We’re in the elegant City dining room of our sponsor, Julius Baer, hosted by Chief Executive Officer David Durlacher and joined by guest judges for London & the South: venture capitalist Kjartan Rist and serial-entrepreneur-turned-anti-plastic-campaigner Sian Sutherland. Nine regional finalists are with us to talk about their businesses, making for a tight discussion timetable, but this was one of our best sessions yet, introducing an amazing range of innovative business ideas.
First, we heard from Ian Strang, founder of Beyond, the UK’s first price comparison website for funerals, which also offers other services, such as will-making and funeral finance, all designed to improve the consumer experience of everything around death. Ian himself is very far from the typical image of an undertaker, and so is his business; but it’s clearly a smart and sympathetic intervention in a very staid sector.
Next, By Miles, presented by founder James Blackham: this could be the future of car insurance, in which drivers will be charged monthly per mile driven, rather than paying a one-off (and possibly rip-off) annual premium with no transparency.
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