I continue with my series of interviews with members of the NEF programme, as mentioned in my first interview yesterday, I will be interviewing and releasing interviews of all the members of the NEF programme throughout the month.

Today, I have Ushma Soneji. Ushma is a Graduate from Oxford University currently placed at DFS based in Doncaster and also shadowing the CEO, Ian Filby.

Here is the interview

Hi Ushma, Its great to finally have you on YHP, how are you doing today?

I’m great thanks! Just enjoying being back home over the festive season.

Before we move on, could you quickly give us some background information about yourself so that the YHP audience can get to know you better?

Sure- I’m working at DFS in role that is vaguely entitled ‘Project Assistant to the CEO’. It involves a mix of business development and shadowing the CEO, Ian Filby. I got this role through the New Entrepreneurs Foundation, an organization that aims to nurture entrepreneurs by giving them tailored training and mentorship as well as experience within small to medium sized companies.

How did you get into entrepreneurship, what was your inspiration?

If I had to narrow it down, I’d say it came about when I first got involved in Young Enterprise at school. I decided to apply for Managing Director and loved the whole experience. I’d considered a number of career options by the time I reached university, but I realized that business, and especially big businesses, gave you the opportunity to touch lots of people’s lives in a small but positive way. That was what really appealed to me.

What was your first business, how the idea came about and tell us your experience running that?

Our Young Enterprise company, Route 17, made cushions with embedded speakers that could connect to MP3 players. We won a lot of awards for having an innovative product- but in all honesty, somebody in our team had a speaker cushion on them in the first meeting and said ‘we could do this’! Everyone got behind it, and it made sense to put the effort into creating a new product that everyone was passionate about. The most important lesson I learned that year was how much fun you can have when you throw yourself wholeheartedly into anything.

You studied PPE (Politics, philosophy and economics) at Oxford University; tell us about your experience at Oxford University?

It was an experience I feel very privileged to have had. The best thing about Oxford, by far, is the people. The friends you meet; the people you work with; the speakers you see; and the tutors that give you so much of their time. Terms are short and intense, but I loved my subject so it made sense to work hard and play hard!

I guess there’s been a lot of talk about going to university, the value of having a degree, entrepreneurship becoming a viable option, what made you realise that this was the right choice for you?

It’s problematic if you believe a degree is just a signal to future employers. When you start to consider self-employment, and particularly entrepreneurship, it doesn’t appear to be fully necessary. For me, however, my degree was a natural extension of everything I loved learning about and had little to do with employment opportunities. I was brought up to believe that while you are young and have few responsibilities, you should put your education first as it is the most natural time to focus. Similarly, you are also in a position to take financial risks and try new things, which is a key requirement for entrepreneurship. I therefore saw education and entrepreneurship as complementary, rather than conflicting.

You were quite involved in the oxford entrepreneurs society, tell us about that experience and some of the key things you learnt from that and opportunities that it has given you?

I became involved with Oxford Entrepreneurs when I took part in one of their OxPrentice events which involved pitching, creating and selling an ice cream flavour! Following that, they invited me to interview to join the society as the secretary. Taking meeting notes and writing the weekly newsletter allowed me to find out everything that the society was involved with. It’s a hugely successful and powerful society, but the best thing for me was meeting like-minded individuals. Your average week in Oxford will include at least one free meal/drinks event powered by a law, finance or consultancy firm and a lot of people fall into those careers because they are well-represented as well as being respectable and well-paid. It was nice to meet people who were considering different routes and trying something new.

You were also the president at SIFE during your time at oxford university? Talk us through how that happened and some of the key things you learnt from that also?

It’s a great story. I told the President of Oxford Entrepreneurs that I was interested in social enterprise, and he said I should meet with the current SIFE president to talk about it. I went to meet him for the first time over coffee and the conversation went a little something like this:

Him: ‘I’m leaving for India tomorrow. Can you take over?’
Me: ‘Er, sure. How can I get into contact with your team?’
Him: ‘I’ll send you their emails. But most of them are exchange students and leaving soon. You might want to recruit new ones’

And so I did exactly that. I recruited a great team, with really passionate people, and we began a couple of consultancy projects including working for a cruelty free milk organization (www.ahimsamilk.com), a Kenyan microfinance project (www.mashfoundationtrust.org) and sold our own paper pads for schools in India. I learned a lot over the year about how to recognize people’s skills and passions and delegate accordingly. It’s a tough lesson to learn, but a very important one.

