KSEI
King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute Magazine
ISSUE ONE: 2015-16
• Passion • Patience • Delegation • Innovation • A go-getter attitude
Ariel Eckstein
Cynthia Carroll
Sir Richard Branson
What do businesses look for in a LinkedIn profile? Let the MD of LinkedIn Europe, the Middle East and Africa tell you
Former CEO of FTSE 100 company Anglo American PLC gives tips on making it to the top of a global company
Hear valuable business advice and marketing tips from the world’s leading business tycoon and Virgin Group Founder
The Principal’s introduction
Principal’s message I am delighted to introduce you to the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute – our flagship student innovation platform. We are home to some truly remarkable and innovative students. Through creating a support framework the Institute works to inspire, up-skill and empower them further so they are fully equipped with the vital skills required as entrepreneurs, future employers or employees. As a key part of the student experience at King’s I am excited by what the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute aims to achieve. Since our launch last year the Institute has hosted over 45 high-profile entrepreneurs and business leaders and generated attendance numbers of over 3,000 at 25 ‘Enterprise Connect’ events. An internal entrepreneurial ecosystem has been developed through many initiatives, including: a support fund for student-led societies to develop entrepreneurial projects; incubator space which has already housed over 20 start-ups since Spring 2015; and idea generation and testing through our renowned Lion’s Den Challenge Start-Up Competition. This is all enhanced by year round access to workshops and training on idea development, business and strategic planning, accelerator weekends and support for student-run events such as ‘HackLondon’, the UK universities’ largest hackathon. We have achieved much and with the enormous current and increasing interest of our students we will achieve more in the year to come. This magazine highlights some of our student and alumni successes and shows how much they have benefited from the Institute’s work. Their achievements are outlined alongside inspiring articles from some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and business leaders. Please do enjoy the read, join us in celebrating our successes and most of all be inspired to take part. All you need is a curious mind, enthusiasm and a willingness to give it a go! With best wishes,
President & Principal Professor Edward Byrne AC
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KSEI magazine
KCLSU President’s message
KCLSU President’s message As a students’ union we work as hard as we can to empower and engage students to use their skills to make breakthroughs and changes to their immediate and global environment. We’ve seen students use their entrepreneurial skills to create start-ups that follow King’s mission of being in the service of society. It doesn’t just have to be business graduates who go into the field of start-ups either. In March, King’s College London’s Tech Society hosted the largest student-run, inter-university hackathon (HackLondon), where students had just 24 hours to create and code creative apps. KCL Enactus is another student group that aims to tackle social problems through innovative business. Innovative solutions to problems in the field of health have been improved through the use of new digital technologies too. King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute can be your support system if you need help to turn your ideas into practical solutions to society’s problems.
King’s College London Students’ Union President Nadine Almanasfi
KSEI 2015–16 issue
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Contents 05 About KSEI Introducing the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute 06 Engage, Empower and Excel Familiarise yourself with the Institutes three pillars of excellence
23 Dr Cosima Gretton, recent King’s Medical graduate Are entrepreneurship and innovation the missing pieces in modern medicine? 24 Carmarley Dennis, founder of Hubbly Bubbly and King’s alumnus
07 Academia and entrepreneurship at King’s Introducing the university’s Entrepreneurship Centre
25 Mustafa Al Bassam, King’s Informatics undergraduate The hack-king talks about hacking
08 KSEI Activities Don’t miss out on the action – put these dates in your diary
26 Mark Chaffey, CEO of hackajob and King’s alumnus Work harder and faster
11 A few of King’s entrepreneurially inclined student societies
28 Emma Sinclair, UNICEF business mentor and tech entrepreneur University: an incubator for entrepreneurial thinking
12 Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder Global business magnate talks start-ups 14 Ella Jade Bitton, Executive Director of Ella Jade Interiors and King’s alumna 17 Agostino Stilli, co-founder of CYCL and King’s alumnus For the love of cycling 18 Fares Alaboud, president of KCL Tech Society A little passion goes a long way 19 Ashish J. Thakkar, founder of Mara Group and Mara Foundation Africa’s youngest billionaire on launching his start up at just 15 years old
30 Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Smoothies Coming up with a lucrative start-up idea 31 Mantas Gribulis, King’s MSc Robotics graduate Artificial intelligence: it’s got a life of its own 32 Ariel Eckstein, MD of LinkedIn Europe, the Middle East and Africa What networking really means 34 Peter Martyr, Global CEO of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Start-ups: 10 things young entrepreneurs should know 36 Entrepreneurs Captured A sneak peek of some snaps taken at KSEI events
20 Cynthia Carroll, Non Exec Director of BP and former CEO of Anglo American PLC The leading business woman gives advice on equality in business
38 Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Partner at Seedcamp Raising finance and seeking investment
22 Bauke Anninga, President of KCL Innovation Forum The importance of preparing for life outside of academia
39 Fleurette Mulcahy and Alice Holden, founders of Attollo Lingerie and King’s alumni Funding rollercoaster
40 Cameron Saul, co-founder of Bottletop The King’s alumnus who launched a luxury designer brand 42 Richard Milburn, co-founder of Tunza and King’s PhD student Real business ethics 43 Dr Elizabeth Adelodun, founder of MindTorch and King’s alumna The ripple effect: social entrepreneurship 44 Nick Robertson, founder of ASOS Entrepreneurial experiences and learnings 46 Sir David Tang, founder of Shanghai Tang, China Clubs and China Tang Restaurant Find out how the King’s alumnus turned into a successful business tycoon 47 Sharan Soni, co-founder of Waffle and King’s alumnus 48 Robin Knight, co-founder of IN-PART and King’s alumnus 50 J ulian Smida, co-founder of Wango and King’s alumnus David vs Goliath: underestimate me… I’m a confident competitor 52 Chris Sheldrick, co-founder of what3words and King’s alumnus 54 Huan Song, co-founder of PixaVida and King’s MSc student No man is an island: live the life you’ve imagined 55 Entrepreneurs Captured A sneak peek of some snaps taken at KSEI events 60 Contacts Get in touch with the KSEI team
The views, opinions and positions expressed by the authors and interviewees are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or positions of King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute and King’s College London. Produced by King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute Editor: Anandana Bakshi, Head of Student Entrepreneurship Sub-editor: Hemali Patel, Entrepreneurship Coordinator Design: RF Design, www.rfportfolio.com Approved by brand@kcl.ac.uk, Sept 2015
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KSEI magazine
About us
About us: King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute (KSEI) King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute (KSEI) is the university’s flagship student entrepreneurship hub that offers support opportunities for King’s students, student entrepreneurs and recent alumni throughout their university journey. Our enterprising activities are run in line with the Institute’s three pillars of excellence: • Engage • Empower • Excel These provide our student entrepreneurs with support in: • idea development (Engage) • training in business and strategic planning (Empower) • acceleration and business development (Excel).
KSEI 2015–16 issue
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Entrepreneurship at Kings
Engage: inspire and learn The Engage pillar of the Institute is about increasing your contact with enterprising activity. We aim to deliver programmes and events that are designed to increase your curiosity, confidence and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation as a viable career path.
What does this mean for you? • Feel inspired and motivated to control your destiny. • Feed your curiosity about entrepreneurship and start-ups by attending informative events. • Learn about the idea development process. • Meet other students who have already launched their businesses at our networking evenings. • Explore your enterprising personality by taking part in student-led society events. • Develop your society’s entrepreneurial projects by applying for additional funding. Please see page 8 for a list of engage activities.
Empower: up-skill and train The Empower pillar focuses on up-skilling the entrepreneurial capabilities required for entrepreneurial achievement. Develop your interest and motivation in entrepreneurial activities with initiatives that will provide you with added skills, insights, incubation and assessment.
What does that mean for you and your idea/project/start-up? • Attend workshops and boot-camps, designed to up-skill and develop your entrepreneurial potential. • Provision of in-depth mentoring and advice to guide and sustain your progress on your entrepreneurial journey. • Enter a wide variety of competitions designed to take your start-up to the next stage. Here you can win anything from support from sector-specific mentors to funding for proto-type testing or growth. • Grow and develop your early stage companies in a start-up nurturing environment. Please see page 9–10 for a list of empower activities.
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KSEI magazine
Entrepreneurship at Kings
Excel: King’s Accelerator The Excel pillar is focused on accelerating the best start-up ideas to reach reality, through the King’s Accelerator in partnership with external businesses. The King’s Accelerator will be coming soon.
Coming to you soon: • Unrivalled access to mentors, investment and goal implementation. Excel Funding Programme aimed at the early stage development • of your business, innovation or proto-typing. Investor Network – connect with sector-aligned businesses, • high net worth individuals or groups that have a specific interest in investing in innovation. Back Office Solution – PR, administration, accounting systems • and support, policy, legal, intellectual property and IT. This is a whole suite of services offered to the student or business to support the strategy, structure and launch of your start-up. • Accelerator facility – a dedicated office space from which you can run your venture. The King’s Accelerator will be coming to you soon – keep updated via our website.
Academia and Entrepreneurship at King’s Outside of KSEI King’s College London has recently established an Entrepreneurship Centre, led by Professor Sabine Rau, lecturer Department of Management, King’s College London.
The Centre will start teaching in 2015/2016 with three Bachelor courses: Entrepreneurial Finance, Psychology of Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurial Family Firms. In the Master of International Management the Centre offers an elective on International Entrepreneurship. The Centre is planning for an Entrepreneurship & Technology Master for non-business students as from 2017 onwards. The Centre is doing research in the area of innovation in long-lived family firms, on business family communication and conflict and its influence on business performance and succession, and they are running a research project together with PwC and Financial Times on Innovation in UK family firms. Professor Sabine Rau, along with a King's doctoral student and colleague recently won the ‘Best Family Business Paper Award’ from the Entrepreneurship Division Academy of Management at their 2015 conference in Vancouver. KSEI 2015–16 issue
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KSEI activities
KSEI activities: 2015/16 Engage: Inspire & Learn ENGAGE INITIATIVE
DESCRIPTION
DATES
Enterprise Connect
Listen to inspirational, highprofile entrepreneurs delivering informative and motivational keynote speeches.
Series 6: 30 September 2015 Ben Lewis, CEO River Island Greenwood Lecture Theatre, 55 Weston Street, SE1 3RA
Official hashtag: #econnectors Spread the word and Tweet us: @InnovateKings
Following each event we host a networking reception where you can obtain advice and guidance from our expert ‘Connector Pod’ mentors, covering different topics and giving hands on feedback. Furthermore you can connect with students and alumni who have already embarked on their start-up journey at the King’s Start-Up Junction.
28 October 2015 Kevin Roberts, Executive Chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi James Caan, founder and CEO of Hamilton Bradshaw. Brent Hoberman CBE, Co-Founder Lastminute.com Greenwood Lecture Theatre, 55 Weston Street, SE1 3RA 11 November 2015 Jacqueline Gold, CEO Ann Summers and Knickerbox Lecture Theatre, New Hunts House, Great Maze Pond, SE1 1UL Series 7: 3 February 2016 17 February 2016 2 March 2016 9 March 2016 Please visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI for updates
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KSEI magazine
KSEI activities
Engage: Inspire & Learn Entrepreneurship Support Fund (ESF)
Student-led societies can apply for up to £2,000 in funding to implement projects or activities that have entrepreneurial or innovative goals. It is designed to strengthen and grow the university’s entrepreneurial eco-system.
Application deadline: 6pm, 16 October 2015
Entrepreneurship Support Network (ESN)
Description: ESN is a monthly committee roundtable discussion, led by KSEI. The forum is open to King’s societies presidents, vice presidents or nominated persons.
The monthly network meetings will re-commence in October 2015 and are restricted to two people per society.
Please visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI for more information
If you are interested in joining please email Innovation@kcl.ac.uk, or visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI.
The aim of the network is to update students on KSEI initiatives, find out what support students need, encouraging cross collaboration across societies, partnering with societies to assist them in achieving their goals and delivering entrepreneurial impact. KSEI aims to ensure all activities initiated are in response to student demand. This committee serves as an important platform in achieving this.
Empower: Train & Learn EMPOWER INITIATIVE
DESCRIPTION
DATES
Lion’s Den Challenge Start-Up Competition (LDC)
The university’s flagship start-up competition provides you with practical skills in business. • Five business workshops • Live pitching classes • Sector-specific awards • Up to £10,000 grant funding
Workshops: 7 October 2015 – Launch event 21 October 2015 4 November 2015 2 December 2015 27 January 2016 10 February 2016
No previous knowledge or experience in business required.
Location: Room G.79, FWB, Waterloo Campus 5:30pm – 8:30pm. Details may be subject to change.
Official hashtag: #LDC. Spread the word and Tweet us: @InnovateKings
LDC applications open: 2 December 2015 LDC applications close: 6pm, 16 February 2016 Please visit www.LionsDenChallenge.co.uk for updates
activities continued overleaf KSEI 2015–16 issue
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KSEI activities
KSEI activities: 2015/16 Empower: Train & Learn EMPOWER INITIATIVE
DESCRIPTION
DATES
King’s Mini Accelerator Weekend
A unique, intensive, three-day accelerator programme for King’s thriving start-up community.
Dates and Times: 23 October 2015, 6pm – 8:30pm 24 October 2015, 9am – 8pm 25 October 2015, 9am – 6pm
Successful applicants will: • go through intensive training • receive 1-2-1 coaching • pitch to win up to £10,000 grant funding.
Location: Rainmaking Loft, 1 St Katherine’s Way, London, E1W 1UN Applications are now open. Please visit our f6s page for more information or to apply: www.f6s.com/kingsweekender2015 Deadline: 11:59pm 12 October 2015
King’s Incubator
A dedicated, pop-up workspace designed to support the growth and development of early stage start-ups.
The application process reopens every three months. Visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI for up to date information
King’s Start-Up Mentor Clinics
Visit King’s resident mentor during term time to seek extensive guidance and advice on your business plan.
Dates and times: Every Wednesday afternoon For further information or to book an appointment go to www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI.
King’s Experience Enterprise Award
The King’s Experience Enterprise Award aims to develop, enhance and recognise student enterprise activity in economic, social and/or cultural contexts.
Deadline: 10 December 2015 For further information; or to apply please go to www.kcl.ac.uk/enterprise-award
Enterprise Activity (minimum 25 hours) Reflection on that experience Undertaking the assessment (circa 50 hours)
Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneurship) Visa
An opportunity to endorse international graduates identified by King’s as having a credible idea for a business. If successful, endorsement could help support your extended stay in the UK in order to launch your venture. There is an application round once per term.
