20-year-old Melissa Roberts, who lives in Skelmanthorpe, founded kidcrowd, and has fought off stiff competition to be one of the regional finalists in start-up competition, The F Factor, run by Founders of the Future.
kidcrowd is an online gifting platform which aims to reduce gifting wastage and make the lives of parents with young children easier when it comes to buying birthday presents.
The F Factor competition, founded by lastminute.com’s Brent Hoberman, gives young founders a chance to pitch their life-changing ideas to some of the biggest names in tech. The competition received over 600 entries this year.
Speaking about the competition, Melissa said: “I am so excited to be given a chance to pitch kidcrowd in the regional finals of the F Factor. I’ve been working on the development of kidcrowd for around 5 months and we’re nearly ready to launch our MVP, so this is perfect timing for the business.”
“As a young person, the most important thing is knowing I’ve got a product that can make a huge difference to the amount of gift wastage we’re producing around the globe and by securing a place in the regional finals of the F Factor, I’m one step closer to building a more sustainable future for the next generation of young people”
Melissa will give a three-minute pitch followed by three minutes of questions and answers on the 10th March in Manchester City Centre, competing against three other young entrepreneurs.