Real Business

Daniel Woolman, 27

Company: Binifresh

Business sector: Retail

As Britain moves towards fortnightly bin collections, our nation could end up in a stink. But rest assured, this won’t happen if Daniel Woolman gets his way.

“When people were putting rubbish in their bins, I noticed they would put the bag in with their hands stretched out, so they didn’t have to go near it. I thought, ‘how many people up and down the country are doing this to avoid their bin?’”

So he founded London-based Binifresh, which produces compact devices for wheelie bins, automatically emitting a neutralising spray every four hours.

The take-up has been strong, with distribution deals already in place with retailers ASDA, Lakeland and John Lewis.

 

Victoria Lennox, 26

Company: NACUE

Business sector: Education

Twitter: @VLennox

After setting up several ventures in Canada, including the Ottawa Dance Works, Victoria Lennox turned her focus to Britain a couple of years ago, setting up NACUE (the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs). The 12 founding members included the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Essex, Warwick, and Southampton.

Lennox now represents the interests of over 35,000 entrepreneurial students from more than 80 organisations and societies, and wants to take NACUE global.

 

Justice Williams MBE, 29

Company: Birmingham Media Group

Business sector: Social enterprise

Twitter: @JusticeMBE

As well as being the youngest black woman to be awarded an MBE by the Queen, Justice Williams is the founder of social enterprise Birmingham Media Group, which trains young people in media and business skills and has so far helped more than 3,000 people to find work. She is also the brains behind regional magazine Tru Life and founder of Candy Floss Music, which manages young musicians.

The next step is for Williams to franchise Birmingham Media Group’s social entrepreneurship model in other countries. “You need to make mistakes to become successful – it’s a learning process,” she says.

 

Kieran O’Neill, 22

Company: Playfire

Business sector: Online gaming

Twitter: @KieranO

Playfire is O’Neill’s third business. He sold holylemon.com, a video sharing site he built at age 15, for $1.25m, and then co-founded PSU.com, the world’s largest PlayStation community, before setting up Playfire, a social network for gamers, three years ago.

“There are tens of millions of gamers out there, and we can make some serious money through targeted advertising and selling games via the site,” he says.

With £1.3m worth of investment behind him, from big names such as Bebo founder Michael Birch and Lastminute.com’s Brent Hoberman, O’Neill is one to watch.

Jules Johnson, 30

Company: Mash

Business sector: Marketing

Twitter: @JulianJohnson

When Jules Johnson slapped a couple of thousand pounds on a table in 2004 to start marketing firm Mash, he never thought that it would be turning over £3.5m within five years and be working with brands including Cadbury, Virgin and Sony. “We just wanted to offer a better value solution to marketing,” he explains.

Alongside his duties as UK rep for the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, run by the Entrepreneurs Organization, Johnson has now launched boutique recruitment firm Dylan. “That’s how I work – I spot an industry opportunity and I come up with new ways of executing 

a business,” he says.

 

Graham Bosher, 28

Company: Graze.com

Business sector: Food

Although not everyone has necessarily heard of Graham Bosher, everyone is familiar with the businesses that he’s founded, namely Graze.com and LOVEFiLM.

“Graham saw how well the model worked with film and thought, ‘Why not do it with food?’,” says Graze co-founder Ben Jones. Twenty-eight-year-old Bosher’s business now delivers 50,000 letterbox-sized boxes of fruit, nuts and dried berries every week, and expects a turnover exceeding £5m this year.

The company received a £2m investment from Octopus Ventures and DFJ Esprit last year.

 

Emily Cummins, 23

Company: Emily Cummins

Business sector: Engineering

Thanks to her many inventions, university student and Enterprise UK ambassador Emily Cummins has been pitted to become the next James Dyson. We can see why. Her first invention, a sustainable fridge powered by dirty water, has won her a range of awards, including the Barclays Woman of the Year 2009 and Cosmopolitan magazine’s Ultimate Save-The-Planet Pioneer 2008. She came up with the idea while working on a school project in her grandfather’s potting shed. The fridge is now improving the lives of thousands of poverty-stricken Africans.

She’s now working on a more sophisticated portable model of her fridge for use in transporting medical supplies around hot countries.

“I’ve always wanted to work for myself, and as we’re trying to become a greener planet, I’m now focusing on where there’s a need. 

I’m determined to make a difference, creating a commercial product that is also useful for social purposes,” she says. “The developing world needs to take a step forward, and we need to take a step back.”

 

Jonathan Ma, 29

Company: Ma2T4

Business sector: Engineering

It’s about economies of scale: a smaller engine leads to bigger carbon cuts. Jonathan Ma’s business, Ma2T4, is working with some of the world’s largest car manufacturers to develop newer, greener hybrid cars that reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent.

“A downsized engine coupled with regenerative braking [where energy generated by braking is stored and reused rather than wasted] adds up to massive energy efficiency gains,” says Ma. “The key was linking the two up.”

Its Supercharger Air Hybrid does this by using the energy created from braking to boost the downsized engine, meaning a more powerful drive for fewer carbon emissions. In a car near you soon?

 

Richard Symonds, 24

Company: Seymour Green

Business sector: Green

Have you ever followed the green hedgehog? You will be soon! Richard Symonds’ new business, Seymour Green (a play on “see more green”, geddit?), drives a fleet of electric vans around cities to promote your brand’s green credentials. Symonds, who also runs a property business, says that by sponsoring recycling initiatives, large corporates can show they care.

“For the transition to a low-carbon economy to be successful, everyone has to participate,” says Symonds. “Action is the best way to raise awareness.”

 

Robert Matthams, 25

Company: Shiply

Business sector: Transport

Twitter: @Shiply

Waste not, want not – that could be Robert Matthams’ motto. His business, Shiply, allows users to list goods that they want moved or delivered, matching them with couriers and delivery companies already making similar trips across the UK and Europe. “It really shocked me that more than half of lorries run only part full,” he explains. Since launching in June 2008, Shiply has saved more than 4.8 million road miles and 2.2 million kilos of CO2.

“Anything that needs to be moved, from a small box, to cars, boats or even entire household removals can be listed on the site,” Matthams explains. “Our aim is to ease monotonous consumer shipping processes, while also contributing to a greener solution.”

Matthams has grown the business to over 8,000 transport companies serving nearly 100,000 members.