HelpBnk

“This all started with my dad. Just before COVID, he had a triple aortic dissection and was given six months to live. The doctors said he'd never walk or work again, and there was no real plan beyond medication and acceptance of decline. I refused to accept that. I built him a natural wellness plan from scratch, mindset, movement, nutrition, routine, alternative therapies, and six years later he's still alive. He's the only survivor out of 36 recorded people with his level of severity. That pulled me into holistic health properly. Then COVID hit, my previous business stopped, and I started building wellness plans for others. I ended up partnering in a cannabis farming operation in Spain, spent three or four years in it, and watched it collapse when regulations changed, partnerships failed, and I was eventually robbed. At the same time, I lost close friends to suicide. One of them I partly blame myself for, because I introduced him to the man who later pushed him toward it. That's something I'll carry forever. Under all of it, the business failure, the investor pressure, the losses, I had my own breakdown. I moved back into my mum's house and rebuilt myself from the ground up. My brothers kept me there. Learning to speak up is what saved me. That's why it's called SPEAK. We go into construction sites, one of the highest-risk environments for suicide in the country, and we do the work that actually reaches people. Real conversations, community, structure. Not tick-box compliance. I genuinely thought I might be sectioned. Now I'm trying to drive down suicide rates across an entire industry." @speak_uk

These 60 seconds could have changed her life FOREVER! 😳 Kami is a singer-songwriter from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and her dream is a sold-out tour across 20 cities in Europe and Africa. If your dream is something we can see or hear, bring it to the doorbell and show us. That's how we get it in front of the world. Kami, come back and sing? 💙

“At sixteen, I broke both my hips through a rare growing disease. Not an accident, not recklessness, just something that happened inside my body without asking permission. And when I came out the other side, they told me I couldn't become a Royal Marine. Door closed. What stayed with me wasn't the physical part. It was learning what it feels like to have a dream removed rather than fail at it. That's a different kind of thing entirely. Years later, my closest friend James and I had been collecting original WW2 jackets, not to keep behind glass, but to actually wear. And every time we did, strangers would stop us in the street, in pubs, on dog walks, and say the same thing: 'That's a cool jacket.' Not because it was fashionable. Because it meant something. Those jackets had survived a war, then two or three generations of wear, and were still going. Meanwhile everything around us was designed to be thrown away after a handful of uses. Over a pint after a long yomp, we asked what felt like a dangerous question: what if we remade them properly? Same fabrics, same stitching, same fastenings. Made in the UK, with British mills, by skilled makers who are otherwise disappearing. And instead of donating 1% to charity as a marketing exercise, 10% of profits to veterans' charities as a core principle. We've gone from a £6,000 personal investment to over £350,000 in revenue. We haven't taken a penny in pay. There have been countless 5am starts, weekends given over completely, and moments where time with family got squeezed, which is the part that really hurts. But these jackets were built to be worn, lived in, and passed down. I think about that every time someone stops me in the street." @avreind

His job was about to be replaced by AI! 😶‍🌫️ So he used AI to make himself un-replaceable. Kyle helps businesses fix the repeat problems that quietly eat into their profit. When he realised AI was coming for his own role, he didn't worry about it. He went into Lovable and built an app that does what he does, that any business can use themselves. What got us was how prepared he was. He walked in knowing we'd invested in Lovable and called out Anton from Lovable and Elon by name. That's how you pitch! We're going to see if we can get Anton to take a look at it 😉

“I worked for a band for free for five years, covered my own expenses the whole time, so I was working at a loss, and they kicked me out because they didn't know how to communicate that they couldn't help me with domestic abuse. That's the kind of thing that makes more sense when you know the rest of it. I spent the first 23 years of my life in that house. In May last year my dad evicted me and I thought I was going to be homeless for seven weeks. I felt bleak and helpless, but supported accommodation is a thing, and living in relative poverty beats the alternative. University was three years and £70K of debt for things I already knew or never wanted to learn. So I built Scapetrace Art School, an affordable place where I personally help people learn what they actually want to learn in photo, video and editing. I've written a short film. I just need to film it, record the narration, and make a soundtrack for it. I've found the people who can help me with that. I have a saying: I'm a human first, an artist second and a businessman third. I had to watch the person I used to be die before I could grow into the person I want to be. I haven't got there yet, but I'm happy now, and that's not nothing." @scapetrace

“I had to leave my family home because they were homophobic. I stayed with my best friend at the YMCA for a bit, then moved in with a partner. I felt so lonely, but that was also when I realised how many wonderful people I had around me. I didn't make it out of that place alone. Things worked out with my family in the end, which still surprises me sometimes. Last March I went to India by myself. I had recommendations from friends, I timed it so I could stay with someone I knew who had a company there, and then I just explored on my own. I met strangers and we took pictures together. When I came back I felt so proud of myself, and I wanted other people to be able to feel like that too. That's really where Tabby came from. We kept going to new places and the recommendations online never quite captured what was actually there. You'd miss the independent cat cafe hidden around the corner because the algorithm sent you somewhere mainstream. So we built an app where people share their real itineraries and others can book the same journey. We launched on the Apple App Store, Apple invited us to apply for a spotlight feature, and I used to go to the gym after work, now I work on Tabby instead. I want to see how far it can go." @tabbytravelapp

