Given the VCs / Angels are back in the market shopping, or at least this is what I have been noticing, its worth pointing out my favourite entrepreneurs. This is my second Raj’s Bizzz section (March Edition), which aims to report entrepreneurial things happening around us. Going back to this months edition, the five entrepreneurs mention below are all developing high growth ventures. In most cases the build of the product is bootstrapped.
Serial Entrepreneur
Laurent
LaurentFéral-Pierssens is a Parisian entrepreneur, launching his latest startup Silentale. Silentale stores user’s digital conversations in one central place and makes them available from anywhere. I summarised the startup as Plaxo meets Outlook meets Facebook connect to Larent at Geek N Rolla. Although don’t think its the correct description (will figure this out in the coming days). Either way Laurent has built and sold companies in the past and you know he is on to another one. Very impressive aspect of Silentale is it’s team, Laurent has gone far and beyond to put it together. I can’t wait for the site to go live now !
Technology Entrepreneur
Rosario
Rosario Rascuná is a research student based at the University of Sussex. He is working with the computational neuroscience and robotics research department up at the university. He also has worked on several Search Engine related projects. This is perhaps what triggered an idea which Rosario single handedly developed, Codynamix. The project is a heat map and analytics tool (a bit like Google Analytics). I installed the software on rajanand.biz and the data does look rather impressive.
Creative Entrepreneurs
Dan
Tim
Tim Langley and Dan Gleeson together founded Scene Stealer is an innovative agency based in Brighton. They specialise in creating videos that catch peoples’ attention. By taking real video footage and making it interactive, users are able to control what happens on screen. Their latest project is Knicker Picker, the site as the name suggests is an interactive website that helps women virtually ‘try on’ items of lingerie before they buy them. The site I hear has a fantastic daily usage and Tim and Dan’s viral application skills are certainly working. I hear they are now looking to expand, given their fantastic business model, I can see them going places.
Financier Entrepreneur
Obi
ObiUgochukwu is an ex-financial analyst turned entrepreneur. He is currently developing and managing AC Company based in Manchester, UK. The company is developing a web platform that will integrate the different African Caribbean Societies (ACS) across the United Kingdom into one mother hub. Obi has displayed skills in bootstrapping and constantly punching above his weight given the tough economic climate. Obi and ACS in just one year have won awards like2009 EMBF Rising Star Award , Unltd Award andGlobal Entrepreneurship Competition.
The five entrepreneur showcase the diversity of entrepreneurs in Europe. All very invest-able with solid expertise in several areas of business. Does Europe really lack courageous entrepreneurs ?
End of April and the sun is out, for most Britons its time to think about the eagerly anticipated Holidays. I was thinking of arranging a few days off, you know the usual holiday in the sun !
On pondering I realised that during every holiday I have ever had, I ended up working. Not because I had to, but because I want to. I also always wanted to do more charity work in Brighton but because of my busy schedule its hard to fit things in.
Grand Plan
So my plan is to go abroad (preferably Europe) for 7-10 days (mid June 2009) and volunteer my services helping any charity or organisation, where I can add value. I’m after an interesting task where I could use my skills in social networking, marketing, business development etc to fund raise, increase awareness or help make a difference. I’m open to the sort of work I under-take, some other things I could do: teaching mathematics, computer science, physical work etc. My dream volunteering role is where I can produce concrete results for the organisation or people I’m working with. 7-10 days is not a lot and hence something I could hit ground running would be ideal.
I have been through some volunteering websites but have not been able to find a suitable role yet. Its also worth mentioning that I will foot all the travel bills, so the organisation / charity will incur no charge.
How can I help ?
If you have just across me, there are a few things I have been upto. A lot of entrepreneurship and other work:
Entrepreneurship and Volunteering
Raj is the founder of Kwiqq and the winner of Europe’s Young Entrepreneur 2007 by BusinessWeek, Courvoisier/ The Observer Future 500 (2008) and Finalist of Sussex Entrepreneur 2008. Raj is also an active Ambassador for Make Your Mark and mentor for Flying Start (Online).
Academic achievements
University of Sussex - MRes, Artificial Intelligence
Received a 1st in my Master Thesis and an “Award for innovative final year project”. He graduated from Sussex University with a BEngg (1.1)/MRes in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.