Round 1 – autumn Open for application: 21 September 2015 Deadline for applications: 30 October 2015 Round 2 – spring Open for applications: 11 January 2016 Deadline for applications: 26 February 2016 Round 3 – summer Open for applications: 3 May 2016 Deadline for applications: 24 June 2016 For further information please email: careers@kcl.ac.uk
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Student-led societies
A few entrepreneurially inclined student societies Enactus at KCL: SleepCoats, apple chips and mobile money apps: what do all these things have in common? They’re all businesses (social enterprises to be precise) started by students at Enactus KCL. Students just like you and me get to be part of exciting businesses and contribute what they know and learn what they don’t. You get to turn your ideas and aspirations into reality with all of the support and none of the risk! We do wonders for your employability and you do wonders for the world. www.enactuskcl.org @EnactusKCL KCLEnactus
Public Affairs & Communications Society (PAC):
KCL Tech Society:
KCL Tech is an award-winning student society founded by a small group of people passionate about technology for the purpose of spreading knowledge and creating a network of students and staff who have an interest in tech. We partner with some of the largest tech companies and start-ups across the globe, including Facebook, Uber, Google, Bloomberg and many more, to bring quality events and opportunities for our members. We host some of the largest student-run hackathons, workshops and conferences for a range of audiences including those with the slightest interests to those who consider themselves tech enthusiasts. www.kcltech.com @KCLTech KCLTech
King’s Robotics Society: The PAC society is King’s only society concerned with the wide fields of Public Affairs, Strategic Communications and Marketing, and PR. Its mission is to establish and strengthen relationships and exchange between the academic community at King’s and the relevant sectors of industry. In particular, PAC aims to establish strong links between students and employers, and to foster intellectual exchange between academic staff and industry professionals. PAC’s strategic objectives for establishing this vibrant and effective interaction are based on its uniquely designed career-weeks and chaired debates. www.kclpac.com @KCLPAC kclpac?fref=ts
We are the droids you’re looking for! Jump in, get your hands dirty, and learn how to build whatever you want. Like a good challenge? Assemble your own maze-solving robot. Prefer to relax? Design a robot to water your plants for you. Enjoy a laugh? 3D print a robo-roach to scare your flatmates. Anything you dream up, we’ve got you covered; space, tools, equipment, hands-on workshops for all skill levels, talks by experts on hot topics and the chance to make some like-minded friends (sentient... or not). We’ll be waiting. With love, the Robots. www.kingsrobotics.co.uk @Kings_Robotics robotics.kings
King’s College London Innovation Forum (KCLIF) Students and researchers in the life sciences are not often aware of the skills required to develop innovative ideas into viable products or businesses. King’s College London Innovation Forum (KCLIF) is the only post-graduate society at King’s that exists to help bridge the gap between academia, industry and the public sector. Our objectives are to enlighten and inform students across King’s of the vast range of opportunities outside academia, and assist them in assembling the skills necessary to be successful drivers of innovation and businesses. www.inno-forum.org @KCL_IF KCLInnovationForum
King’s College London Business Club (KCLBC):
The King’s College London Business Club (KCLBC), in the past voted as number one student enterprise society in the UK, is with over 4,000 members the largest student-led society at King’s. The main objectives for KCLBC include driving student entrepreneurship at KCL, as well as showing students what opportunities they have beyond their degree. By connecting students with experts from the corporate, as well as the entrepreneurial sector, KCLBC helps students establish connections and relationships, which will help them succeed in the future. www.kclbc.com @KCLBC KCLBusinessClub
For further information on all KCLSU societies please visit: www.kclsu.org/societies. KSEI 2015–16 issue 11
Entrepreneur Q&A
Focus on
SIR RICHARD BRANSON King’s undergraduate Sam Werner interviews Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder. ‘Dream big’, is what people are often told. Looking back at your early days as an entrepreneur, what has helped you shape your vision of the future the most? I believe you should dream big and set yourself seemingly impossible challenges. You will then have to catch up with them. Mentors have always helped me shape my vision of the future and I’ve always been lucky to have them in my personal and business life. My mum has been a mentor throughout my life as well as Sir Freddie Laker who gave me invaluable advice and guidance as we set up Virgin Atlantic. If you ask any successful businessperson, they will always have had a great mentor at some point along the road. If you want success then it takes hard work, hard work and more hard work. But it also takes a little help along the way. In recent years there has been a significant growth in student start-ups at King’s College London. How do you see young entrepreneurs that are still in full-time education and what advice would you have for them so that they could use this particular position to their advantage? I left school at 15 to start Student magazine but when I was in my 40s, I considered taking a couple of years off to go back to studying. My wife talked me out of it – earning a degree takes a lot of time, and I simply wouldn’t be able to study and continue my work at Virgin. Many people assume that young entrepreneurs must choose between continuing their education and starting a business. In reality, these two choices can co-exist but there are three changes I would make to the system in order to produce more entrepreneurs.
Encouraging students to start-up Universities should be encouraging students to start businesses linked to
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their studies. Especially in business programmes, professors should be encouraged to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in the classroom. Universities should offer guidance to students who have launched businesses, helping them toward success – budding entrepreneurs shouldn’t be forced to go it alone.
Shorten degrees One way to help student entrepreneurs is to make some degree programmes shorter, some three-year programmes could easily be completed within two years. This would decrease students’ debt and put them in a better position to start their own businesses.
Instil the importance of networking in students College is an environment in which you’re always learning, and while many subjects you’re exposed to won’t be directly relevant to your business, you will learn to think critically. The learning environment also provides students with many opportunities to meet new people and share ideas. This is a huge benefit – the number of companies and lifetime friendships that are formed in college is endless.
When first-time young entrepreneurs enter a new business field, how can they best use their lack of experience as an asset rather than a liability? Virgin’s history shows that a lack of experience does not have to be a liability – it can be an asset. It is something you should play up when you discuss your ideas with prospective investors, partners and employees, rather than directing the conversation toward your other strengths. From the first days of my career as an entrepreneur, I have always used my own and my team’s lack of experience to our advantage. In fact, at our first venture, Student magazine, we used our newcomer status to secure great interviews and generate publicity – people were excited about our new project and wanted to get involved. Our inexperience fed our restless enthusiasm for trying new things, which became part of our core mission. No matter which industry you are planning to enter, you will almost certainly find that the same holds true for you. Have you ever dealt with fear when it comes to making wrong decisions or even potentially losing the company you have created? There will always be some very challenging moments when an entrepreneur starts a business. At times you are afraid everything you have worked to build will vanish. It is during these days that entrepreneurs should use this fear as fuel to push them forward and try to resolve whatever problem is facing the business. When harnessed positively, fear can be the energy that spurs you forward and keeps you on the road to success. Virgin certainly has faced many through the years and it is
Entrepreneur Q&A
during these difficult days where the passion you have for a business really helps you stick with it and make it a success. Whenever we have faced a challenge at Virgin, we have always put our heads together to come up with a strategy that will allow the business to overcome a setback or challenge. Remember failure is a hurdle, not a dead end. What piece of advice could you give young entrepreneurs when it comes to successfully marketing their proposition? There’s no guarantee that spending a huge amount of money on marketing will slingshot your business forward. When we launched Virgin Atlantic we didn’t have the budget to take on British Airways’ marketing campaigns. One piece of advice Sir Freddie Laker gave me was ‘You’ll never have the advertising power to outsell British Airways. You are going to have to get
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Cats or dogs? Dogs What picks you up when you feel low? Apart from spending time with my family, I’m most happy when I am kite surfing – give me a kite and a board and some wind and waves, and you won’t wipe the smile off my face. Winter or Summer? I’m lucky to live on Necker Island where it’s summer all year round! What is your favourite film? Breaking the Taboo, a film produced by my son Sam and Sundog Pictures. It ensures that the topic of global drug policy will continue to be thought and talked about. What is your top tip for business success? You’ve got to take risks if you’re going to succeed. I would much rather ask for forgiveness than permission. What three things couldn’t you live without? Family time, my notepad and kite surfing.
out there and use yourself. Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise you won’t survive.’ And I’ve been making a fool of myself ever since! I took his advice and I’ve been thinking up fun ways to stand out from the crowd and draw the media’s attention to our company ever since, from breaking world records to pulling pranks. The King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute has effectively brought together all the different student enterprise organisations at King’s, created a structure to engaging, empowering and investing in start-ups through incubating space, workshops, events, mentoring, and much more. How important do you think it is for universities to dedicate services and time to support student entrepreneurs? It’s fantastic that King’s has created a dynamic environment for entrepreneurs to prosper. I think it’s essential for universities to dedicate time and support to foster the Virgins of the future. I also believe that governments should provide the finance and energy to foster a new generation of entrepreneurs and open markets for them to compete in. One of the best policies has been the introduction of the Start-Up Loans scheme. It was originally aimed at university-aged students and in just three years the Start-Up Loan Company has expanded to take on
all ages, and has lent more than £140 million to 27,000 businesses across the UK. Virgin StartUp is our notfor-profit organisation, which gives budding entrepreneurs the funding, information and support they need to get their business ideas off the ground. It has helped hundreds of businesses get early financing and Virgin StartUp also focuses on supporting the next round of financing through further loan schemes, crowd funding sources or traditional angel investment and private equity. ■
Virgin StartUp Virgin StartUp is a not-for-profit organisation which gives budding entrepreneurs the funding, information and support they need to get their business ideas off the ground. Find out more at virginstartup.org.
Interviewer’s profile: Sam Werner is a final year Business Management student and the president of the King’s College London Business Club (KCLBC) after having been involved for the past two years in the club’s enterprise department and as Vice President.
www.kclbc.com @KCLBC KCLBusinessClub KSEI 2015–16 issue 13
Alumna Q&A
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Alumna Q&A
ELLA JADE BITTON: Co-founder and Executive Director of Ella Jade Interiors PROFILE
Age: 24 What did you study at King’s College London? Business Management What year did you graduate? 2013 What campus were you based at? Waterloo Were you part of any King’s societies? President of King’s College London Business Club (KCLBC) How old were you when you launched Ella Jade Interiors? 16 Ella let’s start with a little background information on you – what did you study at King’s and how did you find your experience here? I was a Business Management Student at King’s College London – a degree that you can relate to any industry, although I’m probably biased! I feel the community at King’s enables students to learn and develop through friendships and societies whilst also growing up in the capital city of London. Being involved in KCLBC and becoming President was an experience I will never forget and one I look back on and utilise to this day. Tell us a bit about Ella Jade Interiors; what is it and how did you come up with the idea? My interest in the entrepreneurial sphere started at the age of 16 when I registered and launched my brand Ella Jade ® into the Cosmetic and Interior design department in Harrods. It was an opportunity to launch a new brand into Harrods which I took with open arms. My father was the continual force of inspiration and mentorship at that time. The concept of Ella Jade Interiors has developed considerably since its opening in Harrods. We initially
concentrated more on Bathrooms and Kitchens, and now it has become an Interior Design Brand where we pride ourselves on our designs. The very unique element being that we not only design any room in the house, we then supply and manufacture all the products and also install everything. Essentially a one-stop shop for the entire house. What were the main challenges you faced early on in your venture? And do you still encounter them to this day? I was still growing up when it all started so I had to learn very quickly on the job. When you’re a teenager, you’re still finding yourself but I also had to find myself in the world of business. But I would say to any young entrepreneur that starting early is the best decision you could make.
University provides a rare bubble where you can test ideas and learn things without burning your hand too much I encounter challenges every day and it would be boring without them! As an entrepreneur you’ll never stop learning and you have to make sure that you accept that. In general, the biggest challenges have been when I didn’t understand how to deal with a situation. So the more knowledge you have, the more challenges you can overcome without an issue. Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences? ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ is a saying I live by. Negative experiences give you a backbone, strength and knowledge to deal with anything. In all my negative experiences I’ve
learned something. It actually shows you in that very moment what went wrong or what you could improve on, or even who isn’t working well in the team. If you solve it, you can move on and grow further. Where did your organisation’s funding/ capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you secure investment for your business? At the initial stage of creation, I had an agreement with a company in a similar industry to lay the foundations. I was fortunate to have that opportunity and I do believe in working together with people you know. We haven’t had any external investment in the business, but that’s something I’m considering in the future to move the company international. I would however promote Angel investors, crowdfunding and partnering with someone as other means of investments. What influence has King’s had on your entrepreneurial achievements? Please give us an insight into the university’s initiatives and programmes you took part in and how they equipped, developed and prepared you for your entrepreneurial journey. King’s College London Business Club was as important, if not more than, my degree. I got involved with the society from freshers’ week in first year and went on to become President. The society provides opportunities to help students develop their future careers, whether in the entrepreneurial or corporate sphere. I was leading a team of 30 on a daily basis, working with international corporates such as Accenture, Deloitte, Google, generating sponsorship and with the team achieved the first ever student trip to Silicon Valley. Taking students to companies including Facebook HQ, Microsoft HQ and Google HQ. KSEI 2015–16 issue 15
Alumna Q&A
I learnt so many business skills in a practical sense. Leadership, teamwork, delegation, organisation, creativity, target markets and client relationship management. To this present day I use examples from the society and I probably always will!
things because I’ve been through it. But essentially, it is an entertainment programme as well as business. So instead of concentrating solely on the business tasks I would show a bit more of my personality – hopefully in a positive way!
What three pieces of advice would you give to university students who want to become entrepreneurs? Firstly, practical experience. Utilise the logical reasoning and knowledge you learn studying and apply it in a practical sense either through a society or in your own business. Secondly, build your network and your community. Do NOT social climb in any sense! But understand your fellow students, build a network so that you can perhaps in the future work together and benefit one another. Thirdly, take risks, challenge yourself and work hard. University provides a rare bubble where you can test ideas and learn things without burning your hand too much. If you succeed the first time, fantastic! If not, you will be learning in a safe environment.
How do you find people to bring into your organisation that truly care about the organisation the way you do? This is the golden question. For me, it’s all about the team. You can achieve anything together if you have the best team. I come across people in social situations, through events, networking and you trial them to see if they truly care about the organisation. The team I have is incredible and the team feel proud of the company as though it’s also theirs to grow and nurture.
In 2014 you took part in the BBC’s television show ‘The Apprentice’. Can you give us an insight into how you found that experience; what skills did you gain and what lessons did you learn? Being on The Apprentice was definitely the best and craziest experience of my life. The experience itself was very intense and non-stop. The 20 minute wake-up call is no joke and the hours are long from early morning until late evening. You only have yourself. You can’t hide behind technology or friends. You have to learn to be quick-thinking and understand many different characters. It was a character-building regime and I definitely learned the most after the airing of the programme where you have to take opportunities quickly and fairly. If you could go back in time to when you first entered Lord Sugar’s board room, what would you do differently? I don’t actually regret anything. I would know how to deal with situations better and say the right
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Have you had any start-up businesses that have been unsuccessful? If so, what have you learned from them? Absolutely! I created an organisation during a summer in university (not naming any names) and only two people turned up to a ‘seminar’. You have to laugh at it now, but at the time I was so embarrassed! It’s taught me about target markets and also not to diversify my time too much. I was concentrating on too many things at once and you have to learn to focus. How long do you stick with an idea before giving up? That all depends on the idea, some ideas will take months to realise its potential and some will only take weeks. It’s all about analysing the situation at hand. In my experience, you should go for an idea but also understand life has a natural course of working and sometimes better things will come along. What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur? Without a doubt, hard work is number one. Being an entrepreneur is a full time job 24 hours, seven days a week. It’s also the most rewarding and exhilarating job in the world! Secondly, ability to learn and analyse situations. This comes from
LIGHTNING ROUND
Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? Apple Twitter or Facebook? Twitter Starter or dessert? Dessert Home-cooked food or take away? Home cooked food Night in or night out? Night out Gym or gin? Gym Lazy Sundays or active weekends? Active weekends Where & when was your last holiday? Vegas and LA in April 2015
Cats or dogs? Cats Winter or Summer? Summer Risk or regret? Risk
experience, a willingness to learn and challenging yourself. Lastly, to be a great and successful entrepreneur you have to be humble and fair. My greatest inspiration is my father. He was a very shrewd and successful businessman, but he was also extremely kind and adored. Can you give us an ‘Exclusive’ on your plans for the next 12 months? I can reveal I have a press launch for Ella Jade Interiors coming up in September. I’m creating a new concept for interior design which has never been done before and it’s exciting to get a good reaction and interest from the media. Following that, my aim is to take the brand international. You can follow all the updates on social media, Twitter and Instagram! ■
www.ellajadeinteriors.com @EllaJadeBrand @EllaJadeBrand
Alumnus article
FOR THE LOVE OF CYCLING – CYCLING SAFETY – King’s alumnus, Agostino Stilli led the start-up that won the Lion’s Den Challenge 2014-15. Here he gives us an indication of what they did to become a successful start-up.
