Midlands' best entrepreneur proves he's no dummy

The Midlands' newly crowned best new entrepreneur is gearing up to educate school children about the dangers of drug use and knife crime through the use of human-like mannequins after securing the top spot at a regional heat of a nationwide business competition.

Tom Warrender, founder of Get Set Schools, won the Midlands leg of The Pitch 2009, a search for the UK’s best young businesses organised by BusinessZone.co.uk in association with Yell.

Entrants are judged by some of the biggest names in British business including, in Birmingham, Deirdre Bounds, star of Channel 4’s Millionaires’ Mission and founder of ethical travel company i-to-i.com.

Wolverhampton-based Get Set Schools will now join five other entrepreneurs at a star-studded London final in November. The overall champion will win a recession-busting £50,000 prize package, including one-on-one mentoring from ex-Dragons' Den panellist and serial entrepreneur Doug Richard.

Tom Warrender’s innovative business creates realistic scenarios to demonstrate to school pupils the physical effects of drug abuse and physical assault. Children carrying out experiments on a realistic mannequin known as Stan get to watch the different ways the human body reacts. Stan is one of Get Set School's educational props used in workshops aligned to the National Curriculum.

Accompanying Stan is Andy, a lifelike arm traditionally used by medical students in higher education to practise taking blood. Children use Andy to learn more about the inner working of their bodies and how blood is circulated.

Get Set Schools also offer sporting training services, part of the company’s overall aim to enable school children to make more informed choices about their health and career aspirations.

Joining Deirdre Bounds in selecting Warrender as the winner was Max Wright from Angels Den, a network which connects entrepreneurs with investors; award winning entrepreneur Nicola Fleet-Milne, founder of Birmingham-based lettings agency Fleet-Milne Residential; Keith Innes, head of telesales at Yell and Gordon Mackintosh, head of small business at Cisco UK and Ireland.

Commenting on his victory, Tom Warrender said: "I was absolutely flabbergasted when I was told I had won The Pitch Midlands. I was up against some fabulous businesses so to be selected as the winner is a real honour. The chance to compete in the final will also bring huge benefits to my business.

"Having lead workshops in areas with high instances of drug crime and violence, head teachers have remarked how students enjoyed and benefited from the hands-on approach of seeing the impact actions have on our bodies. The kids who people tend to write off as difficult are often the ones who learn and engage with our workshops the most."

Birmingham is one of four cities which has held a regional event as part of the government-backed competition The final heat takes place in London on Tuesday 14th July.

Joining Warrender at the final will be David Webb and David Wright, founders of Vibe Gum and winner of the South West heat; Kenneth Cheung, founder of BEEcycle and winner of the North heat and Craig Smith, founder of The Printed Bag Shop and winner of the Scotland heat.

Established in 2008, The Pitch is a showcase event for entrepreneurs running UK businesses less than three years old, and employing up to 20 members of staff. Videos of the Midlands event, held at eOffice in Birmingham, will be available within weeks on BusinessZone.co.uk. The runners-up could still make it to the final as a wildcard entry by receiving the most votes from our members.

The other contestants taking part in The Pitch Midlands were:

• Steve Lloyd, co-founder, Caecus (object recognition and indoor navigation device for the blind and partially sighted)
• Scott Dutton, founder, Bra Angel (underwire bra repair kit)
• Nick Barker, co-founder, Aware Monitoring (website downtime monitoring service)
• Sue Acton, founder, Bubble and Balm (producer and retailer of Fair Trade skincare products)
• Sue Harrison, co-founder, Student Gems (matches businesses with one-off projects with students looking for work)