Accelerator Demo Day success stories – one year on

The University of Sussex recently held its annual Accelerator Demo Day, featuring more than 20 pitches from budding student entrepreneurs who have taken part in a six-week programme of workshops and training sessions throughout the summer.

Demo Day is just one part of the enterprise calendar that runs throughout the academic year at Sussex, with many of the most promising ideas receiving cash prizes and moving onto the incubator programme overseen by the Sussex Innovation team. The year eventually culminates with the StartUp Sussex competition, which sees the founders pitch for more significant funding to take their enterprises forward.

With this year’s cohort just setting out on their journey, it seems an appropriate time to take a look back at a select few students who pitched at last year’s Demo Day, and find out more about their successes over the intervening 12 months.

Social Impact Newbie

Social Impact Newbie is a training and support community for young people who want to build a career in the social impact sector, but lack the connections. Founder Berta Santos was a StartUp Sussex award winner in April, receiving £1,000 to continue growing her business. Social Impact Newbie has grown consistently throughout 2023 and 2024 – it now has more than 450 members on its books. Berta has accumulated more than 16k followers on LinkedIn where she has become recognised as a ‘Top Voice’ on social impact.

Viv

Mother and daughter team Steph and Brinn have been prototyping and securing trademarks for their first product, designed to minimise the risk of contamination in healthcare facilities. As they move closer to developing their MVP, they have been engaging with local stakeholders and potential customers to gather feedback and inform the future direction of the product.

Lofted

Lofted have just finished creating their MVP, and are now at the end of the Venture Creation Year.

Chat Legal

Chat Legal won the Sussex Big Ideas contest and went to pitch in California. Sarah was interviewed recently by World Justice Tech, and she is working with David Ade (a previous student entrepreneur) as her tech partner.

Chat Legal is an AI-powered legal helper that assists with basic legal queries quickly and cost-effectively, offering documentation and compliance support for employment disputes, family law, immigration, civil rights and intellectual property.

Groov

Groov is a jukebox app that enables venues to curate a consistent vibe and visitors to playlist their favourite music straight from their phone on nights out. After a year in development, founders Dylan and Mat launched a beta version of Groov onto the App Store in July, with plans to run test events around Brighton and Montreal and gather feedback from venues and audiences.