Page 3 - Start Up Special: The Star January 2019

Wednesday,January23,2019 www.thestar.co.uk NINS 13
START-UP SPECIAL
In association with
Making ‘colourful and edgy insurgent films’
In one of Uneek Picture’s first films, Lord Mayor Magid Magid is chased by zombies in Sheffield’s General Cemetery.
It is the crowdfunding vid- eo - and the perfect calling card - for a new social enter- prise which aims to make ‘col- ourful edgy, insurgent films’, set in the city.
Managing director Omar Aysha had been frustrated by the industry’s ‘traditional gatekeepers’ and decided to set up Uneek when creating a business model that bypassed these ‘structural hurdles’ and would also sing the praises of Sheffield.
Based at Sheffield Tech- nology Parks, Arundel Street, Uneek is ‘pre-revenue’ as the team - including finance di- rector Bev Shephard and op- erations director Stephanie Saxemard - create content and backend processes. Omar add- ed: “We work on the business in the evenings and weekends as we haven't got the resources to go full-time.”
Uneek was accepted on to the park's Cooper Pro- ject, which is an incubation scheme for startups. It re- ceived a small grant from the Social Enterprise Exchange.
Jeremy Bennett and Chris Sellars.
Legal eagles aim to be soaring high
Top right:Omar. Below left, Bev and right, Stephanie
A new Sheffield business is set to shake-up Yorkshire’s professional services mar- ket, according to its found- ers, by offering clients legal and finance advice in ‘one complete solution’.
The company, 7 Legal and Finance, brings to- gether Jeremy Bennett, Sa- mantha Sellars and Chris Sellars, who have been in- dependently providing ad- vice to business owners across the Yorkshire region for years.
Jeremy is a qualified law- yer with more than 25 years’ experience in national law practices, in addition to owning his own law firm.
Chris Sellars is a char- tered accountant with extensive commercial ex-
perience including alter- native finance options. The business will offer services including corporate sales and purchases, business restructuring and turna- round, commercial prop- erty transactions, litigation and funding support.
One of the first actions of 7 Legal and Finance has been to acquire the business of Mackenzie Spencer Cor- porate Finance, bringing team members, including Matthew Milnes, into the new operation.
The company, which is in negotiations to open of- fices in Sheffield city centre, achieved its first deal after advising the Panoramic group on the acquisition of Epwin Glass.
Hooked on producing films
Elementary technology
Daniel Bale and Joseph Palmer love filmmaking and decided to set up in business even before they had fin- ished university.
The pair made their first short film and were instantly hooked.
Today, Open House Pic- tures shoots showreels, adverts, wedding videos, cinemagraphs (GIFs) and anything from birthday par- ties and sports matches to music events and nightclub filming.
They’ve recently made videos for the Lantern The- atre and Sheffield Hallam University, “both of which have turned out great and re- ally helped the businesses,” they say.
thrown ourselves into creat- ing content with businesses in order to perfect our craft, we’ve had a steady start in terms of actual jobs and are fully enjoying the process of learning and gaining expe- rience.”
The pair worked on their first short film in 2017.
Joseph said: “We gath- ered a group of people from the local community, vary- ing in ability, to create an au- thentically Sheffield-based film.
“The majority of the peo- ple we had only met once and sowehadtoputalotoftrust and confidence in people being able to perform their tasks.
“The shoot was a success and a great first achievement in our filmmaker careers.”
Manufacturers are always being urged to join the fourth industrial revolu- tion – Elements Technology makes it simple.
Using mobile phones and contactless payment tech- nology, it allows small and medium-sized businesses to track processes and au- tomatically generate docu- mentation.
It uses an app, costing as little as £60, and an internet- based dashboard, requires no additional sensors or devices and is completely ‘plug and play’, with no spe- cial hardware or software required, the founders say.
Sounds good - and it is: within two months of in- corporating, Elements won the Rolls Royce Innovation Award and the Digital Cata- pult Hack and Pitch.
The company was creat-
Dr Joe Handsaker and Dr Pete Harding of Elements Technology
ed in January 2018 by Dr Joe Handsaker, a sports scien- tist and biomechanist, and Dr Pete Harding, a comput- er scientist and mathemati- cian. The concept for using consumer technologies was first discussed when Joe worked within the weara- ble technology industry, and started seeking new uses for existing technologies.
After months of research
and development, Elements joined the Cooper Project at Sheffield Technology Parks in Sheffield city centre, which offers a free service that helps digital business- es get up and running
The platform has been developed with help from Sheffield University’s Ad- vanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the Man- ufacturers’ Alliance and the government’s Digital Cata- pult; as well as manufac- turers in Yorkshire and the North West.
The duo have just hired a front end developer and are looking for an accounts manager. Elements will be launched in April, on a lim- ited release to selected man- ufacturers who can register on the website.
www.elementstechnol- ogy.co.uk
The firm is based at Hal-
lam I-Labs, Aspect Court.
PondHill.Sheffield. www.openhousepic-
Daniel said: “We’ve tures.co.uk
Joseph, left, and Daniel