A new exciting start-up called 'Mic Drop' launched in February - Meet the duo behind the idea

Joseph Chotard is a Computer Sciences student at the University of Birmingham and together with Business graduate Josh Garwood they have created a new start-up which aims to connect public speakers with event organisers.

Joseph: Mic Drop is an online independent speaker directory. We help speakers collect real audience feedback which enables event organisers to make informed buying decisions and speakers to gain more sales. Mic Drop has thousands of speakers with various fields of expertise on our platform. These speakers can create profiles for free and collect reviews at events further building their reputation.

If someone is looking to organise an event, they can just go to the Mic-Drop website, find some amazing speakers and directly enquire about them without ever having to leave the website.

The organic, zero waste supermarket brand vision - James Platt (Msc Environment, Development and Politics)

'Papi Organic Supermarket' is a a company created by two friends, James Platt and Wayne Taylor, with a vision to create an organic supermarket chain. James Platt graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2020 with a Masters in Environment, Development and Politics and he is now working with business partner Wayne to attract investors and turn the idea into a working reality. 

The business is at an early stage of development and the duo are working towards the goal of opening the first store in the city of Chester with future ambitions to expand the brand further afield.

Get closer to the UoB Startup society at Birmingham

Did you know there is a Startup society based at the University of Birmingham?

This week we caught up with our friends at UoB Startup society and invited them to tell us what life is like in a university society during a global pandemic and the unexpected connections and opportunities that have come their way.

Meet Kushal Patel, Andin Farrell, Ian Arrindell and Munir Maricar from UoB StartUp society and find out about the exciting Birmingham Startup Games competition they are running for Birmingham and Keele students at the end of this post.

Meet the Sport Ex graduate behind the new home workout start-up - Ashley Jones (HighHealth)

A global pandemic has undoubtedly forced a change of behaviours for us all in everyday life and with gym and public spaces closed during repeated UK lockdowns, the challenge to maintain fitness has seen the inevitable rise of on-demand home fitness. We caught up with Sport and Exercise Sciences graduate Ashley Jones who graduated in last summer and has since gone on to created an online fitness service called HighHealth.

 

Law graduate Grace Lynskey launches 'The Comeback Club' podcast

'The Comeback Club' is a podcast designed to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs through challenging times.

The podcast launched in January 2021 and Grace interviews a different entrepreneur in each episode and reminds us that "the things that can set you back, can sometimes set you apart".

The latest entrepreneur to feature on The Comeback Club is Student Beans founder James Eder who talks about his health and businesses challenges - and how the challenges have changed his outlook on life.

The Comeback Club is available online on Apple Podcast and Spotify. 

Music graduate brings International audiences closer together with CritiClassical - Shanshan Shi

As a Master's alumna of the University of Birmingham with a music degree and
working experience in the UK and China, Shanshan Shi has used her skills, temperament, networking and passion for music and the arts to drive and succeed in creating her own business – CritiClassical. 

With a presence in both the UK and China, CritiClassical organises, coordinates and delivers concerts, exhibitions, cultural exchange programmes and other events for clients in one country seeking exposure in the other. 

For example CritiClassical creates opportunities for UK based amateur choirs to host concerts in China while on the other hand, creating insightful 'art education appreciation' touring opportunities for Chinese art students in the UK.

How a trip to Snowdonia inspired two UoB medics to create a fuel splitting app (Dan Chivers and Michael Trueman)

'Commute' is a brand new mobile app designed to help you split your fuel costs when car sharing. The business has been created by UoB medical students Dan Chivers and Michael Trueman.

As medical students we were commuting every day in full cars to and from placements, unsure how to split the cost. 

The organised amongst us created excel spreadsheets with each passenger, the number of journeys, and an estimate of how much they owed. This process, however, was laborious and inaccurate...........we were tired of it. 

Michael: Our idea for Commute first came on the way to Snowdonia for a hiking trip back in 2019, when my co-founder Dan made the simple proposition: 'There should be an easier way to work out how much people owe you for fuel money'. For the rest of the journey we exchanged ideas: widgets, gadgets, wallets, scanners. We settled on a unique journey identifier which we eventually incorporated into our app in the form of a QR code.