Oxford Entrepreneurs - Where are the companies now? - International Trade Fairs to Multi-million dollar buyouts -
In 2006 Luke Johnson, Chairman of Channel 4 described Oxford Entrepreneurs 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.' Two years on, highly successful businesses are coming out of the student society, confirming the point.Oxford Entrepreneurs is Oxford University's largest free student society. Its mission is to encourage and support student entrepreneurship by providing inspiration, education, networking and the chance to learn by doing at the University of Oxford and beyond. It has hosted high profile entrepreneurs including Sir Alan Sugar, Dame Anita Roddick, Stelios and many others.
Receiving help and advice on starting up your own business is one of the most exciting elements of Oxford Entrepreneurs. As a result of the society, many businesses have been founded and nurtured. We can now catch up on where the most successful ones are, two years on.
Entrepreneurs- Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar
Company - Auctomatic
Auctomatic have just become the first start-up from Oxford Entrepreneurs community to sell for millions. Having turned down offers from some of the biggest technology companies around, the company was bought for $5m by Live Current, a media company built around content and commerce destinations. Launched in June 2007 Auctomatic provides an innovative commerce technology framework and tools for sites such as eBay that enable sellers to easily transact online and optimise sales.
Since being started through Oxford Entrepreneur's Start-A-Company scheme, the Taggar cousins cite persistence as the key to their success; 'we found the process incredibly painful, but in the end we went out to Silicon Valley and everything changed. Suddenly, these guys knew what they were talking about'.
Harjeet says that 'the people who succeed are those who go from 1 disaster to the next'. And it certainly has been a struggle along the way, be it living off pot noodles in a shared bedroom for months, or fighting embassies for visas.
Entrepreneurs -David Langer and Andy Young
Company - GroupSpaces Ltd
GroupSpaces was founded in October 2006 and has since grown to three full-time and two part-time members of staff. It provides free Web-based tools to help clubs, societies, charities and other real-world groups manage themselves in our increasingly online world.
Founders David Langer and Andy Young set up GroupSpaces while at Oxford University with ideas borne out of their personal experiences running clubs and societies. David was the University table tennis club captain, and was also President of 2 societies while at Oxford; and Young had a long-running stint as Vice-President and IT Officer at Oxford Entrepreneurs student society.
GroupSpaces is developing an integrated online toolset for group management and communication which can be customised to fit in with any group's existing conventions. The GroupSpaces toolset supports the needs of any group, society or club: communication channels, membership and database management, website provision and event organisation.
In January 2007 they gained six figure investment and have already visited Silicon Valley to meet representatives from Facebook, Google and Bebo. Their advice is to be flexible, prepared to adapt and never give up. Langer says that 'if you are determined and keep following your instincts, letting your initial idea evolve over time, you're likely to be successful'.
Entrepreneur -Richard Price
Company - Academia.edu
Academia.edu is a site for researchers to connect with other researchers around the world. Richard Price started it because he was keen to do another web company. Having previously had set up a few offline and online companies including www.liveout.co.uk, and www.peopleradar.com, and having studied as a Ph.D student, the idea of a site that helps the academic community was very appealing.
Since its creation in 2007 it has grown to 4 members of staff. About setting up companies whilst at university, Price says 'I know of many people who ran companies alongside their studies at university. I did this too, and learnt a huge amount from the projects I set up. I once heard someone say 'It's better to do things than not to do them', and I really admire the spirit behind that quotation.'
Entrepreneur -Duncan Turnbull
Company - Yorkshire Meats
In 2000 Turnbull founded 'Yorkshire Meats', a traditional meat company in North Yorkshire specialising in breeding and rearing rare-breed pedigree Oxford Sandy and Black pigs to be sold as a luxury product. Since then he has built up a large herd of pigs and in 2004 launched the innovative adopt-a-pig scheme, the ultimate journey in search of food provenance.
The idea of choosing a pig, naming it, visiting it and then eventually eating it has taken the market by storm, with customers from Brighton to Aberdeen buying meat for their freezers. In 2006 he secured a DTI trade grant and used it to run a stand at the world's largest food festival in Turin where his team represented the face of British food on an international stage, selling sausages to the Germans and bacon to the Italians.
Since then he has been filmed for a BBC documentary, been interviewed for Radio's 'Farming Today' and professionally written for the Guardian. He has developed the website, built a reputation within his field and turned a profit which would see him through university and beyond.
On Thursday 22nd May Duncan was awarded the Yorkshire Entrepreneur of the Year Award where he shared a podium with Sir Ken Morrison who was recognised as a invaluable contributor to Yorkshire.
Entrepreneur -Tom Savage
Company - Blue Ventures
In 2002 Savage founded Blue Ventures and has since left the award-winning marine conservation organisation, which is dedicated to conservation, education and sustainable development in tropical coastal communities. It offers marine expeditions for volunteers from around the world, who attend on career breaks, student gap years and internships, working closely with expert field research teams and in partnership with local communities. It is a social enterprise with a charitable arm, a true not-for-profit.
Savage worked with the founding members of Oxford Entrepreneurs, having already started a student enterprise society in Edinburgh. Using his last year of student loan, £1000 from his dad and £3000 from his business partner Alasdair Harris (who did a Masters course at Mansfield College), the business was founded and moved out to Madagascar. The logistics of maintaining such a long distance relationship with the business has been trying at points - 'with a 24 hour drive to the nearest phone at their end, it is very difficult indeed', says Tom. At the end of his time at Oxford the business had developed into a full-time venture, and after only one year it boasted a turnover of £150k.
Over time the business has grown to employ 5 members of staff in the UK and 15 in Madagascar. The business has grown to the point where a managing director can oversee it, thus allowing Savage to work on other projects, including Bright Green Talent, an environmental recruitment agency. Prizes have been won at the UN, large grants have been secured and the largest community-run protected marine area in the western Indian ocean has been created and protected.
For further information, please contact the Press Office below:
Publicity Officer, Oxford Entrepreneurs
Direct telephone: 07875 727446
Email: pr@oxfordentrepreneurs.co.uk