CYCL® is an international team that relocated to London at the end of 2013. We are focused on creating and manufacturing innovative solutions for cycling safety. First of all we are a group of friends who really love cycling. It has been a long journey, but a rewarding one at that. When we first began working on CYCL in April 2014, Luca and I never envisioned presenting WingLights in front of the Duke of York (Pitch@Palace) or seeing ourselves in the London Evening Standard. However, with hard work, persistence and a helping hand from King’s College London, our company is now at a stage where we are working
with major retailers and distributors within the cycling industry. King’s played a major part in motivating us and providing the team with the facilities and connections we required getting our start-up off the ground. The Incubating Space
The experts at King’s will provide you with the help and knowledge you need to make your dream a reality for example allowed us to develop the business and network with other inspiring start-ups, and winning both Best Business (£5,000) and Best Pitch (£1,000) awards at the Lion’s Den Challenge meant that we could further invest in improving the quality
of our product. Attending and speaking at events such as Enterprise Connect and becoming involved in the Sirius Programme led us to win second place at the Santander Universities Award in the Postgraduate Category. As well as providing us with further money to invest, the competition resulted in even more useful networking opportunities and introductions. If you are thinking of launching your own start-up company but aren’t sure where to begin, the experts at King’s will provide you with the help and knowledge you need to make your dream a reality. It may be daunting at first, but once you have begun your own journey, you won’t look back! ■
www.cycl.bike @CyclBike
Three pieces of advice for someone thinking about starting up:
1
o not rush when looking for D investors and do not evaluate them only on the money that they can potentially bring to your business, but also on their network of people.
2
elect your business partners S wisely, especially when you are looking for founders. Always ensure that they believe in your idea as much as you do!
3
ake the best out of the city M where you live: London offers you the opportunity to be involved in so many events for start-ups that you will never need to pay someone to teach you about it.
KSEI 2015–16 issue 17
Student article
A LITTLE TECH – GOES A LONG WAY – Third-year King’s Computer Science student Fares Alaboud demonstrates how a little desire and a lot of passion can help mould an alternative path for your future. I remember the first day I walked through the Strand Campus, with the same dream everyone else had: to be the next Steve Jobs or the next Bill Gates. I had so many ideas and so much passion, just like many others around me. I was ready to take on the next biggest challenge, to solve the next problem, to set on the next adventure. The only thing that is different today is the fact that it is no longer a dream. It is actually a feasible goal. Over the past few years I’ve discovered that studying at King’s keeps you busy. There’s always a networking event to make connections in the industry, a workshop to attend to gain new skills and a group of students set to make King’s a better place. I am lucky to be part of the latter, as this year I will proudly lead King’s fastest growing, multi-award-winning Tech Society (for information on the KCL Tech Society please see page 11). When I joined King’s, informatics students had little or no connection to the tech industry, and were destined to work in fin-tech (financial technology) firms or banks. The KCL Tech Society was founded with one simple goal in mind: to connect students to opportunities. I was in my first year when the founder, Ammaar Reshi, saw my passion for technology, and one thing led to another: I was a committee member in my first year, a vice president in my second year, and now I am president. Our first big accomplishment was our first event; HackKing’s, where
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we brought together over 100 students from across the country, including Manchester, Southampton, Nottingham, St. Andrews, Oxford, as well as half a dozen London universities. We convinced Facebook, Codecademy and JUST EAT to sponsor us. In fact, Index Ventures gave £15,000 to the winning team.
KSEI brought HackLondon some of its biggest sponsors
The society slowly grew and our reach expanded beyond Informatics, with over 600 new members joining us in our second year from over 20 fields of study. We had at least one event a week, ranging from studentled workshops that taught people how to code; to guest speakers from both London’s growing start-ups and the world’s most prominent tech companies. We were making a difference, and finally achieving our goal. My favourite part was seeing the students flourish as they start making connections and developing skills that will benefit them for the rest of their careers. And we know we’re making a difference. The founders of KCL Tech moved on to work at companies like Amazon and Palantir. As our outreach grew, so did the support we received from many parts of the university. Financially, the Department of Informatics funded many of our events. In terms of publicity, we were given much support from the Vice Principal of Education, as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences. However, the real players were King’s
Student Entrepreneurship Institute (KSEI), who led the successful campaign to take over some space in King’s for student start-ups to work in. With this support, we grew even more. We ran the UK’s most attended hackathon since 2010, HackLondon, with over 220 people from across Europe and names like Google, Bloomberg, Dell, Intel and SwiftKey backing us up. Much of those who see our accomplishments thank the committee, but there’s one important factor that made all of this possible: the incredibly supportive environment. Lecturers attended our events and spread the word to other departments. Professor Ed Byrne AC, President and Principal of King’s College London, quoted our accomplishments at graduation. KSEI brought HackLondon some of its biggest sponsors. KSEI’s Entrepreneurship Support Fund has opened doors for prospective impacting start-up founders and project leaders across the university. From the perspective of KCL Tech, it has given student societies the ability to host both local and international events and competitions. Allowing us to bring together some of the world’s brightest minds to create solutions to the problems that exist in the world today. It is one of humanity’s marvels that a man’s footsteps will always remain on the moon. The reason King’s is a fantastic place to be is that everyone does everything in their power to leave something positive behind, and to enhance experience for those who are to come after us. ■
Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
Focus on
ASHISH J. THAKKAR King’s graduate, Ross Lindgren, who launched Stolen Productions Ltd at the age of 21, quizzes Ashish (Africa’s youngest billionaire) on the entrepreneurial journey he started at just 15 years old! As a 15-year-old entrepreneur did you age ever create obstacles when doing business? Certainly at a young age, starting a business selling computer parts in Uganda, there were obstacles – particularly in people taking me seriously, but I really learned how important hard work is and not accepting the status quo. I don’t accept ‘no’ for an answer. Another key lesson starting a business at any age is to surround yourself with people you can trust and come alongside you to drive your vision forward. In your Forbes article you speak on the importance of having a mentor when beginning as an entrepreneur. What do you look for in a mentor and how can young entrepreneurs find experienced industry mentors? As I said earlier, it’s important to surround yourself with people you can trust. People that can give you valuable input and are not afraid to be disruptive – in a positive way. It’s the reason that Mara Foundation has set up Mara Mentor – in order to help young people learn from each other and learn from industry leaders. Mara Mentor
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! What picks you up when you feel low? My spiritual leader Morari Bapu is a major part of my life. His teaching is truth, love and compassion Twitter or Facebook? Twitter but soon Mara Chat! ;) What was the last TV show you watched? House of Cards Favourite Film? Godfather Cats or dogs? Lions!!!!!! ;)
of more than a few hours of sleep. For me, I find staying positive and inspired keeps me productive and motivated.
is designed to cultivate enterprise through idea and knowledge sharing and my belief is that this crucial interaction amongst peer groups will lead to fewer mistakes longer term. How do you identify and attract the most talented individuals when hiring? Having a strong team is key – you’re only ever as good as your team. At Mara we are proactive at putting the right people in the right positions. Our DNA is entrepreneurial and we make sure we get team members who are the best of entrepreneurial and yet institutional. The Mara group is highly diversified and engaged in a variety of activities such as financial services, real-estate and tourism. How do you decide which markets are worth entering and which ones to avoid? We focus on sectors that we are passionate about and we understand well. What has worked particularly well for Mara is that we also look for partners with international companies with substantial industry expertise. Coupled with our deep local understanding of the region, we have found this model works for us. We are not interested in reinventing wheels; we aim to be a disruptive force in whatever sector we are involved in. How early do you get up in the morning and how do you stay motivated? I travel a lot, so I don’t have the luxury
What do you think are the most important attributes for a young entrepreneur to succeed? Be bold and surround yourself with good people; people with valuable input. It’s very important to learn from your mistakes, because you can’t afford to make the same mistake twice. Overall, I always encourage entrepreneurs to think big, but start small. If you have a bold vision, pace yourself and understand the details. Also to never compromise on your values and ethics, don’t take short cuts. What advice would you give to someone working within an existing company who’s thinking about taking the leap into entrepreneurship? Take the leap if you are sure about it. Take advantage of every opportunity to learn. Whether working for a company or starting your own business, it’s important to be bold, innovative and have a relentless work ethic. Being an ‘intrapreneur’ (an entrepreneur within a company) is just as fun, bold and exciting, as long as the company allows you to. ■
Interviewer’s profile: Ross Lindgren is the Founder and Head Producer of Stolen Productions Ltd. Ross currently runs Stolen Productions from the King’s Incubator. Ross is a King’s College London Business Management Graduate (class of 2015) and was a member of the King’s College London Business Club (KCLBC).
www.StolenProductions.com @RossCLindgren KSEI 2015–16 issue 19
Enterprise Connect alumna Q&A
Focus on
CYNTHIA CARROLL King’s alumna Yee-Mun Thum interviews the inspirational Cynthia Carroll, Non Exec Director BP and former CEO Anglo American PLC. The leading business woman, who spoke at Enterprise Connect, tells Yee-Mun about her 5:30am starts and gives advice on equality in business. How would you describe your leadership style? Is it one that you would encourage others to emulate? I believe in giving everybody in an organisation the opportunity to contribute and am highly supportive of teamwork. It is my view that better solutions to problems are found through input from those with different perspectives and experiences, and I strongly support diversification within an organisation. I work to build consensus and decision making, but it is clear that significant decisions rest ultimately with the executives and with the CEO. As a leader of a global company, I spent much of my time engaging with those inside and outside of the organisation, visiting operations, meeting with executive management teams, or working with governments, labour, or community representatives at all levels, and importantly, interacting with shareholders. In your working life, you’ve had to deal with many a naysayer and detractor. How do you handle both – the personal working relationship (if it was a colleague or a working partner), as well as the publicity surrounding what they say if they choose to critique you in the public eye? As a leader of a global organisation, you are always in the public eye and receiving scrutiny and evaluation. It is critical to maintain focus and belief in yourself, working continuously for the greater good of the organisation and not simply making decisions in response to media critique, a demand from a single shareholder, or the need of one business or a few individuals. In driving towards more efficient and effective organisations, I have made
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many tough decisions with respect to people, despite my close personal relationships with individuals. Although difficult, I always maintained a broader perspective relating to corporate enhancement, increased competitiveness and value creation.
I was travelling almost 75% of the time at my last job when I was running a global organisation Do you feel that the gender issue is still one that affects women entering, and re-entering the corporate working world, particularly at management and executive levels? There is no question that women have many more opportunities today than they did in the past. Having said that, there are still prejudices and barriers that women need to overcome, particularly as they rise up through the ranks. Despite always working in male-dominated industries, I have stayed focused, believing in myself and trusting my business judgment, and expect mutual respect in an organisation. It is important for women to align themselves and to express their views and opinions about what is working and what is not. The business world still has a long way to go, particularly in the more male-dominated corporations and industries. Have you ever felt that you’ve had to make sacrifices that men might not have had to make, in the same position? I have been very fortunate to have a husband who has supported my career
and our marriage since we met 28 years ago. While he is an accountant and has a master’s degree in finance, he stepped away from his corporate job when we moved to Montreal in 1998 so that I could head up a global business. We then had our fourth child and we made the decision that he would work from home while looking after our children. What are three practical bits of advice that you would give a young woman starting out today? 1. Take risks and try different experiences, working internationally if you have the opportunity or working in a field where you have not been trained (i.e. moving from finance to operations or a technical job to finance). 2. Be confident and believe in yourself, don’t be intimidated by those in more powerful positions – everyone has something to contribute. (Be sure to strengthen your presentation skills.) 3. You can have a family and have a career, but know that you cannot do everything, so you have to be good at organising and prioritising. What advice you would give to men working alongside them? Actively support women in the organisation through recruitment, development, and inclusion. Men AND women should be considered for all positions in an organisation. Consider imposing specific diversity targets linked to remuneration to prompt the organisation to promote and hire more women.
Enterprise Connect alumna Q&A
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? Apple Twitter or Facebook? Neither! haha White board or Post-it? Post-it Cats or dogs? Dogs What picks you up when you feel low? My family
began on Sunday evening when I would leave our house to catch a plane. It would not be unusual for me to visit South Africa, Chile, Brazil, and Peru in one week. This would involve a trip to an operation, addressing employees and meeting with union and government officials. Considering that approximately 90% of Anglo American’s operations were in developing countries, I was often away from home.
What were the toughest challenges you had to face when balancing your career and raising your family? How did you overcome them or work around them? I had children almost from the very beginning of my career. We have had the opportunity to live in four countries, and my children have had exposure to very international and diverse environments. As a result, I think that they are broad and open in their perspectives. My challenges were minimised by the fact that my husband stayed at home while I was travelling almost 75% of the time at my last job when I was running a global organisation. What’s a day like in your life? Do you have a specific routine to get your day, and that of your family’s, started? My routine has changed over the
Men AND women should be considered for all positions in an organisation
years. While running Anglo American, I usually was awake at 5:30am, and left home at 6:30 in order to get into central London to start my day. Fortunately I was driven to work, and so spent the commute in the car on the phone with people in places like South Africa, China or Australia. My day was spent participating in one meeting after another, and often involved interaction with shareholders, media or government officials. I was usually home about 7:30pm, and tried to stay at home during the weekends. Travel was frequent and my weeks
What’s in the horizons for Cynthia Carroll, both professionally and personally? I am on the boards of Hitachi, Ltd. and BP. I want to keep working and being part of organisations that strive to be world-class and the best in their industry, making a difference to people, to communities, and to nations around the world while creating shareholder value. Personally, I look forward to spending more time with my husband and four children. And finally, to end on a light note, what do you eat for breakfast? I try to stay healthy, so I generally have yoghurt with some fruit. ■
Interviewer’s profile: Yee-Mun Thum is the Co-Founder of Scarlett of Soho, the UK’s first eyewear subscription service. She completed her MA in Digital Culture & Society at King’s College London in 2014. Yee-Mun was also an active member of the King’s College London Business Club (KCLBC). ScarlettofSoho KSEI 2015–16 issue 21
PhD student article
CONTROL YOUR DESTINY – TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS – President of KCL Innovation Forum, Bauke Anninga, conveys the importance of preparing for life outside of academia. The current PhD Cancer Studies student introduces the practical support that is offered by the society. King’s College London Innovation Forum (KCLIF) is the only postgraduate society at King’s that exists to help bridge the gap between academia, industry and the public sector. Students and earlycareer researchers in the sciences are not often aware of the skills required to develop innovative ideas into viable products or businesses. Our objectives are to enlighten and inform students across King’s of the vast range of opportunities outside academia, and assist them in assembling the skills necessary to be successful drivers of innovation and businesses. By doing so, we hope to enlighten and educate researchers at King’s such that they feel confident to commercialise suitable ideas
ABOVE: Professor Karen O’Brien (Vice-Principal Education at King’s College London) awarding Bauke Anninga the King’s Experience Enterprise Award in 2015. RIGHT: Bauke Anninga speaking at the Enterprise Connect event: ‘An Evening on Student Entrepreneurship at King’s.’
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or become attractive prospects to the private sector – be it for entrepreneurship or other roles. To best meet these goals we organise a number of seminars each year that address the varied nature of opportunities outside of academia. Through seminars and workshops delivered by inspirational figures in research and industry, we aim to encourage our members to think about their education, experience and unique skills and how these can be used outside an academic route.
planning to expand into other scientific disciplines. By organising cross-disciplinary events we hope to create favourable circumstances for enterprise. We believe that by facilitating serendipity, true innovation occurs and great start-ups can be generated. If you would like to know more about the work that we do, please get in touch by either sending us an email via kcl@inno-forum.org, or alternatively go to page 11 for more contact details. ■
www.inno-forum.org
Students and early-career researchers in the sciences are not often aware of the skills required to develop innovative ideas into viable products or businesses I took over as President of the society this year and am very excited to be working together with a very talented and enthusiastic team. I am thankful for the support that we received from King’s Commercialisation Institute, King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute and the King’s Graduate School and hope we can build upon that experience. Notably, KSEI’s Entrepreneurship Support Fund enabled us to grow our network by 250% and offer various great events that were relevant to our members. We have some amazing plans for the coming year and are looking to connect with innovators at King’s, and beyond. We are originally founded from a life-sciences postgraduate background but are
Graduate article
MED-TECH – DOCTORS AKA ENTREPRENEURS – Dr Cosima Gretton, King’s recent graduate, shares her views on how entrepreneurship and innovation are the missing pieces in modern medicine.
Cosima Gretton: sharing tales from her experience at the ten-week programme in NASA hothouse, Singularity University
Technology is set to change medicine radically. New digital health solutions arise every day, radically altering how healthcare could potentially be delivered. But much of the innovation is currently coming from outside the field. The few doctors who step out of the relative safety of the profession often do so at a loss to their clinical careers. Innovation and entrepreneurship are not rewarded or included as part of formal training programmes in the UK. Audits and quality improvement contribute towards career progression, start-ups do not. When applying for Foundation training, it was clear there was no room
in the online form for my achievements outside clinical or academic medicine. Points are awarded for academic publications, academic degrees and clinical training – but nothing else.
