A Good Deal done – Obama’s special advisor praises ex-soldier’s social innovation

Tim West
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President Obama’s special advisor has praised a disabled mountain bike venture that won this year’s pitching contest at the UK’s leading social investment event.

Disabled ex-soldier and entrepreneur Chris Jones won support worth £50,000 to manufacture a cutting edge extreme sports bike for people with disabilities, at this year’s Good Deals – the UK social investment conference.

He was one of three entrepreneurs shortlisted to take part in a unique, live pitching contest at Good Deals where the audience voted for the winning social business idea.

There are more than 1 million disabled children in the UK, over 40,000 spinal injury victims, plus countless tens-of-thousands of others who are currently excluded from mountain biking. Chris’s company, Merici Sports, has developed a world first – an affordable and fully adjustable mountain bike for people with lower limb and spinal disabilities.

This innovative bike has the potential to significantly widen access to sport for disabled people and their families.

Chris was discharged from active service in the army in 1998 with just over 50 per cent normal use of his legs. His frustration at being excluded from extreme sports led him to set up Merici Sports. He is passionate about building a commercially viable social venture and is hungry for the support to bring his product to market and scale his organisation quickly.

For the first time at Good Deals each delegate became a social investor and had the chance to decide which social business should win a coveted place on The Young Foundation 2013 Accelerator programme. Merici Sports will receive £50,000 of business support to help it gear up for major social investment opportunities, plus an amount from the Good Deals seed fund – a percentage taken from every delegate and sponsor fee at the event.

At Good Deals, headline speaker Jonathan Greenblatt, special advisor to President Barack Obama, praised Merici’s idea. Greenblatt, who sat on the Good Deals pitching panel alongside Young Foundation director of ventures Anna Smee and Good Deals founder Tim West, told Jones he thought there was a global market for his product:

“First of all, I think all of us should thank you for your service,” Greenblatt said, adding: “I can’t tell you how big I think this idea could be in the United States.”

After the audience voted overwhelmingly to support his idea, Jones said: “I’m so excited to have won this package of support. It really could be the stepping stone we need to get our bikes out to the people who need them, and should enable us to start working with more and more organisations to get disabled people out riding mountain bikes.”

Smee said: “Merici Sport has the potential to change the lives of disabled people who are currently priced out of sports like mountain biking and denied the chance to explore the countryside with their families. We are looking forward to helping Chris grow his business and raise social investment to turn his dream into reality.”

Tim West, who is also director of Matter&Co, the social innovation company behind Good Deals, said: “We’re really excited that this year Good Deals has actually made a social investment of its own and given our audience the chance to be social investors themselves. The audience voted almost unanimously for Merici Sports. Chris was impressive not only because he has a compelling human story, but also an innovative product, he was on top of his numbers and there is a significant opportunity to scale his idea on a global level.”

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