Sheffield business competition crowns its winners

The competition, which began as a part of Sheffield City Council’s LearnFest initiative, this year received over 8,000 entries from 50 countries. It aims to provide cash support, mentoring and business development to promising businesses which aim to make a social change.

Previous winners have included Josef Cool, whose business Iz It Cool won the competition in Sheffield in 2014 - he produces socially concious grooming products for men and has gone on to sell his products worldwide including having them featured on the billboards in Times Square, New York.

Secretary of State for Energy and Business Greg Clark MP has praised Adam’s initiative, stating: “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and Adam Bradford’s initiative, the Adam Start Entrepreneurship Challenge, is an inspiring competition to support aspiring young entrepreneurs looking to get their start-up ideas off the ground.

“This government believes that wherever you live and whatever your age, everyone deserves the chance to turn a great business idea into a reality and Adam’s work to encourage young, creative entrepreneurs exemplifies this spirit.”

This year, the competition opened its doors internationally and received almost 8,000 entries from countries all around the world.

Today, its winner has been revealed as Mariam Adil from Pakistan, whose business creates games to solve social issues. She takes home a cash prize of £1,000, funded by Adam himself, a year of mentoring support and access to mentors and contacts to build her business.

Highly commended runner up is Mahmoud Al Hammouri from Jordan, the founder of Gattaa, a mentoring and tutoring service based out of Amman.

The business brings personalised learning to higher education through a peer-to-peer, in-person tutoring platform.

Adam has self-funded the competition since 2013, stating that building the economy and encouraging young people needs to be led by other young people themselves: “I am so impressed at our winner and runner up’s commitment and drive and their ability to have turned a social problem into a solution and a thriving business. Sheffield needs to take a leaf out of the book of young people creating change every single day in our back yards and further afield.”

Adam’s business career began as he won prizes in the BiG Challenge business competition whilst still in school, as he took home over £10,000 worth of prize money and picking up Dragon’s Den success story Levi Roots as his mentor. He since graduated from the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy at Sheffield College and became a national ambassador for Peter’s foundation. He was handed the Queen’s Young Leader title by Her Majesty The Queen last year for his work developing the Sheffield community and supporting young people.