Anthony Silver, the former President of the LSE SU Entrepreneurs incumbent ‘Pitch It!’ business planning competition has decided to take his business planning competition a step further to start ESS. It all started after the initial success of ‘Pitch It!’ and feedbacks began to roll in, some of it stated the obvious need of a platform that can close the gap between student entrepreneurs and investors.

After realising that many aspiring entrepreneurs could benefit from the Pitch It! competition to receive prizes that would help them start up their businesses, an opportunity for student entrepreneurs to pitch their businesses to select angel investors and venture capital firms.

Anthony then partnered with Bjoern, becoming Co-Presidents, who together started building an executive team and continued to mould the concept. The brand image, including the name ‘European Student Startups’, was then created in a joint committee effort, lead by Nagehan and Riccardo. Further development of all aspects of the competition also came from Faisal and Veronika.

He also partnered with the continent’s best university entrepreneurial societies to access a much wider pool of applicants, European Student Startups is set to be a very unique event and a fantastic opportunity for young entrepreneurs looking to start up their businesses.

There will be three rounds where entrepreneurs will pitch their businesses to a board of investors and those that make it to the last round will then have fantastic opportunities to start up their enterprises.

European Student Startups is Europe’s first Venture Capital Competition exclusively for students. It is hosted in London, UK and sponsored by the London School of Economics Entrepreneurs Society.

Apply NOW: Deadline is January 27th, 2012.

http://www.europeanstudentstartups.com

Student Entrepreneur

Starting up a business whilst studying can be so much fun and hardwork. The university environment gives you the perfect platform to discover and experiment ideas, but as you know sometimes having a part-time job or putting your student loan money into the business just might not be enough especially when you‘re running a business that needs a lot of cash to keep it running or it might just be that you just need a bit of money to help grow/scale the business.

Graduate Entrepreneur

Being a graduate and running a business can be very tough, especially if you’re focusing on running the business full-time without a job and probably just crashing on a friends couch bootstrapping and hoping to start making revenue soon or working part-time/full-time and spending most of the weekends and evenings focusing on your business.

The opportunity to get some finance can enable you to focus fully on the business especially during the startup phase where you are mostly experimenting.

The Competition

NACUE and Lloyds TSB have joined forces to give students and graduates the opportunity to win £50,000 in investment through the Lloyds TSB Enterprise Awards and all entries closes in just 10 days, 30 Jan 2012. Apply here

All entrants will be considered for two titles – Best Start Up, which will be awarded to a business in its early stages; and Best Enterprise which will be awarded to the business judged to show real potential to grow over the next five years to become a recognised SME within its respective sector.

The overall winner of the Awards will receive £50,000 to invest in their business, together with a comprehensive two-year mentoring programme, involving senior executives from Lloyds Banking Group, designed to provide coaching and support on critical business issues such as planning, finance, recruitment and marketing. Each of the winners will also receive free legal advice with an independent specialist law firm

The Awards are open to entrepreneurs currently studying at universities across England, Scotland or Wales – or who graduated within the past five years and have been trading for more than one year.

The prizes

Heats

Best Start-Up – £1k plus two years mentoring from senior Lloyds Banking Group representatives
Best Enterprise – £5k plus two years  mentoring from senior Lloyds Banking Group representatives

Grand Final

Best Start-Up – £10k plus two years mentoring from senior Lloyds Banking Group representatives and a business session with a Lloyds Banking Group executive
Best Enterprise – £50k plus two years mentoring from senior Lloyds Banking Group representatives and a business session with a Lloyds Banking Group executive

The heats

Wales – Cardiff 15 February
London & South East – Reading, 16 February
South West – Bristol 21 February
East of England – Essex, 22 February
Midlands – Nottingham 23 February
North West – Manchester 28 February
Yorkshire & North East – Leeds 29 February
Scotland – Edinburgh 1 March

Grand Final

Liverpool 13 March 2012

I guess still having a vivid memory of the last event has to count for something, It’s a testament of how amazing and how well the team did at the last event. Check out my Interview with the founder where he talks about launching the event and how he managed to get sponsors onboard just before the event.

As said in my review last year, It was probably one of, if not the best student led event I have ever attended, It was that good.

Although I do remember it dragging on for a bit at the end but you could easily disregard it with the level of professinalism in which the event was delivered and also John Bird does his best to make you forgot about time with his excellent delivery and humour.

This year’s event brings together a great list of speakers and I expect it to be a great weekend of inspiration and opportunity.

