Oxford Entrepreneurs in the Sunday Telegraph! (06 Mar 2005)

It seems that Luke Johnson not only enjoyed meeting the OE committee and members, he loved it enough to write an article about us in the Telegraph! Featured online at The Sunday Telegraph (or page 4 of the business section of the newspaper), Luke talks about us as “an inspirational crowd - young and full of ideas and energy. If they and their like can sustain a decent level of enthusiasm, then we will still have a worthwhile enterprise economy in a few decades’ time.

Warwick Young Entrepreneurs Forum (02 Mar 2005)

Addventure, Warwick University’s Entrepreneurs Society, held a forum on Wednesday at Warwick, with over 200 students attending from Warwick, LSE, Southampton, Oxford, and Cambridge. Kulveer discussed the challenges you face leading a social entrepreneurship venture, based on his experiences with OE, and Harjeet Taggar, the entrepreneur behind BOSO, gave an exceptional presentation on starting a new business and leadership, along with 5 other young entrepreneurs. The event was a success; it provided excellent networking opportunities and was thoroughly informative. We made connections with the founder of ‘Real World’ Magazine, and discussed setting up a partnership between OE and the TIE UK network, with their President, Nish Kotecha!

Membership tops 1000! (22 Feb 2005)

Oxford Entrepreneurs now has over 1000 members! Founded in February 2003, the society is now exactly 2 years old, and is one of the fastest growing in Oxford. A big thanks to all our members and sponsors for supporting us!

‘Synergy’ Success Again (29 Oct 2004)

The young enterprise team behind boso.co.uk found a key member of their startup team through the Synergy database and Private Messaging. This continues Synergy’s success at networking people. Last year the database had been operational for less than a week when the founders of Uneek met up by searching for OE members with complementary skills and interests. Harjeet adds, ‘I contacted Tom through Synergy and he turned out to have exactly the coding skills we required. It shows the power of synergy! Tom Blomfield has since gone on to become an integral part of the team.

Synergy contains the profiles of OE members that make themselves viewable. The database can be accessed by members only, and is searchable by academic subject, industry of interest, keywords, and business skills you have and lack. To find out more go to Resources > Synergy.

Go-go girls (17 Oct 2004)

Jenna Phillips, one of our showcased Hot Entrepreneurs, had her first US fashion show in San Francisco on on the 15th October. She had go-go girls dancing on pedestals to funky music in the middle of one of SF’s hottest clubs, The Dragon Bar. It was awesome. This follows her debut at the OE / Flaunt It fashion show at the Oxford Union. She’s been working for a lingerie company in NYC for the last few months, while adding to her own line.

There are two opportunities. Jenna is looking for a cofounder, preferably someone with experience in fashion distribution. And the other is a possible internship this summer, either in SF or NYC. Interested parties to email her at jenna.phillips@gmail.com Get the word out. Victoria’s Secret won’t know what hit them.

OE heads to Berlin (08 Oct 2004)

The British Council Germany is flying Tahsin, Naz and Kulveer to Berlin this weekend to make up a team of 12 British students at the ‘The Enterprising University’ seminar at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie. They will meet top university administrators and policy-makers from the UK and Germany to inform the university enterprise issue from a student perspective.

New sponsor - Deutsche Bank (06 Oct 2004)

Deutsche Bank have generously sponsored OE for 2004/05. They will be offering unique recruitment opportunities for members of OE, so watch out for that later in the term.

OE lands in London School of Economics! (27 Sep 2004)

We can now look forward to collaborative events with student entrepreneurs from London. LSE undergrad, Shazz Bhunnoo, has taken the OE model to LSE! At their Freshers’ Fair this week they signed up over 250 people in one day! Kulveer worked with Shazz during the summer to set this up, and by using OE’s documentation, promotional materials and website, LSE Entrepreneurs has saved about a year of work and over 5k. Check them out at http://lse.bouncewithit.com Do you have a friend at another university that might want to do the same?

