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Bringing our Pre-Flight sessions to a close in  !šŸš€Yesterday we concluded our final session back in Middlesbrough, markin...
23/04/2026

Bringing our Pre-Flight sessions to a close in !šŸš€

Yesterday we concluded our final session back in Middlesbrough, marking the end of our Pre-Flight programme, and what a turnout it’s been!

Over the past few weeks, our two-day workshops have travelled across Teesside, including Darlington, Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees, highlighting just how much ambition and talent is emerging across the region. šŸ™Œ

A huge thank you to Steve Dougan, MBA and Russell Mills, for delivering some incredible interactive sessions and supporting entrepreneurs at every stage, from those with a business idea to start-ups.

The sessions explored key frameworks, sparked open conversations, questions, and challenged founders to test their ideas, think differently, and importantly build confidence as they take their next steps.šŸ’”

A big thank you to everyone who registered and took part, and to our programme coordinators Daniel Watson and Michael Crean for leading the events.

We look forward to seeing everyone’s founder journeys unfold! ā­ļø

BusinessIdea

It’s time for the weekly wrap-up, and what a celebratory week it’s been!šŸŽ‰šŸŒŸOn Tuesday, Stable business  was selected as a...
10/04/2026

It’s time for the weekly wrap-up, and what a celebratory week it’s been!šŸŽ‰

🌟On Tuesday, Stable business was selected as a ā€˜Project We Love’ by , following the successful launch of their brand last week! After reaching their funding goal in under 24 hours, it’s incredible to see so many achievements. Congratulations Ryan Watson!

Throughout the week we celebrated a number of founders an Team members who were shortlisted across a range of categories for the 2026 Tees Tech Awards! šŸ‘

šŸ†From the Stable, was shortlisted for the Tech for Good award, whilst also being announced a finalist alongside Gloria Mundo for the Newcomer of the year!

šŸ†Fellow Stable alumni Ace Education and were featured as finalists for the Innovation category.

šŸ†Observer interactive, one of The Forge businesses, was also nominated for the Small Tech Business of the Year!

šŸ†Within the Alt Labs team, Michael Crean was shortlisted for Rising Star, along with Forge alumni Nawfal Benjjaoui from Tripcore, and Russell Mills who has been nominated for the Janice Webster Unsung Hero Award!

There’s still time to sign-up for our upcoming Pre-Flight sessions on Eventbrite! Designed for start-ups, business’s looking to scale, and those with new business ideas, our FREE two-day workshop offers hands-on support and guidance!
businessmag

Our weekly wrap-up is coming to you a day early! šŸš€On Monday and Tuesday we had our Redcar & Cleveland Pre-Flight! We sup...
02/04/2026

Our weekly wrap-up is coming to you a day early!

šŸš€On Monday and Tuesday we had our Redcar & Cleveland Pre-Flight! We supported more budding founders start their journey into business and entrepreneurship! Check out our next Pre-Flight session in Hartlepool!

✨Monday, Lynn Chikosha announced she has been selected for the 2026 Impact Entrepreneurship Programme! Congratulations Lynn!

šŸ’šOn Tuesday, ’s Kickstarter went live and within 24 hours they had 55 backers and reached their first goal of Ā£7,500! Congratulations Ryan Watson!

🧸Wednesday, it was announced that Lou Willis-Keeler from Souuthe has been shortlisted for the UK Start-Up Awards 2026 for Innovative Start-Up of the year! amazing news, good luck Lou!

Today, Victoria Burnip (The Stable Alumni) is speaking at the Institute of Neurodiversity World Autism Day virtual event!

It’s the weekly round-up time, and what a wonderful one it’s been! šŸ™ŒšŸŽ‰On Monday, The Stable founders completed their fina...
27/03/2026

It’s the weekly round-up time, and what a wonderful one it’s been! šŸ™ŒšŸŽ‰

On Monday, The Stable founders completed their final practice runs ahead of the Stable Demo Day 2026. It’s always wonderful to see the strong encouragement in Flok, the support, and energy the entire cohort have for each other.

āš½ļøTuesday, was a fantastic day at ’s Riverside Stadium, celebrating the Stable Demo Day 2026! With incredible energy throughout the day and impressive pitches from emerging start-ups, it was a pleasure to showcase and share the region’s latest innovative businesses. A huge thank you to everyone who came, to the wider ecosystem for your support, and to our guest speakers for sharing your time!