University of Sussex -Eng (1:1), Computer System Engineering
Received 1st in my degree and award for Best Final Year Performance
IIT, Delhi - Computer Science and Mathematics, Computer Science, Mathematics
Hobbies
I have several hobbies which include reading books, taking long walks on the seafront although top of the list is dancing. I’m a keen salsa dancer, mainly Cuban Salsa.
Next Steps
If you have a role for me, please leave me a comment, Twitter or drop me a line on raj.anand <at> kwiqq.com
Last time when I saw this presentation I remember the views were around the 1000 mark. At the moment it stands at 100,605 views. 100 times viewership in the last 24 hours. Not bad for a presentation which took me less than 10 minutes to prepare.
On a regular I hear of opportunities which might be interesting for people who follow this blog. To make these available to all readers I will blog about them as Raj’s Bizzz:
Starting a business
Over the weekend I met a Sussex University graduate and budding entrepreneur, who thought a downloadable PDF file for developing entrepreneurs would be really helpful. Hence I put together a PDF onTips on How to Build a Business
Global Student Entrepreneur Awards
EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) is a network 7,000 entrepreneurs, employing 924,000 people worldwide and contributing $ 101 billion to the global economy. Our aim is to ‘fuel the entrepreneurs engine’ and as such, we are spearheading the GSEA, a not for profit initiative, motivated to identify and support talented young entrepreneurs and give them an opportunity to be fast tracked through guided mentorship and business support.
The last global finals was a great success, with students from all over the world attending the summit in Chicago. We had a really talented representative for the UK, a young undergraduate running a very successful .com, and were pleased to be additionally represented by the 2007 winner Fraser Doherty (www.superjam.com) from the University of Strathclyde. We are currently seeking partnerships with Universities across the UK, asking for the opportunity to market this initiative to your body of students through any posting boards, e-mail and intranet. This exposure to your students will give them the opportunity to enter the competition and potentially win part of the $ 150,000 in prize opportunities.
The ambition is to have 100 young entrepreneurs enter the competition, enabling us to shortlist the top 10/20 entrants for a UK final to be held in London. The finalists will be given the opportunity to network with the London Chapter, build their contact book and potentially pick up both mentors and business support to accelerate them to the next stage in their business cycle. In addition, the winner, and potentially runner up (depending on finances), will be sent to Chicago to compete in the global final.
Sussex University Graduates Party
Alumni who graduated between 1999 and 2004 (inclusive) are invited to this year’s 5-10 Year Graduates’ Party in Central London. Save the date for Thursday 14 May (venue TBC).
Register your interest to attend by emailing events@sussex.ac.uk as soon as possible as places are limited. Signup on Facebook Events.
Oxford Professor runs for Hindu Studies
Professor Gavin (Flash) Flood
Professor Gavin (Flash) Flood, the Academic Director of Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, is taking time out and joining over 35,000 runners in taking to the streets of London for one of the world’s most prestigious and exciting sporting events. He will be the first Oxford Professor to do so.
The Centre’s Director, Shaunaka Rishi Das, who has built the Centre from an idea over dinner into a Recognised Independent Centre of Oxford University, tells us: “With educational centres like this, Indian cultures and philosophies will make themselves felt in subtle ways, as India’s cultural impact grows.”
I came across Chor Bazaar via a family friend and decided to give it a spin. I have come across several online T-shirt design companies which provide you with loads of designs and ability to make custom shirts. CBaz is different, its an online store for people who dig the Indian cultural.
In their own words: ‘Chor Bazaar is an Indie-Indian-fused t-shirt label based in Brooklyn, NY, with firm roots in, India.’
What does Chor Bazaar mean ?
Chor Bazaar in hindi means ‘Black market’ of sorts. Chor: One who steals. Bazaar: A market consisting of a street lined with shops and stalls.
T-shirts would appeal to people who have previously been to India or know some of the stereotypes, as the designs have strong references to things Indian. Like the Indian truck:
Indian Truck
Motorcycle (Bullet):
Bullet motorcycle
Circuit Board:
Circuit Board - Indian Rendition
India’s chaotic T-shirt:
Indian Traffic - With cards, camels, rickshaw (tuc-tuc)...