Networking, but make it a beach. 🌴 We're taking over Bola Beach Tennis for a HelpBnk Sunset Social, and everyone's invited. Thursday 23rd July. Sand, sunset, good music, and a proper Brazilian beach vibe in the middle of London. Here's the best part: beach tennis is the most democratic racket sport there is. It doesn't matter if you've never picked up a racket in your life. It's easy to learn, impossible not to enjoy, and it evens the playing field for everyone. So this is your chance to meet the HelpBnk team, make real connections, and even pitch your idea, without the stiff, awkward energy of a normal networking room. 3 hours. £15. A drink on us. 🍹 Come play. Come socialise. Come find your people.

“I was 16, loved cars, and spent my spare time drawing them. The apprenticeship was supposed to be my way into Formula 1 or car design, and I was excited just to earn money and own a car one day. The reality was grown men fighting each other and behaving worse than anyone I'd seen at school. I kept to myself, but that didn't matter. During a health and safety visit, one of the mechanics thought it was funny to pull out a flick knife on me. I couldn't see the humour. It escalated into an argument in the middle of the workshop floor, right in front of the auditors, and I handed in my notice shortly after. For several years after that I was unemployed on Jobseeker's Allowance, moving in and out of college courses that didn't lead anywhere. My dad was an engineer. He drove me to job interviews, helped me with college homework, and always pushed me to go further. He died of cancer in 2013, and he never got to see me in a career where I was fully able to fulfil my potential. I've been at a Telecom company for over 20 years now, building LearnAnyJob.com on the side, spending my own wages to keep it alive. Last year I was at a roundtable with the Bank of England, talking to industry leaders about why work experience matters. I think about how different things might have been if someone had let me shadow an engineer before I walked into that workshop at 16, not knowing what I was walking into." @LearnAnyJob

“I told my dad about the idea before anyone else. He said it was good, wished me luck, and then he was gone shortly after. Losing him was the most painful thing I've ever been through, and it changed the way I see time completely. I kept thinking: he believed in this, and life doesn't wait around. So I started building DinePay after my 9 to 5 every day, contacting restaurants, doing the research, trying to figure out how to get people back through the door when Deliveroo and Uber Eats are taking 25 to 30 percent of every order and the dining rooms are still empty. I've got sciatica right now and some nights it's bad, but I've got a wife, a son, and a daughter depending on me, so I push through it. I've got letters of intent from restaurants and I'm raising £172,000 to bring the app to market. It's early, and there's a long way to go. But every time I think about stopping, I think about my dad sitting there telling me it was a good idea. I'm not ready to let that be the end of the story." @Biyenge

He got declined for a payday loan because he didn't have one penny in his account. Not one. That was Roei Samuel in 2017, drowning in debt, trying to build something with no money and no one to guide him. He's got the list of payday loan companies etched into his memory to this day. Now he runs Connectd. This is exactly why we built HelpBnk. Back then Roei had no network, no LinkedIn, and no one to tell him the basics, like the fact that you're allowed to pay yourself. No founder should have to learn that the hard way. So we're giving away the help we all wish we'd had. For free.

Most people never start because no one backs them. We just changed that. 💸 It's called the Dream Fund. Businesses pledge a slice of their profit, and we use it to back new founders who want to do good. You could be one of them. 63% of people have a business idea they believe in. They just don't know how to take the first step. This is your step. And to kick it off, our CEO Adam Moss is helping people sharpen their pitch live at the Doorbell of Dreams. 👀 Come to the Doorbell of Dreams on the 7th of July in Islington and pitch us your dream. Maybe we fund you next? 👀

“Loneliness has been a recurring thread throughout my life. I was adopted into a loving family, and I'm grateful for that, but there was always a small, numbing void underneath it all, not knowing where I came from or where I fully belonged. I spent years backstage in theatre, close to expressive worlds, absorbing other people's creativity, supporting other people's journeys. I was surrounded by people and still felt slightly apart from it all. Travel was the opposite of that feeling. Being alone in unfamiliar places forced a kind of openness I couldn't manufacture at home. You meet strangers. You share honestly. Sometimes you form deep connections in a single day that outlast years of proximity. The spark came down a back street in Vietnam, discovering a sparkling coffee I'd never encountered before. It felt lighter, more refreshing, and emotionally different to anything I'd had before. It wasn't just the taste. It was the energy of the place, the creativity, the sense of possibility. That moment became GOOD KOFFEE. Everything bootstrapped, a government-backed startup loan tied to my own name, personal debt I'm still carrying, everything reinvested back in. We're now on our third production run, each one around 50% bigger than the last, and we've crossed £10,000 in early revenue without a penny of paid marketing. I spent years not knowing where to place myself. Now I'm building something that carries my voice, and it tastes like a back street in Vietnam." @goodkofeedrink

