£45k fellowship
helps business
graduate develop
convenience
meals for IBS
sufferers
A
young entrepreneur who is creating food solutions
for people suffering from IBS has gained an incredible
£45,000 cash injection for her business thanks to a
prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship.
Lauren Leisk, a young business graduate from QMU, is one of only
20 entrepreneurs selected as an RSE Unlocking Ambition Enterprise
Fellow. The initiative supports high potential entrepreneurs to start
up their businesses in Scotland, and will assist Lauren with bespoke
advice, grant funding and business development support to take
her specialist food company, Fodilicious, to the next level.
Having discovered a gap in the market for fresh, healthy
convenience foods suitable for people coping with various digestive
disorders, 24-year-old Lauren has been sweeping the boards in
several national entrepreneurial competitions over the summer.
However, the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Unlocking Ambition
initiative, backed by Scotland’s First Minister, is perhaps one of
the most significant awards for the young entrepreneur.
Although Lauren had experienced some IBS issues in her teens,
by the age of 20 she could no longer ignore them. As a business
student at QMU, juggling study and work, she had an increasingly
busy lifestyle. Often eating on the go, her symptoms of discomfort,
pain and bloating intensified and despite her best efforts, she
struggled to find readily available food products suitable for her
condition, as most were full of additives and preservatives.
However, Lauren decided to turn a negative into a positive. She
used her personal experience and her business skills to set up
Fodilicious - plugging the gap for tasty, nutritional foods and freshly
prepared meals for people with IBS.
Lauren explained: “After years of struggling with IBS, I discovered
the low FODMAP diet which eliminates all trigger foods that can
set off IBS symptoms. Despite the word ‘diet’, a low FODMAP
approach is not focused on weight loss – instead it limits foods
high in a group of sugars called FODMAPs that have been shown
to aggravate the gut, and therefore eases symptoms associated
with IBS such as bloating, pain and gas.”
She continued: “I decided to prepare recipes substituting normal
ingredients for low FODMAP alternatives, and the results were
fantastic!”
In September 2017, Lauren created Fodilicious, an innovative and
UK exclusive food manufacturing business providing convenient,
healthy meal options following the low FODMAP diet, (IBS-friendly).
The Fodilicious products are also gluten-free and dairy-free, and
cover a range of special dietary requirements, effectively positioning
Fodilicious in the fast growing ‘free from’ food market.
20
QMYOU / Supporting Entrepreneurship
Lauren, whose business is based in Livingston, said: “I’ve been
working with experts at QMU on a new snack product, which will
be launching soon, and I am a tenant of the University’s Business
Innovation Zone (BIZ). The BIZ offers QMU graduate entrepreneurs
access to free space and business support via Business Gateway,
as well as networking and funding opportunities. This is an
important university service which provides useful facilities and
guidance to new graduates during the early stages of their business
development.”
Miriam Smith, QMU’s Business Development Manager, said:
“QMU has been delighted to see Lauren making such an impact in
Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosytem and winning several thousand
pounds to support her future business development. Her success
with the RSE means that she will now benefit from a 12-month
cutting-edge company start-up programme.”
This is the first time that QMU has been awarded an enterprise
fellowship which, in addition to supporting the graduate, provides
financial assistance to the University to continue hosting Lauren
within its Business Innovation Zone.
However, this is not the only major competition in which Lauren
has had success. Recently, she received a £10,000 award from
Scottish Edge competition, which supports entrepreneurs and
start-ups. She also held her own against some of the country’s most
ambitious entrepreneurs from the UK’s top universities, taking the
runner-up position in the finals of the highly prestigious Santander
Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. In addition, Lauren was one
of the first entrepreneurs to be supported through the Merchant
Company of Edinburgh’s Enterprise Fund, with an award of £3,500.
Miriam Smith concluded: “Lauren is an impressive young woman
who has identified an important gap in the specialist food market for
people with digestive disorders who want to eat well and maintain
good health. We are so proud of what Lauren has achieved in
such a short time since graduating. She is an excellent alumni
ambassador for QMU. Her vision to service a growing market with
a suitable diet for their health requirements fits well with QMU’s
mission of developing graduates who have the skills and ability
to improve the quality of people’s lives.”
Lauren concluded: “2018 has been one of the most exciting
and demanding years of my life. I am so grateful that
QMU has supported me through these quite gruelling
competitions. It has been good to share some
of the journey and the successes. I have
certainly felt that staff at QMU
really care about me and are
truly invested in helping
their entrepreneurial
graduates succeed.
“I’m really
passionate about
Fodilicious and
am delighted
to have the
investment from
the competitions, and the
business support from the RSE,
Scottish Edge, Santander and QMU’s
Business Development Manager, to assist
me in taking Fodilicious to the next level.” ❒