Brentford Dragons Finale
The Grand Finale of “Brentford Dragons” took place at Brentford School for Girls on 3rd July in the presence of The Worshipful The Mayor of the London Borough of Hounslow, Councillor Corinna Smart.
The winning finalists from the heats were “Handy Bra”, “Aviation Shake” (right), “Student Loop” (below) and “Shake-n-Pop” (above with Deborah Hall).
Chamber Members and their guests enjoyed a champagne and canapé reception prior to entering the Theatre to see the final unfold.
Our finalists had arrived at the fabulous theatre within Brentford School for Girls early as the multi-talented BBC presenter Deborah Hall had offered to coach them on presentational skills ahead of their pitches. Deborah has given up her time to host Brentford Dragons and has delighted the audiences with her professionalism and humour.
Our esteemed Dragons were Mark Devlin, CEO of Brentford FC, Adam Shailes, Managing Director of RedRoutemaster, Nick Kilby Co-founder of teapigs and Marais Leenders, Head Teacher of Brentford School for Girls (pictured below with Nick)
Our finalists made very strong presentations, outlining how they had progressed their business ideas from the heats and how they were going to move forward in the future.
The Dragons retired to make their decision and returned to inform President Suzie Betlem of the winner. It was then down to The Worshipful The Mayor of The London Borough of Hounslow to present a cash prize of £500 and a “Brent” Dragon Trophy to the Finale winners – Handy Bra. They will also receive a year of membership and mentoring from Brentford Chamber.
Handy Bra receiving their prizes from The Worshipful The Mayor of the London Borough of Hounslow, Councillor Corinna Smart
The prototype Handy Bra allows women to store essential items such as money, ID and credit cards and even house keys, inside special zipped compartments of the bra’s cups.
As winners, HandyBra also received £500 worth of marketing from MARKeTEST.
Marketest is a leading online market research company for business start-ups who primarily work with start-up entrepreneurs and companies launching a new product or service.
Marketest offer £500 worth of tailored market research for HandyBra to use within a year of the competition final. This will allow them to survey their target market through their large international panel before receiving an in-depth market research study. Marketest provide consumer market research (B2C), surveying private individuals and potential customers to find out their buying habits, needs, attitudes, opinions etc. One of the major reasons why startup businesses fail can be due to a lack of market research before they have penetrated the market. Marketest’s support package has allowed entrepreneurs to enter new markets with far more confidence and a greater overall industry knowledge.
University of West London and the winner will have access to the Entrepreneurship Network which gives free access to their reports in the ‘Essential’ package and 50% discount on ‘Full’ package reports.
A 15% discount on market research projects would be given to anyone who is referred by UWL to Marketest website for a quote.
Mark Devlin, CEO of Brentford FC and Adam Shailes, MD of Red Routemaster examining a handy bra