BT Business
Essence of the Entrepreneur 2007

2007 winners gallery

The 2007 BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur winners represent a diverse range of industries. See details of all 20 winners, in alphabetical order, here:

Academia.edu, Oxford

Academia.edu is a social networking site for the research community, allowing academics and scientists to share research interests and papers. Academia was developed by Richard Price, whilst studying for a Ph.D at Oxford, and allows academics and scientists the opportunity to create their own webpage, upload their papers, join discussion boards and list contact information. In addition users can track research papers online.

Across the Divide Expeditions, Chard, Somerset

A travel company specialising in charity and corporate challenges, Across the Divide started with just three trips in 1997 and have since grown to 60 trips for various charities and companies and has facilitated the raising of over £45 million.

They are specialists in managing large scale complex adventure challenges both in the UK and overseas. Their most recent example of this was the ‘Wild Coast Challenge’ that they staged for CapGemini in support of the Prince’s Trust. Thirty teams raced against the clock from the Bristol Channel via Exmoor to the English Channel, which raised over £100K for the trust. Their largest event to date has carried in excess of 2000 participants.

Acumen Community Enterprise Development Trust Ltd, Peterlee

Acumen is a social enterprise, which aims to achieve social and economic regeneration through learning, enterprise and employment. A skilled team of community engagement staff, learning tutors, employment advisers and business coaches work out in the community to encourage people who have low skills and have not worked for some time to realise their potential. The company now delivers employability programmes across the North East.

A Woman's Touch Limited (Winner: Female Entrepreneur), Wimbledon

Developed by Kerrie Keeling, an ex-investment banker, A Woman's Touch is a building and property maintenance company with a twist - the majority of the workforce are women! Staff include female brick layers, plumbers, tilers, carpenters, electricians, decorators, architects, estimators, plasterers and office staff (and a few very well trained men as well!). A Woman's Touch cover large projects such as basement and loft conversions, all the way through kitchen and bathroom fitting and refurbishments, down to small decorating and maintenance jobs. They currently cover London, Brighton and Southern Spain.

Crisp Thinking (Winner: Young Entrepreneur), Leeds

Crisp Thinking was founded in 2005 by Adam Hildreth, 22, to provide a new solution for internet child protection countering the growing threat of online grooming of young people. Crisp's Anti-Grooming Engine (AGE) provides children, teenagers and their parents with a safer internet experience by silently and invisibly tracking the things people are saying to them. Crisp's vision is to be the global leader in developing the next generation technologies that protect our children from the threat of online grooming and cyber bullying. With the AGE technology now proven, it is being rolled out across the UK during 2007 with a US and European rollout during the first quarter of 2008.

Cybercandy Ltd, London

Specialists in worldwide sweets - Cybercandy started as a website selling imported confectionery. The business has now developed to include a website, a shop in the heart of Covent Garden, a shop in Brighton, and a new London store in progess. Although they have remained small, independent and innovative they are quickly becoming a major name in UK confectionery retail.

Does My Tum Look Big In This Ltd, Farnborough

Does My Tum Look Big In This is a maternity wear business set up following the frustrating experience of Natalie Gladman of (unsuccessfully) trying to find a formal dress for a Christmas function when 8 months pregnant. It’s service includes the provision of special occasion maternity wear hire - the concept is why spend a fortune on a maternity evening dress that you are only likely to wear once. The business started as a work from home business complimented with online hires via its website. Natalie now has branches in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Wiltshire, and Northamptonshire as well as a thriving online business. In addition, the business has a retail shop offering the UK’s largest range of maternity bridal wear. In September it launched its own collection of maternity wedding dresses at the British Bridal Exhibition (under the madeline isaac-james maternity bridal label), and now has stockists of its collection throughout the UK, Europe and USA.

DPM Water Technologies Ltd, Falkirk

DPM design, manufacture sell and support portable water treatment plant for use in emergency relief, disaster recovery, camp support and other situations where there has been a catastrophic loss of water or a need for temporary or short term water treatment. DPM products are used by aid agencies, charities, non governmental organisations and industrial users to provide a system for treating almost any type of contaminated water to give clean drinking water.

www.ilikemusic.com, Romsey

I Like Music was launched in 2001 as an independent voice in an industry saturated by big corporations. The site was launched by a small team of young people who like music, for others who like music. Now, in its sixth successful year online, I Like Music includes a range of artist interviews, from 50 Cent, Razorlight and Nelly Furtado to James Blunt, Lady Sovereign and Paul Oakenfold, plus a broad collection of cross-genre music content covering Pop, Hip Hop, Rock, Dance, Indie and Urban. I Like Music also provides up to the minute breaking world news for Google (news.google.co.uk) and NewsNow (newsnow.co.uk). The site was organically grown from the back pockets of the co-founders (who still own 100% of the business). The team have laid strong foundations to be well positioned within the high growth digital media industry.