NCGE Launch (13 Sep 2004)

On 13th September Gordon Brown launched the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship at a rather fancy do held at the Treasury. Our Chairman, Bob Goodson, was fortunate enough to attend. Having contributed during the consultation phase he has been offered a position on the Board, representing the interests of current student entrepreneurs across the UK. The organisation has been set up by Gordon Brown to encourage students to consider entrepreneurship as a career option. And with entrepreneur Ian Robertson in charge it’s going to be all about action.

?18000 Match Funding (27 Feb 2004)

OE has arranged a match funding agreement with Max Levchin (PayPal), Mike O’Regan (Research Machines and Hamilton Trust) and Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Each have generously pledged to allow our full operations plan to continue until into the next financial year. But to close the deal we need one more donation of ?1,500, which will unlock a total of ?18,000 for Oxford Entrepreneurs (including reclaimed taxes). Can you help? Do you know of a company or patron that may be able to donate? Email match@bouncewithit.com Your society needs you!

Many thanks on behalf of our 450 members to Max, Mike and PWC for having the vision and confidence to support us at this stage. Mike was our guest entrepreneur at the social on Wednesday. Thanks to all for making it a great night.

Frank B Dehn Buys Equipment! (22 Feb 2004)

Our lead sponsor, patent and trademark attorneys, Frank B. Dehn & Co. have bought OE its first full office set up! They are the only firm to have supported us continuously since the Launch Event in Feb 2003, and provided our sole cash source in Michaelmas Term this year. They have produced the goods again, literally this time, by buying us two desks, shelves, drawers, stationary, an iMac, A3 photo printer, software, pinboards - the works! This professional DTP set up will be used to run the society from our new office in Mill Street and will be made available to active entrepreneurs within the society. For access email steve@bouncewithit.com Sincere thanks to Mike Butler and the other partners at FBD. You guys sure know how to back a winner!

OE Lands Office! (18 Feb 2004)

Our new sponsor, Oxford Innovation, have offered us a free office for three months in their Mill Street building, 5 min walk from the Said Business School. The location is perfect and there is space for up to twelve desks! Initially we will have one workstation. The vision is to provide a buzzing office for our 60 active student entrepreneurs to hot-desk. To do so we need more furniture and computing equipment - donations warmly welcomed. Listen out for office clearances and potential donors and report to steve@bouncewithit.com Thanks to the O.I. team - David, Margaret, Kirsty, Joanne and Sapna who have been extremely responsive and supportive. We’re looking forward to working with you.

‘Synergy’ Success Story (19 Jan 2004)

Three people have started a business together having met through the OE Synergy database and Private Messaging! The database had been operational for less than a week when Chris Paterson, Suzanne Winder and John Sanderson found each other by searching for OE members with complementary skills and interests. Suzanne explains, ‘I contacted just six people through Synergy and two turned out to be great! It’s like an online dating service, but for business rather than romance!’ They arranged to meet for real during the Young Enterprise team building exercises and have since set up a publishing company, Uneek
Synergy contains the profiles of OE members that make themselves viewable. The database can be accessed by members only, and is searchable by academic subject, industry of interest, keywords, and business skills you have and lack. To find out more go to Resources > Synergy.

Business Link Funding Assistance (15 Jan 2004)

Catherine Harries, Funding Manager of our local Business Link, is working with OE to attract some serious grant funding. After weeks of careful research she has selected the six most promising sources. At a meeting this morning the plan was finalised and bid-writing is underway. We are aiming to raise ?150,000 for the next financial year. A big thanks to Cathy for all her hard work and for battling through illness to meet us.
To support the applications we are writing case studies of a few of our members, describing their circumstances and what they get out of OE. Volunteers should email case@bouncewithit.com

Oxford Goes To Silicon Valley (12 Jan 2004)

Following the SBS ‘Silicon Valley comes to Oxford’ event of 24 Nov, OE President, Bob Goodson, was invited to spend the first week of January hanging out with entrepreneurs and VCs in San Francisco. Silicon Valley is the most successful community of entrepreneurs in the world and has much for OE to learn as we develop our own community. In particular, Bob was struck by the importance of ‘cafe culture’ to brainstorming, networking and deal-making, which has resulted in the casual, weekly OE social event. Every Wednesday night this term (HT04) in Raoul’s Bar, you’ll be able to find some student entrepreneurs talking business over a cocktail.
Bob enthuses, ‘I had a fantastic time! Thanks to Max, Nellie and Uma for their hospitality, and to James, Jim, David, Heidi, Russ, Doug, Alec, Peter and Jarrod for such stimulating meetings.’

