Aspiring entrepreneurs meet start-up supporters at LaunchPad Day

Start-up supporters meeting visitors looking to start their own businesses

Leading players from London’s start-up scene met budding entrepreneurs at this year’s LaunchPad Day, hosted by the Business School.

The free event which was part of Imperial’s Enterprise Week, brought together people looking to start their own businesses with organisations from London’s entrepreneurship community. Students from across Imperial and the general public were able to seek advice and gain insights into the latest trends emerging from London’s start-up ecosystem.

Companies participating in this year’s event included Startupbootcamp, an organisation which supports early-stage technology founders to scale their businesses by providing access to an international network of mentors, partners and investors. Other exhibitors included the Digital Business Academy, an online platform that provides digital and business skills to anyone looking to start, grow or join a digital business and The Bakery – an accelerator programme that brings together brands and technology companies to create new products and services.

“It was wonderful to host this event again and to see so many people engaging with key players from London’s start-up ecosystem." Professor Francisco Veloso Dean of Imperial College Business School

These companies were joined by members of Imperial’s start-up community including Imperial Create Lab, which offers support to undergraduate, postgraduate and alumni scientists and engineers to create profitable businesses around research-driven inventions that solve urgent, global problems.

One of the new exhibitors at this year’s event was Metavallon, a venture capital firm investing in early stage technology start-ups that provides companies with finance and development through pre-seed and seed stage investments. The firm was co-founded by Myrto Papathanou, an MSc Finance alumnus who graduated from the Business School from 2001.

Talking about her impressions of the event she said: “It’s been great seeing how the Business School has progressed in becoming much closer to entrepreneurship and innovation. Students seem to have a greater awareness of the current market, which is encouraging to see. Today, I’ve met lots of students who are at different stages of launching their businesses – it’s been particularly interesting to see so many ideas coming from collaborations between the Business School and other parts of Imperial.”

Another Imperial founded enterprise that returned for this year’s event was Innovify, founded by MBA alumnus Maulik Sailor. Innovify provides start-ups with seed investment, technology support and mentorship to help start-ups develop from fledging enterprises to flourishing businesses.

Santiago Bello, Venture Programme Manager at Innovify, said: “It’s been great meeting people with lots of ideas but who need help in taking their business to the next level – beyond the prototype stage. I’ve met an incredible mix of people today, from a person with 20 years’ experience of working in the healthcare industry looking to start their first business, to a recent MBA alumnus looking for support in how to launch a new venture. We’re keen to create a community of start-ups and help others, so this event has been a fantastic opportunity to build new connections.”

Professor Francisco Veloso, Dean of Imperial College Business School, who opened the event said: “It was wonderful to host this event again and to see so many people engaging with key players from London’s start-up ecosystem. At the Business School we do everything we can to nurture the entrepreneurial dreams of our students and I was delighted that so many people from our community took advantage of this opportunity to make connections and build their networks.”