You are also a member of the Kairos society, tell us about that organisation and why you decided to apply for it?

A few of my friends told me about the Kairos Society and said it sounded like something I’d enjoy. The Kairos Society aims to connect future leaders and entrepreneurs across the world through a passion for a better future. The real appeal lay in a trip to New York to meet entrepreneurs from around the world. The whole experience was a really positive one- there were so many passionate students who had started up innovative businesses, and it opened my eyes to the impact of disruptive technology on businesses. It was a trip for building friendships, as opposed to ‘networking’ and I really value the people I met here.

You did all of these things while you were in the university and still graduated with a 2:1 in your degree, how were you able to balance your time and keep focus?

Oxford can be intense at the best of times, but I think that all the extracurricular things I did actually forced me to focus my time better. Since I enjoyed it all, it felt more like a break from work than an additional workload most of the time. More practically, I didn’t have exams in second year and my final year counted for 100% of my degree, so I tried to cram as much into my second year as possible!

What would you say was some of the key things you learnt from that experience?

Being busy makes you more efficient.

Tell us about NEF and how you got involved?

I applied to the NEF because I felt I needed guidance. There’s a lot of agreement around the fact that the best way to start up a business is to get stuck in as soon as possible, but I still felt that I wanted to explore different industries and learn as much as possible about the process itself. The NEF seemed like the perfect opportunity for me, because I didn’t want a long term commitment to one role in one company, and to keep my ambitions to start up a secret. There is such a wealth of experience within our NEF class and we are all trying to achieve similar things. It’s been a hugely supportive experience and I’m grateful to be involved in it.

What company are you currently working with, what do you do and how’s the experience been so far for you?

I work for DFS and am based in their head office in Doncaster. I am working on and managing a few projects that will be tied into the company’s brand reappraisal and extending our customer base. It’s a fascinating time to join as it’s going through a lot of internal change in tough external retail conditions. I was also trained as a salesperson and spent two weeks in store to get to know the product and the customer experience. I’ve got three mentors and am trying to understand the company on different levels.

The first is the director I work most closely with on the projects, who has a lot of experience in the industry. The second is the business development director, who helps me get an overview of how the projects come together to create future growth for the company. Finally, I get to understand the overall company strategy from the perspective of the CEO.

What are some of the key things that you’ve learnt so far from working at DFS?

1. Know how to sell.
2. Relationships and people come first.
3. You can’t know everything about a business, but you do need to know how to get relevant information when you need it.

Is this something that you would recommend to other aspiring entrepreneurs? What value can they get from the experience?

Definitely. I think the biggest benefit of the programme is the constant reassurance that entrepreneurship is a viable path, and that there are concrete steps that you can take and people you can talk to, to help you in this direction.

What would you say has been your most memorable moment so far?

I really enjoyed the opportunity to go to Richard Branson’s house for a Q&A session with other young entrepreneurs. I asked him his views on social enterprise, and he gave a really well- thought out answer on the different priorities of a business as it grows. It changed my perspective a little on social enterprise, and just goes to show how much advice you can get by talking to the people who have already achieved what you aim to do.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their own business?

Meet as many people as possible with similar interests to you. They are likely to be the ones that push you in the right direction.

What are your plans after NEF programme? What can we be expecting from you in the future?

I’m keeping my options open and prefer to set long term goals. My aim is for my next steps to help me with my goal of starting a meaningful and value-led business, and to meet some interesting people on the way!

The UK entrepreneurial scene is certainly coming together, with all its inadequacies – Investment, Billion dollar exits etc. It is certainly coming together.

In a year where other businesses have been forced to close down, others have being unable to keep up with competitors. It’s always good to take some time to reflect, praise and encourage those startups that have done a great job in remaining resillient, competitive and profitable.

2012 is already gearing up to be an even more successful and exciting year in the UK startup scene, we are already seeing a lot of exciting companies starting up.

