Young Innovator strides to success with St John’s Projects Team support

Tom Graver from the St John’s Projects Team has been using his knowledge of innovation management and commercialisation to support Innovate UK’s Young Innovators initiative. Over the past year Tom has been intensively supporting entrepreneur Ryan Bell as he has worked to establish Tech Balance, a company focused on helping students understand their relationship with technology and achieve a better tech-life balance. Since winning the Young Innovators Award, Ryan has developed a dedicated curriculum and a series of digital wellbeing workshops which have been evaluated very positively. There’s lots of background to the Tech Balance story here.

Now Ryan’s company has evolved  to offer 1:1 coaching around digital well-being, alongside  the development of an app that will bring all aspects of the company’s offer together. Ryan’s plan is that this will be fully designed by the end of March 2023.

Ryan has had a great experience working with Tom, who has advised and supported him on the full range of issues encountered when setting up an innovation-driven business.

“I started the Young Innovators Programme with an ambitious idea and no real entrepreneurial experience. But over the past twelve months I’ve been able to turn my idea into reality, levelling up my skills, knowledge and confidence, and drawing on experts in areas I knew little about – such as GDPR & HR. With invaluable help, advice and connections from Tom Graver, I’ve been able to transform my idea into a unique offering, supporting the digital wellbeing of over 1,000 students. I’m excited for the future ahead, working with a small team, empowering students to improve their digital wellbeing. The critical next step involves integrating our MVPs to develop a health-tech solution.”