Isis Innovation support (18 Dec 2003)

Dr Tim Cook, founder and MD of Isis and Chairman of OxSEC, has written in support of our bid for office space in Clubs and Societies House. ‘I firmly believe that the more we promote the spirit of entrepreneurship with students the better and Oxford Entrepreneurs is making a major contribution to this.’
Oxford University was recently cited in the Lambert Review on University-Industry interactions as ‘having transferred more technology to the market than perhaps any other university in the country. The University supports this activity from graduates and academic staff, with Isis Innovation and the Oxford Science Enterprise Centre (OxSEC). The person most responsible for this success, Dr Cook, continues, ‘There is no doubt that the benefits, both cultural and financial, of entrepreneurial activity to the University will be of increasing importance over the coming years and government and public attention focuses more and more on the commercial, as well as the educational and research-based, benefits to society of its investment in Universities.’

Young Enterprise success (28 Nov 2003)

Oxford Entrepreneurs has successfully introduced the Young Enterprise programme to Oxford for the first time this term. It has been met with an excellent response, with 42 students taking part, and seven companies formed! Each team is given a volunteer ‘Business Consultant’ from the local community to act as a mentor.Our teams all have excellent, experienced business people, most of whom are successful entrepreneurs themselves. Many thanks to Liz Miller of OxSEC, Jeff Lloyd and Ty Power of Young Enterprise, the volunteer Business Consultants, and to all the students taking part with such energy and talent. Shortly there will be summaries of these companies in the ‘Start a Company’ section of this site.

OE goes to Westminster (19 Nov)

The Chancellor has requested a report into whether there should be a National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship. OE President, Bob Goodson, has been selected to attend the final forum today. ‘I will be flying the flag for student societies! My main point will be that student enterprise should be driven from WITHIN the student body,’ he says. ‘It is an honour to be contributing to this issue on a national stage.’

First Founding Patron (4 Nov)

Dr Paul Drayson (of Powderject fame) has made a large donation to become the first Founding Patron of Oxford Entrepreneurs. The society will always be indebted to his generosity and vision. He writes, ‘It gives me great pleasure to become a Patron of your excellent society… I wish you and your colleagues great success in this very worthwhile venture.’ Dr Drayson is currently the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Said Business School and Chairman of the Oxford Children’s Hospital Campaign.

Young Enterprise hits Oxford

This year OE is introducing the Young Enterprise Graduate Programme to Oxford University. For the first time in Oxford?s history there will be a structured programme in place to support students that want to start a company while studying.

On 25th September key members of Young Enterprise are meeting OE to discuss the implementation strategy.

To find out more visit the ?Start a Company? section of this site.

New full-time President

One of the OE founders and President 2003/04, Bob Goodson, is planning to take a sabbatical year from his studies to run the society on a full-time basis for twelve months. A great amount of work is required to get the organisation established as something that can continue at Oxford indefinitely. Bob says, ?I don?t take delaying my studies lightly, but the opportunity is here to create something that will serve as a template for universities across the country.?

DTI support

The Department of Trade and Industry is supporting Oxford Entrepreneurs (OE) as a valued organisation and partner. They hold an annual event to celebrate and promote the best of British innovation. This year?s event, Living Innovation 2003, will be held at Vinopolis in London, and beamed to 30 regional venues across the country, as well as to audiences in France, Turkey and Egypt.

In past years the event has included such high-profile speakers as Lord Putnam, Jackie Stewart and Richard Branson. Organiser Clay McCarthy at DTI explains, ?An exciting element of this years? event is the fact that we are featuring Oxford Entrepreneurs as one of the top three UK organisations for supporting innovation.? OE President, Bob Goodson, will be interviewed during the live broadcast by Adam Hart-Davis on the question, ?Where is the future of British innovation?? He enthuses, ?My answer will be that it?s right here, in the hands of our members!?