Meet the winners of the second Start Something Pitch Night

Start Something is a free programme for Haringey residents aged 18 to 30, delivered by Enterprise Nation for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.   

The free eight-week bootcamp culminated in a Dragon’s Den-style pitch event, where each young entrepreneur had the chance to win up to £1,000 for their businesses. 

In May, the second-ever pitch event took place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It saw eight entrepreneurs deliver their pitches, followed by a brief Q&A with the judging panel that included Polly Dhaliwal, COO, Enterprise Nation and Damian Zabielski from the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation. 

Each pitch was scored on six criteria – delivery,  problem and solution, traction, impact, future plans and use of investment. While the winners were announced at the end of the event, all participants received constructive feedback.  

Funding for the Start Something programme and prize money was provided by Socios.com. 

Winner: Ruun Adan, Wellbeing Through Wealth CIC

Prize: £1,000 

Like most business ideas, Ruun’s was sparked by her own experience with the lack of financial support.  

“Growing up, I had issues with managing money. I was never in debt, but I struggled to save properly and often overspent when I was stressed. Even though I was working, went to university and had a decent job, I realised there wasn’t any help out there for people like me,” she explained.

The support that was available focused on people already in debt or crisis, but there are so many who are just about managing – not in debt but not doing well either. This is where Ruun’s business idea filled the gap. She set up Wellbeing Through Wealth CIC, which combines financial education with emotional support.  

“I want to help people like me who are working hard but still struggling to feel in control of their money and wellbeing,” she added. 

Starting something 

So Ruun had the idea, but like many, didn’t know where to start. That is when, serendipitously, she came across the Start Something programme online.

She explained:

“What made me want to join was the chance to learn from experts, meet other people on a similar journey and get help building something that can really make a difference. I’ve got the passion and the ideas, and I saw this programme as a great way to build confidence and take the right steps to get my business off the ground. 

“The marketing and online presence workshops were the most beneficial for me. I’ve always struggled with how to show up online in a way that feels natural but still professional.” 

Ruun has now started building her online presence and has a clearer structure for the business. The workshops also gave her the practical knowledge she needed to take real steps, not just plan in her head. For example, she didn’t know how to use Companies House or what documents were needed to register, but now she has a clear understanding of the process. 

Staying focused  

“I had the passion and ideas, but it was hard to stay focused or know what to prioritise,” Ruun pointed out, something that a lot of entrepreneurs can empathise with.  

Managing your time while juggling work, parenting and trying to build a business can be daunting for anyone. But lucky for Ruun, the programme broke everything down step by step and made it easier to understand and act.  

Next steps 

Ruun hit a big milestone during the programme – she incorporated the business and now plans to keep scaling with a target of £100,000 in sales in her first year.  

“My focus is on growing my online presence, refining my services and reaching more people in the community. I also want to start building partnerships and collaborations that align with my vision,” she envisioned.  

Runner up: Mariana Pihur, The Language Developer (TheLang.Dev) 

Prize: £500 

For Mariana, the programme was the last piece of the puzzle to finally “start something”.  

“I’ve been thinking about it for years,” she explained. “My first draft of a language learning app goes back to 2019, when I was studying Mandarin at university.  

“Moving to the UK and learning how to code changed a lot for me. Joining 42London, a peer-to-peer, project-based coding school, was a huge step.”  

Overcoming the nightmare 

Pitching was Mariana's “nightmare”. So, for her, the practical workshops, especially legal, branding and pitching, were most useful.  

“I get nervous in front of an audience. Even after rehearsing five times, I still forgot my lines, had to check my notes and even clicked the wrong slides. But having strong core sentences and a clear structure helped me still get eight out of 10 slides across. I hit the last important one – finances – just as the bell rang,” Mariana recalled. 

And she credits a lot of this to her mentor, Laura Derbyshire, founder of OSER. She explained: “Laura helped me shape my pitch deck, rethink the flow of the presentation and add ‘wake-up lines’ – questions or bold statements at the start of each slide. That alone made a big impact.” 

The aha moment 

Mariana’s The Language Developer is a tool to help teachers estimate a learner’s language level and find YouTube videos that match both the learner’s interests and ability. 

When she was learning Chinese and English, watching videos helped her feel connected to the real world, but it was also painful to constantly run into unfamiliar words. Mariana found textbooks alone boring, but real-world content often felt too tough. 

“Unless you already know the vocabulary used in that topic, it can be frustrating,” she explained. “TheLang.Dev helps teachers find videos like that in minutes, or warns when a video might be too difficult and packed with new words. 

“When I discovered the core problem, it just clicked. I designed the prototype in a day and suddenly had this huge drive to make it real. It was an incredible moment.” 

Future plans 

Mariana admits that the programme helped her see the business as a system – solving a problem, understanding costs and revenue, marketing, branding, customer discovery, pitching and impact. She hopes to bring each of these elements together as a solo founder to make The Language Developer a “real product!”, helping teachers, students, and building a community around it. 

Celebrating talent and determination 

Monica Yohannes, project coordinator at Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, said: 

"The Start Something Pitch Night was a powerful celebration of the talent and determination of young people in our community.  

“As coordinator, it was inspiring to see how much each participant had grown and how confidently they pitched their ideas. It showed the real impact of providing the right support and opportunity." 

Polly Dhaliwal, two-time judge and COO of Enterprise Nation, added:  

“I'm in awe of the energy, passion and delivery from a group of young entrepreneurs who have had eight weeks to move their ideas into a physical product or service.  

“From football coaching sessions in the local area to providing financial advice to minority young females – it felt like these businesses were serving a need for the community.  

“Long may this programme continue, especially at a time when we're seeing high numbers of youth unemployment, this is where we need to lean into the younger generation and support them.” 

And it isn’t over yet! You can take part in the third instalment of the Tottenham Start Something bootcamp via the link. 

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