Flower power! Entrepreneur wins £10k in Work Avenue Dragons’ Den

A 50-year-old Jewish entrepreneur from Hendon has won £10,000  of support to grow her business by triumphing in a Dragons’ Den-style competition run by Work Avenue. 

Caroline Maxwell impressed the judges with her vision for The Secret Garden: Flowers by Caroline – a service that offers unique and bespoke flowers and gifts for all occasions.

The florist, who has 15 years’ experience in the industry, showed off ideas ranging from bouquets for simchas and gifts for Jewish festivals.

The competition came at the end of the Work Avenue Business Accelerator programme – an intensive six-week bootcamp to help kickstart 12 businesses.

Caroline said: “I’m still in shock that I won! The course was phenomenal and the team at Work Avenue are beyond supportive, caring and encouraging. Words cannot suffice to say how much thanks I owe them.

“I have really taken so much from everything that was taught and also from all the people whom I have met on this journey.”

Maxwell plans on spending the £10k support she has on setting up a website, getting social media and marketing support and embarking on some courses to learn new and different floristry skills.

Popularised by the likes of Google, Techstars and Wayra, the Accelerator is designed to help entrepreneurs through expert-led training modules – covering brand building, financial viability and pricing, marketing, networking and website design and group peer to peer support.

The participants in the Work Avenue Accelerator then pitched their projects to the Dragons judging panel of Jonathan Werth (Managing Partner at Cambridge Management Consulting), Daniella Winton (Managing Director of GNB Partnership), Yaniv Peer (Managing Director of Iguana Architects) and Debbie Lebrett (CEO of Work Avenue).

The runners-up in the competition were Sinead Mydat, whose Rockstar Cupcakes offers a range of delicious baked goods, and Bradley Bendell, a quantity surveyor who set up Eldon Property Services.