I spoke to Rajiv Dhokia – President of Sparks@LSE 2012 about what to expect from this year’s event, this is what he had to say:

“This year we have introduced workshops that will be more focused on interactive sessions in smaller groups; either skills-based or related to a particular discussion theme.

This will enable the audience to get exposure not only to high-profiled established entrepreneurs but also successful startups that have been through the exciting journey of entrepreneurship more recently. We are also looking forward to hosting our first ever VC panel discussion which will give delegates a first-hand perspective on what VC’s look for when investing in early stage companies”.

For those of you still wondering what it is – Sparks@LSE is an interactive weekend entrepreneurship conference taking place on the 18th-19th February 2012 at the London School of Economics.

Led by high-profile entrepreneurs, the conference will feature lectures, networking sessions, skills-based workshops and a business planning competition. Through the diverse agenda, the goal is to inspire young people to develop their business potential and encourage innovative thinking.

This is the list of some of the 2012 speakers line up:

Kris Gopalakrishnan – Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys (Global tech firm headquartered in India)
Stephen Wiener – Founder and CEO of Cineworld
Josephine Fairley – Founder of Green & Black’s (Chocolate)
Harvey Jacobson – Chairman of Jacobson Group (Gola/Lonsdale/Dunlop brands)
Melody Hossaini – Founder of InspirEngage and Apprentice 2011 Star
Michelle You – Co-founder of Songkick (fast-growing tech startup – have raised funding to the tune of $6m)
Alexander Schlaubitz – EMEA Marketing Director Facebook
Unruly Media Workshop on Marketing – Creators of the Comapare The Meerkat / T-mobile / Evian rollerbabies adverts!

Visit the Sparks@LSE website and for day to day updates, follow them on twitter @sparkslse and facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SparksLSE). Agenda to be revealed on the website soon!

Make sure you avoid any embarrassment and purchase your ticket now at discounted prices here.

Very few things in life are as rewarding as a higher education. Not only can a college experience help young people to clarify their interests, it can also open up a much broader range of career opportunities to them. Even more importantly for many people, those careers are likely to be in fields that the individual finds inherently enjoyable. In addition, a college degree generally enables individuals to earn a living with their minds rather than their hands. In general, this means a less strenuous lifestyle – but ironically, it also means a more lucrative one.

Benefits of a College Education

College graduates earn more than those who never attended at all or attended but failed to complete a degree programme, and this ‘earnings boost’ only accelerates as students pursue additional levels of university training. In the UK, university graduates earn approximately 25% more than students who never progress beyond their A-Levels. That differential may not sound like much, but when it accrues year after year, it can add up to as much as £160,000 during a lifetime.

College is not free, of course, but the wide availability of education loans means that it well within the reach of the common man. Universities UK has even determined that the earnings boost is greater for those from poor backgrounds than for those who come from wealthy families, making it even more essential for such people to seriously consider taking out education loans in order to secure their future via higher education.

The Career Boost

The earnings boost is far from the only reason why a college education is beneficial. In many businesses, it also opens the door to new kinds of careers. Many managerial and administrative positions require a college degree as a prerequisite to advancement. Those who lack such a degree can never get very far in their careers in such companies; no matter how long and loyally they have laboured, the firm will adhere to its policy of advancing only college graduates up the ladder toward the most prestigious positions available.

Companies have excellent reasons for such policies. They have learned through experience that possession of a college degree is a highly accurate indicator of valuable qualities such as confidence, perseverance and keen insight. University graduates also possess the ability to work cooperatively to complete joint projects, a skill that is in high demand across many industries. Businesses need leaders as much as they need followers, and a university education encourages the development of a wide array of leadership traits.

Financing a College Education

Those considering college should enquire at several different sources to learn about current terms and conditions for today’s education loans. At the same time, they should investigate the true costs of attending a university. In order to determine the right amount to borrow, prospective students should factor in all sources of revenue, including a part-time job and any grants or scholarships that can be obtained. Any remaining shortfall can be borrowed with the expectation that higher earnings in the future will enable full and prompt repayment of the loan balance.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Andy McLoughlin recently the co founder and EVP strategy at Huddle, a B2B online collaboration & content management company. Andy discusses how he started the company and grew it to a 70+ employee company that it is today and with an office in London and San Francisco explains the benefits and problems encountered when expanding to the US. Andy also gives valuable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, it’s one not too be missed!

