Our 2015 Self Starter of the Year winner is...

by Startacus Admin

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally arrived! Over the last week you have been voting in your droves to decide who should become our 2015 Self Starter of the Year.  

Just under 1000 votes have been cast, and we can now reveal that the runaway winner with 37% of the vote is Susi Wisniewski!!!

2nd place goes to Oli Monks who got 23% of the vote and in 3rd place is Kelly Gilmour Grassam with 15%.   

Here’s the pitch that won Susi the title!

“I’m Susi Wisniewski, CEO of TripLinks, the friendly meet-up app for business travel. Fed up of tables-for-one or supper in your hotel room? Would you rather see the sights of the city you're in? Meet a new person, share a moment. All through your phone with TripLinks.

TripLinks is strictly platonic, and with very limited profile information, it’s definitely not a dating tool; it’s not even about networking; it’s just a way to find someone to hang-out with for a couple of hours when you’re away from home.With TripLinks, you can meet up with someone to go for a meal; to play squash; you can even use it to find a buddy to travel across a new city. Any experience where you’d rather have some company…TripLinks is there to help!

I’ve developed the app with my co-founder husband Mark, into the mix throw a tiny baby, a three year old and consultancy work (which bankrolls the app): it’s been challenging! We released the app in public beta on iOS and Android in November 2015. We’re now trying to gain traction whilst looking for equity investment to grow the TripLinks user-base on a rapid scale.”

Startacus co-founder Alastair Cameron wanted to be the first to congratulate Susi on her victory.

“Everyone at Startacus HQ is absolutely delighted for Susi, she should be very proud of herself.  Our Self Starter of the Week and Year awards is one of the cornerstones of the Startacus platform, as it gives us the chance to highlight and celebrate members of our community who are doing extraordinary things to bring their ideas to life.  Susi is a perfect example of this and I am really pleased that our community has decided to reward her for all her tireless efforts and self-starter spirit!

I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate all of our finalists Oli, Kelly, James, Kieran, and Simon for everything they have achieved, and to thank them for being such inspiring members of our community!  In recognition of their achievements as 2nd and 3rd place winners Oli and Kelly are also in line for some great prizes to support their business!

There is often perceived to be a gender imbalance within the world of enterprise and we are encouraged to see that our startup community is bucking the trend by making Susi our 3rd female Self Starter of the Year in a row!

We all extend our warmest congratulations to Susi, and are are looking forward to her future contributions to our community as our new Self Starter of the Year!”

Susi’s Prizes

Along with the accolade of being named our Self Starter of the Year, Susi also wins a lovely bunch of other prizes, courtesy of our sponsors; 

• £1000 credit to use with Marketest for business to consumer based market research

• 12 months free use of online accounting software FreeAgent

• 3 months free use of Monkfeet online business classes

• £250 to spend at Net Lawman on Legal Document templates

• £150 credit to spend on email marketing care of 123-reg.

• A framed startup themed motivational poster care of Startup Zap and a bundle of posters and stickers

• A feature on Startacus itself.

• A 300 x 250 size advert on Startacus for 30 days!

Oli and Kelly’s Prizes

As 2nd and 3rd place winners Oli and Kelly will each get;

• 12 months free use of online accounting software FreeAgent

• £150 to spend at Net Lawman legal Document templates.

• £100 credit to spend on online marketing care of 123-reg.

• A framed startup themed motivational poster care of Startup Zap

• A feature on Startacus

As always, our Self Starter of the Year Award wouldn’t be possible without the wonderful support provided by our sponsors!  A huge thank you to our lead sponsor Marketest, as well as Free Agent, Monkfeet, Net Lawman, 123-reg and Startup Zap for all of your support!  

We plan for our Self Starter of the Week and Year awards to return later this year.  

Join Startacus, the Self Start Society and you could be our 2016 winner!

Subscribe to our newsletter

If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.

• #self starter
• #self starter of the year
• #award
• #

Published on: 21st January 2016