Soho House helps budding entrepreneurs
BUDDING entrepreneurs are being offered a chance to test their ideas with private members club Soho House.
The firm, founded by hospitality tycoon Nick Jones (pictured), is giving them the opportunity to try out business concepts or products in a Dragons’ Den-style competition.
For example, applicants can pitch a food or drink product to be featured on a restaurant menu, design homeware to be sold by Soho Home or a bedroom at one of its clubs, launch a beauty product with Soho Skin or create a podcast or other content with the group’s in-house team.
Aspiring chefs could even run a Soho House restaurant for six months, at London venues in Exmouth Market, Holloway Road, or Whitechapel. Up to £10,000 will be made available for special equipment or interior changes.
The scheme, called Soho Chance, will see the winners provided with mentoring and support to help them develop their ideas and some will also receive fees or shares of product sales.
It is aimed at ‘someone who is just starting out, or starting again’, Soho House said, and people from a diverse range of backgrounds are being encouraged to put themselves forward. The latest project comes as Soho House plans a £2bn float on the stock market in New York. Jones, 57, said: ‘I want to help people get back on their feet after a difficult year. We’ve spent 26 years at Soho House building out different areas of the business - from our houses to our digital platforms and retail.
‘Passing on everything we’ve learned, and giving people access to our teams to help make their ideas a success is something that really excites me.’
Applications will be accepted from today until July 9. The UK-only scheme will get under way in September.
And Soho House, which operates nearly 30 clubs worldwide, is also seeking to offer more hospitality apprenticeships. Jones, who himself left school aged 17, said: ‘When I went into hospitality it wasn’t a very desirable place to be but I’m glad to say that’s changed. We want to help with that, providing young people in the UK with the skills to start a promising career.’