Interview with Andy McLoughlin, Co Founder of Huddle by RishiYHP

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Be sure to check out the YHP magazine and subscribe for news and the latest articles from YHP.

Robert Noyce, The Father of Silicon Valley

Robert Noyce was the co founder of Fairchild Semiconductor back in 1957 & Intel in 1968. He is credited as one of the inventors of the microchip, the visionary & natural leader founded two companies that would go on to shape the computer industry.

He was the “Mayor of Silicon Valley,” (well before Foursquare came around) that is what they nicknamed Robert Noyce, he grew up Iowa & was hooked to the field when he first saw two of the first transistors ever. It was his Physics teacher at college that showed them to his class and encouraged Robert to study Physics at MIT. At MIT his fellow graduates would call him ‘Rapid Robert’, his mind was so quick!

After MIT he started work at an electronics firm called Philco where he created transistors. But he had a vision of where he wanted to be and that was in Mountain View, California, working at Shockley Semiconductor. He was determined to get the job and went as far as moving his wife and kids to California, buying a house, and then going to Shockley to ask for a job, which he got.

Robert Noyce was a brave, determined, confident man that knew what he wanted and was determined to get it & Shockley saw that. After a while at Shockley Semiconductors Robert Noyce and a few other researchers at Shockley Semiconductors were disillusioned by the managements goal and focus. Noyce had already had a few altercations with Shockley & being full of ideas, ambition and confidence it’s not surprising the two clashed.

At this point, Robert Noyce, aged 30, went on to found Fairchild Semiconductor taking the seven disgruntled researchers with him. Together they grew Fairchild into one of the biggest & most innovative in it’s industry. During this time Noyce invented the integrated chip, a chip of silicon with many transistors all etched into it at once. He revolutionized the industry with the use of silicon. He ingrained a casual working atmosphere, letting ideas and creativity flourish, and this has stayed to this day, he defined the working style associated with the tech companies of Silicon Valley.

In 1968 he left Fairchild to start Intel along with one of the researchers he took from Shockley’s, Gordon Moore. This is where he yet again revolutionized an industry with the invention of the Microprocessor. Intel would go on to become a household name with revenues of over $40 billion & close to 100,000 employees.

A true pioneer, Robert Noyce had the ambition and determination to bring his passion to life and continue to innovate and build without fear, even in the face of adversity.

In his last interview before he passed away in June 1990, Robert Noyce was asked ‘what would you do if you were “emperor” of the United States?’ He said that he would, among other things, “make sure we are preparing our next generation to flourish in a high-tech age. And that means education of the lowest and the poorest, as well as at the graduate school level.”

In 1991 his family set up The Noyce Foundation, which is dedicated to improving public education in mathematics and science in grades K-12.

Noyce was a mentor and father-figure to an entire generation of entrepreneurs.

Today, December 12th 2011, marks what would have been Robert Noyce, the ‘Mayor of Silicon Valleys’ 84th birthday.

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Check out this interview from Robert Noyce from 1981, where he talks about the future technology in the workplace:

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Isabel Mattos is a serial entrepreneur, she has what you call the entrepreneurial spirit, running through her veins.

As an 18 year old she managed to get into the prestigious MIT university, even though she only applied 2 weeks before the application deadline. It helped that she received a scholarship or their was no way she would of been able to afford the fees. But she made it & if that wasn’t enough she also managed to get a job at the world’s most sought after company to work for, Google.

Although not from a family of entrepreneurs and no real entrepreneurial connection, she always knew that she would be an entrepreneur. After a short stint at MIT she started WaterAfrica, which developed a solar-powered piping system that enables better water distribution in Africa. After a couple more projects she founded ‘What If?‘ a social site where people can share their what if? questions which people can comment on and share with a gamification side to it as the more comments and likes, the more badges you earn.

She also founded Tisk-Task a a task management tool specially tailored at communities and on top of this she started yet another company. This one is called Talenj, which is a Google labs type of idea. It is made up of fun little websites that are useful and fun. In an experiments type format Talenj is there to try out a number of ideas and see what sticks!

She has a very creative tech focused mind and is always coming up with new ideas as you can tell. But rather than just come up with ideas she goes and makes them happen. Some may fail and some may work but you never know unless you try it.

She gave up the opportunity to have a comfortable job in Google and go it alone. She did plan to go back to Brazil and work on her own startup but after meeting Meyer Malka and Wenceslao Casares, two latin-american entrepreneurs responsible for one of the biggest Latin American startup exits, she was excited by thier idea which led to her latest venture which she joined from the beggining as he head of business development.

