EXCITING YOUNG BUSINESS MAKES AWARDS SHORTLIST

Mother of two Alexandra Kelly, who was given the TV thumbs down by the investors on Dragons’ Den, has gone on to be named one of the country’s top new business stars.

Blossoming business Powerchex Limited has been unveiled as one of four finalists at the Startups Awards 2007 in the ‘Service Business of the Year Award’ category, handing it the chance to win the top prize.

Alexandra originally asked the dragons to invest in her idea for a company specialising in staff referencing for the financial services industry.

But when they said no, she decided to go it alone – and two years later Powerchex is the fastest-growing vetting and job referencing service in the UK boasting an office in the city and an impressive roster of first rate financial clients. Powerchex is well on its way to achieving revenues of £1m in 2007.

Alexandra, born and raised in Greece, moved to America aged 25 to study for an MBA at a top business school. She arrived in Britain in 2000 - interrupting a round the world sailing trip with her husband - after discovering she was expecting their first child.

A key to Powerchex’s success has been its industry-leading benchmark turnaround time of 5 days. But Alexandra believes more than methodology lies behind Powerchex’s success.

“People in this country don’t love their customers enough” says Alexandra, “Clients are always right, however outrageously wrong they are.”



Powerchex attributes much of its success to hiring from within the local community as well as working with universities to provide opportunities for recent graduates.

“Giving opportunities to recent graduates has been a ‘win-win’ situation for Powerchex. The graduates get a foothold in the employment market while Powerchex gets very motivated, bright employees who can get moulded to the powerchex values and working style” says Kelly.

Alexandra plans to continue promoting these advantages to win new clients, expansion into Europe being the next logical step. The key to long term growth will be product development and areas being examined include corporate fraud investigation, HR compliance consultancy and psychometric testing.

The Startups Awards, headline-sponsored by NatWest and organised by Crimson Business’ Startups.co.uk, comprises of 16 categories, each showcasing the best new businesses in the UK.

This year’s judging panel consists of some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs, including Martin Webb, entrepreneur & presenter of Channel 4’s Risking It All, Tim Campbell, winner of BBC’s The Apprentice, 2005 and Jonathan Moules, entrepreneurship correspondent, Financial Times.