Start-Up Entrepreneur - Phoremost Ltd

What do the Barclays entrepreneur awards mean to you?
It’s a huge honour to be recognised, as a very early stage bio-technology company trying to change the world I didn’t think we were even in the running.

What does it mean to your business to be recognised as our national winner?
As a start-up we’re trying to raise profile, primarily in the scientific world but also with the wider business community. Winning a big award like this is a real boost for the team.

How does it feel to top off a successful year with the award?
It’s amazing! I’m really surprised, and very happy for the PhoreMost team that we have been recognised in this way.

What would you say to anyone considering nominating themselves for next year?
Definitely, definitely do it!

Are you excited about starting your scholarship place on the Barclays Scale-Up UK Programme?
Yes, it’s really very exciting. As entrepreneurs you don’t always start out from a business background - I didn’t, I was a scientist - so being able to access additional training and advice will be really valuable as the business grows

What advice would you give to others who are thinking about starting a business?
Good question! Just don’t be afraid, we’re in a scientific field, when I was at school I was a very good student but not such a good scientist – but life is long and you can do a lot of things, so just don’t be afraid and just go for it!

What have you found to be the most beneficial thing about this evening?
I’ve met some really interesting people this evening. Having conversations with different people from different backgrounds and understanding how they’ve done it and where their successes have come from, has been enlightening and a lot of fun.

All information in this interview was provided by PhoreMost Ltd, who confirmed its accuracy at the date of publication. Barclays UK PLC doesn’t guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

Scale-Up Entrepreneur - Perkbox

What do the Barclays entrepreneur awards mean to you?
The Barclays Entrepreneur awards are a great testament to the hard work the teams done over the many years, which has obviously resulted in this award. I think the other thing that’s really exciting is that we talk about building high performance cultures and teams and having engaged people at PerkBox, so it’s a big thumbs-up to what we’re doing

What does it mean to your business to be recognised as our national winner?
It’s an absolute privilege, to be recognised above such great businesses. We’ve all worked so hard to get here so we’re feeling very privileged, so thank-you.

How does it feel to top off a successful year with the award?
It’s amazing, the team have worked very, very hard and they will all be very proud and excited about this.

What would you say to anyone considering nominating themselves for next year?
We would say to just go for it! Definitely

Are you excited about starting your scholarship place on the Barclays Scale-Up UK Programme?
Absolutely yes indeed!

What advice would you give to other business who are thinking about scaling-up?
Be persistent, resilient, and curious about what’s happening in the rest of the market.

All information in this interview was provided by Perkbox, who confirmed its accuracy at the date of publication. Barclays UK PLC doesn’t guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

Social Entrepreneur – Limitless Travel

What does it mean to your business to be recognised as our national winner?
It’s everything. Limitless travel is designed to be a business built for people with disabilities, by people with disabilities, so to be recognised for the work we’re doing is just everything.

How does it feel to top off a successful year with the award?
It’s absolutely amazing, it’s been a year of complete growth for us, and hopefully we can keep going and growing forwards, so amazing really!

What would you say to anyone considering nominating themselves for next year?
I think just go for it, as we’ve grown we’ve just said our mission is key and to keep going and moving on with it.

What have you found to be the most beneficial thing about this evening?
I think it’s been chatting to other people who’ve been through similar experiences, listening to the speakers talk about their experiences, seeing the parallels between you, and knowing that you will come out the other side if you just keep pushing on!

All information in this interview was provided by Limitless Travel, who confirmed its accuracy at the date of publication. Barclays UK PLC doesn’t guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

International Expansion - Ruroc

What does it mean to your business to be recognised as our national winner?
I can’t tell you, because I just did not expect us to win at all! It means so much, it just puts us on the map, and says that we can do it.

How does it feel to top off a successful year with the award?
It’s the icing on the cake! Barclays have been so supportive to us on our journey so I can’t thank them enough, they’ve been a tremendous help. It’s been incredibly hard work and so scary - but we’re here!

What would you say to anyone considering nominating themselves for next year?
Honestly do it! Because, what have you got to lose? They can only say no, so what have you got to lose, really!

What have you found to be the most beneficial thing about this evening?
Getting to know that there’s other people doing the same ridiculously scary thing and working on their own! You’re not on your own, there are other people taking these risks, taking these dives, losing all their money, starting again, putting more money in. You’re not on your own.

What do the Barclays entrepreneur awards mean to you?
The awards mean everything to us because they actually say “yes, you are good at what you’re doing”, and “yes, you can carry on” and “yes, we have faith in you so you should have faith in yourself”.

So get on and do something!

All information in this interview was provided by Ruroc Ltd, who confirmed its accuracy at the date of publication. Barclays UK PLC doesn’t guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

Outstanding Contribution – Jenny Tooth OBE

What does it mean to you to be recognised as our national winner?
I’m absolutely overwhelmed! I think you know, being recognised for a life-time award for supporting entrepreneurship was so much more than I could have possibly thought and achieved, so I’m incredibly grateful for Barclays’ support for this award!

How does it feel to top off a successful career with the award?
Entrepreneurship has always been my passion and most importantly helping them to find the finance they need to achieve their growth ambitions. I am convinced of the importance of angel investment who bring that significant source of risk capital and business experience at the early stages of growth and my focus has been to encourage many more people around the UK to get involved in angel investing, especially in the regions outside London and the Golden triangle and to encourage many more women to angel invest. I have always been keen to develop a connected ecosystem for small businesses from start-up to scale-up - and that is why it has been important to work with Barclays to link with the valuable financial products and support that is being offered to entrepreneurs. There is still much work to be done to build a joined up and effective supply of finance to small businesses - and hopefully I can continue to really support the entrepreneurial community in the UK going forward.

What have you found to be the most beneficial thing about the awards?
I think the beneficial thing about an evening like this is to bring all those key players who support entrepreneurial growth together with key representatives and leaders at Barclays and to enable us all to network and connect and create a strong and vibrant community going forward.

What do the Barclays entrepreneur awards mean to you?
Actually they’re an amazing acknowledgement of giving entrepreneurs all they deserve in terms of awarding their success, recognising their entrepreneurial growth, and the journey they’ve been taking to get this far.

In 30 seconds, what piece of advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
I think I would really say: never give up, follow your dream, know that you can succeed and build a great growth business. It’s very, very tough, especially in attracting the finance and investment you need - there will be lots of set-backs - but you really have to have faith in what you can achieve.

All information in this interview was provided by Jenny Tooth OBE, who confirmed its accuracy at the date of publication. Barclays UK PLC doesn’t guarantee its accuracy or completeness.