The startup is called Lemon and it seems she has made a good move as the online receipt tracking service has just raised $10 million in funding. It helps when raising funding that the founders have a track record of a successful exit.

According to the young 23 year old, Lemon has given her the opportunity to combine the two things she wanted the most: creating a startup, and working with people she admires.

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A few months ago we brought to you a startup that had just come out of stealth mode, Booktrack. I recently had the chance to ask a few questions to Paul Cameron, co founder and CEO of this innovative startup. Here is my interview:

So first of all what is your elevator pitch for Booktrack?

Booktrack is the creator of a new technology that synchronizes cinematic audio with text to create an immersive reading experience. Ebooks published by Booktrack include a customized, hand-created soundtrack that matches the action in the text. As readers go through the text, the music, sound effects, and ambient audio change to reflect what’s happening in the plot and are automatically paced to an individual’s reading speed to match the story line WHILE THEY READ. The result is a totally immersive experience that pulls readers into the world of the book.

When did you come up for the idea? What was the inspiration?

The idea arose from my brother, Mark, who was commuting to Hong Kong by ferry every day. During the trip, Mark would read books and articles while listening to music on his iPod. On occasion, there would be serendipitous moments where the music and the text would align tonally and thematically, enhancing the experience of both. He then called me up to explore how we might be able to make this happen on a regular basis for all readers. I had experience running teams of software developers, so we started prototyping and developing, and from that, Booktrack was born.

What were you doing before Booktrack and at what point did you decide to go fulltime, with Booktrack?

For over a decade, I flew as an officer with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, I am a qualified Aeronautical Engineer from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and I am a graduate of the Royal Canadian Air Force Aerospace Systems Post Graduate Course. In 2006, I founded the Marops Defense Projects Division, a high tech electronics and software company that provides products and services to the global defense industry. As the Division Director – I was integral in exponentially expanding the company’s revenue, resulting in its selection as one of the top 20 fastest growing companies in New Zealand.

In 2010, I officially co-founded and became CEO of Booktrack, starting full-time. I believe that in order to have a company succeed, you need to give up your day job and keep going at it until you prosper—there’s really no other way to get your ideas off the ground.

You have some great investors in Peter Thiel, Mark D’Arcy & Derek Handley, how useful do you think it is having the right investors, in terms of understanding of the product and industry as opposed to purely money, for your startup?

Our investors are among our greatest resource, and for far more than the capital they provide. Peter Thiel has been one of the most successful and influential figures in Silicon Valley for more than a decade. Mark D’Arcy’s work at Facebook and Time Warner has given him an incredibly keen sense of the global entertainment market and consumer behaviour. And Derek Handley is a revolutionary figure in the global digital marketing space. Their collective knowledge, advice, and steadfast encouragement have been invaluable in allowing our company to thrive in the competitive entertainment and technology markets, and their insight and guidance will be crucial to our success as we grow.

Booktrack got mixed reactions when it first released, some loved it but some felt that it took away from the whole point of reading and leaving the sounds and images to the readers imagination, what do you say to that?

When film first arrived, many thought that it would mean the death of the book; authors from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Ernest Hemmingway to Joseph Heller to David Foster Wallace proved them wrong. When sound was introduced to film, Time magazine said that “…the effect is startling, but often annoying…”, and H. M. Warner, co-founder Warner Brothers, in 1927 was famously quoted asking “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”. There was a general outcry from major publications and influential people stating that it was ruining the film experience; today, we can barely imagine a movie without a soundtrack or sound. In fact, every new development in entertainment technology—from the phonograph to the Internet—has brought with it cries that the new technology would displace and destroy previous forms of entertainment, and every time, the naysayers have been wrong.

Our goal isn’t, and never has been, to replace books. Literature and books provide a singular, inimitable, and irreplaceable experience, and everybody on the Booktrack team is a voracious reader. Rather, we see Booktrack as a new genre of entertainment that will coexist alongside books, films, and other types of media. We have no interest in competing with or displacing the book—we just want to provide those who want it with a new way to experience great content.

Is your targeted market, those who have maybe lost touch with reading and maybe need something to make it interesting again?

Not at all! Certainly, we see Booktrack as a way to get more people, and young people in particular, to choose books over the other varied forms of entertainment from TV and film to the Internet and video games that currently compete for their attention. If we can provide an option that might get children and adults reading, then that would be a great feat.