šŸ’”On Tuesday, we kickstarted our Middlesbrough Pre-Flight programme at , which continued on with part two on Friday! Following the success of our Demo Day events, it was fantastic to see such strong interest in our two-day workshop for Tees Valley entrepreneurs. The event was supported by Michael Crean, with Steve Dougan, and Russell Mills leading the workshop on business fundamentals. Our Pre-Flight programme, helping to support and build confidence in anyone looking to start a business or scale an existing one.

🌟This afternoon, we had the ā€˜Burn Bright, Not Out’ event in Flok to celebrate International Women’s Day! This was a great way to close the week and empower female entrepreneurs in a supported environment. Big shoutout to Sharon Braithwaite for putting on an excellent event!

We’d like to say a big thank you to The Forge and The Stable for making the programme such a success over the past few months. We’re incredibly proud of how far you’ve come, and feel very lucky to have been involved in your founder journeys. We also want to thank everyone who joined us at our Demo Day events and continues to champion our growing founders. Watch this space! šŸš€


Here’s your weekly round-up, and what a busy week it’s been! šŸŽ‰šŸ’”On Monday, Michael Crean continued with part two of deliv...
20/03/2026

Here’s your weekly round-up, and what a busy week it’s been! šŸŽ‰

šŸ’”On Monday, Michael Crean continued with part two of delivery of the Student Entrepreneur’s Programme at with students from College, supported by Nicola Templeman and Zara Boweman. During the ā€˜Busienss Fundamentals’ workshop, students were equipped with practical skills and inspired to take their first steps into the world of entrepreneurship!

āš½ļøTuesday the team were over at ’s Riverside Stadium to host The Forge Demo Day 2026! This was a brilliant day of celebration for the Tees Valley scale-ups who took to the stage to showcase their impressive businesses. A huge thank you to everyone who joined us, and to for closing the day with their Regional Launch Event.

āœļøWednesday, we welcomed Danny Reed, one of our Stable alumni, who brought University Business School students along to Flok with a number of special guests for the ā€˜Festival of Digital’ event in partnership with Alt Labs. Alt Labs CEO Imran Anwar and Steve Dougan gave a talk on tech innovation within Teesside and the opportunities to utilise it in business.

🌟Throughout the day, The Stable held their final pitch practice runs ahead of their presentations at next week’s Stable Demo Day. Wishing a big, good luck to our start-ups for Tuesday, we know you’re all going to excel!

A huge congratulations to The Forge cohort for all your hard work and outstanding pitch delivery on Demo Day- you should all be very proud! A big thank you as well to our wonderful speakers and special guests. šŸ™Œ

Don’t forget to join us on Tuesday to support our incredible start-ups at the Stable Demo Day! Click the link in our bio to secure your FREE tickets. šŸŽŸļø

The Tees Valley Labs programme is fully funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and is delivered by Alt Labs on behalf of the Tees Valley Mayor and Combined Authority.


We had an incredible turnout at our Forge Demo Day 2026 yesterday! šŸš€šŸŽ‰Kickstarting our first Demo Day event at ’s Riversi...
18/03/2026

We had an incredible turnout at our Forge Demo Day 2026 yesterday! šŸš€šŸŽ‰

Kickstarting our first Demo Day event at ’s Riverside Stadium, and it certainly did not disappoint.

We’d like to say a huge congratulations to all the Forge founders for taking to the stage, delivering fantastic pitches, and showcasing the outstanding talent and innovation Teesside’s rising scale-ups have to offer!

Thank you to Sarah Walker, Matthew Ord, and Helena Bowman for opening the day, and a big thank you as well to our special guests for supporting the day with their Regional Growth event. We’re extremely grateful to our guest speakers Gordon Bateman, Alex Murray and Kate Cooper-Fay for rounding off the day! šŸ‘

Lastly, a big thank you goes to everyone who joined us and championed the growing businesses across the Tees Valley! Programmes like this make a real difference in our region (if we do say so ourselves!), but we need the support of the local ecosystem to make it all possible.

If you haven’t secured your ticket for our upcoming Stable Demo Day, there’s still time to join us! register for your free ticket below šŸŽŸļøšŸ”—


It’s time for our weekly round-up! Let’s take a look at everything we’ve been up to this weekā­ļøTo kickstart this week, w...
13/03/2026

It’s time for our weekly round-up! Let’s take a look at everything we’ve been up to this weekā­ļø

To kickstart this week, we welcomed public speaking expert Chris Edmondson from to on Tuesday for a fantastic pitching workshop!

āœļøOn Wednesday, Steve Dougan worked with The Stable cohorts during their one-to-one mentoring session’s, providing tailored support to help the start-ups progress towards their pitch deck deadline.

