Hand-Pumped emerges victorious from international ‘Dragons Den’
By: JimOldfield
July 17th, 2012
It’s official: a “Dragon’s Den” of media experts has agreed on what you already know…
Your Hand-Pumped website has been judged to be a winning digital venture – by a university and business project spanning three continents!
This site, which only launched in March, has been picked as one of just six businesses to receive special business mentoring from experts at Britain’s leading university centre for journalism.
Jim Oldfield, the former national newspaper journalist and award-winning editor who created Hand-Pumped, was among 30 new digital entrepreneurs, hand-picked to attend a weekend ‘business camp’ at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in Preston.
Those selected for the Media and Digital Entrepreneur (MADE) event came from as far afield as Canada and Nigeria, as entrepreneurs behind a host of new media projects ranging from websites to TV stations.
Over a total of 24 hours, their products and business strategies were examined in fine detail by a squad of mentors, led by UCLAN Director of Journalism Leadership, Francois Nel. >Each venture was the required to make a presentation on their product, before a panel of judges.
As a result, Hand-Pumped was one of just six businesses chosen to receive special mentoring in a business ‘Hothouse’ over the next three months – after a unanimous decision by the panel.
One of the judges, Arthur Porter, publisher of the Business Journal Chester, said: “It was a very difficult decision, due to the abundance of talent and excellent projects on show.
“The MADE UK Start-up Weekend churned out an array of amazing journalistic entrepreneurs.”
Oldfield said: “It is very gratifying to have been earmarked by a panel of top businessmen with a speciality for journalism, as a venture which they think has a great chance of success.
“We founded Hand-Pumped to bring our proven journalistic excellence to the world of real ale, and to be a clarion voice and promoter for all that is good in the industry.
“Thanks to the help and mentoring of the UCLAN MADE project, we now have the opportunity to underpin that journalism, with the best start-up business leadership and advice around, in our quest to be the UK’s – if not the world’s – number one website for real ale brewing news.
