Medical student secures funding at Future Worlds Dragons’ Den event
A fourth-year medical student has secured £20,000 to expand her first aid training business.
Laura Brunning, who is currently completing the BM6 course, runs Hampshire First Aid, which delivers paediatric first aid qualifications in people’s homes.
Laura secured the funding at this year’s Future Worlds Dragons’ Den event where she had to pitch her idea to four investors in front of a packed Student’s Union.
She said: “I have absolutely loved teaching and I know that it has helped me become much more confident in my clinical knowledge and in talking to patients about common medical conditions. It has also been hugely rewarding and I could see that this would be a good job for other students like me."
Laura, who has been running Hampshire First Aid for three years, will use the funding, which was invested by Chris Broad, Apple Director of Sales Contracting EMEIA, to expand the service in Hampshire and start running different branches across the UK, using fellow students to deliver the courses.
She added: “I am incredibly grateful to Chris for the investment but also for the confidence he has in me. I hope to be able to expand the business to allow more medical students to enjoy teaching and develop professionally. The standard of teaching will be very high quality and I have no doubt that customers will be extremely happy to welcome such passionate, knowledgeable and talented students into their home to teach them first aid.”
Laura was one of four student start-up businesses in the event who all secured funding ranging from £20,000 to £100,000. Two other start-ups also took part, but their businesses were thought to be too premature for investment. Each start-up had to present on stage and then had to answer questions.
Alongside Chris Broad, the other Dragon investors were Andrew Doe, serial digital entrepreneur and founder of confetti.co.uk, Sonja Lami, angel investor and Insight Investment Fund Manager and Nick Lawton, Chairman of the Lawton Communications Group.
The pitching event is an annual showcase of a growing student enterprise culture at the University of Southampton and was supported on Saturday by the Fish on Toast, Entrepreneurs Club and Enactus Southampton societies.
Dr Reuben Wilcock, Future Worlds Director, said: “It’s been great to see an infectious entrepreneurial culture building on campus in recent years which now seen over £450,000 pledged on-stage to student start-ups at our four annual pitching events. The student entrepreneurs really impressed the investors on Saturday with their passion, professionalism and presentation, and it will be exciting to see what their fledgling businesses can achieve in the coming years.
For more information visit https://futureworlds.com/news-record-breaking-den/