Mentor My Business to name its top entrepreneur
A mentoring programme that teamed up six rising stars from the Courvoisier The Future 500 network with top business leaders is to crown its ‘Most Improved Entrepreneur of the Year’ voted for by a live audience – and the mentors themselves.
The event will be the culmination of Mentor My Business; a collaboration between the prestigious Courvoisier The Future 500 network and a purpose-built team of mentors brought together by investment banker and entrepreneur, Emmet Kilduff.
While other ‘Dragon’-style initiatives offer funding, most promising entrepreneurs also crave great advice, tailored to their specific business needs – exactly the reward enjoyed by the CVTF500 members who successfully pitched for a coveted place on the programme last year.
The six successful applicants (from an initial 12) were:
• Sam Conniff and Michelle Clothier, who run social enterprise marketing agency Livity, which harnesses the power of brands and marketing to bring social benefits to the lives of young people. With their existing office already stretching them – and with two more set to open – Sam and Michelle wanted urgent advice.
Sam Conniff says: 'The Courvoisier The Future 500's Mentor My Business program has been pivotal in our growth and success through a very challenging climate. The range of experience, industries and personalities made for meaningful and multi dimensional mentoring. It provided perspectives on our business we hadn't considered and expertise it would have been impossible to access. We've won business, we've recruited staff, and expanded our offering thanks to this programme.'
• Sharyn Wortman, whose Tea & Philosophy brand started as a ‘kitchen table enterprise’ blending herbal teas; before expanding to over 350 stockists across the UK and to countries including the USA, Spain, UAE and Russia. She wanted help on exports, licensing ideas and how to grow her firm Today Was Fun Ltd.
Sharyn Wortman says: “Having six top business brains sitting in a room totally focused on my business has provided me with some extremely valuable strategic advice. Each month I come away from our meeting inspired and wanting more."
• Jonathan Bramley. Jonathan’s firm, In Your Space, provides high-reach billboard solutions to brands in automotive and fast-moving consumer goods businesses. He wanted to connect with someone who understood the complex world of media planning.
• Gareth Mitchell, whose business, Tree2mydoor Ltd, is an online gift company specialising in trees, which has a strong eco-friendly focus and sells to UK consumers and large corporates. Gareth was hoping for help with e-commerce sales, legal aspects, raising capital and achieving sales targets of £1m+ within 24 months.
• Eggxactly founder James Seddon, who has developed a product that cooks boiled eggs as easily as a toaster makes toast – and without water! His appearance on Dragons’ Den may have been less than fruitful but James ended up with 12,000 pre-orders. He wanted help with launching in the UK and overseas.
• Howard Gray, who wanted direction around managing growth in his Reprise Music Group; which works across artist bookings, press and PR, publishing, management and consutancy in the music business.
Each of the mentors brought a unique field of expertise to the table, resulting in a diverse and complementary ‘360 degree’ mentoring experience. This panel of experts included: Emmett Kilduff, former Credit Suisse investment banker and entrepreneur; Stephen Page, chairman of Ortegra; David Naylor, partner of Field Fisher Waterhouse; James Badgett, founder of Angel Angel Investment Network; Jonathan Pfahl, managing director of the RockStar Group and Roderick G Banner - founder of Banner Corporation plc and active business angel.
The final Mentor My Business event will be held at The Future Gallery, 5 Great Newport Street in London, from 6pm on May 12th.
The 6 mentees will take us through their journeys, from the initial pitch to where they are now – after 6 months of mentorship from top business minds; and the esteemed panel of mentors will reveal some useful business tips and discuss common problems when developing business strategy.
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