-up community. This is a community I always feel so privileged to be able to be a part of as everyone is so supportive of each other.
I saw from the previous winners highlights just how incredible the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge was.
The support received from the competition, along with the overall experience seemed amazing and I knew I had to apply!
How did you find the application process?
I actually thought the application process was great because of how simple it was kept – just talk about your business!
This is something that, as entrepreneurs, we are all too familiar with and it allowed me to write the application to the best of my ability!
The video required was also very short and added a more fun, different element to the application process.
For any further applicants wondering what to do, just go for it!
What inspired you to come up with your business idea?
At 14 years old, I injured myself in ballet. It took three years and eight different specialists to diagnose the issue. At this time, I was told I would never be able to dance again.
Unfortunately, my story is not unique, and people across the world suffer from life-altering injuries that could be dealt with in a more efficient manner or even prevented entirely.
With my passion for dance, frustration of injury, and background in engineering, I put my specialist knowledge and deep tech solution forward to create Movetru.
If you win the competition, how will you invest the prize money?
With the funding from this award, we will be able to finalise our hardware to generate pre-sales for an exclusive launch of Movetru. So, the funding would be an absolute game-changer for us!
Naomi thank you so much for talking to us. We wish you the best of luck in the Grand Final on the 1st March!
Don’t forget to follow the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge on Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest news, links and information.
Click here to visit out Twitter channel!
The Verizon/Unloc Young Entrepreneurs Challenge, our annual online tech-entrepreneurship competition for young people across Europe, has chosen the five finalists who will compete for the competition’s £10,000/€11,000* Grand Prize!
The package also includes funding, mentorship and a technology package as well as entry to this year’s One Young World 2022 Tokyo Summit in Japan (16-19 May 2022).
The finalists will pitch their ideas live to a panel of expert judges in the Grand Final to be held virtually on March 1, 2022.
We are excited to reveal our five finalists are:
- Nick Cotter (Ireland) – Cotter Agritech:
A patented hardware/software solution designed to reduce chemical use in agriculture whilst also improving productivity and profitability. It aims to reduce labour, costs and the drug resistance associated with conventional blanket parasite control and help in the transition to a more precise treatment application on specific animals.
- Harry Gadsby (United Kingdom) – Ango:
A system designed to help consumers identify sustainable consumer products as they shop online. Ango displays product specific recommendations and where possible, applies a discount to make the products cheaper and more accessible; helping to make retail a greener experience.
- Naomi McGregor (United Kingdom) – Movetru:
A data-driven, wearable device with sensors designed to monitor physical alignment and form. It aims to target the lower body in order to optimize performance, prevent injury and reduce physical injury recovery time.
- Lisa Rossi (Italy) – SoundLence:
A physical industrial headset which aims to limit undesirable surround-noise in the workplace. An algorithm ‘learns’ which sounds to filter and which to let through allowing the enabling the user to cancel out noises such as machinery and focus on important sounds such as speech, alarms and moving vehicles.
- Alex Witty (United Kingdom) – Compound:
An initiative to recycle motorsport industry waste such as tyres and convert it into rubber filaments and resin in order to produce fashionable footwear via 3D printed lattice midsoles. The aim is to reduce carbon-intensive manufacturing methods, minimize material use and avoid tyres being unnecessarily incinerated which adds to environmental pollution.
The Verizon/Unloc Young Enterprise Challenge aims to encourage and attract the young business leaders of tomorrow. The competition challenges young people to consider the worlds of technology, health, the environment and sustainability, and to put forward their tech-led business idea to enrich and benefit the lives of other people.
“This challenge continues to attract amazing young talent from across Europe and this year is no exception,” comments Scott Lawrence, Group Vice President of Verizon Business in Europe. “The innovative business concepts submitted cover a diverse range of industries and topics. It is crucial that we continue to support and nurture these budding entrepreneurs, as they will be the successful business leaders of tomorrow. We’re looking forward to the grand final and can’t wait to witness the ideas in action.”
“Each year we see more applicants from across Europe, and stronger and more focused business ideas from the young people that apply.” said Hayden Taylor, Managing Director of Unloc. “The engagement we’ve had from colleges, universities and organizations this year has been nothing short of spectacular, and it’s allowed us to engage with young people directly, really giving them the support and confidence to apply. The quality of applications this year is so high, it really is going to be tough for the judges to choose a winner from our amazing finalists.”
In addition to the grand prize for the main winner, the remaining four finalists will each receive £1,000 of funding, as well as a one-to-one development plan and a series of flagship masterclasses to give their businesses the best possible start.
Note: The Grand Prize fund will depend on the exchange rate at the time of the final.
For more information on the Young Entrepreneurs Challenge click here!
About Unloc
Unloc was founded in 2013 by award-winning young leaders and advocates Hayden Taylor and Ben Dowling. Our mission is to empower young people to be innovative changemakers who seek to build stronger communities and sustainable businesses. We develop young people’s skills, enhance their potential and boost their determination to succeed. This is encapsulated in our ‘Developing Young Potential’ tag-line. We work towards our mission by delivering inspiring educational programs in our growing network of schools and colleges, our physical Changemaker Studios spaces in Portsmouth and London, and work with business leaders to deliver a range of programs that help us achieve our mission.
About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed on June 30, 2000 and is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $133.6 billion in 2021. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.
