Insider speaks to some of the fastest growing tech businesses in the North West at the Northern Tech Awards

Insider Media

At the 12th iteration of GP Bullhound's Northern Tech Awards, Insider spoke to some of the fastest growing tech companies in the North West, including Laura Earnshaw of myHappyMind, who went  on to win the top prize at the prestigious ceremony.

Transcript

00:00So, hi, I'm Laura Earnshaw. I'm the founder and CEO at My Happy Mind, which is a mental

00:07health organisation supporting children in schools to develop strategies to thrive. I

00:12think it went okay. I was first up, first of ten, so it's never fun being first, but

00:16yeah, I think it was okay. It's always interesting and hard to try and crystallise your story

00:20into ten minutes and make sure you're hitting all the points that people want to hear about,

00:23but yeah, I think it went well. Yeah, so I would describe myself as a mum on a mission.

00:28So when I first started My Happy Mind, I really had no idea how I was going to build

00:32it, but I got it into the first school and then I've grown it and grown it from there.

00:36So we're now in 2,000 schools nationally with a huge growth plan ahead. We've been able

00:41to secure funding and backing from the NHS, which has been really powerful in our growth

00:46journey. So yeah, it's been a ride, but it's been a really positive one. And I think society

00:50realises that prevention has to be part of the solution around the crisis with children

00:54and young people's mental health. So we're really well-primed to kind of capitalise on

00:57that momentum now and keep growing. I've always been really focused on impact and my view's

01:02always been, if I get the impact right, the money bit will sort itself out. So I'm focused

01:06genuinely on the metrics of how many kids have we impacted, how many schools are we in.

01:10Thankfully, we've got a really profitable business as well. So that's really helpful,

01:13but the main focus is impacting as many kids as we can across the world. So our next kind

01:18of phase of our expansion is very much looking at the global market. We've got some schools

01:21already, places like Thailand and Spain and in Middle East and Africa as well. So we're

01:28kind of growing in that space, but that's a real focus for us moving forward because

01:31mental health is culturally agnostic and it doesn't discriminate. So the issues that children

01:36are facing here are not dissimilar to the issues that children face all over the world.

01:40Hi, my name is Richard West, Chief Executive of Red Flag Alert. A presentation, it was put together

01:47last minute. We did a rebrand last night. We launched, so I had to put some new slides

01:52together. I say I had to, my team did for me. But yeah, no, look, really, really happy with

01:56how the event went. I think for me, more than just obviously getting to showcase what our

02:00business does as a Northern tech business, it was more about learning more about other technology

02:05companies in the North of England. I think you work in a silo in your industry and actually

02:10looking at some of the amazing founders who are here today, sharing their stories, some fascinating

02:14stories. And yeah, for me, it was just a good opportunity to tell my story, but also to listen

02:20to some of the stories of people in similar positions to myself. Yeah, I think there's

02:26a huge technology ecosystem in Manchester. I still think clearly London is where a lot

02:33of businesses are starting up and a lot of the talent is. But in terms of greater Manchester,

02:37the Northwest as a whole, the North, there's some fantastic technology companies up here,

02:42some amazing people, the workforce, people who tend to work in the North are extremely

02:46loyal, passionate people. So having those in your business is amazing. But yeah, no,

02:52the strength of the technology industry in Manchester is huge. I think the next challenge is how do

02:56we get these businesses access to funding and investment? Because from what you can see

03:00today, there's huge potential in there, huge returns for investors. We've just got to get

03:04more investors fishing in the North versus all that canvassing London.

03:09So I am Javid Huck. I'm a managing director at GP Bullhound, and I look after all of our

03:14activities across the North. The reason why we host the event is because we want to shine a light

03:18on all the great stuff that's happening around the modern technology ecosystem. And bringing everyone

03:22together once a year really helps build that community, build that camaraderie, and also hopefully

03:27get more people from around the country and internationally more interested in what's happening in terms

03:32of the open tech. The ecosystem goes really deep. And this isn't the first time we've

03:37run it. Obviously, this is the 12th time I was running it. And every year we keep finding 10,

03:4020 new companies that are just fantastic businesses. They present unbelievably well to the judges. And

03:44sadly, not everyone can win an award. That doesn't mean that those businesses aren't fantastic in their

03:48own right as well. What comes next? Well, every year we try to make it bigger and better. But we always try

03:53to keep it that same number of people in terms of audience and attendees. But we just want to make sure

03:59that the event creates a bigger noise for the region. It creates more enthusiasm for people

04:03operating across the region and hopefully bring more people into the region in terms of what we're

04:07trying to build and what's being accomplished around here. I am holding the Northern Tech Awards

04:112025 Overall Judges Award, which I'm very excited about. You must be. I mean, has it been a journey,

04:18would you say? It's been a journey. And, you know, there's been some amazing pitches today,

04:22some amazing entrepreneurs and organisations. So to be able to kind of claim the top prize in and amongst

04:27that talent is pretty something. Yeah.

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Transcript

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