Page 6 - Start Up Special: The Star January 2019

16 NINS www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday,January23,2019
START-UP SPECIAL
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Simply Connect Solutions is an all-female, ‘tech-for-good’ company that helps people improve their health, well- being and social welfare.
In Sheffield, if you’ve ev- er looked for a volunteering role, chances are you’ve used Simply Connect’s volunteer- ing platform.
But the firm has a much bigger reach than that. It has 70 customers nation- ally - mostly in the volun- tary and community sector - and works with the NHS on a new initiative called ‘so- cial prescribing’ which con- nects people to community
services. Some 20 per cent of people visiting their GPs are for non-medical issues such as debt, loneliness, bereave- ment – Simply Connect’s digital platform provides a gateway to services that can help.
The firm was established by Sirinda Bhandal, Judith Lennox, Sarah Grindrod in July 2018.
Sirinda said: “Our strengths lie in understand- ing our customer needs, and offering a personalised ser- vice.
“We pride ourselves on building great relationships
and involve our customers to co-design new digital so- lutions.
“As an all-female compa- ny we can often feel out-num- bered in a male dominant industry. This is noticeable when we attend digi-health conferences – however the upside is that we rarely have to queue for the loo!”
Sirinda designed the soft- ware while working for Vol- untary Action Sheffield. It turned into successful busi- ness and last summer the trio bought it from VAS.
www.simplyconnectsolu- tions.co.uk
Judith Lennox, Sirinda Bhandal and Sarah Grindrod.
Reality among virtual world
Boxes to stay fit and healthy
Virtual Pixel is a virtual and augmented reality studio that, despite still being set up, already has an impres- sive pedigree.
Co-founders Diogo Sal- gado and Tania Silvestre collaborated with Sheffield illustrator Geo Law in pro- ducing a VR game for the HTC Vive called Slice ‘N’ Dice. And while at Sheffield Hallam University they won “various awards and recogni- tions,” Diogo said.
He added: “After some downtime when we finished university, we met Playwerks co-founder, Scott Knowles in
Diogo Salgado and Tania Silvestre of Virtual Pixel
December last year.
“He really pushed for us
to start our own start-up, developing and selling ap- plications using VR and AR technologies.
“It wasn’t something we had considered until we met Scott, as we preferred the safety of being employed by someone else.
“However, we agreed that it would be good to give this opportunity a go, as it would be at least a great way for us to make a start in the indus- try.
“We’re in the process of prototyping the implemen- tation of augmented reality into other types of media, whilst carrying on with pro- jects we started at university and we’re confident in what we can achieve with this!”
Diet subscription boxes are big in Poland and now three ex-pats have launched a scheme in Sheffield.
Eat Fit Box offers menus for weight loss and sports, as well as vegetarian and halal options. Each box supplies five meals and delivery is free in Sheffield.
Founder Krzysztof Row- inski launched the service with partners, Roman and Sylwia, in March last year.
Diet subscription is big business in Eastern Europe, Warsaw alone has more than 20,000 customers, it is claimed.
Roman Szczypek, Krzysztof Row- inski and Sylwia Wojtala
Krzysztof said the biggest obstacle in the UK was the low price of unhealthy food compared to eating well.
“For us, every client’s a
success. One who chang- es their eating habits to a healthier one, is another.
“Clients say they’ve more time for themselves, spend with family, waste less food.
“Business isn’t easy, any- one in catering will tell you that. We were on the verge of giving up. It felt as if our mission to educate people on healthy eating was falling on deaf ears.
“But we persevered, turned things around. To- day, we’ve built up a regular client base and the results help sell our diets.”
www.eatfitbox.co.uk
Triathlon coaching sessions
Games to help team-building
Former solicitor Oliver Sax- on gave it all up to coach tri- athlon to people who want to represent their country, or simply get fit.
He started in 2013 but de- cided to make it his job, and after training and mentor- ing from ‘the world’s best triathlon coaches’, set up An- imis Racing Triathlon Team last year.
Oliver, who lives in Win- cobank, coaches athletes online and the Sheffield Hallam University Triath- lon Team using world class methods that have produced gold medalists and world champions, he says.
Triathlon coach Oliver Saxon with his parents, who are also coaches.
Who doesn’t love a good board game?
There’s nothing quite like them for connecting people. That’s why Katie Bain set up a company using games for team-building, training, and parties. Games Explor- ers aims to help businesses motivate staff and provide training in a fun way.
Katie has even started creating board games of her own. She said: “I’ve always enjoyed games, and I saw this as an opportunity to bring something new into the workplace. I’ve made a game for use in training for accident and incident inves-
tigation, and have a couple of other health and safety based games in the pipeline.
“It can be difficult some- times getting people to un- derstand about how games can help with team building and training, and getting past some preconceptions.”
Katie operates in Shef- field and surrounding are- as, though travel further is an option. Games Explorers holds monthly events at the ‘On Broadway Dance Studio’ on Ecclesall Road so people can find out about modern games.
www.gamesexplorers.
com Katie Bain
Ponds Forge sports cen- tre has been helpful, offering him “great pool swimming times in a great location.”
He added: “Seeing the young people in the uni squad, some who have not tried triathlon before, learn to swim and progress in their training has been our
biggest success so far. I al- ways concentrate on watch- ing my athletes and am making notes about how we can improve them, some- times with dangerous conse- quences. Many a time I have been doing this at pool side and nearly walked into the pool - or fell in!”