Clothes sizing app impresses ‘dragons’ in college contest

AN app designed to help you pick the right size of clothing across multiple stores was chosen as the winner of a “Dragon’s Den” contest.

More than 100 students at The Henley College took part in a competition based on the BBC show where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business idea to five multimillionaire investors.

Of these, 14 groups were selected to go through to the final held at the town hall to present their ideas to a panel of five judges.

They were Phil Booth, founder of Philip Booth Esq estate agency, photographer Scarlet Page, Emma Sweet, of Ace Places Playing Cards, Gail Rosier, artistic director of the Acorn Music Theatre Company and Sara Sheppard, of Bubble Solutions.

The judges chose Smart Size, a fashion app, as the winner. Users can upload their measurements to the app and it will calculate what size the user should order from a certain brand based on their desired fit.

Oliver King, 17, presented his craft business, Panda Pals, to the panel, which was ranked in the top five.

The business sells kids’ arts and crafts kits aimed at helping to improve the dexterity and motor skills of young children.

Oliver, who lives in Reading, managed to make it to the presentation despite being discharged from hospital at 5am after suffering a double fracture and double dislocation to his thumb.

He said that the packs are designed to provide fun and affordable and environmentally friendly and contain the materials and instructions to build a panda figure inside.

Oliver explained to the panel that the packs would be given out as a monthly subscription and include different designs.

Speaking after the presentation, he said: “I thought it went brilliantly. All the things that I wanted to cover were covered and I think the questions that were asked from the Dragons linked in perfectly as well.”

He added: “I got discharged earlier this morning and I thought not to let it stop me and to just keep cracking on.”

Ben Joslyn, 16, from Chalgrove, and Emily White, 16, from Chesham, presented their business plan for CV Sorted, an editing service.

Ben said that he came up with the idea after his tutor asked him to help write a CV for a fellow student.

He said: “We provide CV assistance and writing for sixth-form-age people or those going to universities to help them get into the job market.

“It’s £5 for a generic CV and then £2.50 to tailor it to a
specific job. We help you write it and then you can send it back to us and ask for amendments up to three times.”

Emily enjoyed hearing feedback from the judges. She said: “At first I was a bit nervous but it actually went really well. The judges actually seemed very interested and keen.

“I feel like I’ve come away with a lot more business knowledge than I had before.”

Daniel Hotston, 17, Charlie Gaskin, 17, and Max Duku, 16, came up with the business Eagle Eyes, which aims to help people with visual impairments.

Daniel, who lives in Reading, said: “We use glasses that have cameras in them so they will give feedback via vibrations within the frames of the glasses. So this will help people navigate their life if they’re partially sighted or blind.”

He said the idea came to him while he was on the school bus with his teammate Max and another friend.

Daniel said: “We then did some research and discovered that 250 people are diagnosed with blindness a day and that is absolutely crazy.”

Charlie, who lives in Wallingford, said that the group had been given some useful feedback about how to market their product, He said: “They said focus more on the audio side of things, to try getting on the radio to get straight to blind people rather than the family of blind people.”

After a short break in the presentations, the judges took a few minutes to introduce themselves and share their advice with the students.

Principal Simon Spearman described their efforts as “very impressive”.

He said: “The students presented really well. Some great ideas, well researched, and very knowledgeable about their own product and service.”