What's Your Big Idea £5000 first prize unlocked by property tech business SafeKey

A property tech concept by a Middlesex MBA student and a cold energy storage system to cool data centres have won top prizes at What’s Your Big Idea, Middlesex’s annual business pitching competition in partnership with Barnet Council and Barnet & Southgate College.

There were 81 entries to this year’s contest, generously supported by Santander Universities and Brent Cross Shopping Centre with the aim of developing an entrepreneurial culture among Barnet residents and students. Participants vying for a share of the £20,000 award fund went through three stages – applying with a 90 second video clip outlining the problem their business idea addresses and the solution they offer; a series of masterclasses and mentoring sessions with industry experts; and another round of video pitching to narrow down to six finalists.

Listening to contenders’ in-person pitches and fielding them probing questions at the final on Friday 13th June were Ben Martin, MD of secure online data storage and delivery firm Safe4 and Education Chair of the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs; Michael Cheung, Net Zero and Business Advisor for start-up support company Wenta; and Rebeca Najmias, a MDX Digital Marketing MSc alumna and founder of matcha green tea suppliers Matcha Oishii, who was London winner of the 2023 MDXcelerator, a predecessor competition to What’s Your Big Idea.

With teams pitching propositions for the medical, property, retail and data facilities sectors, the judges were tasked with assessing whether founders had the potential to bring their businesses to life, against criteria such as identifying target audience, product offering and financial modelling. Points were awarded on the basis of whether the businesses were solving a genuine problem, if they showed evidence of research, feedback, or early traction, and if they were clear about how they’d use the prize money and how that would accelerate their progress.

The £5,000 first prize in the category of student businesses went to SafeKey: a service to circumvent the stress of getting locked out of one's home by offering rapid replacement key delivery for a monthly fee. The company, providing a secure and convenient alternative to traditional locksmiths, was co-founded by current MDX MBA student Simon Church.

First prize in the Barnet resident category, also for £5000, was awarded to ClathriX, which is developing a energy storage solution to overhaul the cooling of data centres by using energy-absorbing phase change material technology. ClathriX co-founder and Chief Technical Officer, ex-Dyson engineer and energy analyst Ali Izadi, gave a presentation about how the company's system design would lead to significant reductions in energy consumption, cooling costs, water usage and carbon emissions.

Second prize of £3000 in the student category went to Red Squadron, a business set up by MDX Film graduates offering pay-as-you-go, cinema quality content creation for small businesses and creatives, a low cost and more flexible alternative to hiring a social media manager. Third prize for student participants was awarded to pre-medical consultation tool Auriv MedAI, which aims to streamline patient information collection, reduce consultation time and improve the accuracy of diagnoses.

Launching the event, MDX Vice-Chancellor Shan Waring who at one point thought she might go down the start-up route herself said, “I can remember the excitement of thinking I was going to start my own business, and I would own it...

"We really need people with the courage and the innovation and the desire to see a place in the world for themselves. Anybody who has got this far has got something going for them, regardless of what happens the rest of the afternoon. The world depends on that kind of innovation and business nous, courage and persistence.

“We will all benefit ultimately from the economic benefits you bring through your creativity, but we all learn from you as well”. She talked about the stimulus for enterprise from the variety of cultures and traditions in the world, as found in concentrated form at a university.

Barnet small business champion Cllr Ernest Ambe hailed MDX as a trusted partner on Barnet’s business ecosystem, the “cornerstone of the effort to make sure small businesses are heard, supported… connected with new ideas and given the right to succeed”.