First year Aeronautics and Astronautics student Connell McLaughlin, and graduating PhD student Gareth Beeston, pitched their startups to an audience at the University of Liverpool’s London campus earlier this month for the semi-final of the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards (one of the UK’s largest student and graduate pitching competitions).
Connell has founded Route Reports, an embedded sensor system that detects and reports hazards like potholes and overhanging branches on public transport. Meanwhile Gareth, a Web Science and Open Innovation PhD student, has co-founded Other World Escapes, an immersive escape rooms business based in Southampton.
(Left to right) student semi-finalists Connell McLaughlin and Gareth Beeston
Both students have been working with the Student Enterprise Team within our Careers and Employability Service and have also benefited from mentoring, workshops and investment opportunities from our on-campus Future Worlds startup accelerator.
Santander’s annual business pitching competition offers a financial boost to early stage student and graduate business ventures from UK partner universities. Each year, the University’s Student Enterprise Team and Future Worlds mentors select two exceptional entrepreneurs from Southampton to represent the University. This summer, both Connell and Gareth were shortlisted for the semi-final but have not been selected to progress to the national final.
Have entrepreneurial aspirations of your own? You can find out more about the University’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem and the support available for your own startup ideas at: www.soton.ac.uk/studententerprise and www.futureworlds.com.
