Success Stories

We know that when people come to Venturefest Yorkshire they meet people who make them more successful. Don't take our word for it, read about a few of the many success stories below.

Ed Taylor was the pre-dinner speaker at Venturefest Yorkshire 2011. Ed is a young entrepreneur who runs "Ed Taylor Designs". At the event Ed met up with Darren Buttle of innovative furniture manufacturers, ABF Europe. Darren really liked Ed's "QUBE" range of products and they now plan to take this product to market and in the future they also plan to get Ed's guitars to market. A fantastic example of how a chance meeting can create a unique opportunity.

Sheffield-based Diamond Dispersions exhibited in the Innovation Showcase at Venturefest Yorkshire 2009. Diamond Dispersions was established in 2007 and is a specialist in supplying inkjet ink manufacturers with ultrafine pigmented dry powder and liquid dye.

Says Sue Wright, executive director, “We were very pleased to be at the 2009 event. We met a private investor at Venturefest and received an offer afterwards which will help us grow the business and develop our products. We also met with Business Link Yorkshire and UKTI which have proven to be invaluable contacts.

“We’ve just completed a new product range, a new set of colours, which should hit the market by the end of the year – something we just couldn’t have done without the investment.”

Bioflame

Bioflame, 2005 investment competition winners, is a technology company with state-of-the-art environmental solutions for turning waste materials into energy. Bioflame received £3,000 cash to invest in the business, a year’s free accommodation in premises at York Science Park plus £10,000 worth of professional services advice during its first year in business including financial, legal, marketing and HR support.

Victor Buchanan, owner of Bioflame says, “The calibre of the companies taking part in the competition was of an extremely high level and so winning it was affirmation that we were on the right track. At the time we were looking to secure funding and being seen by the likes of Yorkshire Forward and other influential parties at Venturefest added to our credibility.

“We have come a long way since attending the show back in 2005. The business is going from strength to strength with turnover forecast to be £15million for the year ahead and we now employ over 30 permanent staff members. We have ambitious plans for further growth and look forward to seeing what the future holds for Bioflame.”

Rana Harvey, of York-based Dazzling Dummies, was part of Innovation Showcase in 2007. Since then, the company has been short listed for The Press Business Awards, recruited three new people and started to ship its products to Europe and the USA. Rana says, “Venturefest Yorkshire was our first step to market awareness, and we made some excellent contacts. The event was enjoyable, useful and very good for business.”

Craig Packer, of Sheffield-based Quadplay, took part in the 2008 Innovation Showcase at Venturefest. As a direct result of his involvement, he has recently signed a deal with STREAM IPTV, part of Hull City Council. The joint venture has made it possible to commercialise the advanced STREAM IPTV broadband technology worldwide. Craig said, “Venturefest provided us with an excellent opportunity to exhibit our product, Quadplayer, to thousands of delegates. As a result of this we now have a finished product that we hope to have on the market next year.”

Foodspecifications.com

Richard Hildyard, of Leeds-based foodspecifications.com, won the 2008 investment competition and subsequently signed a deal with private backers that enabled him to pursue his business strategy and increase the size of his customer network.

He says: “There’s no doubt that Venturefest Yorkshire played a big part in really getting the business growing. Apart from the financial backing, Neil and Mark from EwinWoodward development have really helped with product development and our marketing strategy, helping me get the software out to a much wider audience to the extent that we’re currently working on a contract that would really take us to the next level.”

York-based GO-SIM exhibited in the Innovation Showcase in 2008. GO-SIM provides international SIM cards which can save the user up to 85% on mobile call charges whilst abroad.

Says David Agar, chief executive of GO-SIM, “Venturefest gave us a platform to get on to the radar of businesses in the region. We were already in discussions with one investor prior to the event and seeing them there gave us the final boost we needed to secure the £250,000-worth of funding. We’d recommend Venturefest to anyone thinking of taking part. Preparing for it was a good discipline to go through to ensure you are investable.

“Business just gets better. We’ve invested in developing an innovative voice dial system to manage emails and we’ve recently signed a deal with Thomas Cook to sell GO-SIM cards to its customers.”