Red Button Design Ltd Is Officially 1 Year Old Today!

Despite having began work on the product and concepts back in November 2006, it wasn't until July the following year that we signed our souls away to Companies House, making us officially 1 year old today! And as our previous post details, it has been a very rewarding and eventful 12 months!

To celebrate our 1st Birthday, we are taking down our dull and tawdry website for a few days and re-launching with a dynamic, sexy and informative new site on August 1st. We think this new site will be more representative of the Company we are and the work we're doing, so by all means check back next week for the re-launch!

Amanda & James

Time To Take Stock...

Well we're coming up to the end of our first year and thought it'd be appropriate to take a look back at what an amazing year it has been..

on July 27th 2007 Red Button Design Ltd formally registered at Companies House. By August we were one of 25 global businesses who made it into the Grand Final of the the "Business In Development" Social Business Plan Competition which received over 3,000 entries. Later that month James and I travelled, in great secrecy, to Pinewood Studio's to film "The Dragons Den". Where, despite securing the best deal ever done in the den (all 5 Dragons investing for the original equity offered), we are sworn to legally-enforceable silence until the episode airs! In September Red Button Design travelled out to San Fransisco to receive a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award. We were the only UK company to be recognised in the competition. Not to rest on our laurels, November not only saw Red Button in the Final 5 "Enterprising Young Brits" in the British Chambers of Commerce Competition for the Social & Community Category but we were named the most promising innovative business idea addressing 21st century healthcare and medical challenges in the Oxford Said Business School's National Enterprise Competition. We were awarded a £10,000 prize and put forward for the Oxford SBS 'Global Challenge' where we were also awarded the overall award for Social Enterprise beating 182 entries from 23 countries and netting a further £35,000. December, and our Episode of "The Dragons' Den" airs just before Christmas. James and I finally get to see which 13 minutes of our 2+ hours of interrogation were deemed worthy of screen time! We collapse with relief and the website collapses under the deluge of hits! January 2008 and the new year sees us traveling to India with the UK-India Business Council on a Government Delegation with PM Gordon Brown, to be interviewed live on TV with Richard Branson, Karan Bilimoria, Peter Jones and Gordon. I did manage to get a question in which was answered by the PM and praised for it's insightfulness by the very lovely Richard Branson! We also spent time with a wonderful NGO working on the features of the product with a small village community in Mewat, part of India's poverty belt. We return to find out that Red Button has received £1,000 for winning the Regional heat of the Dumbartonshire Business Gateway Competition and progress to win the National Competition and receive another £4,000. In February I am accepted on to NESTA's Starter for 6 scheme, an intensive four month training programme for young creative entrepreneurs. Entry to this scheme is extremely competitive and is provided at no cost to the companies who are accepted! James gets nominated for "Global Student Entrepreneur 2008" in
March (we're awaiting to see how his application progresses). April saw us reach the last 5 young businesses in the HSBC 'Unipreneurs' competition from over 800 potentials. I completed NESTA's Starter for Six Training Programme in June was nominated as Glasgow University's Young Alumni of and The Company is awarded £7,000 follow on grant funding from NESTA.

*phew!*

So that takes us up to July and we're currently working on a series of educational text books, awaiting the publication of a few magazine articles, raising second-stage funding, re-designing the website and securing our International Patent.

Not bad for our first year I think you'll agree!

A Little Educational Role Play!

A couple of months ago we began working with the BBC on a for-schools programme they were launching based around the Television Series "The Dragons' Den".

It had come to light that a number of schools were using the 'Dragons' Den' format to teach a range of skills from confident presenting and public speaking to interview skills and (of course) business and entrepreneurship. No surprise to us, naturally, we've been involved with a number of student and for-schools programmes since we set our shaky feet in the den! Having belatedly discovered its appeal as a teaching aid the beeb decided they ought to support and encourage this, and contacted a number of the show's previous participants (ourselves included) to collaborate on some teaching materials. The first stage of this plan is a nifty education based game playable online.

It is our understanding that as time goes on the BBC intend to roll out a full education package designed for teachers, "providing unique and relevant teaching materials [to] encourage active classroom participation."

If you're a teacher and you're interested in helping shape this education package or apply for a teaching pack Visit BBC Learning

If you fancy playing James or Myself* on the BBC's shiny new online game Play Online Now!

* of course you could also play the part of one of the Dragons, Imran Hakim, Laban Roomes or Sarah Lu...but why would you when you can play as Red Button Design and challenge yourself to walk away, like us, with the best deal ever reached in the den!

A Note On I.P.

Here's a crash course in IP..

Once upon a time, back in Feb 2007, we submitted a patent for the ROSS which covered us within the UK. A year later, based on some success, we applied for and registered a more detailed International Patent.

Of course this wonderful Internet of ours is a global phenomenon, so we couldn't start disclosing the patentable details of our innovation online until the International application had been signed, sealed and delivered! This includes pictures of prototypes, truly accurate schematics of the technology involved or, infact, anything worth anything really (that's the point!)

We are now approaching the degree of legal security necessary to indulge your curiosities. We thank you for your patience and support.. all that's left now is for you to watch this space ;o)

Keynoting at the SECC

Amanda triumphed over superstition when her keynote marked the launch of the very successful 'Growing Your own Business Conference' at the SECC on Friday 13th June. After welcoming the delegates to a hall packed full of exciting enterprise opportunity, Amanda spoke about our vision for Red Button and the strategies we are using to grow our business.

The event was fantastic for networking, and we met some great people with whom we hope to keep in touch. Talking to others about where we've been is a good touch stone for recognising quite how far we've managed to get, especially during the times when everything seems to be moving forward in slow motion!

James

James - On The EDGE!

Last Thursday Amanda and I met our EDGE team. A couple of years ago I was intending on applying for this summer programme as a student so it is a real pleasure to be involved this year as one of the host companies.

Like all the students involved with the EDGE programme this year, our team (six students from Scotland, England and America) has spent three weeks in an intensive immersion programme, learning about entrepreneurship, enterprise leadership, cross-cultural teamwork, consulting and economic development.

Having been impressed by our team at Thursday's meeting we are really looking forward to working with them over the coming weeks.


James


EDGE provides university students, school pupils and businesses with the opportunity to work together, to their mutual benefit. Second and third year students from Scottish and international universities form consultancy teams with fifth year secondary school pupils and work on projects with Scottish businesses.