Catalyst 12 Concludes
The entrepreneurs selected to join Southampton Science Park’s business accelerator Catalyst, have completed the six-month programme, ready to move their companies forward apace. Since joining the programme in September 2022, this cohort has been highly engaged from the outset, and it’s clear from their feedback that the group gained a lot from the experience, highlighting the quality of the environment and the team involved.
Veopl creator, Janine Chard comments, “the Science Park has created a perfect environment for a startup company. Exposure to successful entrepreneurs from various industries and backgrounds has been an outstanding, priceless, and inspiring experience. From serial entrepreneurs to up-and-coming innovators, each brought a unique perspective and wealth of knowledge to the table. Learning from their experiences, I gained invaluable insights into what it takes to build a successful business.”
Josef Archer and Colin Christie of Acoustic Reality agree. They advise future participants to “make sure you attend all of the workshop sessions and get to know the rest of the companies on your Catalyst programme to build out your network of similar people going through the same thing”.
Tim Lloyd, founder of Helpful Digital also highlighted the benefit of working face-to-face in an innovation focused setting with like-minded people. “Catalyst helped me understand the real value of dedicated time and focus on developing the business. I can’t imagine I would get the same quality of support and guidance, for free, anywhere else. The balance of effort/reward has been just right”, he says.
Labl.it Solutions’ Sean Larsen, comments, “We really like being at the Science Park, so much so that we decided to stay beyond our Catalyst experience. Setting up our office here, we greatly appreciated how the management team understood our business needs.” This sentiment is echoed by Sarah Eggleston of Fflow who says, “I love the commitment and involvement from both mentors and Science Park management”.
Data Revival founder, Sam Munday, comments on the quality of mentoring he received. “The coaching has been incredibly valuable - not just my own coach, but the whole team. I learnt a lot and progressed massively as a founder and as a person.” Highfield Diagnostics’ Ioannis Katis agrees, noting “the one-to-one mentoring meetings have been invaluable to help us refine our business plan and overall strategy”.
Ultimately, Catalyst is all about creating commercial growth. Nicola Davey, creator of the Quality Improvement Clinic says, “Catalyst has facilitated my growth significantly. It has helped me create a business plan that can unlock the potential of our business and allow us to capitalise on assets to deliver much higher returns. It’s been a significant mindset shift in the way I view and run my business.” While RiHde’s Eleanore Kelly sums it up. “The experience has been transformational,” she says.
The graduating Catalyst 2022 Companies:
- Acoustic Reality: Wearable AI sound visualisation device for the defence sector.
- Digital Revival: Efficient knowledge platform for the chemical and pharmaceutical sector.
- Fflow: Complete management software for the professional services sector.
- Helpful Digital: Responsive social media software for corporate crisis management.
- Highfield Diagnostics: Comprehensive lateral flow technology for detecting communicable diseases.
- Labl.it Solutions: Time-saving all-in-one labelling solution for commercial kitchens.
- Quality Improvement Clinic: Accessible, accredited online courses for healthcare practitioners.
- RiHde: Safer alternative horse studs for use across the equestrian market.
- Veopl: Transparent social platform to aid the recruitment of soft-skilled workers.
- Zerodai: Empowering cyber security software platform for enterprise businesses.
Catalyst delivers world-class mentoring and workshops to give early-stage innovation-led businesses the best chance of success. It has accelerated the progress of 83 companies, helping them to secure almost £50 million in investment and creating over 230 jobs signalling longer term growth for the South Coast.
We are now welcoming applications for Catalyst 13, commencing September 2023.
