The dye worked. That was the easy part. FreshCheck, founded by Imperial PhD researchers Alex Bond and John Simpson, had chemistry that changed colour in the presence of bacteria. Put it in a food label and you could tell whether dinner was unsafe. A pleasing invention, with an unpleasant business problem: the margins were too thin.
- Free early-stage support for eligible Imperial founders.
- Peer feedback first, specialist advice and mentoring as the venture develops.
- Competitions and dedicated programmes for women founders and climate ventures.
A spray came next. Launched in 2019, it attracted customers, but some struggled to read results on dark surfaces. Others preferred the swabs they already used. By 2023, FreshCheck had launched a hygiene-testing swab. The clever chemistry stayed; the familiar gesture returned. A laboratory can establish that something works. Customers decide whether they want to work that way.
01 / Where the awkward questions belong
FreshCheck is one of the ventures connected to Imperial Enterprise Lab, the university’s entrepreneurship support service. Its founders entered the Venture Catalyst Challenge in 2015, before the Lab launched in 2016, and used several parts of Imperial’s wider enterprise ecosystem. Their story illustrates the gap this service helps founders examine: the distance between a promising result and a business somebody will pay for.
The Lab sits in the basement of the Sherfield Building at South Kensington. Its co-working space includes a library, meeting room, studio and phone booth. There is somewhere to record a pitch and somewhere to take a confidential call. The furniture is useful; the proximity is the more interesting proposition. A scientific university can contain both a person with an invention and somebody who understands its commercial obstacles. They still need to meet.
A commercial accelerator often meets a founder at an application deadline. The Lab provides an earlier doorway. Its core constituency is Imperial students, staff and alumni, and it offers support free of charge. In market terms, it occupies the ground between extracurricular education and venture development: a place to investigate whether there is a company here at all.
02 / Three teams, one coach
The doorway has an unusually clinical name: an Idea Surgery. Before attending, a founder completes an Idea Canvas. Sessions last up to an hour and can bring three teams together with one coach. Participants explain the problem, describe their proposed solution and receive feedback from both the coach and their peers.
That arrangement makes the room do two jobs. A founder gets help with a particular idea while hearing how other people describe theirs. For somebody nervous about networking, the conversation has a purpose beyond exchanging names. The next step might be coaching, a programme or specialist advice. The point is to identify a useful action.
Progression depends on eligibility, need and readiness.
Experts-in-Residence consultations are confidential, usually last 30 to 45 minutes, and address specific questions. The network covers intellectual property, legal matters, investment, product development, sales and more. Access generally follows an Idea Surgery and approval. This is practical triage: a question about protecting an invention deserves different expertise from a question about finding its first buyer.
03 / The price of listening
For founders ready to launch, Imperial Venture Mentoring supplies up to three mentors working as a team. The service began in 2017, drawing inspiration from MIT’s mentoring model. Its advisers are impartial volunteers. Supported ventures include Koalaa, Jelly Drops and Shellworks; the service received the Enterprise Catalyst Award at the 2025 National Enterprise Educators Awards.
Admission requires evidence of customer research, economic viability and a willingness to respond to coaching. Core mentoring and expert services generally serve staff, students and alumni within three years of graduation. Someone with a beautifully defended assumption may have work to do before progressing. A mentor cannot substitute for customers, and free advice still costs the founder attention and effort.
“So, we decided to minimise behaviour change.”Alex Bond, FreshCheck, describing the move towards swabs
For readers building elsewhere, this is the part to copy: separate the technical question from the buying question. Test the margin. Watch the existing routine. Ask what your product requires people to stop doing. FreshCheck’s sequence shows how a sound invention can need several commercial formats. Its experience also makes clear why praise for an idea is weaker evidence than observing a customer use it.
04 / A competition with homework
The Venture Catalyst Challenge wraps development into a competition. Its 2026 offer is three months, 25 startups, five tracks and a £100,000 prize fund. Coaching, expert meetings, workshops and pitch training surround the final presentations. Tracks range from AI and robotics to energy and environment, allowing founders to work with advice appropriate to their market.
WE Innovate takes a different route: six months and three phases for women-led teams, with masterclasses, personalised coaching, mentoring and a £30,000 equity-free prize fund. Founded in 2014, it predates the Lab. A national university network was announced in June 2025. As of October 2026, applications for Imperial’s 2027 programme are open, with a published November deadline.
05 / After the prototype, the factory
Later-stage science businesses encounter different obstacles. EarthScale, led through the Lab and Undaunted, helps UK climate ventures navigate manufacturing and prepare for Series A funding. Its 12-month programme connects university expertise and facilities across regional hubs. The inaugural cohort, announced in October 2025, comprised 16 ventures. Applicants need more than an idea: the published criteria include seed investment and technology or software readiness levels five or six.
Legal costs receive their own intervention. The Green Tech Legal Collaborative, launched in 2021 with Bloomberg and law-firm partners, offers pro bono assistance to eligible sustainability ventures. These programmes expose the Lab’s method: find a particular obstacle, then organise access to people equipped to address it.
06 / Free help, with a longer horizon
The Lab operates within Imperial, drawing on institutional resources, partners, volunteer expertise and philanthropy. Its Entrepreneurs’ Pledge invites founders to support future entrepreneurs through voluntary gifts. The model leaves room for help before an investment proposition exists. Success can later return as money, experience or another useful introduction.
In June 2025, Imperial reported 214 startups created with support over the preceding five years, collectively raising £504.4 million. That is venture fundraising, not the Lab’s revenue, and it does not isolate the effect of coaching from everything else Imperial provides. The more immediately useful measure is smaller: whether a founder leaves with a better question. FreshCheck’s bacteria-detecting dye was ingenious. Learning to put it where customers wanted it took longer.