Student Enterprise @ Purple Door

Background

Injoi Design Ltd, is primarily involved in product design.  The existence of the company evolved out of and revolved around its first product Perfect Perch (www.perfectperch.co.uk). By the end of James' second year at the University of Portsmouth, he had won a number of business and entrepreneurship competitions. For his third year he had planned to travel to Canada in search of a product design job for his sandwich year in industry. Instead he was given more encouragement to start his own business and sell his product, Perfect Perch. Thus how the story begins.

Portsmouth Centre for Enterprise Support
Whilst James was in his second  year at the University, his mentors and teachers immediately took a liking to the concept and design of Perfect Perch.  It was the potential seen in the product which lead to his involvement with the Portsmouth Centre for Enterprise, which provided him with support and guidance to take the product to a commercial level.

After being linked with the PCE, James was invited to the Enterprise Bootcamp which took place at the University of Winchester and successfully won first prize in the competition.  The following competition he entered was the Stage One Enterprise Challenge which he won second prize, and then the Stage Two part of the competition which I went on to win first prize.

In 2007 he was nominated for a scholarship with the NCGE but unfortunately was not chosen to join the scholarship.  However he was offered an office in PCE and is still currently stationed there.

Future Developments
Following up on the Perfect Perch - a cardboard based product – James has been working on other concepts including a cardboard bed for humanitarian aid purposes.  This could also be used for temporary bedding for people who have just moved into a new home or even for the  homeless.

The most recent project he has been working on is a cardboard hanger made from recycled card, which can be used to hold advertising. This revolutionary advertising concept came from a stranger who directed him to an art gallery whilst walking around London. Initially they talked about their backgrounds and experiences, and as the stranger was also a Product Designer, he gave James some advice for a potential new product.  He believed that there was an abundance of wire hangers from laundrettes and dry cleaners and that an alternative should be sought.  HangSavvy was thus invented.  He teamed up with two other young entrepreneurs and travelled to China to visit a number of factories across his 2008 Christmas holidays in search of a manufacturer.

By May 2009 the business was fully set up and prepared for orders up to 1.5 million units per month.  From his experience with Perfect Perch, which took him around 3 years to bring to a commercial level, the HangSavvy project has taken 6 months.  The hanger advertising concept is not completely novel but is still massively an untouched industry which he hopes to expand to Asia Pacific within the next 12 months.