As the year gently comes to an end, I decided to put together a list of companies who I thought came out on top this year.

This is in no particular order.

OneFineStay

Imagine being able to rent some of central london’s elite houses (which cost up to £1 million) for the price of staying in an luxurious hotel. If you’re someone that prefers that homey feeling whilst travelling then this will certainly appeal to you. Onefinestay allows you to stay in a beautiful home while the owner is out of town, while enjoying all the convenience and comfort of a hotel.

Earlier this month, the company added seven new Central London homes to their growing list of properties.

Onefinestay was founded by Greg Marsh, Demetrios Zoppos and Tim Davey in 2009.

Mixcloud

Themed after their launch as the “YouTube of radio” – Mixcloud allows its users to connect to great radio content and helps content creators promote their radio shows and podcasts.

If you are a DJ, broadcaster or run a podcast show, Mixcloud gives you the platform to reach hungry music and audio content consumers.

The startup was founded by Nikhil Shah and Nico Perez in september 2008.

Shutl

Why would you ever wait around for a courier if you could get your shopping delivered to you in a matter of minutes… or at a time chosen by you? Seriously, why would you?

This London-based internet start-up aggregates a platform of thousands of small courier companies to collect online orders directly from high street stores, instead of a distribution hub, allowing it to deliver quickly to customers’ homes or workplaces.

In August, Shutl expanded to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester

The company was founded by Tom Allason the founder & former CEO of eCourier.co.uk in 2008.

Struq

Struq is the leading specialist in Personalized Retargeting; a powerful new alternative to standard/static display advertising. Their technology A.R.T. technology (Advanced Retargeting Technology) enables brands to identify and retarget only the most profitable in-market users with completely personalized ads optimized in real-time using scientific principles.

On average, for every £1 a retailer spends, they get £19 in revenues in post-click sales.

Struq was founded in 2008 by Sam Barnett

Songkick

If you’re a music fanatic, especially when it comes to watching your favourite artists perform live then you will understand why over 1 million people are addicted to using Songkick.

Songkick offers music enthusiasts a place where they track their favorite bands and receive email alerts when a tracked band plays a gig nearby and also providing personalized news about live music events.

Singkick was co-founded by Ian Hogarth, Michelle You and Pete Smith in October 2007.

BraveNewTalent

BraveNewTalent are a social recruiting platform where employers can form and manage an engaging relationship with candidates in advance of the job application. We build targeted talent communities based on the employers needs. Users are given a simple management tool to see and engage with people within their community. Candidates get a way to keep up to date, educate themselves and be better matched to companies and roles.

BraveNewTalent was founded by Lucian Tarnowsk in 2008

GroupSpaces

Thinking about starting up a society or currently looking for ways to manage your existing one online with tools to maintain your mailing list, update members, and receive payments – Group spaces makes administration of groups more effective.

GroupSpaces is an online platform that provides technology to help real-world clubs, societies, associations and other groups manage their membership and activities, and promote themselves online which help improve members communications and saves organizers time.

GroupSpaces recently hit two million memberships on the website. GroupSpaces was co-founded by David Langer and Andy Young in October 2007.

Huddle

Huddle being in the list has nothing to do with the fact that Rishi works there, but everything to do with the fact that they kicked serious ass this year, you will need to have serious balls to be going head-to-head with microsoft (sharepoint). Lets not forget the controversy surrounding them telling Google to remove Google+ feature called Huddle from their platform.

Huddle is a cloud collaboration and content management platform for enterprise, it allows companies to share files, organize meetings, and collaborate even when they are not operating within the same firewall.

The company was founded by Alastair Mitchell and Andy McLoughlin in 2006.

ParkatmyHouse

Getting a parking space can sometimes be such a headache, especially when you’re looking for a parking space in London during peak times or sometimes you find out that the parking prices are just too expensive. And then on the other hand, you have property owners that have free parking spaces either because they have no cars or use their cars during the day for work etc.

ParkatmyHouse allows property owners to rent out their parking space either long term or just for a few hours. For those people who are looking for a parking space all you do is enter the postcode or address in the search engine and the website will give you a list of potential parking spaces which you can use in negotiating with the owner.

