How NatWest Accelerator helped these small businesses find their footing

There's a point in building a business where you can feel both committed and stuck.

You've started and you're serious about it. But you're still trying to work out what the business really is, who can help and how to make decisions without second-guessing every step.

If you're new to NatWest Accelerator, read our full guide, which explains what's included and how the app and hubs work.

Gavin Dell and Hanna Latif-Walmsley both found themselves in that position when they joined NatWest Accelerator, though they arrived there from different places.

The founder of Lead with Impact, Gavin joined in September 2025 with early revenue already coming in.

He wasn't short on experience or ideas, but he did lack a clear view of where his business was going. He says:

"I knew I had something valuable to offer, but I hadn't fully defined the problem I was solving or the direction I wanted to build towards."

Hanna, founder of Laika Family, was at an earlier stage. Her business was incorporated and she'd done some light market research, but that was as far as it went.

She explains:

"I had an idea, but I didn't know what to do next. I had no idea how to pitch, how to connect with other businesses, where to look for guidance, how to access funding and everything in between."

Why NatWest Accelerator appealed

For both of them, the appeal of NatWest Accelerator came back to something simple.

They wanted to be around people who understood what it meant to build a business when there's no map in front of you.

For Gavin, that mattered immediately. He talks about the loneliness that can creep in once you leave a structured career and start building on your own.

No team around you, and no-one to test your thinking with. No obvious place to take the half-formed ideas that still need work. That made the founder community a big part of the draw.

Gavin says:

"There's something powerful about surrounding yourself with people who are working towards their dreams, building a future and backing themselves every day."

Hanna's first experience of the programme came through a coffee morning. She expected a single event.

Instead, she found herself pulled into the rhythm of the hub and started coming in two or three times a week.

"The community already there made me feel so welcome. The conversations I had spurred me on."

What these founders found most useful

That sense of welcome comes up a lot in how both founders describe the programme.

Gavin and Hanna both describe finding a place where people are open with each other, generous with their time and honest about the realities of building something from scratch.

How it helped Gavin

For Gavin, the most useful part has been the combination of one-to-one coaching and peer support.

The coaching helped him sharpen his thinking and get more deliberate about the choices he was making. The founder community gave him a different kind of value – candid conversations with people facing similar pressure.

That support helped him make a shift that many founders struggle to name when they're in the middle of it.

He stopped treating the business as a collection of things he was doing and started building it with more intent.

"I came in with capability but not clarity. I now have both."

That change fed directly into the work. He used the programme to develop his brand, offer and positioning with more focus.

Before joining, much of what he had was still theoretical. The coaching helped turn that into something more solid.

Since then, he's built a SaaS platform, delivered workshops, established the brand and developed a clearer view of where Lead with Impact is heading.

How it helped Hanna

Hanna found the support in slightly different ways. She points first to the hub team, who she says have been consistently available for encouragement, introductions and one-to-ones.

Then there's the wider group of founders, people at different stages who help each other out and share what they know.

One story captures that well. After buying a domain name for her website, Hanna hit a wall. She didn't know how to turn it into something presentable.

Through conversations at the hub, she met another founder, Adam, who knew exactly what he was doing. She couldn't afford to pay him, so they worked out a skills swap.

He built the site. She helped by proofreading and reformatting some of his blog content.

It's the kind of practical help that rarely shows up in grand statements about business support, but it's often the thing that makes progress possible.

You meet the right person, you swap knowledge and you keep forging ahead.

The emotional side of business

Hanna says plainly that she doesn't think she'd still be doing it without access to other founders.

They understand the strange hours, the stress and the mental strain that comes with trying to get a business off the ground.

Her confidence has grown "massively" since joining. She says the experience has also helped her trust her gut, stay close to her values and build a small circle of people she can rely on.

Gavin talks about confidence too, but in his case it seems to have come from getting clearer on what he's building and why.

He now feels more certain that the problem he's solving is real, that his approach is credible and that he belongs in the space he's stepping into.

The practical benefits of NatWest Accelerator

Gavin points out that people are often surprised when he tells them the programme is free and includes workspace, Wi-Fi, coffee, support and a community of founders.

In his experience, some people hold back because they assume there must be a catch.

He also credits the Birmingham hub with opening up opportunities he wouldn't otherwise have had access to, including workshops, events, award evenings and new connections that have widened his network.

Hanna's view of the future is less fixed, but no less telling. She says the next phase of the business is still taking shape, but she's confident the Accelerator will be there alongside her.

That probably gets closest to what these stories say about the programme.

It doesn't hand founders a finished answer. But it does give them space, support and people around them while they work things out.

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