Omid Moallemi

I studied at BHASVIC from 1996-1999 (lifetime ago!). My studies were Photography and Advanced Business Studies GNVQ. I choose these subjects because I love the honesty of photography, it’s art, but I also have a business head, and these 2 subjects allowed me to be creative in my future life.

Following on from BHASVIC, I studied Product Design at Sussex University to further my passion for creativity and one day starting a design consultancy. After graduating, I worked in London at a furniture design studio, creating designs for tables, cutlery, kitchen products. About a year later I joined another design consultancy in Newhaven where we designed any and every product imaginable. This gave me the right platform to start my own consultancy BlueSix Design in Brighton, where I worked on various projects from small companies, right up to international brands. I also designed a next generation nicotine device and have a patent around it’s technology that is now currently attracting interest from the “big 4” tobacco companies.

In 2020, I started Prsnt, a social gifting app that is aiming to change the social fabric of how we gift in the next few years. Prsnt allows you to send someone instant gifts, such as a Starbucks to their phone, they can redeem the QR code and send a video message back. Prsnt has gifts from £2-£2000 and we have many of the high street brands signed up to the platform.

Prsnt has been a success and we are nominated for the Sussex Business Awards Start-up of the Year which reminded me of my time at BHASVIC. My final year project was to create a fictional business plan and present against other competing students from other Sussex colleges. I ended up winning 5 out of the 6 awards and feel that moment gave me the encouragement to pursue businesses in my future life.