Celebrating the Derby Game Changers: a night for founders

Last night, Derby’s startup community proved exactly why this city is fast becoming a launchpad for first‑time founders and a magnet for early stage investors – and at the heart of it all was Role Resolve, winner of the People’s Choice Award at Derby Game Changers.

Derby Game Changers: a night for founders

Derby Game Changers brought together students, side‑hustlers and emerging founders to pitch live in front of a room full of peers, mentors and investors. It created a space where new founders could test their ideas, tell their stories and feel the support of a real startup community. For first‑time founders, it was a rare mix of visibility, honest feedback and encouragement in a single evening.

Startups who took the stage

Each of these ventures delivered a live pitch, sharing both the problem they are tackling and the impact they want to create:

• Role Resolve – therapeutic tabletop role‑playing games and psychotherapy supporting neurodivergent children, young people and adults, blending lived experience with creative tools to deliver early mental health support at scale.

• HeirTrust – a secure, automated system for passing on digital and tokenised assets, helping families, creators and institutions avoid losing crypto, digital IP and other online wealth.

• ReThread UK – a circular fashion startup using recycling technology in the UK to turn used clothing into new raw materials and reduce textile waste exports.

• My Vibe – a sustainable, personalised fashion subscription service delivering curated, ethically sourced clothing boxes for busy professionals and eco‑conscious consumers.

• Chenai Mutendi’s biochar venture – turning food waste into biochar to restore soils, cut emissions and create green jobs in a circular, nature‑positive way.

Together, they showed investors a powerful mix of mental health, fintech, sustainability, climate action and fashion‑tech in one high‑energy showcase.

Prizes and recognition

The headline moment of the night was clear: Role Resolve took home the People’s Choice Award, showing just how strongly the room connected with their mission around neurodiversity, mental health and early intervention. The other teams may not have walked away with that specific prize, but they earned serious attention and validation as live‑pitching founders and future game changers.

There were also a range of other prizes and support packages awarded to Founders from across the Derby Game Changer community.  This prizes, and their sponsors, inspired and motivated the Founders considerably. 

Categories and winners are as follows:
🏆 Best Community Idea (£1000, awarded by the Paling Family) - Sharlene Rudd and Vikki Nolan from Role Resolve Therapy
🏆 Best Science Idea (£1000, awarded by ESBF) - Amirali Shateri
🏆 Best Engineering Idea (£1000, awarded by ESBF) - Mark B. Kay 
🏆 Global Impact Idea (£1000, awarded by ESBF and presented by our own Alice Oliver) - Natalie Weir from Playivity

For early stage investors, nights like this cut through the noise. You see real founders, on their feet, handling questions, telling real stories and showing how they think under pressure.

Why Role Resolve captured hearts

Role Resolve is building inclusive, evidence‑based mental health support for neurodivergent and neurodiverse communities. They combine psychotherapy with therapeutic tabletop role‑playing games, creating a space where people can explore emotions, practise social skills and build confidence in a way that feels natural and playful. Their team brings lived experience of neurodiversity alongside professional training in psychotherapy and education, which gives them both credibility and deep empathy.

Their model spans:

• Therapeutic role‑playing game programmes in schools and workplaces.

• Counselling for children, young people and adults.

• Books and materials that help organisations build more psychologically informed, inclusive environments.

For first‑time founders, Role Resolve is a powerful example of how to turn lived experience into a strong, investable story: a clear problem, a unique solution and a roadmap from early pilots to national impact. For investors, their traction, revenue plans and social impact potential sit comfortably in both impact and commercial portfolios.

A thriving Derby–Canopy collaboration

Derby Game Changers also marked another milestone in the ongoing collaboration between Derby’s ecosystem and Canopy community. By bringing Canopy’s founder‑first, community‑driven approach into Derby’s growing innovation landscape, this partnership is creating a path where a student with an idea can quickly access peers, mentors and early‑stage investor connections.

For founders, that means:

• A softer landing into their first pitch experience, surrounded by people who genuinely want them to succeed.

• Exposure to investors who understand the messy reality of pre‑seed and idea‑stage ventures.

• A sense that Derby is not just a place to study or work, but a place to build a company with real impact.

For early stage investors, it means a reliable stream of founders who have already been coached, challenged and supported by a community that cares about both the human and the business. It is a signal that Derby is serious about nurturing talent, not just celebrating it once a year.

What this means for first‑time founders and early investors

Events like Derby Game Changers are where the next decade of UK startups quietly begins. If you are a first‑time founder, plug into communities like Canopy and local partners in Derby, apply for showcases, and treat every pitch as practice for the rooms you want to be in two years from now. The earlier you step into these spaces, the faster you learn, the stronger your story becomes and the easier it is for investors to say “yes” when the time is right.

If you are an early stage investor, this is your chance to get close to values‑driven founders before the market catches up: mental health innovators like Role Resolve, Web3 infrastructure builders like HeirTrust, circular fashion ventures like ReThread UK and My Vibe, and climate‑driven solutions like Chenai’s biochar project. The collaboration between Canopy and Derby is already proving that when you combine place‑based talent with a strong founder community, you do not just get good pitches – you get genuine game changers.

Would you like a short call‑to‑action added at the end inviting founders and investors to join the Canopy community or register interest for the next Derby Game Changers?  Email [email protected] today

Watch the Game Changers montage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZpL9UTmP_Q