We need to bring the training of junior doctors and medical students up to speed with the pace of change we are seeing outside medicine We need to bring the training of junior doctors and medical students up to speed with the pace of change we are seeing outside medicine. Technology will inevitably improve healthcare at every level, but without the involvement of medics the pace will be slow. In the USA, ‘doctors as entrepreneurs’
is a common pathway, and one that is well rewarded. Thankfully things are changing. This September, Tony Young, the National Clinical Director for Innovation at NHS England, is launching a new programme called the Clinician Entrepreneur (visit bit.ly/CosCEP for more information). It is a radical new
programme open to junior doctors and trainees, aimed at supporting innovation and entrepreneurship alongside clinical practice. It’s a great step forward, but lacks involvement of the other members of the multidisciplinary team, like nurses and physiotherapists. I really hope it is successful and the formal support kicks off a culture of innovation and eagerness for improvement throughout the NHS. ■
www.cosimagretton.co.uk @cosgretton KSEI 2015–16 issue 23
Alumnus Q&A
CARMARLEY DENNIS: Founder of Hubbly Bubbly What did you study at King’s and how did you find your experience here? I studied law, and had the best time. What is Hubbly Bubbly? Hubbly Bubbly is a premium vaping company – we develop our own range of fruit flavoured e-liquids and vaping devices.
PROFILE
Age: 28 What did you study at King’s College London? Law What year did you graduate? 2013 What campus were you based at? Strand and Waterloo Were you part of any King’s societies? Fund Director of KCL Investment Club How old were you when you launched Hubbly Bubbly? 26 LIGHTNING ROUND
Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? iOS/Apple Twitter or Facebook? Twitter Starter or dessert? Dessert Home cooked food or take away? Home cooked Night in or night out? Night out Gym or gin? Gym Where and when was your last holiday? Miami – a few years ago Lazy Sundays or active weekends? Active weekends Cats or dogs? Dogs Winter or summer? Summer Risk or regret? Risk
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What has your start-up journey been like whilst you have been at King’s and how has this impacted Hubbly Bubbly’s evolution? I started the company in my final year and had great support from the outset. I’ve worked closely with the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute (KSEI) and was a part of the first cohort of the King’s Incubator (March 2015). During this time I regularly attended their Enterprise Connect events, which included talks from entrepreneurs who had built their brands into household names. Following one event, KSEI connected me with the speaker Sahar Hashemi (Co-Founder Coffee Republic) who had built and exited two retail brands. Sahar had great insights to share about distribution, which I’ve since put into practice. Do you have a process for idea generation and testing for market viability? I start with finding solutions for problems close to me, and as far as market viability – I love data, the more the better, but I’ve found the best way to know if something works is to speak to users. I’m a big fan of pop-up stores for testing. We’ve run several of these for new ranges and flavours before moving to full scale production. How important is it to network at an early stage?? Some of the relationships I’ve built over the years were vital in getting
things moving with limited resources at the very start. As the business grows, identifying good mentors and advisors with domain expertise, and experience in scaling successful businesses is equally important. This will save you making some painful mistakes. I’ve been fortunate to have some great ones throughout my journey. What were the main challenges you faced early on in your venture? And do you still encounter them to this day? The main challenges were fundingrelated earlier on. Following graduation, I secured angel investment. Since then, the main challenge has been distribution and keeping cash flow healthy. We’ve been able to overcome these challenges by focusing on our strongest revenue sources, with the shortest sales cycles. Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences? I have a list of things I want to achieve in any given year posted above my desk – that keeps me focused when then things get tough. Have you any advice for a young entrepreneur who is held back by a fear of failure? Start your venture as a side project whilst at university or during employment, then aim to get your first paying customers within a realistic time span. Those early wins will give you the confidence to take the leap. What can we expect from Hubbly Bubbly over the next 12 months? The next 12 months you can expect to see our products listed in more retailers. ■
www.hubblybubblyeliquid.com hubblybubblyeliquid hubblybubblyeliquid myhubblybubbly
Student hacking article
MUSTAFA ON HACKING – HE’S THE HACK-KING – Mustafa Al Bassam has experienced all aspects of hacking; the good, the bad and the ugly. The Informatics undergraduate student introduces us to the modern world of hacking and how it nurtures creativity and innovation.
When the media uses the word ‘hacker’, it’s often accompanied by a stock photo of a man in a dark room tapping away on a keyboard, siphoning bank account information. The man is usually wearing a balaclava and gloves indoors, presumably because banks have CCTV cameras on their websites too and logging into a website leaves your actual fingerprint on it. This is the mainstream perception of hackers, derived from Hollywood films and the media. Within the wider tech community however, the word ‘hacker’ has very different perceptions and meanings. To hack means to be playfully clever and computer crime is only one of the many subsections of hacking. A hacker is someone who likes to explore and understand in detail the inner-workings of systems, particularly computer systems, and manipulates them in playful ways to discover clever solutions to problems – the solution is called a ‘hack’. A mobile app that uses GPS to alert you when you pass the grocery store every day so that you remember to pick up the milk can be an example of a hack. Admittedly I have been involved in the subsection of hacking that is more stereotypical of a Hollywood film’s perception. When I was 15 years old I co-founded a hacking group called ‘LulzSec’ that compromised the computer systems of a variety of governmental and corporate organisations including Sony, FBI
affiliates, NATO, and Fox. The authorities weren’t happy about this, so I was arrested in the summer of 2011. I was on bail for two years on condition that I didn’t access the internet. Living in 21st century Britain without access to the internet is harder than one might think.
Computer code has social and political implications
Hacking is inherently rewarding. Finding a security vulnerability in software at 1 o’clock in the morning, that would allow you to gain access to the systems of any head of states’ official website during a revolution – defacing it with a pro-revolution message gives you a high. It’s pleasurable in two ways: technically (finding the vulnerability) and politically (participating in a revolution). I taught myself how to code by playing around with my computer, trying random ‘what if...?’ ideas with programming languages and Googling everything I didn’t know. If you’re passionate enough about something to learn it yourself, you will always be far ahead of anyone who is spoon-fed the skills in an academic environment. Computer code has social and political implications. Free (as in freedom) software developers selfidentify themselves as hackers, and they build software under a common hacker philosophy: that information should be free and that we should share our knowledge (and code) with
everyone so that others can build upon it and use it to improve the massive rock we live on. This is the principle that the Linux operating system is built under. Unlike Windows, Linux is entirely free and the source code is open, which means that any programmer can edit the code and improve it. It’s arguably the largest collaborative project in human history with thousands of contributors, that powers over a billion devices and 96.6% of websites on the internet. It’s a project that is responsible for trillions of dollars of trade in the world economy – and yet it’s 100% free to use, made possible by the hacker principle of sharing that it’s rooted in. Hackers and people with technical skills have the responsibility and power to impact the world in positive ways. A hackathon is an event, often 24-hours, where hackers congregate in teams to build innovative technologies, and then share what they’ve built at the end of the hackathon. Recently the hackathon scene has exploded and has become more mainstream, with banks, governments and old corporations organising their own hackathons (there’s even a McDonald’s hackathon). The KCL Tech Society, where I am a committee member, brings together students with different skill sets from various disciplines to create an innovative and supportive community of like minded people in the cross-section of technology and entrepreneurship. We run hackathons and coding workshops for absolute beginners. If it sounds like your calling, visit www.kcltech.com ■ KSEI 2015–16 issue 25
Graduate start-up article
WORK HARDER – AND FASTER, AND KICK DOWN DOORS – Mark Chaffey is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of hackajob and a recent Business Management graduate (class of 2015) from King’s College London. Find your other half A good business always starts in one place; mine started two years ago when I met my co-founder, Raz, through the King’s College London Business Club. Finding your other half is hard, really hard, but when you find the right person, it’s worth every second spent searching. If you want to start a business one day, whether that is next week or in five years, the first thing you can do is start the search today, right now. And yes, treat it like you’re trying to find the love of your life, you’ll end up spending more time with them than your life partner!
Shout from the rooftops Once you’ve found the other half, and you’ve started working on your idea, you now need to be loud. Really loud! Building a product and waiting for users to come to you simply won’t happen. Being loud typically falls into two categories; public speaking and talking to users/customers. The King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute (formerly part of the King’s Commercialisation Institute) has been incredibly supportive to us and in March 2015 gave us the opportunity to speak at one of their Enterprise Connect events (Scalability: growing your business). Whilst I enjoy speaking generally (just ask anyone who knows me), I know it can be daunting for new founders. You need to get over this fear and quickly. From that one event, we gained two new customers, a mentor and a potential employee. Never turn
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down a speaking gig; you never know who’s sat in the audience and with every gig you do, you refine your skills and improve. When it comes to selling to users/ customers, as a start-up you have to
All the hard work is starting to pay off as we were recently 1 of the 11 start-ups selected to join Techstars London, out of more than 1,000 that applied
kick doors down. It’s a pure numbers game; the more calls you make, the more emails you send, and the more meetings you take, the more customers you’ll have. Yes, you might annoy some people, some may even be rude to you, however the trick is simple… ignore them and keep on knocking on those doors, and your resilience will pay off. We managed to land prestigious institutions, such as the BBC, just six months after founding the business by not taking no for an answer (and admittedly building a kick-ass product).
Time management (work harder) A question I have been asked a lot recently is ‘how did you manage to do your finals at uni and still work full-time on hackajob?’ I use a recent quote from Ryan Giggs, one of my idols, to answer: ‘If you want to be the best, work harder than everyone else.’ That rang true to me and it is something I try to live up to. Whilst my finals were happening the only choice I had was to work harder than my peers; 8am-7pm in the office, 7pm-11pm in the library, for four
weeks. Working from the free King’s incubator space at Guys Campus gave us the ability to work as a team all together in one place, building our company culture whilst making the trips to the library much shorter! All the hard work is starting to pay off as we were recently one of the 11 start-ups selected to join Techstars London, out of more than 1,000 that applied! If you’re struggling to keep up with all your work, there’s always something you can do… sleep faster. Graft and hustle are two attributes every entrepreneur shares. The ability to work harder and faster will give you a seriously unfair advantage.
Learn from others’ mistakes Mistakes are costly. So why bother making the same mistakes other people have already made? My final piece of advice to any budding entrepreneur would be to read the following books: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, Hooked by Nir Eyal, ReWork by 37signals, and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. Don’t be afraid of being a young, first-time founder. Learn quickly, work fast and kick down doors. You’ll be just fine! I am more than happy to help any budding student entrepreneurs with advice on sales, product and customer development and Techstars. ■
www.hackajob.co @hackajob_co
hackajob
Graduate start-up article
Co-founders and King’s graduates Mark Chaffey and Razvan Creanga celebrate their first day in Techstars with the whole hackajob team.
KSEI 2015–16 issue 27
Enterprise Connect alumna article
UNIVERSITY: – AN INCUBATOR FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING – I am an impatient person. Period. Always was. Always will be. At 15 I (Emma Sinclair, co-founder of EnterpriseJungle) worked in a chemist, graduated to a McDonalds Saturday job at 16, worked behind bars at 18 (the alcoholic kind, as opposed to prison!) and latterly, behind a computer screen.
University was an interesting time for me. I can’t say I was the most dedicated of students but I always read the prescribed reading list (well, ish…), handed work in on time (well, ish…) and crammed for exams. Fortunately I passed with pretty good grades thanks to some great teachers and a good memory. I had a good time too.
University evolved my entrepreneurship skills. For those of you with no intentions of starting your own business don’t be fooled into thinking they are irrelevant None of us know exactly where we’ll end up in life but many of us are excited to get started: to start to study, start to live an independent life away from home, start to work, start to impact the world, start to climb the career ladder and if you’re like me, ditch homework. Others are keen researchers and are ready to graduate from bachelors and masters degrees to PhDs and teaching posts. Brilliant – but not something I can comment on. I can’t wait to be given an honorary PhD (take note King’s) but was never the kind to commit to that many years of voluntary study! So to those reading this, you might be forgiven for thinking that if I had my time again I might not go to university but rather go straight to a full-time job. Or I would have chosen to study business (instead of languages) given my obvious inclination towards the world of commerce. Or that committing four years to university did
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little to foster my entrepreneurial spirit. You would, however, be wrong. With the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Go get those social skills! For many, university is a fantastic incubator. Most of us arrive at 18 (unless you’re one of those nine-yearold child geniuses I see on TV!) with a small circle of friends limited to the area you grew up in, the schools you went to and the sports clubs you frequented. Suddenly you’re exposed and introduced to people you might never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise, from all walks of life and all corners of the world. There were some I liked, some I loved and some who didn’t resonate at all that I downright avoided. But either way, as with working life, I had to learn to try and get on with everyone where possible. In retrospect, it was an early master class in networking. University isn’t the right path for everyone but when I reflect, I can see why my parents were so keen for me to have the experience. It shaped me.
And business skills... At university there were societies and clubs to cater for every interest. I was responsible for my own profit and loss (no money, no lunch). I was thrown into accommodation with people from all over the world, crowded (and sometimes intimidating) classrooms, a city I didn’t know and a rhythm where on the whole, I was responsible for my own time for the first time. It didn’t take me long to figure out you get back what you put in. If you stay home and watch quiz shows all
day you won’t meet anyone and more importantly, are unlikely to pass your degree. That’s no good. But if you do venture outside of your bedroom, the school of life awaits. I spent a term abroad studying in Spain and a year abroad working in Paris. Many of my contemporaries lived in small towns and took up teaching assistant posts. I was adamant I wanted to work in the capital city – and was lucky enough to secure an amazing job working on the shop floor of the infamous Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees. Being multilingual I was always asked to escort and help some of the pop stars who came to the store for record signings so I built up an envious collection of CDs all the while learning to speak French.
Entrepreneurial skills are required in all walks of life: they mean applying yourself to situations with agility, applying innovative thinking to whatever you do It took me out of my comfort zone and ultimately gave me confidence. I had to navigate a new city, a foreign subway system, supermarket shopping where initially I couldn’t understand most of the labels and make new friends. I had to start a new job whilst initially struggling to express myself and had to concentrate harder to learn the skills required because… asking questions meant having to speak French! There is no better way to learn the value of networking – building your friends and acquaintances so that
Enterprise Connect alumna article
your access to advice and study and work opportunities is extended – than by living independently; abroad or not. Being young for my academic year, I was 17 when I secured a place at university, barely 18 when I arrived and 19 when I moved to Paris. I grew up fast.
King’s College London: the land of opportunity. University evolved my entrepreneurship skills. For those of you with no intentions of starting your own business don’t be fooled into thinking they are irrelevant. Entrepreneurial skills are required in all walks of life: they mean applying yourself to situations with agility, applying innovative thinking to whatever you do – and self reliance. I met people from all walks of life
who I learned to live and work with, as you must do at work. I learned how to live on a budget as opposed to coming home to my parents’ full fridge. I learned to find a job despite living in a city with thousands of other students seeking a job too. I learned to do a lot with a little; money, wardrobe and time. I learned that you get out what you put in. I learned to chase what I want. I learned that the world is a competitive place and I needed to define myself and soak up as many opportunities as possible before thinking about graduating and joining the workforce. Careers – wherever you find yourself and whatever you find yourself doing – require a plethora of skills: Skills that were unrefined when I rocked up to my first day of university but which I had definitely honed on the day I left.
So to those of you arriving at King’s for your first year, those of you returning for a second year or those of you in the final furlongs of your degree, step out of your comfort zone and social circle and soak up as much as you can because never again will you have so many opportunities at your finger tips, all under one roof, designed specifically to help you get wherever you want to go. And of course… have fun! ■
Written by Emma Sinclair; serial entrepreneur. Currently, co-founder of software company EnterpriseJungle and the youngest person to have floated a company on the London Stock Exchange.
www.enterprisejungle.com @ES_Entrepreneur KSEI 2015–16 issue 29
Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
Focus on
RICHARD REED Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Smoothies, talks to us about how he ended up with a lucrative start-up idea!
