Previous OE Ventures
Here are some examples of companies that have formed through Oxford Entrepreneurs.
Boso.com – Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar
www.auctomatic.com
Boso.com (later renamed to Auctomatic) is an online marketplace for students to trade all those items they need while at University but may never use again. Users can browse items for sale, advertise their unwanted possessions, and post requests for wanted items.
BOSO was founded by Kulveer Taggar and Harjeet Taggar through the OE Young Enterprise scheme. Kulveer graduated from St John’s in 2005 and having spent 7 months as a Commodities Analyst at Deutsche Bank, he gave in his notice in February to run BOSO full time. Harjeet had Law finals in 2006 and Tom Blomfield, the Technical Director is in his third year of a Law with French course at Balliol. Boso now employs students from Universities across Oxford and London as on-campus brand managers, with Keren Mitchell looking after Oxford .
BOSO initially launched in Oxford where it has well over 1,000 members and now boasts membership from over 60 universities. This success has lured web-designers Groovytrain into redesigning the site and has even attracted the interest of the media: the team are currently being filmed for upcoming Channel 4 show Tricky Business. So far, all this has been achieved without any serious marketing but all that is about to change. BOSO’s co-founder cousins Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar are looking to market the site extensively at universities in Oxford and London this term and have already recruited regional marketing teams and sought to develop links with student bodies -a method that they hope to be able to roll out nationwide when they pursue the widespread expansion planned for the summer.
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WearFair – Stephen Bardle
www.wearfair.co.uk
WearFair is a fair trade jewellery company, based upon an initial business model developed under the Young Enterprise Graduate Scheme, 2004-05. The YE company was called Labislajulla, and sold fair trade jewellery sourced from South America at various social and cultural events around Oxford. The company made a healthy profit and helped raise the profile of fair trade within the University.
WearFair was set-up in the summer of 2006 to build upon the achievements of Labislajulla. The centre of the company is its ecommerce site, at www.wearfair.co.uk, which aims to counteract recent press cynicism about fair trade by using the internet to make the company as transparent as possible. WearFair is also developing a business-to-business capacity, and already supplies a number of art gallery shops. The company exhibited at this year’s Mad Exhibition at Earls Court.
For the immediate future WearFair will develop a wider product range, as well as develop innovative systems with which to make the website as interactive as possible. We are also constantly working on maximising our search engine rating. In the long term, WearFair will expand its geographical reach, and distribution centres will be set-up in Ireland and America.
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Blueventures – Tom Savage
www.blueventures.org
Blue Ventures is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to facilitating projects and expedition that enhance global marine conservation and research. Since 2002, we have run over 25 expeditions with over 280 international participants to Madagascar, Tanzania, New Zealand, The Comoros and South Africa.
Blue Ventures co-ordinates expeditions consisting of scientists and volunteers working hand-in-hand with local biologists, marine institutes, NGOs, and communities whose livelihoods depend on these ecosystems, to carry out research, environmental awareness and conservation programmes at threatened habitats around the world.
Last year Blueventures was highly commended in the responsible travel awards, this year we have won the SEED Awards. Our project incorporating; Madagascar’s first community-run, self-sustaining experimental Marine Protected Area was chosen as a ’shining example of how economic development and environmental protection can go hand in hand’, by the international panel which made the selection. More recently Tom was runner up in the social category of the Enterprising Young Brits Awards, from over 4000 applicants.
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Get Inspired! – Thomas Whitfield, Nina Kruglikova, Vaclav Potesil, Eugen Burdelnii
www.get-inspired.org
Eastern European students and recent graduates, particularly those in disadvantaged regions, face a lack of information about possibilities to study abroad. Even highly-qualified students seldom have enough self-confidence to apply to top universities.
The goal of Get-inspired! is to run workshops at Eastern European universities. We will share our experiences by being role models to encourage talented students in realizing their full potential and providing information about the application process and funding opportunities for studying abroad. Companies wishing to recruit graduates with international experience in order to expand their rapidly growing Eastern European offices will finance and fund this endeavor, in return for organized recruiting events.
The team of Get Inspired! was formed during one of the Oxford Entrepreneurs “Start a company” sessions a couple of months ago. So far we took a great deal towards implementation of this project. The first Get Inspired! workshop series started in spring 2007.
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