“When my daughter was around one year old, a paediatrician told us she was measuring suspiciously small. What followed were months of tests and waiting, until we were given a suspected diagnosis of Noonan Syndrome. A rare condition with an enormous spectrum. Everything depended on a heart scan. I have always considered myself a fairly resilient person, but the fear of losing your child strips you of all certainty. Every plan, every ambition, every worry suddenly feels secondary. When the scan came back, we were told she had a small bulge on her heart, but that it was functioning well. She is joyful, determined, and extraordinary. We still attend regular check-ups. That period changed how I measure everything. My friend and I had already started selling biscuits from our kitchen tables in the evenings, two working mothers who had both moved to the UK from continental Europe, building careers in digital marketing while raising young children without family nearby. We started in 2016 with £1,000 between us and no grand plan, just curious to see where it might lead. After those months of waiting rooms and heart scans, I stopped being willing to postpone things that mattered. We baked after the children went to sleep, said no to weekends away, chose reinvestment over higher personal income. We now employ five women, most working school hours, and we've reached more than 300,000 people with our biscuits. There are many things I do not have. But I have my daughter. And that is everything." @thebiskery

“I spent 18 months knowing the dream job didn't exist, and not being able to say it out loud. I'd studied architecture for 7 years, done everything right, followed every step on the ladder. And then somewhere in those final months I realised the thing I was climbing towards wasn't actually there, not for me anyway. Every day I was running my cooking side hustle alongside full-time work and university, and the hours were brutal, but that was the part that felt real. I was getting messages from people with eating disorders, people in care, people cooking on almost nothing, telling me a recipe had helped them through something. And I'd go back to the architecture work and feel like all that energy I had just had nowhere to go. In November 2023 I was made redundant, and my honest first feeling was relief. I'd grown up with a Spanish dad and an English mum who let me cook from a really young age, so food was never something I feared, it was just home. But I kept meeting people for whom it wasn't like that at all, and I couldn't stop thinking about that gap. So I walked away from seven years of training, invested my savings into presenter courses and networking and branding, and launched 'Cooking with Lauren', a free cook-along series on YouTube for kids. Each episode costs around £400 to make. I've funded six of them myself, and I want to make thirty. I grew up being given the freedom to cook. I just want to give that to as many kids as possible." @laurenleyva

“I used to hate putting my hand out to signal on my bike. Cars didn't take me seriously on the road anyway, and sticking your arm out felt like it made no difference. I was studying Mechatronic Engineering and I thought, someone should fix this properly. It started on an electric skateboard in bike lanes, having close calls with cars and taxis who simply didn't see me. I remember wishing I had indicators, like a car does. That idea eventually became a bike light, and then people I knew got seriously injured in accidents caused by poor visibility, and after that it stopped feeling optional. After I graduated I lost roles because I didn't have the support I needed early on. I kept trying to pour energy into someone else's vision while I was still figuring out who I was as an engineer. I couldn't stay motivated when I didn't believe in the work, and for a long time I thought that meant something was wrong with me. Building Pxle showed me it didn't. I've spent three years on this in evenings, weekends, and holidays, funded it from my own salary, taught myself graphic design, electronics, manufacturing, all of it. The second prototype is ready for production now. I just want to save lives. That turns out to be enough to keep going." @project.pxle

Five years ago, brands genuinely saw community as a risk. The logic went like this: the more you talk to your people, the more chances there are to slip up, say the wrong thing, or lose control of the message. So the safest move was distance. Broadcast, don't converse. Keep the audience at arm's length. We never bought that. Because the "risk" they were avoiding was actually the entire opportunity. The brands that talk to their people are the ones building trust faster than anyone else now. Every conversation is a chance to learn what people actually want, fix what's broken, and turn a customer into someone who defends you. If you want to learn more about the power of community, join us at one of our HelpBnk events. More info on helpbnk.com

A supermodel changed her life! 😱

I found @simonsquibb live in London. How did that happen? September 2024: Simon's content appeared on my FYP. April 2025: Flew to London. Pitched my idea to the @helpbnk doorbell. October 2025: Joined the team. Took me 167 days!

For the last few months I've been producing content for @helpbnk. I went from a geography graduate to working in media. This should remind you that you can achieve anything you want. And oh boy, I wanted this. For 167 days I spammed the HelpBnk team to join them. Life is fun!

He just needs a bit of advice! Max is solving a real problem for those with allergies. Do you know anyone else than can help out? @maxb2606 #doorbellofdreams #entrepreneur #allergies