Winner First prize International VOOM 2018 Richard Branson Virgin Media Business Award!
Dublin’s Junior Einsteins was one of two women-led companies to take the crown and a share of about €1.1m in prizes at Virgin Media Business Voom 2018 in London today (23 May).
Richard Branson exclaimed Junior Einsteins ‘ Brilliant ‘ and said ‘ I want my grandchildren doing this !’
The company led by Tracey-Jane Cassidy won the Spark & Start category at Voom 2018. Junior Einsteins saw off stiff competition from Castify, which helps people to find and cast actors; and Gobbler Boats, which is helping to remove oil and plastic from the ocean.
The judges included Virgin founder Richard Branson; co-founder of Innocent drinks, Richard Reed; serial entrepreneur and TV presenter Sophie Morgan; founder and CEO of Tropic Skincare, Susie Ma; and Virgin Media Business managing director Peter Kelly.
Runner Mo Farah joined Branson to give UK firm Heroes4Hire a special award. It recruits, trains and fully employs former service personnel to help them find work after leaving the armed services.
Peter Kelly, MD at Virgin Media Business, congratulated the winners. “These dynamic businesses symbolise the vitality and potential of startups and small businesses that Voom is helping to unleash,” he said.
Richard Branson added that he was blown away by the quality of the pitches from the Voom finalists. “Congratulations to the fantastic winners and to our runners-up, who worked extremely hard to get here. I hope they’ll go on to inspire others.”
Junior Einsteins encourages children to get into STEM subjects through hands-on interactive experiments and amazing science events.
‘It is about teaching children how to make mistakes, how to cope in an ever-changing world and how to think, not what to think’
– TRACEY-JANE CASSIDY
Necessity is the mother of invention
In her pitch, Cassidy said that she started Junior Einsteins through necessity.
“I’m a scientist and a single mum with three small children and I wanted my kids to do more hands-on science.
“I believe that you don’t have to be the smartest kid in school to do science. I started by doing experiments and got people on board to bring science to life in the form of after-school parties.
“It’s a wonderful thing when you love what you do, and I married science with children.”
Cassidy explained how she intends to build Junior Einsteins into a global franchise business from Ireland, whereby the love of science can be brought into homes through birthday parties, schools and even corporate businesses. The company has already built an internationally focused website and has produced an operations manual for franchisees.
“It’s about keeping the quality and building a diverse, beautiful brand.”
She said that science needs to be seen as fun as well as educational. “It is about teaching children how to make mistakes, how to cope in an ever-changing world and how to think, not what to think.”
Cassidy told Branson and the judges how a typical Junior Einsteins class would start with lessons in slime. “What kid doesn’t love slime?”
She added: “But really, what I am teaching them is long-chain polymerisation. They then learn that this goes into how soldiers protect themselves on battlefields through the material that goes into kevlar armour.
“It is all about fostering a love of science and a love of learning. There’s nothing greater than seeing a kid walking tall and saying, ‘I’m a Junior Einstein.’”
