The official photographs from the UK StartUp Awards national final arrived this week. The picture above is the exact moment the winner of Health and Wellbeing StartUp of the Year was read out, and it was us. That is Tina's face the second she heard it, and my hand on her shoulder.
We did not expect to win. Sitting in a festival tent among founders from all over the UK, reaching the national final already felt like the achievement. Then our name was called.
The walk itself is a bit of a blur. We remember the applause, and people we had never met reaching out to shake hands as we passed. Founders know what goes into building something, and that made the applause from that particular crowd mean a great deal.
On stage, the hug came before any words. We are a husband and wife team, and we started NeuroFX because our own family knew what it was to wait for answers. Neither of us pictured the NeuroFX bird on a screen at a national final when we started.
The formal announcement is in our news story from last week. This one is simply about how the night felt. We were surprised, we were elated, and we thought of the patients and families who got us there.
Back to work in Bedford, with a very good week behind us.