Where did your inner entrepreneurial desire come from? Business is an amazing aperture where you can create and do things. As a kid, I worked at a dog factory for £2 an hour. I was picking up dog biscuits off the floor and I am down on the floor thinking, “there has to be something better than this”. I then went on to set up a lawn-mowing business and before I knew it I was inundated with work. I received £2.50 an hour, I got so much work that I employed friends and paid them £2.25 an hour. I recognised early on in life that ‘If you don’t like it, change it’. How much research do you need to do before you start? I have found that the most important thing is to just get started. The world is full of people that never got started. That’s all that matters. We started our business with £500 of fruit and we crushed it up in the house we lived in at the time. We took the juice along to a music festival with a market stall and put up a sign saying ‘shall we give up our jobs to pursue the smoothies’ with one bin saying ‘yes’ and the other ‘no’. We got to the end of the weekend and the ‘yes’ bin was full.
Richard Reed networks with students at Enterprise Connect.
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How did you raise initial funds? Well we wrote a business plan, we went to the market, we applied for a small business start-up loan to 20 different banks and all said no. We also went to venture capitalists and it was a flat no from everyone we met in the beginning. But one of our friends suggested this basic principle of six degrees of separation effect, i.e. we don’t know anyone rich but we might know someone who knows of someone. Following this we went to our respective workplaces, stole all the email addresses and spammed all of them with information on the smoothies. A school mate got in touch following this, and said he did an
I recognised early on in life that ‘If you don’t like it, change it’
Bill Clinton visits Richard at the Innocent Smoothie offices.
Essentially, it’s all about ‘Starting small and thinking big’
internship with someone, who we met, and said yes, and without him there would be no Innocent. Does a good team help success? A good team has a shared set of values but different skills. I was obsessed with consumer-facing activities, while my fellow founders were passionate about selling and production respectively. We were a dream team of complementary skills that worked as a source of confidence and motivation. We worked to empower one another on a regular basis. When did you feel that you had made it, so to speak? When we started Innocent we thought it was 95% likely to fail, but we thought why not, let’s dream about that 5% and think about what it would look like. So 15 years ago, our 5% vision was to build a business that would one day be big and successful enough that Bill Clinton would come to visit. Both of those things happened. Essentially, it’s all about ‘starting small and thinking big’. ■
Student robotics article
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: – IT’S GOT A LIFE OF ITS OWN! – Mantas Gribulis is a King’s College London graduate, class of 2015. Whilst reading MSc Robotics, he launched the university’s first ever Robotics Society in September 2014. As the society’s first President, he introduces us to the complex world of Robotics. Being a member of King’s robotics society is about bringing your ideas to life, it’s about seeing the equations in your books in the form of a robot, it’s about challenging yourself to think outside of the box, learn from others and work within a team. Our newly launched robotics society started in September 2014, when MSc robotics students wanted to learn more and travel the extra mile to apply what they learn in class. With the support of the informatics department and our lecturers, the society came to life. It started with only a few informatics students, but now there are more than 20 active members from different courses and different backgrounds, both undergraduate and postgraduate. The society meets once to twice a week in the robotics lab, where members share ideas, build robots and meet new friends.
intelligent behaviour exhibited by machines or software programmes. Artificial intelligence developments and singularity were discussed during the session, such as how possible singularity is, how far we are from singularity and whether it is a threat or an opportunity. Technical singularity is a moment in
This perfect mix of energetic minds and exceptional knowledge is maturing into commercially viable ideas time when general artificial intelligence, such that a computer would be capable of improving itself at an increasing rate. This would result in an intelligence explosion where smart machines design successive generations of increasingly powerful machines, creating intelligence far exceeding human intellectual capabilities. Many think that beyond
Our first robot The first robot built by the society was Drumbot, which is a robotic drum-kit that can beat drums according to music tunes. This extremely loud robot received a lot of attention from the college in general and the department in specific. Drumbot was displayed in two major events: the Royal Institute Christmas lecture, as well as the cinematic premier of Big Hero 6. We have a deep interest in artificial intelligence, and did an event on whether it was a threat or a new beginning. Artificial intelligence is a broad technical field that deals with
the technological singularity, events may become unpredictable and unfavourable for humanity.
Google Deep Mind Our interest resulted in Google Deep Mind visiting us to present their work on artificial intelligence. Researchers from Google Deep Mind gave an exciting talk about artificial intelligence and the technology behind it. Amongst many things, speakers explained how deep neural networks work and how computers can recognise objects in images. Deep neural networks are designed to mimic the neurons of the brain so the computer programme could learn on its own by adapting to the data it is given. Today neural networks are increasingly being used to help to understand big data, while object recognition from images will be used in the near future in self-driving cars being built by Google. Every event we organise, every robot or programme we build shapes the society bit by bit into an innovation hub where passionate students bring their ideas to life and learn new skills. The insights in artificial intelligence from the previous conference gave us many thoughts on new applications. Moreover, the challenge of running society is teaching us how to build a deep technology start-up from ground-up. This perfect mix of energetic minds and exceptional knowledge is maturing into commercially viable ideas that students are now considering to pursue after graduation. If you are interested, please go to page 11 for details. ■
ABOVE: The Drumbot BELOW: Visit from Google Deep Mind
www.kingsrobotics.co.uk KSEI 2015–16 issue 31
Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
Focus on
ARIEL ECKSTEIN The Managing Director of LinkedIn Europe, the Middle East and Africa tells King’s graduate David Wilkinson what networking really means. Ariel shares his views on what potential employers look for and dealing with failure.
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Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
At ClickThings you were promoted three times in the space of 14 months to the position of COO. What’s helped you climb the corporate ladder as fast as you have? I’d put it down to three things: hard work, loyalty and the willingness to be open to serendipity. That played itself out then, and has continued throughout my career. Over your career what are the most important lessons you learned that proved useful in later management roles at ClickThings, AOL and presently LinkedIn? Get the bad news early to ensure you are able to work to shape the outcome of any challenging situation. I learned that if you spot a challenge early, you give yourself much more room and time to manoeuvre than if you are playing hopeful games until it is too late. Also, it’s clear, but important to reiterate that you have to seek to surround yourself with good people. If you are afraid to hire and work with people better than yourself, you are underserving both yourself and your organisation. Given that half of all UK start-ups fail within five years, what advice would you give to anybody thinking about launching their own business today? Go after large market opportunities; ensure that your product or service solves a clear pain point that people are willing to pay for; don’t launch a one-product company; ensure that your first product is good enough to sell when you launch; and again, surround yourself with great people because you’ll need every single ounce of ingenuity, discipline, creativity, and resilience to succeed. What advice would you give to people afraid of networking? For example, they could be lacking in confidence, uncertain about sharing their ideas or have minimal industry experience. Networking gets a bad reputation. People think of a polyester-clad sales person aggressively intruding into other people’s conversations at a cocktail party. I try to focus on how can I inform or help someone and thus build my network with people to whom I have brought value. If you
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Twitter or Facebook? LinkedIn Winter or Summer? Summer Favourite fast food? Burritos Cats or dogs? Dogs What did you want to be when you were 10 years old? Newspaper writer
Ariel Eckstein: Enterprise Connect alumnus
start by giving, it will be easier and more welcome if you subsequently seek to ask a favour or need help. What might new entrepreneurs do in practical terms to build their networks and start putting them to use? And how can aspiring entrepreneurs use LinkedIn to help grow their businesses? First of all, ensure you have strong LinkedIn profile, of course! Also, join groups, share your expertise by posting about key trends in business and industry. Offline, make sure that you are sharing your expertise in a way that adds to the ecosystem. If you do this in a valuable and non-transactional way, you’ll be in a better position to build brand equity for you and your company. You must have seen a lot of pretty varied LinkedIn profiles. What skills stand out to you as the most valued and important in the business world today? Resilience, optimism, compassion, creativity, and the willingness to understand before seeking to be understood. What have been some of the toughest things you’ve faced in your career? What kept you going? When we had to close ClickThings, I took it very personally. We worked
very hard to try to keep the company going, but it was 2001 and funding sources had dried up. I felt like we had failed the team and tried to help everyone find another position. We weren’t able to do it immediately. What kept me going was the belief that we had tried our best to do the right thing and most of the employees realised that. Where do you see LinkedIn in five years time? With acquisitions including Lynda and SlideShare, is the company shifting away from professional networking and towards business services in general? We see LinkedIn increasing in importance to both our individual members and to enterprises. We are making major investments in our own products and in acquisitions like Lynda. I am as excited about LinkedIn today as I was six years ago. According to your own LinkedIn profile, you’ve been with the firm longer than anywhere else you’ve worked before. What’s next for you personally? If you beat Reid Hoffman at Settlers of Catan do you get to take over from Jeff Weiner? I’m going to continue to do what I enjoy most: work to create future LinkedIn leaders and also work with our largest and most demanding clients to ensure they get the most benefit from their relationship with LinkedIn. As for your question, Jeff is a fantastic CEO and we don’t want him to go anywhere.
Interviewer’s profile: David Wilkinson is the Managing Director at Soho Strategy, a business he founded at the age of 14 (seven years ago). The firm’s client base includes political parties, global multinationals, charities, corporations and start-ups alike, with employees on three continents. David is also a King’s College London Political Economy Graduate, class of 2015. Whilst studying at the university David was President (2013–15) of the King’s Economics & Finance Society (EFS). ■ www.sohostrategy.com sohostrategy @sohostrategy KSEI 2015–16 issue 33
10 start-up tips
START-UPS: – 10 THINGS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS SHOULD KNOW – Peter Martyr, Global CEO of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, gives his top 10 start-up tips to King’s young entrepreneurs. Whether you have a business background or not, the advice given by the experienced leader is a great starting point for all.
3 Be optimistic with the business but conservative with yourself There is nothing wrong with anticipating success, provided that anticipation doesn’t cloud your business objectives. Make sure you have factored in a plan B.
In the rush to start a business, entrepreneurs can often overlook key steps in the process. Although making mistakes – and more crucially, learning from them – is an important aspect of the process of building a company, more important is the need to be methodical in managing the commercial, financial and legal issues to ensure your vision becomes a reality. Above all, common sense should be the primary driver when making any business decisions. The principles for ensuring a business’s success is no different at the start-up level than it is for a large-scale business; having a holistic view of the various facets of a business is crucial whether you are dipping your toe in the start-up waters or managing a global legal practice of more than 3,000 lawyers. Outlined below are 10 things young entrepreneurs should consider when planning their business venture. 1 U nderstand your business objectives You’ve identified a business opportunity: define your goals and
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strategies at the outset, and establish a timeline setting out the necessary steps to achieve these goals. Having a clear understanding of your business objectives will also enable you to sell your idea and get buy-in from investors and potential stakeholders. 2 Understand your market and don’t be afraid to seek advice At its most basic level, conducting market research will enable you to identify whether your business idea is a viable one. It will also serve to establish your client or customer base as well as identify potential market competitors. Establish the specific needs of your customer base, as well as what your competitors are already doing to meet these needs, and apply that insight to your product. As a young entrepreneur, you have a wealth of experience to draw on from a wide range of sources. Cast your net as wide as possible and equip yourself with as much advice and insight as possible from entrepreneurs; learn from their stories and apply those lessons to your business.
4 Understand the IT risks associated with your business As businesses become more creative with the ways they collect and use personal data, so too do the efforts of those who would seek to steal that data. Recent headline-grabbing stories have shown that even the largest organisation isn’t immune to data breaches. Conducting a careful analysis of your business’s exposure to IT security risks and setting out a detailed plan to mitigate that risk will help to keep your company running in the event of a crisis. 5 Understand the various funding options available and choose the right one based on your business objectives Ensure you have aligned your business plan with your financial plan. An effective business plan should also set out why the capital is required – what equipment will need to be purchased, or what work will need to be done, and how much will it cost? Raising capital is a challenge for any start-up, but your chances can be greatly improved if you understand the various types of funding available, their benefits and the potential drawbacks. Whether you’re seeking to secure a loan from a bank, considering going the venture capital or angel investor route, or are thinking of
10 start-up tips
exploring crowdfunding, choosing the right one will depend on your business objectives. Equity investors, for example, may bring guidance and industry access that could prove crucial in the early stages of a company’s growth, but those investors will also be expecting a rate of return and will be anticipating an exit – possibly at the worst time for your business. An entrepreneur’s financial concerns don’t end once they have successfully attracted funding – ensuring the business is generating steady revenues is crucial to its continued survival. Meticulously manage your cash flow to keep on top of what is owed to creditors. A number of things can affect your business’s cash flows, including commodity price risk, exchange rate risk, asset price risk or credit risk. Make sure you identify these risks and factor them into your business plan. 6 Understand your business’s tax obligations Your company’s tax requirements will depend on the type of business structure you use. Therefore tax should be one of the foremost issues to consider when setting out your business plan and deciding on a company vehicle.
7 U nderstand your employment law obligations Managing staffing issues can take up a significant (if not the majority) of an employer’s time. This can be compounded if you are unaware of employees’ basic legislative rights. Areas such as working hours, annual leave, pay, health and safety and discrimination are all governed by legislation which could result in costly litigation if not followed correctly. Employment legislation is regularly changing – ensure you are obtaining the most current information when seeking advice. 8 U nderstand the regulations that affect your business Regulatory regimes are evolving and taking on an increasingly global remit. Any entrepreneur should ensure they have thoroughly researched the law that applies to the industry the business will be operating in. Complying with regulation can be costly at the start-up phase, but failing to take into account the requirement to comply with legislation can be a terminal misstep.
9 Understand the importance of protecting your business’s IP Typically, one of the first questions asked is: what intellectual property does the company own? This could include the company’s name and logo, the domain name used for the company’s online presence, or the design and function of the product being developed. Intellectual property rights in the products and services that a company is seeking to commercialise must be protected before the company goes to market. Not only will this help to maintain an edge over competitors, but it could open the door to other opportunities, such as licensing and franchising. Coming up with a strategy to protect your company’s IP can be a complex process. Make sure you have thoroughly researched and understood the requirements and costs of intellectual property protection. 10 Get the best advice you can afford Finding the right legal adviser at the start of your venture may enable you to identify and address potential issues before they arise. Make sure you consider multiple options and negotiate on costs – build a relationship with your legal adviser before any specific legal issues arise. ■ KSEI 2015–16 issue 35
Photo album
ENTREPRENEURS CAPTURED A sneak peek of some snaps taken at King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute events
‘Zig when the rest of the world Zags’, Baroness Dido Harding, CEO of Talk Talk PLC.
Cath Kidston advising the founders of Attollo Lingerie.
Founder of Coffee Republic Sahar Hashemi talks about being unique.
Lord Bilimoria CBE, the founder of Cobra Beer, speaking at ‘An Evening on Student Entrepreneurship at Kings’.
Duncan Cheatle CEO Prelude Group, co-founder of Start-Up Britain and founder of The Supper Club, networking with Damilola Fajuyigb, King’s PhD student.
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Levi Roots founder of Reggae Reggae introduces his talk with a song
Amit Bhatia, founder Swordfish Investments, co-owner QPR Football Club and Chairman Hope Construction Materials.
Photo album
Debbie Moore OBE, founder Pineapple Dance Studios.
Oliver Zolman, King’s Medical Student and winner of UnLtd Social Enterprise Award.
King’s alumna Tamen Jadad Garcia, founder of Balanz.
Craig Donaldson, CEO of Metro Bank.
From left to right: Jon Moulton, founder and managing partner of Better Capital; Carlos Eduardo, partner in Seedcamp; and Julie Meyer MBE, founder of Ariadne Capital and Entrepreneur Country.
From left to right: Roger Saul, founder of Mulberry; Duncan Cheatle, co-founder of Start-up Britain; and Cosima Gretton, King’s medical graduate and Science Curator.
Ashish J. Thakkar, founder of Mara Group & Mara Foundation networks with King’s students.
