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# Student Innovators: Waddle Takes the Stage at Venture Builder Demo Day
- URL: https://bigecho.co.uk/articles/student-innovators-waddle-takes-the-stage-at-venture-builder-demo-day/
- Published: 2025-10-13T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-16T08:08:35.000Z
- Description: Over the past few months, Big Echo founder Tom Parson has been mentoring Waddle, a student-led startup on the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s Venture Builder programme at the University of Manchester.
- Author: Tom Parson
- Tags: News, #colour-yellow, #show-date

Over the past few months, I've been mentoring Waddle, a student-led startup on the [Masood Entrepreneurship Centre](https://www.entrepreneurship.manchester.ac.uk/?ref=bigecho.co.uk)’s [Venture Builder programme](https://www.entrepreneurship.manchester.ac.uk/manchester-venture-builder/?ref=bigecho.co.uk) at the [University of Manchester](https://www.manchester.ac.uk/?ref=bigecho.co.uk).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/60/556043da-15d4-4bad-98b3-0d4f58081bfa/content/images/2025/10/1760347770126-1.jpg)

### My Freshers Experience

I remember when I was a new student, moving to Manchester in 2008\. I felt excited for my course, but my biggest fear was that I wouldn't fit in in the big city, and I wouldn't find any friends.

I had opted for student halls in the city centre, thinking that was a safe bet to meet new, exciting people. It turns out I'd been put in a flat with final year and postgrad students - I was the only fresher! They took me out a couple of times, but needless to say socialising wasn't really high on their priorities.

It meant that over the following weeks I really had to push myself to get out and make new friends. I had periods of loneliness, fearing I'd never meet anyone. I was fortunate that I befriended Chloe, a fellow student on my course, and she introduced me to her flatmates in Fallowfield. Encouraged, I went on to apply for a change of halls and ended up moving to a nearby Fallowfield flat around Christmas of my first year.

I ended up living with Chloe and many of those flatmates in my second year, and they became good friends throughout the uni experience.

I was lucky, but loneliness and social isolation affects many students in deeper ways, and Waddle is tackling this head on.

### Tackling Student Loneliness

Through research with more than 200 students, they found that 63% want to meet new people, and most prefer doing so in group settings.

> 63% of students want to make more friends

Their solution? A new way to make friends, through spontaneous, disappearing meet-ups.

Think [Snapchat](https://www.snapchat.com/?ref=bigecho.co.uk) meets [Meetup.com](https://www.meetup.com/?ref=bigecho.co.uk).

Designed for university freshers, Waddle helps students connect through short, low-risk group activities such as board-game nights, matcha tastings, or casual sports sessions.

### The Big Pitch

Last week, I attended the team’s first ever Demo Day at [Sister](https://sistermanchester.com/?ref=bigecho.co.uk), where co-founders Jonghun Lee and Firaas Nasir pitched their idea to investors and fellow entrepreneurs.

A Demo Day is a showcase event where startup founders pitch their ideas to potential investors, mentors and partners - the culmination of an accelerator or venture-builder programme. The format was popularised by Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley accelerator that helped launch companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox.

It’s been a privilege to mentor such driven and creative founders - and to see them grow in confidence as they turn their idea into a real product.

The Demo Day marked the culmination of an inspiring programme filled with bold ideas, collaboration and genuine innovation from the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Good luck Waddle!

****Amplifier Programme**

Our support for Waddle forms part of our Amplifier Programme, where Big Echo provides pro bono support to up and coming innovators.

[Find out more ](https://bigecho.co.uk/about-us/#amplifier)