How the Ideas Fund put a Birmingham student in the limelight

Meet Jack Rungay. Jack is a Political Economy undergraduate in his final year at the University of Birmingham. Rewind the clock back to July 2017 and you will find Jack in an interview room applying for funding to help his idea for an event app called Limelight.

Jack was successfully awarded £2,000 to help kickstart his business idea and turn an idea into a working reality...

Limelight app has been created with the intension of offering users... " a platform where every university student can see every university event happening around them in real time"

"The money we were allocated from the Ideas fund was spent on the Android development of Limelight App. The money helped finance the project and allowed us to take money out to pursue marketing promotions for our launch during the University of Birmingham Welcome Week 2017/2018"

"I have learnt that Android development is not easy! The process was a stressful one, particularly when notable bugs and issues were increasing the development time needed. However, I have learnt the importance of making sure I commit 110% to a development like this to ensure we create the best product possible for the user. It's far more important that the product is done right, rather than done easy."

After developing the app, Jack and his Limelight team - armed with doughnuts and charm -set about creating a marketing buzz during Welcome Week and found success by signing up new users. Limelight is now being used by over 2,600 University of Birmingham students of which 1100 are android users on the android platform of Limelight.

"We are now looking for some early stage seed investment to grow the product moving forward. The next plan is to monetise the product through ticketing, allowing event creators to sell tickets for their events on Limelight. This will in turn allow us to generate a business that we know is viable and has the potential to be implemented on campuses across the country. I would say very exciting times ahead!"

As a result, Limelight has been immeasurable in regards to my own personal development. I have learnt a huge amount about such as leadership, pitching, schedule planning and co-ordination. Our plan is to allow Limelight to buy tickets for any event on the platform within 5 clicks or less. We want Limelight to be the only destination to find out about all the events happening around you in real time.

If you are inspired by this story and would like the opportunity to apply for up to £1000 then you can find out more on the B-Enterprising Ideas Fund webpage.