KSEI 2015–16 issue 37
Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
Focus on
CARLOS EDUARDO ESPINAL King’s graduate Daniel Gennaoui interviews the author of Fundraising Field Guide. Let the Partner at Seedcamp enlighten you on raising finance and seeking investment.
Tell us a bit about Seedcamp, and what you look for in start-ups. Seedcamp is a global acceleration fund with over 180 investments. We have been around since 2007, and we specialise in companies that have billion dollar ambitions and we provide them with the network, the capital, and the learnings to do so. We look for ambitious founders that have a world view on company building. What would you tell somebody who has a great idea but doesn’t have the monetary resources? Resources are necessary to create value. If monetary resources are scarce, the question becomes: are human resources capable of producing value in absence of monetary resources? If so, this is, in effect, bootstrapping.
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Twitter or Facebook? Twitter for work, Facebook for friends. What was the last TV show you watched? I love sci-fi – Falling Skies, Walking Dead, and Extant Winter or Summer? Summer Favourite Film? The Matrix Cats or Dogs? Dogs What did you want to be when you were 10 years old? R2D2
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How can you build a great team and attract top talent without any funds? In an increasingly competitive market for top talent, it will be increasingly difficult to attract a team without some form of cash as part of the equation. That said, not everyone is driven by cash alone, as there are many other factors that can drive someone to help build out a company, and how they are compensated can also be creative, including deferred payments as well as equity stakes in the company. At what point should a start-up start looking for funding, and how much equity should a founder be willing to give up? A start-up should start raising capital when they feel their company’s expansion rate is being hindered by their current cash flow. Not all companies hit this point and not all companies that hit this point should alleviate it by raising external capital (as opposed to other creative forms of financing help, such as buyer financing, supplier financing, debt, etc). As for ‘how much equity to give up’, % dilution is a function of valuation, so you’re asking... what valuation should I have for my company. Hopefully the blog post below helps. What should an entrepreneur be ready for when meeting a potential investor? They should be ready to justify the big vision they have for the business. This includes outlining how the market will allow the company to blossom into its vision, how the team is capable of executing this, and how the product will be able to deliver it.
What are the most important things for founders to look out for when signing an investment deal? To understand the difference between the economics of a deal and the governance of a deal. Sometimes it is tempting to get hung up on the economics of a deal (dilution, etc) rather than focusing on the overall picture, which can contain other mechanisms that can create problems for you. For more detail on this and many other questions you’ve asked above, I go in far greater detail on my book, which can be downloaded at www.fundraisingfieldguide.com What’s the single thing you would say to a student who is wary about taking the leap to start his or her own company? I don’t think there is one thing that can be said, nor do I think I’d be the right person to try and come up with that ‘one thing’. Entrepreneurship is not easy, it has its highs, but just as many lows and it is a journey that one should not be taken lightly. ■
Interviewer’s profile: Daniel Gennaoui is the Director and founder of Niume, the collaborative blogging platform. Daniel launched Niume with Francesco Facca whilst they both studied Mathematics at King’s College London. Daniel was also a member of the KCL Entrepreneurial and Investment society and KCL American Football Club. www.niume.com niume_official
Alumni funding article
FUNDING ROLLERCOASTER – THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF FINANCING A START-UP – King’s Geography alumni, Fleurette Mulcahy and Alice Holden, recount the trials and tribulations of their start-up Attollo, a lingerie brand designed by D+ women, for D+ women
We met at King’s, while studying Geography and throughout our friendship, we often commiserated with one another about the dire selection and availability of pretty, stylish and uplifting bras available in our obscure and largely unavailable sizes. In April 2013, at 20 years old and in the Waterfront Bar, we decided to take the plunge and found Attollo. Attollo meaning ‘I lift up, I raise, I excite’ was everything we wanted our bras to do, that current bras don’t. On the eve of founding Attollo, we were told that founding a business would be a rollercoaster. Having worked on Attollo for 22 months, we can honestly say that it is that rollercoaster every day! Our rollercoaster started on a high. At a King’s Enterprise Connect event we lingered, waiting to speak to speaker Lee McQueen, winner of BBC’s Apprentice. We received advice that we still reiterate to aspiring entrepreneurs – start your venture right away with your burning desire to see it come to fruition. Before we knew it, we had meetings lined up the next day with people already expressing investment interest. Dumbfounded, panicked, shocked and adrenaline fuelled, it quickly became clear that Attollo was becoming a full-time job, working in parallel to our degrees. Through competitions, we gained critical feedback about our business plan and financials. In our third year, we were taken aback to win ‘Best Pitch’ and £1,000 in King’s Lion’s Den Challenge and come ‘Joint Second’, winning £2,000 in Santander’s National
Universities’ Entrepreneurship competition. In spite of our lack of business experience, our passion, enthusiasm and determination to launch Attollo were proving to be great assets. This validation increased our confidence and readiness to start building investor relations. Soon after, we were offered investment but unfortunately we had different ideas about the future direction of Attollo. Ultimately, it was with a huge leap of faith that we declined.
Our company motto: “Carpe diem, Carpe noctem, Carpe monde” kept us going, empowering us to persevere Our start-up loan gave us the independence to design and create our first range with a team behind us supporting our ambitions for Attollo. Come March, with our loan quickly running out, we filled weeks pitching, applying to venture capitalists (VCs), angels and writing to high-net-worth individuals. We’ve gone as far as rock up at VCs’ receptions, asked to see the CEO without appointment and actually doing an ‘elevator pitch’. This was its own rollercoaster; one where you get so excited that certain individuals may be interested but which quickly becomes a series of disappointments as doors start to shut. Our company motto: ‘Carpe diem, Carpe noctem, Carpe monde’ kept us going, empowering us to persevere to create further funding options.
The highs are great, and we cherish those days where it feels like it is all coming together. Those are the days that keep you going when it hits rock bottom. We have now had many lows, but the great thing about those periods are that they teach you more about yourself, your team, and your business than the highs ever will, therefore we find a way to cherish those also. ■ Three things we have learned from our two-year funding rollercoaster:
1
A bout Ourselves: Our experiences have taught us about evaluating our time and the importance of prioritising in terms of time, people, investors and investment opportunities. With this we have learned to be resilient, robust and to persevere with what is important to us and Attollo as a brand. Our Team: Through challenges, we have learnt who within our team genuinely cares about us and also who shares our mission for Attollo. Our Business: We have learned the importance of our own vision for Attollo, its ethos and mission, and making sure they don’t get lost along the way.
2 3
www.attollolingerie.com @AttolloLingerie KSEI 2015–16 issue 39
Social entrepreneur Q&A
Focus on
CAMERON SAUL King’s Economics and Management undergraduate, Renad Sheraif interviews Cameron Saul, a King’s alumnus. She quizzes the former King’s student on founding a luxury designer brand. Cameron, can you give us a little background information on you? I read Business Management at the Waterloo Campus, but made it my mission to combine languages where I could and took up French and Italian. I really enjoyed my time at King’s and they really supported everything I was doing. Bottletop gave me an arsenal of brilliant case studies that I could use throughout my degree and assignments. It gave me the opportunity to look at things from a macro perspective, a truly unique experience for an undergraduate. When I was studying there weren’t any activities like the ones run by King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute. I find it exciting that you now have these opportunities and that King’s has taken such a visionary role. Can you give us some of the early history of Bottletop; what is it and how you came up with the idea? It was really exciting time, one which I look back on fondly. The idea was conceived during my time in Uganda. I came across a handbag made of metal recycled bottle tops. I hadn’t seen anything quite like it and thought it was really charming and commercial. So I set my housemate from Uganda up with a bank account and email address. When I returned to the UK, I’d send him emails of what I wanted and transfer the money into his bank account for him to buy the samples. I got amazing East African products, such as goat hide drums and sold them
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Oliver Wayman and Cameron Saul, founders of Bottletop.
as coffee tables at a stall in Portobello Market. It was all just a bit of fun, but I really wanted to get my hands on the bottle top bags.
Bottletop gave me an arsenal of brilliant case studies that I could use throughout my degree and assignments My housemate rounded up some friends, who gathered bottle tops to send to Nairobi to manufacture. It was a long process, but when I received the shipment while I was working in the Mulberry showroom – everyone fell in love with them. Resulting in the Mulberry-Bottletop Campaign; the bags evolved from ‘raw and rustic’ to ‘finesse and luxury’. Unexpectedly, Bottletop was hit with a huge wave of publicity and raised over £150,000 for the charity I worked for in Uganda. We officially launched Bottletop at the end of the second semester in my first year at King’s (June 2002). It was challenging for me to juggle both a degree and a start-up, but I was determined to not let either slip.
Why did you decide to launch your start-up as a social enterprise? I wasn’t looking to start a company at that stage so it wasn’t really a case of one or the other. I came back from Uganda inspired and wanted to continue supporting health and education for young people. I wanted Bottletop to be commercial and successful whilst delivering social impact, through creation of the designs and education. Back in 2002 there was no landscape for social enterprise, there was only luxury or charity, and I am happy to see that over the last 13 years this has changed. After the 10 years of running a registered charity, the Bottletop Foundation, we evolved with the emergence of social enterprises, and launched Bottletop. Now our social enterprise, Bottletop, is part of the Bottletop Foundation, but independent in its own right, with the ability to grow. How would you define a social enterprise or social entrepreneur? I think that a social enterprise sets out to tackle one (or more) of the world’s social environmental problems, through commercially and ethically run businesses. I see a social entrepreneur as someone
Social entrepreneur Q&A
who is excited by generating wealth for a cause through entrepreneurial and enterprising ideas. As opposed to the traditional entrepreneur whose end goal is to solely generate personal wealth. But there is no reason why a social entrepreneur should not make money during this process. Do you ever help other social enterprises that are just starting up? We’re still in the early stages of building the brand (three years), and spread like jam with a very small team. I don’t have the time to support other social enterprises and teams, but I am happy to help where it’s relevant and if I think I’ve got something of value to share. I was delighted to take part in King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute’s ‘Social Entrepreneurship in Education Festival’ (SEEFest) in November 2014. I gave a talk alongside a panel of social entrepreneurs and offered to mentor a student social entrepreneur as a prize. Richard Milburn was the competition winner (interview with Richard Milburn on page 42). We looked at ways to create an understanding of their cause and I advised him on growing his idea – he seems to be making great headway. There’s so much to do when launching a start-up, from business to marketing plans. How do you prioritise? This is something you have revaluate on a daily basis. Running a small start-up means focusing on what the really important ‘to-do’s’ are. Stay focused on what the business’ key driving factors are from one week to the next, but remain nimble enough to respond to opportunities unfolding around you – reach out and test them, that’s what leads to successful breakthroughs. Do you find having your own business is more rewarding than a more traditional career path? Absolutely, I have been very lucky to have experienced both sides of the fence. Working in a traditional business is not appealing to me. However I can’t say that will never happen, who knows what the future holds.
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? Apple Twitter or Facebook? Facebook White Board or Post-it? Post-it Cats or Dogs? Dogs What picks you up when you feel low? Singing, whilst playing the guitar
What is your favourite aspect of being a social entrepreneur? Really seeing and feeling the impact of what we’ve been doing. Seeing the reactions to our products and brand at pop-up shops, festivals, boutique stands is really rewarding. Knowing the process it’s gone through and the people it’s supporting. What attributes do you think are most important for a person to succeed in starting their own business? Can anyone start their own business? Passion – you’ve got to eat, sleep and drink your start-up. The desire has to be there for you to put your heart and soul into making it a success. Otherwise there’s no point getting started, because it’s your rocket fuel. It’s the fuel to keep you going through all the rejection, naysayers and long days. Coupled with visions and determination, you’ve enough to make it happen! How do you find people that truly care about the core values of Bottletop the way you do? I’d love to say it’s been really organised and systematic, but they’ve always managed to find us. We managed to balance the message; we don’t want to overload them. Being a social enterprise pays dividends, people really want to be a part of your journey and mission. Networking is a really hot topic at the moment. Do you think people over-exaggerate the benefits of a wide network? What’s your experience with that? I’ve never really thought about networking as such, I’ve just been
passionate about Bottletop and what we do, and that is conveyed every time I meet someone new. If someone tells me to come along to an event, they may know of a contact who might be a useful connection for me to have. I could meet people who share the same values, goals or objectives as me. If you’re passionate, they will remember you, and they’re more likely to connect you with others who will also be excited by you – it’s a great way to give/get advice and make introductions. 1. make it look like you have your act together. 2. never be afraid to talk to anyone, confidence is key. Starting your own business sounds very exciting, but I’m wondering, amongst all the stress of launching a start-up does the excitement last? Yes! I’m still really excited by it I think largely because I still feel there I so much potential – it still feels like it’s only just the beginning. Maybe one day when Bottletop is a global, sustainable, luxury household brand name, the excitement will be replaced by different feelings. I think right now I am still really passionate about it. What was so exciting about coming to the SEEFest was the amazing ideas behind the next big thing, as humans it’s what we should be doing on the planet. Which was more rewarding: making your start-up a success, or being able to continue keeping it successful? It really depends on how you define success. I don’t think we’ve achieved the level of success that I have in mind for Bottletop. I do what I do because I love it, success is a by-product. The real success will be when we have educated hundreds of thousands of people and helped them into employment. ■
Interviewer’s profile: Renad Sheraif is President of the Enactus society at King’s College London as well as a mentor for SHINE. www.enactuskcl.org @EnactusKCL KCLEnactus KSEI 2015–16 issue 41
Student social enterprise article
REAL BUSINESS ETHICS – TUNZA AND TUNZA GAMES – King’s PhD student Richard Milburn is proof that focusing on the ‘enterprise’ element of a ‘social enterprise’ is an essential component of success. Read how winning KSEI prizes developed his idea into a start-up.
I’m a PhD student studying wildlife conservation in warzones. I wanted to use my experience and research to have an impact beyond academia, so I’ve co-founded two social enterprises dedicated to protecting wildlife. My aim was to create products that would enable consumers to use their day-to-day purchases to support wildlife conservation, rather than relying solely on charitable donations. So I launched Tunza (which means ‘care for’ in Swahili), an ethical fashion brand with a mission to protect gorillas in central Africa, and designed a board game ‘Conservation Crisis’. I joined forces with fellow King’s student Kirsty Benham to develop Tunza through the KSEI Lion’s Den Challenge. The business workshops offered helped us to identify our competitors and refine our product offering and USP, as well as testing market demand. We attended the Social Entrepreneurship in Education Festival (SEEFest) at King’s to learn more about social enterprise and were
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quite literally picked out of a hat to win mentoring from Cameron Saul, founder of Bottletop (Read King’s
King’s provides the support needed to develop and launch companies that can help change the world alumnus, Cameron Saul’s interview on page 40-41). His experience in the ethical fashion sector was fantastic and his advice on how best to launch with minimal start-up capital and still achieve significant ethical impact was crucial to launching our brand. We adapted our plan after his meeting and then received more mentoring to develop the commercial viability of the company (the most crucial aspect, and something often overlooked by social enterprises) from two Lion’s Den Challenge business mentors; King’s Professor Mischa Dohler (full-time Professor in Wireless Communications at King’s) and Henry Chuks (King’s College London alumnus and Lion’s Den Challenge business mentor). While developing the fashion
brand, myself and my co-founder, Ed Gilhead, a friend from outside King’s, won a Social Enterprise Award (from KSEI in partnership with UnLtd) of £1,620 to launch a second social enterprise, Tunza Games, to develop ‘Conservation Crisis’. With that money we finished our prototype and launched our website, in preparation to launch our Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in November.
Three things I have learned in the last 12 months: 1. Founding a social enterprise is great, but being ethical is not a guarantee of success in business. 2. For a social enterprise to succeed, it needs a strong business model and product offering. 3. King’s provides the support needed to develop this and to launch companies that can help change the world. ■
www.tunzagorilla.com @tunzagorilla tunzagorilla www.tunzagames.com @tunzagames tunzagames
Alumna social enterprise article
THE RIPPLE EFFECT – SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP – An article by King’s alumna Dr Elizabeth Adelodun on a series of events that resulted in the success of her mentoring organisation that empowers students and professionals within the scientific, medical and health sectors through knowledge sharing.