Miniclip Ltd (Winner: Male Entrepreneur), London

Miniclip.com is the world's largest website dedicated to playing online games with 36 million unique users per month. The site boa sts the most played online games and are syndicated across more websites than any others. Miniclip.com is one of the world's top broadband websites with 98% of its users on high bandwidth connections in Europe. The Miniclip.com website was launched in 2001, has experienced explosive growth and is the largest entertainment portal privately held.

Music Concierge, London

Music Concierge is a ground-breaking service that has been set up using genuine music expertise to offer bespoke music programming to luxury brands, boutique hotels, restaurants, shops and other design-led spaces that want to sound truly unique. Creative Director and founder Rob Wood is passionate about bringing the best music from around the world and incorporating it into the creative vision of exceptional brands and spaces.

Saaf International Ltd, Leeds

Dr Mah Hussain-Gambles was disillusioned by cosmetics claiming to be 100% alcohol free, GMO (Genetically Modified Organisams) free and irradiation free and so decided to develop an organic skincare range, which was Halal certified (guaranteed free from alcohol, GMO and irradiated raw materials). Saaf is a Persian word meaning "pure and clean", and is probably the world's first Halal and Organic certified skincare range, with such a comprehensive range of independent accreditaion, manufactured in the UK.

Stick and Go Ltd, Stourbridge

Stick and Go is a wall tile that does not need cementing, or grouting and can be applied over existing tiles or directly on to any smooth wall or surface. The website has grown to be eight times its original sales turnover and the brand name of Stick and Go Tiles is growing internationally with over 70 per cent of sales coming from the USA. The website has also recently attracted the attention of the worlds largest retailer in the USA and an invitation has been extended to Stick and Go Ltd to present the product range to them, allowing the opportunity to take the product to the retail stores both in the UK & USA.

Truancy Call, Solihull

Truancy Call Limited provides three telecoms-based services for schools. Truancy Call, Text Someone and Call Parents. Truancy Call (www.truancycall.com) is an automatic parent notification system that allows school staff to implement first day contact with parents of absentees via text message, phone call and email. Text Someone (www.textsomeone.com) encourages victims of bullying to report incidents to schools using text messages, phone call or online. Call Parents (www.callparents.com) is designed to enable school to keep parents or guardians constantly informed of all school activities via text message, phone call or e-mail.

TheBestOf, Solihull

Thebestof is an online business directory and community website franchise. The sites help to promote over 65,000 SME businesses and provides them with an optimised online presence that many would otherwise struggle to create and manage on their own. thebestof are one of the UK’s top 100 most popular sites as ranked by independent web traffic monitor Alexa.com and have been since April 2006, with over a million users visting the sites each month.

Tots to France, Portsmouth

Innovative online travel business that sources, inspects and lets genuinely family friendly holiday properties in France. After a near-tragedy on a family holiday, Tots to France's founders recognised that parents going on holiday with babies and children need to go to a safe, child friendly destination with all the necessities they rely on at home.

TRAC Services Limited, Cornwall

TRAC services is a progressive, forward thinking regulatory consultancy providing comprehensive, high quality, independent regulatory services to pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. TRAC acts as an interface between pharmaceutical and medical device companies and the government regulatory agencies across the world responsible for medicinal products.

Truly Madly Baby Ltd, Milton Keynes

Truly Madly Baby provides quality, unique and practical products from pregnancy to toddler, brought to customers in their own home via home parties, an online shop and a beautiful mail order catalogue. Their customers enjoy the 'shop from home' experience and at the same time can meet with other mums and socialise with babies in the day, or without them in the evenings.

Walkit.com Limited (Winner: Original Business Concept), London

Walkit.com is an online walking route planner for urban areas that encourages people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Congested roads, expensive public transport, and concerns about climate change and inactive lifestyles are all driving both individuals and public authorities towards walking as the solution. In addition Walkit.com is also uploading thousands of extra pieces of walking-specific data derived both from aerial photography and users feedback. This "user-generated data" is critical to building an ever-richer walking knowledge, one that can be shared amongst all the site's visitors.

WEBMART Ltd, Bicester

Webmart is a low cost print management company which has managed over 12,000 print jobs with clients including Tesco, Blockbuster and The Sunday Times. With the worlds first free print management software and the fastest print pricing system, Webmart's supplier interface offers a true partnership to deliver a new free sales channel to the market.