{"id":344,"date":"2019-09-04T11:26:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T11:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/?p=344"},"modified":"2019-09-05T14:20:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T14:20:15","slug":"first-steps-follow-a-new-grads-entrepreneurial-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/2019\/09\/04\/first-steps-follow-a-new-grads-entrepreneurial-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"First steps: Follow a new grad's entrepreneurial journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nia\u00a0Simpson grew up watching\u00a0The Apprentice<\/em> because her dad once worked for Lord Sugar at Amstrad. 2011\u2019s winner Tom\u00a0Pellereau stood out to her \u201cbecause he was an engineer but had business acumen. Reading up on him, I found out he went to Bath. I saw the degree he did and thought, \u2018wow, that\u2019s really cool, maybe I could do that as well?\u2019 He was one of the biggest reasons why I came here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he invented the Stylfile, Tom studied Innovation & Engineering Design at Bath, graduating in 2002. We ask Nia what happened when they were introduced at an alumni event. \u201cTo be honest, I felt quite uncomfortable,\u201d she recalls. Thankfully, their encounter wasn\u2019t one of those awkward occasions which fulfil the saying you should never meet your\u00a0heroes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me that when he was on The Apprentice,<\/em> Lord Sugar changed his mindset to \u2018if you have the idea, what can you do now so you can start making money tomorrow?\u2019\u201d Nia explains. \u201cIt was cool for him to say that, even though it was an uncomfortable thing for me to hear. It challenged me completely. I could tell that he was really passionate about what he did, and he had a lot of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nia\u2019s own invention came from her final year project studying the same course as Tom. \u201cI\u2019m passionate about user-centred design and I really wanted to use that to figure out how I could create a meaningful product,\u201d she says. Compact Cane is the first discreet digital white cane for people with visual impairments.<\/p>\n

Nia undertook market research with visually impaired students on campus in order to develop her\u00a0prototype. During one session, a student told Nia that she had a job\u00a0interview, but wasn\u2019t going to take her white cane with her because she was\u00a0concerned she would be treated\u00a0differently to other candidates, even\u00a0discriminated against.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in that moment that I realised, this sucks!\u201d Nia recalls. \u201cThe traditional white cane can give you some benefits\u00a0but in other ways it can really hinder\u00a0you. My heart starting pumping. If this\u00a0was me, I\u2019d want a solution, I\u2019d want\u00a0something to help me. So I was, like,\u00a0\u2018let\u2019s do something about it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Innovation Award-winner Nia Simpson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Compact Cane, which uses invisible\u00a0ultrasonic waves to detect obstacles in\u00a0real-time, has now won Nia a coveted\u00a0\u00a315,000 Innovation Award donated by\u00a0graduate His Excellency Khalil Foulathi\u00a0(BSc Economics 1975, Hon LLD 2011). It\u2019s a 12-month investment to enable her\u00a0to undertake further research and development and turn her invention into a business.<\/p>\n

A growing number of Bath graduates benefit from the same opportunity. Thanks to alumni support, fellow Innovation Award-winners are developing business ideas as diverse as electrifying bicycles, converting human waste into cooking fuel and recycling flowers discarded at Indian temples.<\/p>\n

Computer Sciences graduate Ashton Clapp (2016) has even gone so far as to build a thriving tech business right here in Bath, employing nine people including other Bath graduates. He describes receiving his Award as like having someone plant a seed.<\/p>\n

An Innovation Award doesn\u2019t come out of the blue, however. Hundreds of talented students take part in a pipeline of corporate partner and alumni-backed\u00a0activities and competitions every year \u2013 from Dragons\u2019 Den to Apps Crunch to joining student societies like Bath Entrepreneurs \u2013 which they manage to squeeze in around their studies. The very best compete to receive an Innovation Award once they graduate.<\/p>\n

One advantage the Innovation Award brings is membership of SetSquared<\/a>, the world's number one university-based business incubator, which is located at the University\u2019s Innovation Centre in town. The SetSquared team helps Nia develop practical skills such as financial modelling, and unlocks access to advisers in the local business community who, like Tom Pellereau, aren\u2019t afraid to put her on the spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI value people who say \u2018this is a really good idea but let me challenge you on a few things\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cThat really stretches me. I definitely need people who are, like, \u2018there are some holes in this, let me help you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating environments that set challenges, connect different perspectives, provide safe spaces\u00a0for experimentation and help people share their knowledge and experience is what\u00a0the University aims to create in its new Entrepreneurship Lab, part of the School of Management building which will open in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Lab will make it easier for new graduates to work together to develop their business ideas, whatever subject they\u2019ve studied. They\u2019ll have the benefit of mentoring and coaching from academics and experienced entrepreneurs, in harmony with the SetSquared incubation network, the Students\u2019 Union enterprise programmes, and research expertise from academics in the School itself.<\/p>\n

Nia acknowledges she\u2019s been fortunate to grow up in a family which is supportive of enterprise, and study a subject that has stretched her, at a university that has encouraged her to innovate. But it\u2019s the confidence that her Innovation Award has sparked within her which really shines through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has completely rocked my world, changed my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI had no idea I was going to do something like this, but this is what I should be doing. The fact that someone believed in an idea and was able to give money, you don\u2019t realise how much impact that has made in terms of the trajectory of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how she's changed in the past six months, Nia says: \u201cI\u2019m very aware of\u00a0what I\u2019m good at now and I think I\u2019m a lot more OK with uncertainty, I\u2019m not as worried about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, Nia had been chosen to represent the University in the first stage of the Santander Entrepreneurship Awards, a competition open to all of Santander\u2019s 83 UK university partners. Nia made it to the semi-finals and although it wasn\u2019t the Lord Sugar moment she had been hoping for, she\u2019s even more ready for the next opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience built my confidence in pitching and I got great feedback and connections,\u201d Nia tells us. \u201cNow I\u2019m working to get myself in front of the right people who can help fund or accelerate the company.\u201d We wish her and Compact Cane<\/a> the best of luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nia\u00a0Simpson grew up watching\u00a0The Apprentice because her dad once worked for Lord Sugar at Amstrad. 2011\u2019s winner Tom\u00a0Pellereau stood out to her \u201cbecause he was an engineer but had business acumen. Reading up on him, I found out he went...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[43,45,61],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ba2","tag-ba2","tag-entrepreneur","tag-innovation-award"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2019\/09\/Nia-Simpson-web.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/on-parade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}