India’s Hummer (i.e. rough tough and adored by politicians):
Ambassador - Once India's most popular car
These designs would certainly appeal to geeky - Top Gear types. I also recommend following their quirky Chor Bazaar Blog.
Make Your Mark is hosting another very interesting webchat tomorrow: ‘Business finance’ at 1pm.
From the webchat:
Whether you’re at the start-up stage, have a burning idea, or want to take your existing enterprise to the next level, how to access finance will always be an important consideration.
If you’re fed up of the doom mongers dampening your entrepreneurial drive then our myth busting business finance webchat is for you.
I have recently learnt that only 4% of Sussex graduates choose entrepreneurship as a career path after their degrees. This number for instance is higher than Kent University, which produces 3% graduate entrepreneurs. Although more can be done at Sussex to support entrepreneurship. This is when I decided to develop a group to encourage Sussex graduates and Alumni to look at entrepreneurship seriously and formed SUE - Sussex University Entrepreneurs.
On talking to an expert on Sussex University spin out businesses I realised that apart from mainstream VCs (Venture Capitalists) and Business Angels funds, start-ups here also require basic business development support. I’m aware many universities like Manchester Metropolitan provide these in their innovation centres.
Sussex: World leading research university
Sussex University has a fantastic track record with over 90% of Sussex research activity is rated as world-leading, internationally excellent or internationally recognise. 18 subjects at Sussex rank in the top 20 in the UK, across the arts, sciences and social sciences, with the American Studies department rated number 1 in the UK, Politics rated at number 2 in the UK and Art History at number 3.
Given the brilliance in academics and Sussex student union’s activities I think it has the potential to be a top UK enterprising university.
Next Steps
We want to grow SUE and get more people involved. We are interested in speaking with business development organisations, Business Angels and Venture Capitalists who are interested in investing in technology or innovative start-ups in the Sussex area. Add us to your Twitter account @SUE_raj and DM us.
I’m just getting to terms with the fact that Twittering too much is making me loose my appetite for blogging. It seems that I’m learning and chatting so much already that I’m loosing valuable content to blog about. If that wasn’t enough I just realised that I had signed up to way too many social networks to actively contribute to them. Although I’m realising that I’m actually contributing to social networks I have recently joined i.e. ASmallWorld and Courvoisier Future 500. This is at the expense of not contributing to My Blog, MySpace and soon it will be Facebook.
Things I want to explore
Being a social media geek is awesome as there is always more to explore. At the moment I wish I had some more time to get into: BrightKite, Tumblr and MicroPlaza. Although that would probably mean that I will have to sacrifice presence on another social network.
Business / Life coaches are an important part of our economy. This post highlights the trends witnessed amongst coaching websites! They make me wonder, in this day and age of free blogging platforms and SaaS (Software as a Service), why would someone spend £149 + VAT on such templated websites ?
Would you pay £149 for this ?
Salient features of these templates:
Typical Coaching Website
Life threatening headers in annoying RED FONT
Pointless Annoying Red Heading
If you aren’t upset enough lets piss you off with UNDERLINED RED FONT
Pointless Red font underlined
Clip Art Bullet Points:
Clip Art Bullet Points
Red Arrow...grr!
Yellow highlighted text
Annoying Yellow Highlighted Text
Capturing user information, intervening with the user experience !
All about capturing your data
By the way everything is 100 % guaranteed !
YES 100% !
All the advice is available in the form of a book
Even if the advice/tips were never published. WTF ?
Everything available as a book
And yes no coach website is complete without a smiling picture of a coach
Smiling Coaches
And if you have one of these sites I would kindly request you to shift over to free services like Tumblr, Wordpress or perhaps Ning / SocialGo
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EO (Entrepreneurs Organization) is a network 7,000 entrepreneurs, employing 924,000 people worldwide and contributing $ 101 billion to the global economy. Our aim is to ‘fuel the entrepreneurs engine’ and as such, we are spearheading the GSEA, a not for profit initiative, motivated to identify and support talented young entrepreneurs and give them an opportunity to be fast tracked through guided mentorship and business support.
Alumni who graduated between 1999 and 2004 (inclusive) are invited to this year’s 5-10 Year Graduates’ Party in Central London. Save the date for Thursday 14 May (venue TBC).
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