It started as a joke, but Bristlr – ‘Tinder for beards’– has turned into one of the North’s most talked about new startups.

This simple, niche dating app attracted huge interest, and after taking part in the Ignite accelerator in Newcastle, Manchester-based John Kershaw expanded his idea into a platform that allows anyone to create their own hyper-targeted dating apps.

Under the new name M14 Industries, John’s startup became one of Tech North’s Northern Stars 2015 winners.

Watch John’s story to find out more about how a spoof landing page evolved into a promising, investable business.