On Thursday, we concluded The Forge and Stable’s final workshop delivery before next week’s Demo Day events begin. Alt Labs CEO Imran Anwar had the pleasure of welcoming Aarish Shah from up to Teesside, where he delivered an excellent two-part session on venture building!

šŸ”„In the afternoon we had Karl Pemberton Managing Director of conclude our Fireside Chats! It was great to hear Karl share his authentic leadership style, the personal challenges he has navigated, and his journey to success.

Today, we wrapped up the week with a welcome visit from the A-Level Business Students at sixth form, where Michael Crean delivered the Young Entrepreneurs Programme.

We’d like to extend our thanks to all of our guest speakers and to our incredible cohorts for your hard work and commitment this week. Wishing you the very best ahead of next week’s Demo Day for The Forge! We can’t wait to see all of your hard work come to life!šŸ‘šŸŽ‰


Today, we’re delighted to introduce our final Fireside Chat featuring Karl Pemberton from !šŸ”„Karl reflected on his journe...
12/03/2026

Today, we’re delighted to introduce our final Fireside Chat featuring Karl Pemberton from !šŸ”„

Karl reflected on his journey, from what he describes as his formative years working at , up through to his current role as Managing Director for Active Financial!

Karl mentioned how his early customer-facing roles allowed him to connect and talk with the general public, and how that’s played a vital part in building his confidence and influencing his transition into becoming a business leader. Karl touched on breathing new life into his family’s business, and how important it is as a leader to not make it all about you.

Karl shared a thread of connection with our founders as he shared his personal experience on the accelerator programme. He encouraged founders to be open minded, to keep learning, and look to the future.

Karl ended the session by sharing the personal challenges he’s faced around loneliness in business and the pressures that come with success, encouraging the founders to focus on being their authentic selves!

A big thank you to Karl for sharing such wonderful advice with the cohorts, and for bringing our Fireside Chat series to a fantastic close! šŸ™Œ


ā°Don’t miss out on The Forge Demo Day 2026! ā°With just one week to go until The Forge takes the stage, the wait is almos...
10/03/2026

ā°Don’t miss out on The Forge Demo Day 2026! ā°

With just one week to go until The Forge takes the stage, the wait is almost over. Get ready to see the incredible scale-ups shaking up the region!

Be a part of the action on the e 17th March, and come meet the fantastic founders on our accelerator programme, ready to catapult their businesses into the next stage of growth.šŸš€

We’ll also be joined by our event partners , to host their Regional Launch event, including special guests Gordon Bateman and Kate Cooper-Fay, who will be delivering an afternoon Fireside Chat.šŸ”„

šŸŽŸļøTo grab your FREE tickets now, click the link below!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-forge-tees-valley-labs-demo-day-2026-tickets-1981992602227?aff=oddtdtcreator


Here’s your weekly Tees Valley Labs round-upšŸš€šŸ—£ļøOn Tuesday, we kicked off the week by welcoming back Dr. Simon Raybould, ...
06/03/2026

Here’s your weekly Tees Valley Labs round-upšŸš€

šŸ—£ļøOn Tuesday, we kicked off the week by welcoming back Dr. Simon Raybould, who joined us at to deliver a pitch-coaching workshop for The Stable cohort. As one of the UK’s leading specialists in voice and presentation training, it was fantastic for our founders to benefit from his expertise for the upcoming Stable Demo Day 2026.

šŸŽ™ļøWednesday, Imran Anwar went on air with Gary Philipson from BBC Radio Tees where he spoke about Alt Labs, and the Tees Valley Labs programme. It was a fantastic broadcast that shone a light on the exciting start-ups and scale-ups on our programme, and invited listeners to join us at our Demo Days 2026!

Steve Dougan and Russell Mills continued their one-to-one sessions with The Stable founders, providing valuable guidance as they enter the final stretch ahead of The Stable Demo Day 2026.

šŸ”„On Thursday, we rounded off the week with a morning Fireside Chat with Ben Houchan, Mayor of the Tees Valley, who shared his appreciation for local founders, and the ways he intends to continue supporting them through alongside Tees Valley Labs. Ben encouraged founders to have conviction, confidence, and belief in their business, while also outlining his ongoing plans to grow the Tees Valley economy through !

With not long to go until The Forge Demo Day 2026, we’d like to extend a big thank you to our cohorts, mentors, and delivery partners for all their hard work in the lead-up, and to our fantastic guest speakers for their time.šŸ‘


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