6 | Aycliffe Today Business
Phillip Pringle (left) and Clare Owen, from Durham-based Lostbox Ltd, in front of the HUB
Partnership Dragons (left to right) Harlands Accountants managing director Glyn Davison, newlyformed Thrive Marketing Limited directors Rachel Townsend Green (formerly Au Fait) and Johnny
Woods (formerly Echo Graphics) and Growth Capital Ventures director Craig Peterson.
LOST & FOUND
BUSINESS SCOOPS
£100K
BUSINESS PRIZE
North-East entrepreneurs
who started a unique lost and
found website have scooped
a competition worth £100,000
to help grow their exciting
business and relocate to Aycliffe
Business Park.
Lostbox was set up in February 2013 after
founder Clare Owen, from Durham, found a
priceless piece of jewellery during a Premier
League football game.
Clare has made several attempts to reunite
the ring with its owner - she still has the ring
- but during the process spotted a potential
idea to launch a lost and found website due
to the lack of a such site in the UK.
In just a year, Lostbox now has 50,000
followers on Twitter and 5,000 ‘likes’ on
Facebook after a host of success stories,
including one involving celebrity comedian
Rufus Hound, who used Lostbox to try to
reunite a baby’s comforter blanket that he
found in London.
Lostbox has now won ‘Achieve Your Dream’,
a business competition with £100,000-worth
of back-up including office space and a raft of
support including mentoring, marketing and
accounting.
Mimicking the hit BBC TV programme
Dragons’ Den, the ‘Achieve Your Dream in
2014’ competition was organised by The HUB
Partnership, based at The HUB Workspace on
Aycliffe Business Park.
It was open to any company of any kind –
existing or start-up – with the winner bagging
a package of services including office space,
marketing and social media strategies,
accountancy, taxation and financial strategy
support, training, PR and mentoring support
to develop a strategic growth plan.
Entries were shortlisted to just three, who
‘pitched’ their idea to the judges and faced a
grilling in the final part of the competition.
The ‘Dragons’ listened to presentations
from three existing businesses, with Clare
and Phillip Pringle from Lostbox bagging the
prize.
“Winning Achieve Your Dream 2014 has been
the icing on the cake of what has been a
busy and successful 12 months, said Clare.
”
“We’re extremely excited for the future and
thrilled to have an opportunity to work with
professionals in each area of our business,
to catapult Lostbox to the next phase of
growth.
”
Lostbox works very much like an Ebay or
Gumtree. A user can create an account, post
a description and attach a picture. Lostbox
then uses