The company has 125,000 drivers registered with its service. The site has helped property owners make more than £1m from renting out their driveways, spare land and parking spaces.

The company was founded by Anthony Eskinazi in September 2006.

Skimlinks

If you run a blog, forum and any other sites that deal with content distribution and you are looking to make some revenue through it – this is where Skimlinks comes in handy.

Skimlinks turns links on content sites into their affiliate marketing link equivalents on-the-fly, so publishers can focus on creating quality content rather than creating and maintaining affiliate links with no technical or admin effort.

The website was co-founded by Joe Stepniewski and Alicia Navarro in 2006.

Moonfruit

I can still remember the first time I used moonfruit, one of my friends in school had just started his music career and was really excited to share his new music with all of his friends on msn, me included, this was way before myspace and other music sharing platforms started to spring up. I ended up creating a page using a tool called SiteMaker for the sake of it under 20 mins.

I am pretty sure almost everyone had a go making their mini-websies on moonfruit when it first launched. A lot has happened since then, the dotcom bubble etc.

The company is still growing and for those newbies still wondering what moonfruit does, it allows less tech savy individuals to create website with ease using their website construction tool called SiteMaker.

The website was founded by Wendy Tan White in 1999

Bookingbug

If your business is offering a service and looking for a system where you can manage all your booking, enquiries and reservations – Say hello to BookingBug.

BookingBug enables businesses to share their availability – by hour, day, week or as classes, courses or events – and take bookings and enquiries online. The system is both realtime and distributed in that it’s booking and enquiry widgets can be embedded onto other sites, or affiliate partners and through social media.

The site was co-founded by Greg Bock and Glenn Shoosmith in November 2009

Brightpearl

Brightpearl is an integrated end-to-end web based solution that helps companies streamline the management of core business processes: accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), stock control and order management, customer support and e-commerce.

Brightpearl offers its customers exceptional functionality around ERP for SMEs, particularly for businesses who are e-tailers/retailers, distributors, wholesalers, as well as businesses who are billing time.

Customers are able to pick and choose any of the available modules to address individual business needs and challenges.

Bristol-based Brightpearl was founded by Chris Tanner and Andrew Mulvenna in 2007

Basekit

Especially with the demand of website services, it is unimaginable that any business does not have a website nowadays, It’s very much like your company identity. Not every business owner out there know how to build a website, most of them more concerned about the business side of things than the technicality of getting a website up and running, certainly dont know how to get their hand dirty with some html and css.

Basekit allow people with little or no web expertise to build their own website, without the need to hire expensive developers. A business which would generate attractive, captivating websites using templates and drag-and-drop.

BaseKit is based on a flexible layout structure and allows users to create a site directly from a Photoshop design, or customise a pre-made site themes to get online faster.

The company was co-founded in 2008 by Simon Best, Richard Best and Richard Healy

Smarkets

Smarkets is changing the traditional way of betting, so instead of betting against a bookie, you are now able to bet against other members with smarkets. Smarkets allows traders to agree odds amongst themselves. Smarkets also offers betting on sports, current affairs and popular culture.

Smarkets is a web-based, person-to-person betting exchange platform built on the fusion of social networking and trading technology. Unlike traditional methods of betting, online betting exchanges remove the bookmaker by allowing users to bet directly with other users.

Smarkets was founded in 2008 by Jason Trost and Hunter Morris.

Peerindex

Imagine every decision, interaction that you make online being tracked? PeerIndex measures your online influence by gathering data on your activity, audience and authority to either maximise your online relevance and insight or just tell you how bad you’re doing. Authority measures how relevant your activity is to the community. The Authority measure is boosted whenever others like, comment and/or engage with your activity.

The london based company provide these analytics based on users activities on social media services such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Quora.

PeerIndex was founded in 2009 by Azeem Azhar, Bill Emmott and Ditlev Schwanenflugel.

Mendeley

I’m unsure if the discovery of mendeley would have done my researching and courseworks any favours during my time at university, maybe it might have helped, who knows? I guess if you’re doing any academic research and finding it hard of where to get quality research done with the ability to network with academics, then i guess mendeley wouldnt be a bad place to start.

