Page 10 - Survey 2020: The Star Business

10 THESTAR www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday,January22,2020
START-UP SPECIAL
In association with
Adiam Amanuel, founder of events/experience app 721.
Tinder tips for tourist attractions
Rinri Therapeutics is pioneering a therapy that could help profoundly deaf people hear again.
It uses stem cells injected into the inner ear to regen- erate damage, restoring hearing levels by around 40 per cent - enough to hear a conversation.
Currently there are no drug treatments, hearing aids or implants for this type of hearing loss.
Rinri was launched following investment from a syndicate of venture capital funds last year. It came after research showed stem cells could be used to treat deafness, prompting founder and CSO Marcel Rivolta to seek funding for clinical trials.
Chief executive Dr Simon Chandler said: “Rinri is working at the cutting edge of science and medicine, breaking totally
new ground.
“Experience is there-
fore thin on the ground, so our main initial difficul- ties sit with sourcing this knowledge and understand- ing how we progress and develop the technology technically, scientifically and clinically. It is not like running a typical company where the biggest problem may be being unable to increase sales, in a biotech you effectively stay in the research and development phase for a long period to develop a very valu- able asset. That said, we are doing well in meeting our initial milestones, tran- sitioning the technology away from the lab, getting it to clinical quality and towards first human trials.” Rinri is based at the Inno- vation Centre, Portobello, Sheffield city centre. www. rinri-therapeutics.com
Helpingdeaf peoplehearagain withtherapy
Adiam Amanuel was the person other travellers would ask what to do and where to go on trips to far flung countries.
But in India particularly, A LOT of people seemed to be in the dark, she says, which was a shame because there were so many things happening.
Adiam, an experienced
traveller who had done her research, had the information but no way to share it. She said: “I was sat on a train from Chennai to New Delhi, reading my notes when the idea hit me - a tool where people can find out what’s going on in their local area, or the area they are travelling in, with suggestions
tailored to them.”
Adiam won a tech start-up
weekend with the 721 app (7 continents into 1) and it launched in the Google Play Store in September. Focused on Sheffield at first, she has partnered with local busi- nesses including twiddlefood, oakleycraft, and food hall
Kommune who have submit- ted listings. And it comes with a simple Tinder-style ‘swipe left’ and ‘swipe right’ accept or reject feature that helps improve suggestions. By the end of January, 721 aims to launch an ios version. 721 is in the Cooper Project at Sheffield Technology Parks, Sheffield.
Marcel Rivolta.
Recruitment goes mobile
Language business skills
Workzone is a social me- dia recruitment platform that makes hiring people easier and use video to allow applicants to tell more about themselves and show their personality.
Co-Founder and CEO, Su- san Ismail, said: “We believe visual communication is the new way of hiring individuals who fit the employer’s team. One of our core business val- ues is to allow individuals to showcase their skills and abilities on our platform.”
Workzone also uses job mapping via geolocation and is also working on an inter-
Susan Ismail and Robin Edwards.
national job search and inter- view facility for employers.
Parent company 7Tecvis- uals Ltd is part of the Cooper Project at Sheffield Science
Park on Arundel St.
The firm has signed its
first major contract with The Source Academy in Sheffield, which is posting vacancies on the app. In the UK between 2015-2018, there was a 15 per cent increase in mobile job searches.
The UK recruitment in- dustry is worth and estimate £35.7bn. Co-founder J Rob- in Edwards added: “Signing a contract with The Source shows the concept works. And we have created new videos to help individuals be creative with their applica- tions.” www.workzone.app
My name’s Christopher James Shelton and transla- tion is my game!
Having studied three Eu- ropean languages at the Uni- versity of Sheffield, I founded CSTranslations. Based in Kel- ham Island, I not only offer French and German transla- tion but also proof-reading andpost-editingservices.The idea to launch came about naturally. At school, I was al- ways keen to pursue a career involving languages. Then came university and living abroad in both France and Germany. Having worked for international agencies, I
Christopher James Shelton.
always thought it’d be good to work for myself. It’s been successful in that I’m up and running! I definitely under- estimated how much work is involved when you go it alone. I’ve found some loyal cus-
tomers who send me regular work for which I am grateful andtheyseemsatisfied.I’dsay the biggest challenge to date has been finding new clients andgettingmynameoutthere – this is still very much work in progress! Translation can be quite competitive, as there are some big players in the market, so taking them on is a daunting task.
Yet, this makes me stand out. If you choose CSTransla- tions, I’ll be your point of con- tact from start to finish.
No surprises and no hid- den fees.
www.cstranslations.co.uk