The Cornwall Innovation Podcast

Sam Shrimpton from Teylu and Partners

In this episode of the Cornwall Innovation Centre podcast, Rebecca Loto speaks with Sam Shrimpton, founder of Teylu and Partners, a marketing agency that services clients from multinational corporates to SMEs. Sam explains how Teylu works with diverse clients ranging from one of the first innovators to create a subscription business in the early 2000s, to a 300 plus million turnover company across 48 countries. They explore how Sam started the business in 2017 after working in major agencies, where he identified a fundamental problem in large agencies where senior strategists do the thinking but delivery is handled by less experienced staff due to high overhead costs from expensive offices and facilities. Teylu operates on the opposite model, using a remote-first approach to keep really smart people in the company long-term by giving them the lifestyle they want. Sam discusses the philosophy of finding the ten pound insight that makes the million pound revenue, which only happens when experienced people work directly on client projects. By avoiding the big overheads, all costs go directly into the work itself, making the agency super efficient. The discussion also steers towards Sam's love of endurance racing, which he practices on a simulator, and the advantages of being based at Tremough Innovation Centre, highlighting the inspiration from being surrounded by other innovators and success stories. He values seeing the reality of entrepreneurship, where people come and go as businesses pivot or fail, providing important reminders about recognising what doesn't work and shifting to what does. Sam also highlights the unique benefits of Cornwall Innovation Centres, including beach access and quality of life, combined with professional facilities like the innovation centre's internet speeds, security, and ability to host professional events with good train connections. You can find Teylu and Partners to discuss marketing and lead generation services at Tremough Innovation Centre.

Helen Tite from iCareiMove

In this episode of the Cornwall Innovation Centre podcast, Rebecca Loto speaks with Helen Tite, founder of iCareiMove. Helen explains how iCareiMove works across the age spectrum from people in their 40s and 50s in the workforce, through those in their 60s managing chronic health conditions, to people in their 70s, 80s and end of life care. The business focuses on understanding chronic health conditions and movement, delivering commissioned services around falls prevention, COPD management, and other conditions that have significant impacts on the economy, NHS, communities and families. The conversation explores the important work iCareiMove does in preventative healthcare, helping people avoid hospital readmissions and re-enabling them to get their lives back. They also focus on women's health in the workplace, particularly menopause and perimenopause. Helen highlights the stark reality of women facing difficult choices between coming to work while struggling with severe symptoms or taking sick leave, particularly affecting low-income workers. Helen notes that from April 2026, big businesses will need to take on more information around managing women's health, with all businesses required to have better understanding by 2027. The business also addresses men's health, particularly around prostate health and supporting men through cancer treatment and return to work. Helen emphasises the importance of understanding anatomy and working preventatively so both men and women can live longer, better lives. The conversation also covers how commissioned services work, with tenders going out from central government, public health, local authorities or the NHS for services like falls prevention. Helen explains how iCareiMove has been delivering these services for around 15 years, learning from each bid whether successful or not. iCareiMove is part of the Future Fit Training group, which provides resources and infrastructure to support iCareiMove's work while benefiting from the specialist experience in health and care contract work that her team brings back to the wider group.

Jeremy Sneller from Salto VisionWorks

In this episode of the Cornwall Innovation Centre podcast, Rebecca Loto speaks with Jeremy Sneller, founder of Salto Visionworks, a company that pioneered facial recognition access control technology. Jeremy explains the core concept behind Salto Visionworks in a simple tagline: "Access a space with your face." The technology replaces traditional keycards, codes and physical keys with facial recognition, allowing users to simply walk up to a door which then opens automatically. This provides both convenience for carrying bags or when phones are not readily accessible, and enhanced security for various environments. They covers the wide range of applications for this technology, from care facilities where residents may be experiencing memory or physical loss, to gyms where facial recognition can manage memberships and locker allocation, to hotels where guests can bypass reception and go directly to their rooms. Jeremy shares the company's journey from its founding ten years ago on the second floor of Cornwall Innovation Centre with just two people, initially focusing only on the UK market. The business grew to the point where Jeremy had to decide between seeking investment or finding a strategic partner. This led to Salto acquiring Visionworks, and the technology is now being rolled out to potentially 40 countries worldwide. Jeremy also highlights how the company has created local employment, keeping talented young people in Cornwall who would otherwise have left the county. The team has grown to 15 people occupying three offices within the Tremough Innovation Centre, demonstrating how the flexible workspace has allowed the business to scale without needing to relocate.

Dan Start from Nerth Ltd

In this episode of the Cornwall Innovation Centre podcast, Rebecca Loto speaks with Dan Start, founder of Nerth Limited, a business operating in the offshore renewables sector. Dan explains how Nerth was formed four years ago during the post-Covid period, building on 13 years of experience working in the offshore and marine industry for world-leading Cornish contractors. His background combines technical engineering knowledge with commercial expertise, giving him a unique perspective on both the technical and business sides of the industry. The conversation covers Nerth's evolution from initially providing sales, tendering and marketing services for other marine sector businesses, to developing a consultancy practice focused on high-level planning of large-scale infrastructure projects including ports and harbours. Dan explains what offshore renewables encompasses, including offshore wind, floating offshore wind, and wave and tidal energy. The discussion explores the future opportunities in the offshore wind sector, with Dan highlighting that any solution reducing human exposure to offshore environments through autonomy, robotics or efficiency improvements will be valuable over the next decade. Dan also discusses the benefits of being based at Cornwall Innovation Centre, including how the office space has helped increase turnover and profitability while providing much-needed sociability for small business owners and access to free seminars and business advice. The name Nerth means power and energy in Cornish, reflecting the company's focus on bringing offshore renewable energy to the Celtic shores.

Mike Bee from Bigbox

In this episode of the Cornwall Innovation Centre podcast, Rebecca Loto speaks with Mike Bee, founder of Bigbox, a social media agency that has been based at Cornwall Innovation Centre for eight years. Mike explains Bigbox's approach to social media content creation, starting with understanding a client's brand and values before any filming begins. The agency specialises in creating engaging video content and manages organic posting three times per week across platforms including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn for their clients. The conversation covers an important shift happening in social media for 2025-2026, with platforms beginning to prioritise authentic human content over AI-generated posts. Mike discusses why businesses need to focus on real, on-brand content rather than relying solely on AI, and explains the challenge of consistently generating unique content ideas. The discussion also explores how being based at Cornwall Innovation Centre has benefited Bigbox over the years, from chance meetings in the atrium leading to collaborative projects worth thousands of pounds, to working with and purchasing services from other businesses within the innovation centre network. Mike offers to answer LinkedIn questions for Cornwall Innovation Centre members and will be running another LinkedIn workshop at the centre soon! You can find Bigbox at the Health & Wellbeing Innovation Centre.