The website allows users to manage and research papers – discovering data and collaborating online.

The website was co-founded by Paul Foeckler and Victor Henning.

People per hour

With the high increase in unemployment constantly rising in the UK, no wonder job seekers are switching attention to online job listing sites for a way out and thats what exactly People per hour offers: The websites connects people looking for work with jobs, that simple.

In more details, Clients are able to post ads on the website looking for part-time, a bit like what gumtree does, but i guess in a more professional and structure online environment, I guess they are currently doing what you would have expected gumtree to do, most clients post jobs for freelancers, mostly part0time, sometimes full-time but to get those jobs, you had to bid and whoever bids came successfully got the job/contract.

The company was founded by Xenios Thrasyvoulou and Simos Kitiris in September 2007.

Sports New Media

Think about the countless number of athletes around the world, the number of tournaments being watched by sports lover across the globe, crazy right? Now think about those individuals and associations and their need for social presence, with the growing presence of facebook, It’s not hard to understand why big corporates would be paying big bucks in order to be connected directly with their brands through facebook.

The start-up manages Facebook pages and campaigns for athletes, sports agents, sporting governing bodies and associations.

Their in-house technology allows them to automate much of the process of providing relevant and timely content to fans across social networks, and to monitor a brand’s activity within those networks.

The company was founded by Jae Chalfin and Nick Thain in April 2008

Brainient

If you’re looking to make some money from your video online. Brainient makes it easier for advertisers to get the most out of their video campaigns through interactive video advertising and personalized video retargeting.

Brainient was founded by Emi Gal in 2009

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

By now, most business owners know just how important it is to be able to reach an online audience. Whatever field you work in, whatever products or services you offer the chances are you will be able to increase your reach and hopefully market share by appealing to potential clients and customers over the Internet.

But for those who are unfamiliar with the how things work in cyberspace, taking a business online can be a daunting prospect. Here we look at a few of the key areas that will need to be addressed if you want to take your interests into cyberspace and reap the rewards of online advertising and operations.

Creating a Wonderful Website

A website is like an online office – you need yours to be welcoming, inviting and easy to use – as well as being clearly signposted so the right people can find you. Things to think about when putting together a website include:

· Design: A good website will be easy on the eye, and users will be able to find the things they need without any problems. Avoid garish colours and huge swathes of text. Make sure menus are logical and keep the number of clicks necessary to reach key pages to a minimum. A website is a big part of your online business so if you are unsure about it then get some professional help and bring on a web designer to help you make the most of this opportunity.
· Search Engine Optimisation: SEO is all about making your website appeal to search engines. You need to make sure that your website is optimised for the keywords your potential clients may be using. SEO starts on your own site, and includes everything from your content to your tags. Getting this right in the early stages can save a lot of time and effort later on.
· Security: If you plan on taking client details or payments online then your site will need to be demonstrably secure in order to be deemed trustworthy. If you are unsure of the options open to you, approach your preferred IT support people for advice on locking down your operation.

Bringing in Business Online

While having a website is a great start, if you want to make a real splash in cyberspace you will need to make sure that people are finding you. There are a number of ways to promote your business online including:

· Blogging: If you have great knowledge in your field then think about sharing it with an online audience through a blog. Well written blog posts with useful and interesting information that have been optimised for your own targeted keywords can be a great way of bringing a new audience to your website.
· Social Networking: Everyone who is anyone is on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so well maintained profiles on these sites are a great way to get word out about your operations. Social networking sites must be regularly updated and must engage with the audience. Join in discussions relevant to your field and elicit others opinions on issues in your industry – social networking is not simply about pushing your own agenda.

New business ventures, social enterprises and creative projects can now get investment at Civilisedmoney, the next generation investment platform which launches this month. Whether its £500 for a local community scheme or £1m+ to launch the next big business venture, Civilisedmoney can help you secure investment.

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is the next generation of business investment, giving entrepreneurs the platform and opportunity to raise smaller amounts of funding from their own network of friends, family, colleagues, customers, suppliers and ordinary people, rather than from one or two wealthy investors.

