Million Plus

Bright Red Triangle first opened in 2005 as a business incubator for Edinburgh Napier University students and graduates. Since then, the department has grown to be a university-wide initiative aiming to positively impact our student experience, local businesses, and the wider community by supporting innovation and enterprise practice among our students, alumni, and staff.

We take pride in our enterprise start-up activities, business support, consultancy services, and social innovation projects. Our goal is to equip students with the knowledge and confidence that they need to succeed in whatever they do next. We run extracurricular events and workshops, and support the development of entrepreneurial behaviours in members of our community.

“BRT is the hub for a confident, resilient, ambitious and resourceful community that is connected across the Edinburgh Napier family.”  – Nick Fannin, Head of Bright Red Triangle, Edinburgh Napier University

In 2018 we supported over 240 individuals to develop their ideas with 110 becoming registered businesses. Our offer includes co-working space, tailored business advice, access to our network of professional services including lawyers and accountants, plus sign-posting to relevant competitions and events within the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and beyond. The service is free for our users, there is no time limit, and we do not expect any remuneration in the form of equity from our members. To date, Bright Red Triangle has supported over 500 businesses to start, with a success rate of over 30% still in business.

One of our success stories is GearedApp, a Mobile & Web Development company based in Edinburgh. The three founders - Lara, Josh and Andrzej - met during their Postgraduate studies at Edinburgh Napier’s School of Computing. GearedApp now operates from their own premises, with ten staff, and clients in four countries.

Lara Findlay, Director/Operations of GearedApp said, “Bright Red Triangle was a huge source of support for us starting GearedApp. We started out as students with an idea, and BRT gave us the all-important guidance and direction to start our company. From helping us incorporate to setting up meetings with important contacts and organisations, BRT pushed us to get things off the ground. They also provided access to the incubator office space and hi-spec equipment that was truly fundamental to helping us grow in the early days. We continue to stay in touch with BRT and their support is still hugely valuable to us 5 years on.” 

For students who wish to gain practical experience working entrepreneurially for businesses, we have BRT Consultancy.

At BRT Consultancy, we recruit students from all disciplines across the university and train them to become Junior Consultants. Our Junior Consultants then receive opportunities to undertake ad-hoc paid consultancy work for external businesses, while being mentored and guided by industry experts to ensure the commercial quality for our clients.

To date, we have completed over 65 projects for businesses within Edinburgh and beyond, and in the past year have supported over 60 students to gain practical experience.

Jean Burke, Marketing Manager of Mercat Tours and a client of BRT Consultancy said, “BRT has been really helpful for Mercat Tours International bringing a fresh perspective to our social media channels. It’s been great to work with the team on putting brand guidelines in place, finding a schedule that works for our followers and always developing the content on our social profiles.”

Kimberley McGreish, Junior Consultant said, “My experience with BRT has been great and is a key addition to my CV. It has given me just the right experience I needed as a business student while fitting easily around my studies. The Senior Consultant has been really helpful, and BRT as a whole is inspiring where you will meet and work with some great people.”

The third pillar of BRT activity is Changing Perceptions. This programme supports active citizenship among the Edinburgh Napier community, aiming to empower and inspire our members. Following a design thinking approach, we run interactive workshops to enable team based problem solving. By providing participants with tools that foster active listening, ideation, innovation, and collaboration, we can encourage students to co-create solutions to problems that can have a real impact on their communities.

Bright Red Triangle has reached over 2,000 Edinburgh Napier University students in the past year alone – through our enterprise start-up activities, BRT Consultancy, and Changing Perceptions. Working closely with our colleagues in academia we are able to support, deliver, and share entrepreneurial practices to an even wider audience than before, enabling us to create sincere professional relationships within the university, as well as the wider business community in Edinburgh and beyond.

“Bright Red Triangle’s ambition is for Edinburgh Napier to be recognised as a leading institution in Scotland for Innovation & Enterprise.

Working with respected and engaging partners, we provide Edinburgh Napier students, graduates and staff with a range of services and opportunities to develop themselves and their ideas to the point where they can have a commercial or social impact. Hopefully both!”

Nick Fannin, Head of Bright Red Triangle, Edinburgh Napier University