The Heropreneurs Virtual Awards 2021

A message from the Chairman of Heropreneurs

Entries will open on Thursday 1st April 2021

If you would like to get in touch regarding entering the awards, please contact Esme Jepp – esme@heropreneurs.co.uk

What’s so special about the Heropreneurs Awards?

Heropreneurs is a charity, run by volunteers. The people that run Heropreneurs, including myself, receive no financial benefit whatsoever for the extensive amount of time that we put into running the charity or the Heropreneurs Awards.
Warwick Business School, Goldman Sachs, The Veterans’ Foundation, and Atkins, who are all supporting the virtual awards in 2021.
The Heropreneurs Awards are not being run for profit, and if we are fortunate enough to achieve a surplus it will all go to the benefit of the Heropreneurs charity.
The Judges of the Heropreneurs Virtual Awards are all highly successful people drawn from the worlds of business, politics, and the Armed forces.
Our nominees, who represent the best of the ex-Armed Forces in business.

That’s why the Heropreneurs Awards are so prestigious.

The history of Heropreneurs

Heropreneurs was launched as a registered charity in 2009, so we are celebrating 12 years of helping ex-Armed Forces personnel on the road to creating their own successful businesses.

It’s a tough and lonely road creating a new business – formal Government statistics show that 50% of new businesses fail in their first 4 years, and at the core of what we do is a mentoring programme which is free to join. We have a community of highly successful entrepreneurs and business people who give their time entirely for free to our members. They are similar to Non-Executive Chairmen and provide experienced sounding boards with whom our members can discuss their business concerns. We know how difficult it is to succeed in business and we don’t promote starting up a business for the sake of it, or for our own personal financial gain; indeed, none of the people that run Heropreneurs obtains any financial benefit whatsoever.

The advice that our highly experienced Mentors give is objective and unbiased – Heropreneurs isn’t trying to sell anything to anyone.

We also encourage our members to connect with and help each other to solve their business issues. At the heart of our ethos is that we help people so that they can help others.

When I discovered that no British charities were focusing on celebrating the outstanding achievements in business by people from the Armed Forces, the Heropreneurs Awards were born.

Warwick Business School are continuing their support in 2021 by funding 100% bursaries for the winners of their awards to study for either an Executive MBA, or an Executive Diploma; while other repeat sponsors include Goldman Sachs and The Veterans’ Foundation.

We know other sponsors will be joining us and we hope you will too; either by supporting the Heropreneurs Awards as a partner, or entering.

I look forward to your involvement and support.

Peter Mountford
Chairman

About The Heropreneurs Awards

The Heropreneurs Awards were established in 2018 to celebrate the success and entrepreneurial spirit of all members of the Armed Forces community. Held in previous years at Plaisterer’s Hall, London, the decision was made to bring the Awards online in 2021, allowing us to continue to celebrate the exceptional achievements of our community, despite the global situation with Covid-19.

There are nine categories – each one recognising and rewarding the achievements of those people who spent their careers protecting and caring for this country and who, since leaving the Armed Forces, have gone on to successful careers outside the military services.

Entrepreneurs; new businesses; those working in both the private and public sector; employers; Military partners (or their dependents) are all eligible for nomination.

Anyone can nominate, or self-nominate, and all entries will be assessed by an independent and highly experienced panel of judges, who will have the incredibly difficult job of finding just one winner in each category.

How will the virtual awards work?

We’re bringing the celebration online!

Reflecting the ongoing global situation with Covid-19, we want to celebrate your achievements, whilst keeping you as safe as possible, so this year the awards will run virtually.

How will it work?

The application process is the same. On 1st April 2021, entries will open, and you will be able to access the nomination forms. Then, you have until 11th June 2020 to get your completed forms submitted. Judging will take place virtually in July, as usual. The announcements of our winners is where it gets a little different!

We’d love to be hosting you at our annual dinner and ceremony, but this year the announcements of the winners will be done virtually, with a category winner being announced every other week, from August to November. (This means you get all the limelight to yourself when your category is called!) We’ll get in touch after the judges’ day to let you know if you’re a finalist, then we’ll book in a video call to notify the winner. After that, we’ve got lots of activity planned, with interviews, website articles, and social media activity, celebrating your fantastic achievement.

That’s not all…

We’d love to think that 2021 will start to see a gradual return to ‘normality’. That’s why we’re hoping to host a drinks reception and networking event in December 2021 for all our award winners, partners, sponsors, and key members of the Heropreneurs network, provided the situation at the time allows.

Heropreneurs Virtual Awards 2021 Categories

We’ve introduced some exciting new categories this year, as well as welcoming back some of our original line-up.

Our categories for 2021 are as follows:

Entrepreneur of the Year, in partnership with Goldman Sachs
Start-Up Business of the Year
Technology Business of the Year
Employer of the Year, in partnership with JobOppO
Sustainable Business of the Year, in partnership with Atkins Global
Product of the Year
The Warwick Business School Bursary – MBA Award
The Warwick Business School Bursary – Executive Diploma Award
The Veterans’ Foundation Award

Nomination Forms

Our Partners

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners:

Without their support, the awards would simply not be possible, and we are proud to be working alongside these prestigious organisations to deliver these opportunities to our community.

For further information about partnership packages please contact: Esme Jepp Tel: 07879 210 278 Email: esme@heropreneurs.co.uk