As the founder of MindTorch (mindtorch.org) I’ve learnt more lessons in the last two years than the last two decades of my life – because one woman, Kiki Maurey, MBA, OBE started a ripple effect with me as a mentor/coach. However, the awareness and support I received from the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute is invaluable, and their impact on MindTorch is evident based on our achievements. Through the Enterprise Connect series, Lion’s Den Challenge workshops & start-up idea competition and support in the form of Social Enterprise Award (from KSEI in partnership with UnLtd), we’ve been able to lay the building blocks required to achieve our vision – to foster collaboration and find healthcare solutions for patient problems. People say that entrepreneurs are formed by a combination of these qualities: passion, profession, interests, keen observation and environmental influence. Nevertheless, I did not know I was ‘qualified’ to be an entrepreneur because I was on a different path as a neuroscientist; or so I thought. This changed when I was faced with a problem I was eager to solve – to help my colleagues with a service I wish I had as a student (and that Professor Susan Standring, Editor-in-Chief, Gray’s Anatomy, wishes she had 50 years ago!). After months of meeting, coaching, learning and listening – we are amazed by the feedback from our students; they have surpassed our expectations to continue the ripple effect Kiki started with me!
Upon reflection, as a social entrepreneur, I have learnt four main lessons: • To confidently ask for help; people will rise up to help when you just ask. • To grow – leave your comfort zone, solve a problem and enjoy the ride! • Setbacks are an essential route to success! I learn from them and move on. • I keep the bigger picture in mind; and collaborate to innovate! On a final note, to budding social entrepreneurs – ‘move and the way will open’. ■
Speed mentoring session run by MindTorch at the Social Entrepreneurship in Education Festival (SEEFest), 2014.
Article written by Dr Elizabeth Adelodun, founder of MindTorch.org; the match.com for doctors, scientists and pharmaceutical experts. ■
www.mindtorch.org @MindTorch mindtorch KSEI 2015–16 issue 43
Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
Focus on
NICK ROBERTSON Recent King’s graduate Sharan Soni interviews Nick Robertson, founder of ASOS. The former CEO of the popular online retail store shares his entrepreneurial experiences and learnings. What inspired you to be an entrepreneur? Are there other entrepreneurs in your family? I have always been creative and I have worked in creative businesses for a number of years. In that role I heard of the nascent internet and saw an opportunity to develop a business selling what the stars wore, but much cheaper. The internet was a brilliant new channel to market with considerably lower costs… you didn’t need to have shops to sell your product. I come from a family of retailers with my great grandfather the founder of Austin Reed, so I suppose that part is in the blood! How did you start out? Was it due to disliking a previous job or did you just wake up in the morning with an idea and go for it? I borrowed money from my brother and started the business in a small lock up
Imagery from the ASOS AW15 Collections
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selling anything I could through a very basic and slow website, and posting it through the mail to customers… you would never buy anything from something like that today.
Don’t try to do it all yourself, there will be others with more expertise than you – talk with them What are some of the biggest mistakes you made when starting out? In the early days not realising that cash was king, and supply chain management in order to meet demand. Were there times when starting out where you just wanted to give up? I was in pursuit of a dream and knew the internet was the next big thing in
retail. As I say it is the most amazing delivery channel. It was hard sometimes, but I always had support from my colleagues and business associates that drove me on. How important were networks when growing your company? Do you still work with some of those people today? Important. As a marketing executive I had that drummed into me. It was an important life lesson that has provided many an opportunity over the years. While scaling your business what were the main hurdles you faced? Logistics and order fulfilment. I have always believed that our customer service is key and our customer proposition had to be the fastest. Delivery was the main hurdle and we still invest heavily in both those aspects today. Additionally, the fire at Buncefield
Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A
in 2006 was nearly a crippling blow for the company, but with dedication and fast thinking we were up and running again pretty quickly. We also had a fire at our huge Barnsley logistics warehouse on a Friday night in 2014, but we were able to utilise the learnings from 2006 and were back in business by Sunday night! It is a credit to the teams involved that we came through both of these situations with flying colours. When you started your business what were the main attributes you looked for when hiring people? Have these changed? Driven creative thinkers with loads of energy, people who are internet savvy, people that can communicate well and
those that understand the ethos and vision of what we are trying to do together. Those qualities remain today as part of the hiring process What are the three best pieces of advice you can give entrepreneurs who are just starting out? 1. If you have a dream don’t give up. 2. There is always a solution. 3. Don’t try to do it all yourself, there will be others with more expertise than you – talk with them My girlfriend spends more time on Asos than with me, how do I stop this? Why would I want to advise her how to do that… she obviously has great taste and loves fashion! ■
Interviewer’s profile: Sharan Soni is the co-founder and Chief Waffle Officer at Waffle. He is a King’s College London Business Management graduate, class of 2015. Sharan is part of the current cohort in the King’s Pop-Up Incubator, he is planning on using this facility to grow and develop his start-up using the £150,000 investment he has recently raised.
www.waffleapp.co @waffle_app waffleapp
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? Apple Twitter or Facebook? Twitter White Board or Post-it? White board Cats or dogs? Dogs What picks you up when you feel low? My kids
KSEI 2015–16 issue 45
Entrepreneur Q&A
Focus on
SIR DAVID TANG King’s alumnus Michael Truong interviews legendary Sir David Tang, founder of Shanghai Tang, China Clubs & China Tang Restaurant. The current King’s incubatee asks the King’s alumnus about how he turned into a successful business tycoon.
Lightning round Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind!
What was the most difficult choice you had to make when deciding to start-up? To pretend that I had all the capital I needed. What was the biggest sacrifice you had to make? Spending a lot of time researching the background of companies and people that I was going to meet.
Your top tip for business success? Buy low, sell high. And no matter what, always sell. What three things couldn’t you live without? My dog, my dog, and my dog. What was the last book you read? The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham. What is your favourite way to relax? Doing the Times crossword. If you ruled the country what is the one thing you’d change? To allow smoking everywhere. What was the last TV show you watched? A BBC documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School. What did you want to be when you were 10 years old? A bus driver.
As an entrepreneur, do you think you can really keep your work and life separate? How do you deal with scenarios where your business crosses into your personal life? One should only do business lunch, but never business dinner.
Which ones led to failures? To approve merchandising that does not sell.
Which of your mistakes have led to a successful outcome? To approve bad merchandising which eventually sells.
If you could start your company again, which mistake would you make again? I am sure I will make the same mistakes, like everybody else.
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How much of your entrepreneurial journey has been you following in your role model’s footsteps, and how much are you figuring out on your own? Of course I try to figure out everything on my own. But it is so important to do the necessary homework for a proper assessment. How do you measure success? Excellent and rising sales. How do you measure failure? Bad and decreasing sales. What is your biggest source of motivation? The sound of the credit card machine. ■
Interviewer’s profile: Michael Truong is the Managing Director at ARTechs, an augmented reality business he founded less than a year ago. Michael graduated from King’s College London in 2014 after completing his PhD in Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering. Michael has been a resident in the King’s Incubator since March 2015, where he has had the opportunity to develop his start-up and grow his team by five.
www.artechs.co.uk ARTechs artechs_uk artechs
Alumnus Q&A
SHARAN SONI: Co-founder of Waffle How much funding have you received to date and where did it come from? We have raised £150,000 from private investors and £5,000 from a Smart Grant. What is the best advice you have ever been given? Done is better than perfect.
PROFILE
Job title: Co-founder and Chief Waffle Officer of Waffle Age: 22 How old were you when you launched Waffle? 21 What did you study at King’s College London? Business Management Graduated: 2015 Campus: Waterloo
LIGHTNING ROUND
Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? iOS Twitter or Facebook? Facebook Starter or dessert? Dessert Home cooked food or take away? Take away Night in or night out? Night out Gym or gin? Gym and gin Where and when was your last holiday? Ibiza, July 2015 Lazy Sundays or active weekends? Active weekends Cats or dogs? Dogs Winter or summer? Summer Risk or regret? Risk
Let’s start with a little background information on Sharan Soni – What did you study at King’s and how did you find your experience here? I studied Business Management. It’s amazing how entrepreneurial the university has become since I began. This really helped to compound the business fundamentals I learned on the course. Tell us a bit about Waffle; what is it and how did you come up with the idea? Waffle is an app that allows you to connect with people at your favourite events and follow the livestream without even having to be there. We created the app because connecting at events is a pain in the ass! We wanted a simple way to connect with other interesting people at events and spark conversations. Can you give us some of the early history of Waffle and how it has evolved during your time at King’s? Since I’ve been at King’s it has gone from an idea to designs, funding and a product. The only thing left is to publicly launch it. What were the main challenges you faced early on in your start-up journey? And do you still encounter them to this day? Having to rebuild the product multiple times because of disjointed product development. It’s a constant challenge, but it has definitely got easier.
Can you share some of the biggest lessons you have learned so far as an entrepreneur? By and large the idea is important but it’s the team, the collective drive and vision, that fuels the start-up. Without a solid team you can forget the rest. What is your favourite aspect of being an entrepreneur? Creating and being part of something bigger that is going to make a difference. Also working my own hours is not so bad. ;) How do you keep your business focus – do you have any suggestions for entrepreneurs who are experiencing challenging times? Taking a break every once in a while helps to give a fresh perspective on the business, especially when stuck in a rut. What three pieces of advice would you give to King’s students who want to become entrepreneurs? Start now. Don’t put it off. Focus on your product and speed to market, even with a lo-fi prototype. Reach out to your network for feedback early and often. Can you give us an ‘Exclusive’ on Waffle’s plans for the next 12 months? We’re making Waffle publicly available very soon, going cross platform and beginning partnering with event providers in the tech and music scenes. ■
www.waffleapp.co @waffle_app
waffleapp
KSEI 2015–16 issue 47
Alumnus Q&A
ROBIN KNIGHT Director and co-founder of IN-PART PROFILE
Age: 29 How old were you when you launched IN-PART? 27 What did you study at Kings College? Immunology PhD Graduated: 2013 Campus: Guy’s
Robin, could you share your background with us? What did you study at King’s and how did find your experience here? I started my career at King’s College London under the tutelage of Professor Mark Peakman within the Division of Immunology, Infection and Inflammatory Diseases (DIIID), where I researched how the immune system of Type 1 diabetes patients destroys their own insulin-producing beta cells. Diabetes UK funded my PhD work, and it was a very enjoyable period of my life, during which I made lifelong friends and developed an indispensable skill set. Tell us a bit about IN-PART; what is it and how did you come up with the idea? IN-PART was developed to aid the translation of academic research into usable technologies or therapies, and to enhance the level of universityindustry collaboration. It came about when speaking with a close friend about a disconnect we’d both experienced, between those in industry looking to interact with university research, and technology and new research in universities seeking partners for commercialisation. To address this problem we planned to develop a centralised platform for university opportunities seeking commercial or collaborative partners. From this platform we would use promotional streams to engage an audience from industry seeking new and innovative university technology. In collaboration with a close friend
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As part of the first cohort, Robin shows what the King’s Incubator has allowed IN-PART to achieve.
(Patrick Speedie) with a background in legal publishing we co-founded IN-PART, and set about writing a business plan. After receiving a small grant, we were able to build a basic first iteration of our web-platform. The majority of our preliminary meetings for IN-PART took place in a local pub at London Bridge. Not only was this perfectly situated for me at Guy’s Hospital, but also my co-founder based in offices at Borough Market. Many a great idea has come from a pub, and on looking at our musings the day after each evening, we still thought them great and worthwhile to follow-up and develop. Within the first build of IN-PART (using the grant we acquired) we
incorporated several core ideologies which have evolved and been built upon since. Specifically these included: only permitting access to relevant individuals within companies, and our own pro-active ethos when it came to stimulating interest from the audience we were building. For this first iteration of our platform we worked with six UK university technology transfer offices, alongside executives from roughly 30 R&Dfocused companies. We ran this business pilot (or ‘minimum viable product’, as some might term it) for two months, during which time we found collaborative contacts for 25% of the technology we’d been provided by our university partners. Subsequent to this success we pitched for investment at Venture Fest (York) in February 2013, and there found a suitable business angel investor with a very complementary background for aiding our business growth. Following receipt of investment in September 2013, we launched our next version of IN-PART in late January 2014. Since our launch, our university clients have grown to 37, and we now work with universities across three continents, alongside executives from over 350 companies worldwide. What has your start-up journey been like and how has King’s impacted IN-PART’s evolution? Prior to IN-PART I had worked on another start-up business during my time as a PhD student at
Alumnus Q&A
King’s. With a close colleague and another friend we’d both met during a conference we set about creating a platform for student engagement and research collaboration. It was this process, and our application to the King’s Lion’s Den Challenge that spurred an interest in following a business idea through to completion. Obviously in this first instance the business never came to fruition, but with the knowledge and experience gained through this process, it made the creation of IN-PART possible. King’s has also helped with INPART’s growth by providing us with incubator space at Guy’s campus. This has enabled us to expand the London team, and given us an HQ at an SE1 address. Within the incubator we’re able to interact with other King’s start-up businesses, which makes for a very productive and enjoyable environment. This office space is providing our business with a launch pad for our London location, and we value it highly.
things not work out. In whatever spare hours you have between gaining a degree, masters or PhD, work on business ideas, and use your weekends and holiday to build on them further.
What’s the biggest lesson you have learned so far as an entrepreneur? I can’t claim to have that much experience relative to those who have started multiple businesses, but I would say that this journey was only possible with my co-founder. I would recommend to those thinking about beginning a business that they should do so in collaboration with a business partner they trust and can get along with in a perpetually close environment where communication is key.
Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind!
What advice would you give to students who are held back by fear of failure? It’s tricky to determine when ‘the right time’ is, however if you’re currently a student I can think of no moment better; where your responsibilities are likely at their lowest, yet your enthusiasm and ability to make something work is at its highest. Personally I would recommend making your educational pursuits a priority, as that experience can be leveraged for use in business creation, as well as providing a safety net should
Where and when was your last holiday? Jordan
If you were to launch a project like IN-PART again, is there anything in particular that you would do differently? The one thing that did set us back was development timescales for our online platform. In another life we would have worked harder to manage this starting process, enabling us to get things up and running quicker. Do you think that you are born with entrepreneurial traits? (Nature/ nurture) The best response I’ve heard to this question that I agree with is a comparison to teaching music. The person being taught has to want to learn in order to be successful. I believe the same applies to teaching ‘entrepreneurship’ (which seems a
Robin speaking at an Enterprise Connect event: ‘An Evening On Student Entrepreneurship At King’s’.
contradiction in terms), the person being taught has to have a drive to want to set out on their own and to not be risk-adverse. What advice would you give to a young entrepreneur looking for a business partner? Look to your friends and those you trust. Try not to get involved with anyone too cynical, but those who maintain just the right amount of useful critical questioning.
LIGHTNING ROUND
Android or iOS/Apple? Apple Twitter or Facebook? Twitter Starter or dessert? Starter Home cooked food or take away? Home-cooked Night in or night out? Both Gym or gin? Both
Lazy Sundays or active weekends? Active Saturday, Lazy Sunday Cats or dogs? Dogs... specifically a pug Winter or summer? Summer Risk or regret? Risk
How do you motivate yourself and inspire your team? So long as your company is helping the communities you’re looking to work with, and you’re providing a valued service, motivation will come from your successes and building your business. Which KSEI-led programmes would you recommend to young entrepreneurs who are unsure about launching a start-up? I’d recommend taking part in King’s Lion’s Den Challenge, purely for the exercise of making a business plan, and talking through potential pitfalls that you’ll no doubt encounter when starting any future business. What do you have planned for IN-PART over the 12 months? We’re currently running a trial with several US universities, and as well as expansion into the US, we’re also planning to further relationships with several Japanese universities we’re currently in dialogue with. ■
www.in-part.com @IN_PART KSEI 2015–16 issue 49
Graduate app article
DAVID VS GOLIATH: – UNDERESTIMATE ME… I’M A CONFIDENT COMPETITOR – For every billion-dollar idea there are a billion challenges to overcome and no guarantee of success. Some take a chance, while others remain dreamers.
