Pictured above: Matt Roberts founder of
Bean2Bed
Three entrepreneurial Birmingham-based businesses are hoping to
make a big splash as they dive into their very own fishbowl and
join the 'webumentary' project www.inafishbowl.com.
Soshi Games, Bean2Bed.com and Co-Go Coffee to Go out-swam
businesses from across the West Midlands to earn the chance to
profile how they run their businesses, warts and all, for the next
six months on the web platform designed to help entrepreneurs learn
from the experience of others.
The site, founded by Midlands' entrepreneurs Toby Reid and
Andrew Springhall, was launched last year in the East Midlands to
profile the trials and tribulations of three fledgling businesses
via the website using blogs, Twitter and video diaries. Such has
been the success of the venture that the project now has its very
own West Midlands focus.
Being featured on www.inafishbowl.com gives the three companies
a unique opportunity to share their stories with a fast growing
audience whilst receiving free ongoing expert advice and guidance
from a wide ranging panel of experts and celebrity mentors such as
ex Dragon Rachel Elnaugh, Apprentice star Claire Young and Secret
Millionaire Ben Way.
Pictured above: Simon McCann founder of Co-Go Coffee to
Go
Soshi Games, based in Birmingham Science Park, develops online
social networking games with a difference. Launched in April this
year by business partners, Kevin Corti and Cliff Dennett, the
company aims to build on the phenomenal growth of social games
whilst utilising them to help raise awareness of the world's
environmental and social challenges.
Kevin said: "We want to build on the massive explosion of global
networking and games and use them to enhance social purpose.
Through our games we want to raise awareness of such issues as
littering and the work of the World Wildlife Fund, for example. The
aim is to make people more aware of their world environment whilst
having fun at the same time."
Kevin and Cliff are delighted to have been chosen as one of the
first West Midlands businesses to be profiled on inafishbowl.com.
Cliff added: "We're very proud and it's also given us a great
confidence boost to think that someone else has faith in our ideas
and thinks they're interesting. Of course, it's great exposure for
Soshi Games but, also, we're looking forward to sharing our ideas
and experiences as well as soaking up pearls of wisdom from the
experts and other businesses that will be following us."
Bean2Bed.com supplies a range of innovative sleep solutions -
effectively, beds within bean bags. Matt Roberts founded the
company with his business partner whilst they were both at Aston
University. He said: "As students, we spotted a gap in the market
for an affordable, space saving guest bed solution. Air beds
were just inconvenient and we couldn't afford futons! So, we
turned down graduate jobs to follow our dream."
The 'bean beds' were launched successfully at the NEC's
Furniture Show and now, Bean2Bed.com, which is based in central
Birmingham, is selling and delivering them across mainland Europe.
Matt added: "A friend told me about inafishbowl.com. I
thought it would be a great way to share our journey. We've
had many ups and downs and I'm looking forward to giving a real
life outlook of my experiences as well as being open to ideas to
help us as we grow."
Co-Go Coffee to Go is a takeaway with a difference! From its
iconic coffee-cup shaped pod situated on the Aston University
Campus, the company prides itself on providing only the highest
quality Fairtrade coffees, teas and hot chocolates from around the
world.
Pictured above: (l-r) Kevin Corti and Cliff Dennett
founders of Soshi Games
Co-Go was founded by 23 year old Simon McCann and his business
partner, Nicolas Holzherr who were brought together by a love of
travel and coffee. Simon said: "We had both spent a year travelling
and had visited places including India; South East Asia; Fiji, the
USA and Scandinavia. I'm a real coffee geek so when I returned to
the UK I was really disappointed that the quality of coffee
available here was so different to the fabulous coffee I had
experienced on my travels."
Simon and Nicolas, who hope to open two further outlets in the
near future, now import only the highest quality, Fairtrade coffee
products from small growers in Brazil, Honduras, Venezuela, Costa
Rica and Sumatra. The coffee is then roasted much nearer to home by
an ex-Aston University graduate who is now based in Huddersfield.
Simon added: "I'm thrilled to be one of the first West Midlands
businesses to be chosen to be profiled on inafishbowl.com. I've
always written a diary about my experiences so this is just a step
up from that really. I'm looking forward to building up a
network of other SMEs and sharing the lessons I've learned so far
to, hopefully, stop people making the same mistakes I've made."
Toby Reid, co-founder of www.inafishbowl.com, said: "We've been
really impressed with the quality of the businesses that applied
from across the West Midlands. Entrepreneurship is truly alive and
kicking in the UK and the willingness that these people have to
share their experiences is really encouraging. We have a great
blend of business models and personalities here and I'm sure that
the experiences they have to offer over the next six months will
give us all something we can learn from."
Visit www.inafishbowl.com
for more information, ideas and invaluable free advice.