Graduate Founder Pathway: Road to Revenue

Join us for an exclusive two day training programme for Graduate Founders at the University of Sheffield Start-up Studio. 

Transform your approach to a revenue-first mindset, proving your business can generate early income. 

With mentorship from entrepreneurial experts, focus on early customer conversion and generation of sales to gain greater operational focus.  

Entrepreneurial Training

Due to an increased demand for support from our graduate community in our 2026 Awards Showcase, we are running an inaugural opportunity for recent University of Sheffield graduates. 

This approach follows the new Emerge strategy of a new cohort-driven approach, developing and building a pipeline of founders with higher quality and potential.

The experience will include: 

• Two Day in person business workshop delivered for a small cohort
• 8 Week Revenue sprint plan and challenge 
• Customer Traction Journal established
• Chance to win a £5,000 prize
• Access to experts, resources and wider support opportunities
• Online finance support session post event
• Greater awareness of your business’ commercial appeal

Programme Schedule 

Taking place during the summer period, the two-day workshop will be hosted at the Start-up Studio - home for the enterprise team on campus. 

The days will be expert-led input, covering sales theories and common frameworks. Time will also be built in for self-reflection and revenue planning. 

The overall aim of the pathway is to:

• Quickly learn what people will pay for, and how to implement that into your business.
• Understand your unique founder/business model fit.
• Establish an approach of scrappy execution and testing before perfecting a product.
• Develop an action plan to drive traction through early revenue generation.

Meet your mentors 

Gary Neville 

"I help build bridges between start-ups, industry and research. For over a decade, I’ve worked where new ideas meet real-world impact, helping founders scale, guiding teams through complex innovation projects and working with manufacturers to adopt and commercialise advanced technologies.

I’ve overseen national accelerator programmes, supported thousands of startups across tech, MedTech, and AI, and partnered with organisations from Barclays and Cancer Research UK to the AMRC and Rolls Royce. 

Alongside this, I’ve helped shape Sheffield’s startup and investment scene through startup Social, Sheffield Angels and DeepTech Hangout; creating spaces where entrepreneurs, investors and engineers connect and grow together. What drives me is building ecosystems where innovation thrives. Whether in a startup lab, a factory floor, or a regional network, my aim is to bring people together, set a clear direction and make sure ambitious ideas move fast enough to matter".

Nick Stannard 

"Nick Stannard is a University of Sheffield alumni, graduating with honours in BA, Business Studies. He spent nearly 20 years in a Corporate career, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant at Ernst and Young, followed by Corporate Finance and Strategy roles at Sky TV and Warner Bros. His time at Warner Bros. took him to Los Angeles, where he now lives.

He is now a Fractional CFO and Consultant, helping a portfolio of startups to scale their businesses".

Cohort Eligibility & Target Market

• The experience is open to graduates with businesses in any sector.
• 8 places are available for graduate businesses. 
• We are looking for graduates with businesses who have shorter sales cycles (eg. you will not require medical certification for your business to make profit). 
• Recent UoS graduates who have graduated within the last 5 years (including 2026 graduates). 
• Up to 2 co-founders can attend from any one business (provided you are both UoS graduates).
• Early-stage founders close to the sales stage, but with none-to-minimal revenue made.
• If you are registered, the business must not have been incorporated for more than 3 years.
• You must have a working MVP, a pitch deck, and data showing genuine engagement or customer response to the product.
• We seek innovative, creative and problem-led solutions tackling real pain points. 
• Graduates need to be currently based in the UK.

Application Process 

8 places will be available to successful founders who can provide clear explanations on their business goals, their product development journey and need for funding. 

As part of the application process, we are requesting candidates to submit a short video that actually shows the product being used/working in its current MVP form. This allows us to make a firm judgement on product readiness.

To apply, you must be available for the 2 day in-person event in Sheffield.

Submit your application via google form

The experience is open nationally, so you can be based outside of the South Yorkshire region. (Standard fair travel expenses are available on request). 

You must demonstrate a firm commitment to participate in the full 8 week programme beyond the in-person session. Upon competition of the 8 week summer sprint, you will have the opportunity to pitch for the £5000 grant.

For those businesses not registered at the time of applying, we will expect every business selected to attend the programme, to have formally registered within 2 weeks after the training days, by the end of July 2026 in preparation for generating revenue.

Applications close at midnight on Sunday 28th June. 

All successful applicants will be invited to an online welcome session on Thursday 9th July from 12.30 - 1.30pm. 

If you have any further questions, please email enterprise@sheffield.ac.uk. 

The elite award showcase rewarding the founders of the future

The Emerge: Be enterprising Awards Showcase live event saw 7 ambitious young entrepreneurs pitch their innovations to regional investors and business leaders, celebrating a year of intensive business development.

19 May 2026