Two years ago in the US, a brand new app named Tinder was about to bring disruption to the online dating industry. At the same time, in the UK, a similar idea had taken shape in my mind: Wango (short for “Wanna go...”). Today, Tinder is the leader of the growing dating app market with its $3 billion valuation and over 50 million users worldwide. Wango, on the other hand, has reached its first 1,000 organic users in less than two months since its launch earlier this year. I was completing my final year at King’s whilst working on my start-up ‘Wango’ with my brother.
evergreens as the demand, while global, will never cease. So before thinking of creating a start-up, the first question is: am I the only one this idea/solution would help or am I meeting the (potential) needs of enough people to whom I could market my product in the future?
Not every ‘problem-based solution’ will be a commercially viable business. The important thing to consider is the potential market.
What is Wango? Wango is the first all-in-one social discovery app, specially crafted to meet everyone’s needs. You can match with interesting people around you or even better, if you are going to an event, you can match with someone attending this same event – before it even starts, then meet at the event! Also, to avoid the classic “What are you doing in your life?” Wango offers you its unique ‘two truths one lie’ icebreaker, helping you start engaging conversations while having fun. And when you want to meet up, no need to worry about scheduling, the app does it all for you based on your respective locations making sure it’s always convenient for everyone. Initially, it all started with this one simple question: Shall I do it? In our everyday lives, several solutions come to mind for the various problems that we encounter. However not every ‘problem-based solution’ will be a commercially viable business. The important thing to consider is the potential market. Dating, housing, the food industry, etc. are what we call
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Two years ago when I had the idea for this dating app, I thought I was the only one as I had never heard of anything like it before… clearly I was wrong. As mentioned previously, Tinder, inspired by the gay dating app Grindr as well as some other apps, was already in the race for the upcoming dating industry revolution. Therefore, I wasn’t the only one and many were really further ahead than me. As the saying goes ‘all good things come to those who wait’. With Wango, I took my time experimenting, researching the market and listening to users’ feedback. I followed the evolution of the dating app market very closely and by the time we started the actual development of the app, the market was already saturated but this did not deter me from giving up on what
I believed was a great product. I have always been motivated to be one step ahead of the competition, by anticipating the market’s evolution and I believe this allowed me to give Wango a competitive advantage. After two years of blood, sweat and tears, Wango was launched earlier this year. While the backing of my family and friends was very important, I was glad I could count on Kings College London for support. The King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute has introduced me to some very valuable people that proved to be great connections. Events like Enterprise Connect include features such as the ‘King’s Start-Up Junction’, at which I was offered a stand. It gave me an opportunity to showcase the app during its development stages, while connecting with fellow student entrepreneurs.
Graduate app article
Where are we now? Wango is live and kicking, with a growing consumer base. While it has been a long journey strewn with pitfalls, there is still a long way to go in this red ocean market. On a final note, these are a few tips for anyone who would like to become an entrepreneur: • The life of an entrepreneur is made of a billion problems but successful entrepreneurs will always have two billion solutions – success is in identifying the right solution to run with. • Building the right team is a long yet essential and rewarding process.
I have always been motivated to be one step ahead of the competition, by anticipating the market’s evolution and I believe this allowed me to give Wango a competitive advantage. • One does not need to possess all the relevant skills to start a business; learning, discovering and making mistakes is part of the journey. • Create your own identity – use portmanteau words like Wango and WhatsApp, or ones that are unrelated to your idea like Apple and
Blackberry. These are the safest ones in terms of trademarks registration. • No two journeys are alike, but most of the challenges tend to be similar. ■
Written by Julian Smida, King’s Computer Science & Management graduate and former member of KCLBC and KCL Tech society. KSEI 2015–16 issue 51
Alumnus Q&A
CHRIS SHELDRICK: Co-founder of what3words PROFILE
Age: 34 How old were you when you launched what3words? 31 What did you study at King’s College London? Music Graduated: 2003 Campus: Strand
Chris, let’s start with a little background information on you – what did you study at King’s and how did you find your experience here? I studied music at King’s College London from 2000–3. It was a great experience; the King’s music course sets you up for life in the music business incredibly well. As they allow you take specialist parts of the course at the Royal Academy of Music and SOAS, it’s a really rounded course. You come out very well prepared for today’s music business. Tell us a bit about what3words; what is it and how did you come up with the idea? I set up a music business which I ran for 10 years immediately post-King’s. We booked live music for private and corporate events around the world, for which organising the production suppliers was a big part. However, circulating an address and hoping everyone arrived on time (they didn’t) became the bane of my life. I realised that around the world, addresses aren’t very accurate, a lot of streets either have no numbers or numbering that doesn’t work, or in a lot of cases buildings have no address at all. We tried using GPS co-ordinates instead of addresses, but they were just too complex and error prone. I saw an opportunity to create an
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address system as accurate as coordinates, but utterly simple to use. So we divided the world into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, and labelled each square with a sequence of 3 words from the dictionary via a mathematical algorithm. Now, referring to any spot in the world is as easy as saying ‘table. lamp.spoon’ – that’s it. What were the main challenges you faced early on in your venture? And do you still encounter them to this day? In the early days it was getting people to believe that just a few of us, from outside the geo industry, could really make this entirely new system into a global standard. A lot of people would take a look and then say they would use it again when their friends/colleagues did. We learned that when you offer a new way of doing something, getting the right people to be your advocates is key. There are some very independent thinkers out there who see a new system, like it, and are confident enough to both use it and spread the word when it’s still relatively new. These thinkers in our case have been consumers, businesses, apps and even
governments, and driven the adoption through our early ecosystems around the world. Now we have such a compelling range of users across the world (in 170 countries) using it in so many ways that we no longer have the inertia problem, and that’s a great place to now be. Do you have any suggestions for coping with set-backs, negative experiences? First of all checking if there is a genuine problem or if it’s just a blip. I think in the early days little things can feel bigger than they are. And when there are issues, just going into problem-solving mode with as many heads who think differently to you around the table as possible. I love that our team has so many different ways of looking at the same thing. It’s surprising how often we get together and somebody says ‘this bad thing has happened’, and someone else says ‘no that’s a good thing’. I believe set-backs are in the eye of the beholder. If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started with what3words, what would you do differently? Focusing on the ‘why’ is something we didn’t do enough at the beginning. When you make a new product, you spend much longer making the product than you spent thinking why it’s needed. It can be very easy when you launch to make all your marketing messages around your product and
Alumnus Q&A
features which are fresh in your mind from the build, and overlook the necessity to explain why people need your product in their lives, which to you as a founder just seems obvious by this stage. People ask what I do and I now start by explaining how many people in the world live without an address and how that adversely affects their lives, before I get into any detail on how our system works. We’re consistent with this approach however people come across what3words. Do you think that you are born with entrepreneurial traits? Or is it something that can be learned? (Nature/nurture) A lot for me was nurture in terms of the motivation to turn ideas into reality. But I think there are some accompanying personality traits I have which I can’t associate specifically to nurture, so assume they are nature. I played chess for the first time in quite a while this week and I had a thought whilst playing that my approach to running a business is a lot like how I play a game of chess. I haven’t had much nurture in chess so I think the shared style must be nature. If all of your money, websites, contacts and products were wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow, what would you do if you had to start what3words again from scratch? What model would you use? What techniques etc? I’m not sure I would do anything dramatically differently to how we did it. There are little things I know now that I didn’t then, and we could have saved some time learning various lessons the hard way, but in general I think we would do it again largely how we did it then – we had good people and we worked fast. An example of this is that we took on investment steadily throughout the first two years as opposed to big amounts too soon or not enough to grow fast; the same with hiring – we grew the team steadily, filling the holes we had as they became apparent, so that the hiring plan now is more catered towards what areas of the business we
LIGHTNING ROUND
Now this is the lightning round: all you need to do is give the first answer that comes to mind! Android or iOS/Apple? Android Twitter or Facebook? Twitter Starter or dessert? Starter Home cooked food or take away? Home cooked Night in or night out? Night out Gym or gin? Gym Where and when was your last holiday? Iceland, January 2015 Lazy Sundays or active weekends? Active weekends Cats or dogs? Dogs Winter or summer? Winter Risk or regret? Risk
want to drive more resources towards rather than filling holes. Having said that, the one thing that springs to mind I would do differently if we did it again would be to get more people involved with the manual review of our English word list, which was our first language. I manually rated 35,000 words over a five-month period (we rated 70,000 words overall, so I did half myself). That’s not a process I would like to do again, but at the time it was important to learn the criteria ourselves so we could explain it to those who now do the process in other languages. My vocabulary has improved though.
I’d suggest: multiple co-founders, and have active shareholders early, it really helps. My music business was just me as founder and shareholder for a long time. Doing more quicker is worth every bit of the equity you give up. Hire senior not junior people in the areas you aren’t so good on in the founding team. You need to have faith in them to lead you in those areas more than the areas where you have experience. How you motivate yourself and inspire your team? We all inspire each other. what3words is not about selling, it’s about inspiring. When people join the team it’s not a case of training the trainers but inspiring the inspirers. We’re challenging people to re-think something that’s traditionally very rigid and unchallenged – an address, and aligning them with our vision. That’s an amazing thing to get up every day and do, and I’m pretty sure everyone else loves it as much as I do. What are your plans for the future? To enable each of the world’s four billion unaddressed people to learn and use their 3 word address, and improve the lives of everyone who struggles due to poor addressing. ■ www.what3words.com @what3words what3words
Based on your experiences with what3words, what advice would you give to a young King’s entrepreneur starting their first business today?
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Graduate networking article
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND – LIVE THE LIFE YOU’VE IMAGINED – An entrepreneur can either be a visionary, a technical specialist or a manager. Some people try to be all three. When you relinquish some control to someone who possesses the skills that you lack, the start-up will start to take shape! King’s MSc student, Huan Song, introduces PixaVida.
A good friend once gave me a little desk decoration that reads, ‘Live the life you’ve imagined.’ I love to travel and have had the great fortune of travelling to and living in many countries. Much of who I am has been shaped by my travels and I want travel to stay a fundamental element of my life. I chose King’s for my MSc. in Tourism, Environment and Development because King’s offers such a unique programme that explores the environmental, social, and economic impacts of tourism. I learned about the problem of leakage during some of my course work, where tourism revenue, instead of funnelling down to the local community, goes to big multinational corporations. The life that I’ve imagined is one where I can create tangible and direct benefits for locals who live in these destinations. Every time I move to a new country I have learned something new about myself and about how I can serve the world. For example, my previous work in a charity in Washington, D.C. has taught me that creating sustainable
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livelihoods is the key to achieving a lasting impact in a community. Moving to the UK has given me a chance to further expand my imagination. I never thought that I would become an entrepreneur until I attended some events on entrepreneurship at King’s and around the city. I was really inspired by several talks I heard from student entrepreneurs like Mark Chaffey of Hackajob, Robin Knight of IN-PART, and Yee-Mun Thum from Scarlett
Entrepreneurship is essentially recognising a problem, crafting a solution, and testing this idea
of Soho at KSEI’s Enterprise Connect events. They helped me to realise that entrepreneurship is essentially recognising a problem, crafting a solution, and testing this idea. I had the opportunity to network both online and offline and learn from entrepreneurs in London’s vibrant start-up community. I met my CoFounder Bao Tieu, through a ‘Startups in London’ Facebook group. At the time, Bao was looking for an intern to
help him with setting up a social media presence and I was looking for some experience working in a travel start-up environment. After a few months of working together, Bao asked me to be a co-founder. We both recognised a problem in the way the people travel today and believe that PixaVida can be a tool to address this issue. PixaVida is an online platform that connects travellers with local photographers. We advocate for a slower way of travel in which travellers can savour their destination, focus on creating beautiful memories, and not worry about frantically photographing every moment. At the same time, we also create jobs for locals. I have applied for the King’s Tier One ‘Graduate Entrepreneur’ Visa (see Page 10 for information on the Tier 1 Visa). If endorsed I will be able to test PixaVida in the world’s most travelled to destinations, scale our impact, and help travellers and locals alike to live the lives they’ve imagined. ■
You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @PixaVida
Photo album
ENTREPRENEURS CAPTURED A sneak peek of some snaps taken at King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute events
King’s Commercialisation Institute Director and KCLIF President talking health and innovation.
King’s students collaborating at KSEI’s ‘King of start-ups’ weekender.
Motivated students at Enterprise Connect’s ‘An Evening On Student Entrepreneurship At King’s’.
Dame Stephanie Shirley listens to students at Q&A sessions.
Luke Johnson talks about controlling your future.
Jamal Edwards talking to King’s alumnus Henry Chuks.
Who says you can’t laugh on a panel? From left to right: Emi Gal, Dr Ulrich Bez and Richard Reed.
Richard Milburn making full use of the mentor Connector Pods at Enterprise Connect.
Sophi Tranchell founder Divine Chocolate talks about social entrepreneurship.
Vice-Principal Research and Innovation at King’s presents Agostino Stilli with award at the Lion’s Den Challenge finals 2014–15.
KSEI 2015–16 issue 55
Photo album
King’s alumna Yee-Mun Thum and founder of Scarlett of Soho giving advice.
Winners of the Lion’s Den Challenge Start-Up Competition, 2013-14.
Enterprise Connect attendees enjoying speaker anecdotes.
King’s alumnus Ben Drury talking about entrepreneurship and online business.
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Hugh Evans, co-founder of Global Poverty Project talking about social enterprise at King’s.
Dragons Den Investor Nick Jenkins speaks at Enterprise Connect.
From left to right: Founder Curzon PR Farzana Baduel, founder Portland Communications Tim Allan and Kings alumnus Carl Pihl.
Karen Lynch CEO of Belu Water talks Founder venture scout, Carsten Koelbek congratulates King’s students who won the ‘King of start-ups’ weekender. about sustainability.
Sponsors
The King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute are very thankful to the organisations who have supported the KSEI magazine by way of sponsorship.
KSEI 2015–16 issue 57
THENORTH The Northbank encompasses everything that makes London a global city: great architecture, culture, and hospitality, with a strong commercial heart. A hub of activity with iconic landmarks like Trafalgar Square, The Savoy and Somerset House, amid award-winning parks, river views and unexpected treasures waiting to be discovered. S
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CHANGE IS HAPPENING WHERE GREAT MINDS MEET! With three major universities at the core of the Northbank contributing to a vast pool of skills, this is one of the most dynamic local economies in London and the opportunities for entrepreneurs are endless. To enhance the area’s potential within an ever-evolving London the business community has joined forces to reach a number of goals: A SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE NORTHBANK Encouraging local employment and internships, skills-sharing and small and medium-size enterprise support CHAMPIONING THE NORTHBANK Promoting the area’s assets with festivals, cinema and food markets in treasured open spaces A SAFER NORTHBANK Working with the police and partners to create a safer Northbank CLEANER NORTHBANK Working with Westminster for a cleaner and more sustainable Northbank, and championing initiatives for better air quality in partnership with King’s College
STUDENTS & STAFF AT KCL STRAND CAMPUS! DISCOUNTS ON THE NORTHBANK Over 70 quality offers in bars, restaurants and shops To get your FREE privilege card and support your local economy, visit: https://thenorthbank.london/privilege-card/order/
The King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute team are always happy to help and support you. For all entrepreneurial initiatives and for regular updates please visit the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute website: www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI. Please see links below for further information on the projects outlined with the magazine. Lion’s Den Challenge: www.LionsDenChallenge.co.uk King’s Mini Accelerator Weekend: www.f6s.com/kingsweekender2015
To find out about activities, opportunities and helpful information for student start-ups visit our social media channels – don’t miss out! Follow us on Twitter: @InnovateKings Like our Facebook page: /EnterpriseConnectatKCL
Tier 1 ‘Graduate Entrepreneur’ Visa: www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/ careers/index.aspx
Connect with us on LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/InnovateKings
King’s Experience Enterprise Award: www.kcl.ac.uk/enterprise-award
Catch up on YouTube: youtube.com/EnterpriseConnect1
For further information or if you have any questions please email the KSEI team on Innovation@kcl.ac.uk.