The young founder of a menstrual hygiene start-up, designing products for women who enjoy outdoor activities or work in remote environments, is preparing for launch and seed funding next year.
Edinburgh-based LU Innovations was only officially registered in January this year, but on her second application, Erin Reid won twice in the Converge Awards last month.
She won both the Create Change Challenge and the Rose Award, a standalone prize sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland designed to boost female entrepreneurship in Scotland.
The joint prize package included £40,000 in equity-free cash, more than £10,000 of in-kind business support and a one-to-one mentoring session with NatWest Group chief executive Alison Rose.
A keen hill walker, cyclist and climber, Reid was infuriated by the lack of period products for women who spend time outdoors. So the Edinburgh Napier University graduate decided to change that, coming up with two designs to help tackle problems surrounding storing, applying, cleaning and disposing of menstrual products in a safe, hygienic way.
She told Insider that the Converge wins have validated her business plan and given the confidence boost required to take on the work towards commercialisation.
"There was training during and after the awards process, which has connected me to the right people and opened my network.
"Obviously the money is also very helpful, as I was struggling with funding, so it’s allowed me to start prototyping."
The next few months will be taken up with taking things from the concept stage through testing and building a minimum viable product.
Reid is working with Robert Gordon University on developing the sanitation part of the design, as well as the Medical Device Manufacturing Centre to work out what is required in terms of standards - as period products have a distinct lack of existing standardisations attached.
"Once all that is done I'll hopefully be ready to look for seed funding around next June," she added.
Reid is also preparing for her meeting with Rose sometime soon after Christmas, as well as going on a promotional drive to get people signed up on the LU website - something which may mean hiring her first member of staff; a social media manager of some sort.
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