At the same time, while there may be some people who read Booktracks at the exclusion of traditional books, we believe they will comprise a minority of our customers at least for the foreseeable future. Rather, just as people both read books and watch movies, we believe that there will be people who will choose to read a combination hardcovers, paperbacks, ebooks, and Booktracks—potentially even reading the same content in multiple formats.

Over the years what has been the hardest part of building a startup?

The amount of time that great software development takes. When you’re sitting on this great idea, your designs are complete, and you need to take it to market, it can feel like the development takes forever.

How did you keep your spirits up and drive through the tough moments?

Very few people get the opportunity to bring a new innovation to market that is the equivalent of adding sound to film, and the product is just so exciting that we want to make sure we get it into as many hands as possible so that people can experience it. The belief that Booktrack is something special—something transformative and revolutionary—has been a powerful motivator and has driven us to throughout the process.

What was your biggest mistake when starting a company and how did you overcome this?

If we had it to do over again, we would have scaled our developer team more quickly in order to get the product to market sooner. That’s the kind of issue that can slow you down, but we eventually worked through it by building a team of really great developers who are both brilliant in their work and passionate about our product, and we are fortunate to be where we are with them today.

What would be your tip for any aspiring entrepreneur?

Don’t give up and always believe in your product and idea. Don’t listen to the detractors.

What do you hope to achieve with Booktrack in the next 3 years?

We would like to see all e-readers and devices be Booktrack-enabled so that anyone can experience Booktrack on whatever platform or e-book store they are reading from.

In addition, we are working to create a whole community of people who can develop Booktracks that are then distributed to the world through our platform.

We have assembled the right team of people who are smart and understand our vision, and in order to achieve our goals, we will continue working with them to advance our product and business opportunities

What is your favourite book?

Anything by Booktrack, of course.

>> Nice, thanks Paul for a great interview and good luck in your future endeavours!

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A great TED talk here from Natalie Warne, this is inspiring and shows what little things we do can help come together to make a big change.

Very inspiring, so take 12 minutes from your day to watch this video:

You’ve probably heard/read about celebrities investing in startups. If you havent, In short It seems like celebrities have decided to change location from hollywood to silicon valley investing heavily in startups, especially tech startups.

The tech industry has seen investments made from this high-profiled celebrities increasingly over the past couple of months with speculations suggesting they are more to follow.

Now that celebrities are investing, does that mean Rebecca Black will make an investment soon?

Here are the 8 celebrities.

Ashton Kutcher

Probably the top or one of the top celebrity investor. A romance that started from his love with twitter and has since transformed into a full education of the tech community, impacts of social media and numerous investments. The Two and a half men actor even has his own fund, A Grade fund and he has invested in top tech companies such as Skype, AirBnB, Foursquare, Hipmunk, Nowmov, Square, Flipboard, Path to name a few….

Kanye west – Kanye west joined forces with Lady GaGa to invest in turntable in a $7.5 million round led by Union Square Ventures, which if rumours are corrects puts the startup’s value at about $37.5 million.

Justin Timberlake – Sean..Ooops I mean Justin. Justin Timberlake in Social Network, umm… Maybe Justin is really starting to believe that he is indeed Sean Parker. If he can’t buy Facebook, why not myspace? Apart from myspace, Justin has invested in companies such as Stipple and Dekko.

Guy Oseary – Madonna’s manager. Let’s just say whatever Ashton Kutcher invests in, he pretty much has some shares in. Guy is the Co-founder of A Grade fund, the investment company he and Ashton set up in 2007.

Leonardo Di Caprio – Leonardo joined the list of hollywood celebrities to invest startup in october. He invested in Mobli, a photo sharing application in a $4 million first round of funding, along with other private investors. He will also be serving as an advisor in the company.

Lady GaGa – Apart from investing in turntable with Kanye west, she has also invested in Backplane, a new startup founded by Lady Gaga’s business manager Troy Carter with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Selena Gomez – She is the latest celebrity to make an investment. She recently invested in Postcard on the Run, a free app that creates photo postcards from your phone and mails them for you, as part of a $750,000 funding round

Justin Bieber – Barely 18, Mr Bieber is the youngest out of the growoing list of celebrities to put his money into a tech company. Although the name of the startup hasnt been disclosed but we are told to believe that it is a Zynga like startup.

Will UK celebrities join to invest in startups?