Young Innovators Success Stories: From University Project to International Success

Megan Hale is on a mission to increase STEM engagement and tackle the e-waste crisis, by teaching children how to dismantle, diagnose and repair real electronic gadgets. Her business, Team Repair, offers kits and lesson plans designed to inspire students who don’t engage with traditional STEM education, and to nurture sustainability mindsets through repair.

Megan joined the Innovate UK Young Innovators programme when Team Repair was still in its early stages. It was a project they’d developed at university and tested in repair cafes in their local area.

Over the course of the Young Innovators programme, Team Repair went through the whole process from a well-received idea to launching the business.

“The milestones over that year were working out our business model and applying for further funding. We concluded that direct-to-consumer wasn’t right for us because there was lots of demand, which was great, but we couldn’t keep up,” Megan said.

“We now have a partnership with Suez Waste Management, where they sponsor a number of schools every term to take part in our repair programme.”

This expansion is just the beginning for Team Repair and they’re now focusing on raising funding.

“We’re raising our first round of funding, targeting £500,000. We’re also relaunched our at-home subscription service in-time for Christmas. We’ve always had so much interest – the hands-on repair element is our USP that people are really interested in,” Megan said.

Transitioning to Full-Time

Megan reflects that the financial support from the Young Innovators Award was central to getting the business to where it is now.

“The Young Innovators programme gave us that basic funding, so I could spend the year focusing on the business. It also helped with the costs of getting materials to launch and helped us get to the point where we could look for more funding,” she said.

All three co-founders are now working full-time in the business. Once the next round of funding is secured, they will be hiring two new roles in operations and marketing.

Domestic and International Recognition

Since winning the Award, Team Repair has gone from strength to strength. The co-founders recently attended Climate Week in New York with Imperial College, leveraging the opportunity to expand their international network

“We had three goals for that trip: develop more corporate partnerships, scope out the investment landscape, and see what the EdTech market is like over there. We’ve always had inbound interest from other countries, so starting to get contacts and explore international opportunities is really interesting,” Megan said.

Megan has also received a prestigious invitation to join the Board of Trustees at The Mayor’s Fund for London.

“The Mayor’s Fund for London was one of our early funders. They supported us with office space and funded one of our interns over the summer, which enabled us to test that out risk-free,” she explained.

“I was delighted to join the Board of Trustees. It’s interesting from a young person’s point of view and from a startup perspective, to see the formal structure of a charity and how their processes work.”

Learning from Others

Another major highlight of the Young Innovators Award has been the opportunity to make important connections.

“You learn so much going from a concept all the way to launching. The weekly mentoring helped us with building our business plan and strategy, and with getting investment too. Innovate UK really helped us to create structure and learn how to build a network. There have been lots of people who have been able to support us along the way,” Megan said.

She added that beyond general business support from the program, the co-founders were able to access information specific to their business stage.

“We were worried about the safety perspective of breaking toys and sending them to kids, but we were able to talk to somebody in compliance to help us with everything we needed to start selling to parents.”

Making the Most of the Opportunity

A surprise benefit of the Young Innovators Award turned out to be media coverage.

“We got invited onto BBC Breakfast, which was where we got so many of our first customers. Being able to shout about what we were doing acted as a springboard – people who sign up now still say they found us through that,” Megan said.

Her advice highlights the value of networking and learning from peers – an essential aspect of innovators success.

“When I joined, there were 100 awardees, and we all got to meet in person. Some of the most useful advice I’ve had was from a fellow Young Innovator who was two months ahead of me, gone through the legal paperwork of their fundraise and were able to guide me through the process.”