Surrey Venture Studio (SVS) is preparing to launch its first six‑month incubation programme, supporting early‑stage founders across Surrey to turn raw ideas and early‑stage concepts into customer‑ready businesses. The incubation accelerator is aimed at pre‑start‑ups who have completed SVS’s business ideation workshops and offers tailored support based on each entrepreneur’s stage of development.
One of the founders joining the inaugural cohort is Natalie Foo, creator of InchStone, a voice‑first app designed to support families raising children with developmental differences.
Meeting a need discovered from personal experience
InchStone was shaped by personal experience. Natalie explains, “I built it because I’m a parent in this community and the gap was too obvious to ignore.”
“The app organises your spoken observations into records ready for therapy, funding applications, and official assessments.”
Natalie first engaged with SVS through its intensive two‑day workshops, which focus on validating ideas before founders rush into building products.
As SVS Manager Odysseas Bassioukas, puts it, “SVS is a venture builder where people are coming to us to build from the idea to a company.”
“The workshops were intense but incredibly helpful,” Natalie says. “They helped me hone in on my idea and start making a plan. The focus on customer development really stood out; SVS puts that the right way around.”
The incubation programme will provide expert mentorship, peer support and hot‑desking facilities, alongside access to professional services such as legal advice, to help founders protect their intellectual property. For Natalie, the timing feels right. “It feels like the right moment to find out what’s actually working,” she says, as she prepares to pilot InchStone and connect with Surrey’s wider business network.
What is Surrey Venture Studio?
This is an exciting new pre-accelerator programme to help innovators, academics and entrepreneurs across Surrey explore whether turning an idea into a business is the right path to follow.
This exciting programme includes:
- A two-day, in-person ideation workshop
- Expert mentoring
- Opportunity to progress to a six-month accelerator
- Up to £25,000 catalyst grant funding, for successful six-month accelerator participant
- Spaces on the workshop are limited and will be offered to applicants whose ideas are at the right stage of development and show strong potential for innovation and commercialisation.
At the end of the two-day workshop, participants will be invited to pitch their ideas ‘Dragon’s Den’-style. The successful applicants will secure a coveted place on the six-month accelerator programme and take a step closer to securing £25k in grant funding to launch their business!
