Gimme 5: Upcoming events for entrepreneurs September 29, 2014 Pitch Workshop for Startups Run by 2Pears, the workshop provides pitch training for new startups. You’ll learn how to successfully pitch your business in three minutes. 14 October, morning and afternoon sessions £27.95. ‘CITYAM’ gives 15 per cent discount tinyurl.com/nnebmpk The Mobile Academy UCL Advance’s ten-week course starts tomorrow, and offers workshops, surgeries and [...]
Cream of the crop: Gu founder James Averdieck talks Australia and rural fantasy September 28, 2014 It's the kind of story you wouldn’t necessarily believe: someone cooked up the idea of a chocolatey pudding company while sitting in a coffee shop in Belgium, eating brioche. But for James Averdieck, founder of Gu, that’s exactly what happened. Back in 2003, he was a marketer for dairy company St Ivel, working in Belgium [...]
The elder statesman: Lord Young talks motorways and tear gas September 21, 2014 If the Conservatives win next year’s general election, Lord Young will be the oldest person to work in Number 10 ever, beating William Gladstone, who was Prime Minister until he was 83. “Margaret Thatcher asked me to go into Cabinet 30 years ago. Now David Cameron tells everybody that he and I are the only [...]
Marketing to millennials: Is Generation Y really all that different? September 21, 2014 Talking to advertising and media executives these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there’s an alien group lurking among UK consumers. Millennials, we are told, are different. Born between 1980 and 1995, they split their summers between south-east Asia and Bestival, often sporting torn jeans, face paint and/or a pair of Google Glasses. When [...]
Gimme 5: New books for entrepreneurs September 15, 2014 Big Bang Disruption Larry Downes and Paul Nunes Disruption and innovation can now happen overnight. This book explores how companies can best protect themselves – but also how to be a part of it. From £5.00 Remote: Office not Required Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson Why do so many people work from home? [...]
Biotechnology entrepreneur Sir Chris Evans talks overworn t-shirts, sceptical VCs and pub deals September 14, 2014 They say if you don’t ask, you don’t get – and no one could accuse professor Sir Chris Evans of being shy about coming forward. Today, the medical sciences entrepreneur and government adviser has built companies worth over £3bn, floated 20, employed over 4,000 people and raised over £1.2bn from investors and governments across 30 [...]
R&R Ice Cream chief James Lambert talks dessert and bull semen September 7, 2014 It’s often said that entrepreneurs should stick to what they know. Bill Gates knew software, hence Microsoft; Arianna Huffington knew media, hence The Huffington Post. But it’s not a piece of advice that James Lambert, the now-retired founder and former chief executive of Yorkshire-based R&R Ice Cream, paid any attention to. Before starting the business [...]
UK entrepreneurs are ever-more optimistic – but there’s still work to do September 7, 2014 We all know entrepreneurs are a positive bunch, afflicted with “optimism bias” – a rare ability to view the glass as half full – which drives them to success. And according to this year’s Hiscox DNA of an Entrepreneur report, business owners across the UK, US and parts of Europe are more optimistic today than [...]
Gimme 5: September events for entrepreneurs September 1, 2014 UCL Advances Small Businesses briefing session A lunchtime briefing on how to join the next cohort of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme. 12.30pm, 9 September. Free www.ucl.ac.uk/advances Grow Online Marketing Masterclass Hosted by Grow, the small business marketing experts, the event will cover the nine areas of digital marketing you need for [...]
Beer of the realm: Cobra founder Lord Bilimoria talks creativity, GM crops and cracking pubs August 31, 2014 If you haven’t enjoyed a Cobra beer yourself, you’ve probably had a curry with someone who has. Karan Bilimoria founded Cobra Beer in 1989. It’s a well-documented story by now: the entrepreneur and life peer saw the need for a beer that was less gassy than lager but not as heavy as ale. Cobra claims [...]