Sussex University Graduate wins Startup Grind Pitch Battle
Startup Grind is the world’s largest entrepreneur community with chapters in over 600 cities. The Brighton community ran their yearly Pitch Battle in partnership with local investor network South East Angels to crown Brighton’s best pitch.
Eight founders were selected from the pool of applicants to pitch their business to a live audience and a panel of expert judges including an Associate Director from Earnst & Young and the Director of The Good Business Club. A prize package including support from South East Angels with raising investment was awarded to the winner.
After an epic battle and pitches from a diverse set of businesses, the winner was announced as 24-year-old Joshua, a Business & Management graduate from Sussex University.
Joshua’s startup, Buddyng, is a global travel app connecting travellers worldwide. Users can instantly scroll through a list of people nearby or worldwide, filtering by interests and demographic to find compatible people to travel with.
During his pitch, Joshua shared the origins of his business idea, he said “Travelling alone in Los Angeles in summer 2018 I walked around the city feeling lonely, lost, and unsafe. I knew there were people around me who would love to explore together, but I had no way of contacting them.”
Joshua walked away with a package of prizes including AWS and Hubspot credits, free access to Startup Grind events for a whole year, and 1:1 sessions with three different experts to help him grow his business.
Speaking of his journey so far, Joshua says: ‘Meeting experienced people from all areas of business has helped me as a young entrepreneur, as well as talks from respected role models of mine.’ Buddyng is now seeking investment to bring more experience to the team and to continue to develop the proposition.
Kristina, Director of South East Angels said, “It was great seeing the participants pitching such interesting and fresh ideas. It really showcased the innovation and creativity of the Brighton entrepreneur community. We look forward to supporting Joshua on his fundraising journey”
Startup Grind runs events in Brighton every month to bring entrepreneurs together to create opportunities they need to build, grow, and scale their ideas.