How HelloHope turned one day at Amazon into a platform that keeps opening doors

Seventeen people die by suicide every day in the UK. HelloHope was founded in 2024 to change that, delivering mental health and suicide prevention training to workplaces, schools and communities. 

The team’s mission is clear. But breaking through stigma is not easy. For founder Ellie MacDonald, the Amazon Innovation Accelerator became a turning point. 

One day that changed the HelloHope trajectory 

Ellie joined the programme after spotting it in a Leeds business group. What started as a single day quickly turned into something much bigger. 

The biggest shift came from Amazon’s working backwards approach. The session on writing the press release before building the product, gave her a framework to articulate HelloHope's most ambitious idea with precision. 

I was already doing a little bit of that, but actually, the whole process around it is so beneficial, and something I am taking forward in my business now. 

New connections that led to real opportunities 

The impact of the day went far beyond the site tour and training. It gave Ellie new connections that helped her grow and amplify HelloHope’s mission. 

At the event, Ellie met her local MP for the first time. That introduction led to a one-to-one meeting and a speaking opportunity at one of Leeds’ biggest conferences. 

At the same time, the programme helped her build direct relationships within Amazon. Those conversations are ongoing and opening new possibilities. 

The VR idea finds its moment 

HelloHope's submission for the Charity Innovation Award centred on an idea Ellie had been developing for some time: immersive VR suicide prevention training, bespoke to specific sectors, making the experience faster, more accessible, and more impactful than anything currently on the market. The working backwards process helped sharpen her thinking. 

The amount of doors that have opened and the platform it's given me has been incredible. It really has given us a fantastic stepping stone.

What the win unlocked 

HelloHope won the Amazon Charity Innovation Award and its £10,000 prize. 

The prize money went straight to work, funding development of the VR concept and supporting HelloHope's operational costs. But the doors the award opened have proved just as valuable as the money itself. 

I've got that massive check on my wall, and that keeps me going, that gives me the drive and is a reminder to keep doing the right thing.

Ellie has since had meetings with Amazon's head of social impact and social value teams, submitted a proposal to deliver training to Amazon's own workforce, and built a network of contacts across the business she speaks to regularly. The win gave HelloHope a level of credibility that is hard to build any other way. 

Thinking about applying? 

Ellie's message is simple: say yes, go in fully, and back the people around you. 

You don't know what you don't know, and if you can get in front of really successful people and businesses who can help teach you, then that's incredible. 

For HelloHope, the programme was a turning point, not just for the prize, but for the platform, the network, and the confidence to keep backing a big idea and mission.