By attracting lots of investors who invest smaller amounts of money into a person, company, product or idea, in return for equity or other rewards, entrepreneurs can bypass the traditional choices of business angels or venture capital and get on with the business, whether commercial, social or just personal.

With banks repeatedly failing to pump the much needed investment into business and enterprise, entrepreneurs need more effective, innovative ways to fund their ideas. Crowdfunding has the benefits of building a network of supporters and advocates, pre-selling your product and testing the market, and you begin your business without debts and loans.

About civilisedmoney

Civilisedmoney, online people-to-people financial services, owned by you, makes it easy for people to invest, donate, lend, borrow and transact money with each other directly at fair and transparent rates, cutting out need for the middlemen, the banks.

Civilisedmoney launches with two crowdfunding products for entrepreneurs, businesses, organisations and individuals. civilisedmoney is also developing a full range of people-to-people financial services products that offer a genuine alternative to those currently provided by banks.

Civilisedmoney and people-to-people internet services give people the opportunity to come together to create a fresh financial future. One that is fair, transparent and without the expense of branches and big bonuses or the dangers of banks gambling with your money. It is banking with people, not banks, simply people connecting directly, fairly and transparently.

Crowdfunding with Civilisedmoney

Civilisedmoney currently offers two crowdfunding products for entrepreneurs, businesses, organisations and individuals:

Invest & Get Investment is equity based crowdfunding to fund start-ups and business expansion. It connects entrepreneurs with like-minded people in order to raise capital.

Crowdfund & Get Funded is reward based crowdfunding. Likeminded people can pool their money to back an idea, a person, or a business, in exchange for goods, services or something else of value.

Contact Civilisedmoney

If you have a venture or project you would like to crowdfund, please contact Rudi Schogger at rschogger@civilisedgroup.com or for more information, please visit www.civilisedmoney.co.uk

If you are an entrepreneurial spirit who is tempted to go it alone and start you own business, you may want to consider working in someone else’s start up before you take the plunge.

While it is tempting, when you have an idea, to simply go for it, the skills gained working in a start-up can be invaluable to those looking to start their own business and can help to set you on the right path to success.

Benefits of Working for a Start-up Before Going into Business

Most people are drawn to the idea of a start-up business by the possibility of being their own boss and reaping all the rewards of their efforts, however no new business is a sure thing and those new to entrepreneurship might find that there are more pitfalls than they had expected. Choosing to work for someone else’s start-up company before going it alone can offer an insight into the issues that may arise once you start your own business and give you the opportunity to develop strategies for dealing with potential problems when you finally take the plunge and go it alone.

When you choose to work for a start-up in advance of building your own business, you are essentially taking a crash course in entrepreneurship. You will see the nuts and bolts of business building from the inside and may gain a number of valuable hints and tips on how to create a successful company for yourself.

Another great aspect of working for a start-up before setting up a business for yourself is that you can learn the ropes without having your own capital on the line – there is no point investing all your money in your own business before you truly understand the demands of the world you are stepping into since you may find that it is not for you, or that there are elements of self employment that you are not comfortable with and this is much better discovered at this stage than once your financial future is on the line.

Using Start-up Experience to Boost Your Own Business

Once you have put in the hours working for another business or company, you will find that you have developed a number of skills and a depth of knowledge that will stand you in a great position for launching your own start-up. Simple aspects of business, and tricks of the trade, such as using promotional USB flash drive’s as a giveaway at trade fairs and industry events or networking with the local press and other businesses to promote your product or service will come as second nature – allowing you to gain maximum exposure in the early day instead of waiting to discover these methods down the line.

Whether you work in a start-up that succeeds or fails, you will gain a great deal from your time spent there, and will come away equipped with what you need to give your own business the best possible chance of success.

This is my interview with Blair Brandt. For those of you still scratching your head, wondering who he is. Blair is the founder of one of America’s most exciting start-ups, The Next Step Realty – The company helps 20-something recent college graduates find rentals in their first-job markets, pairing them with young real estate agents with similar interests and backgrounds, and a specialization in their rental needs.

Or how Blair puts it “When the transition of ending college and entering the new world is upon students, the last item on the agenda is the obligation to find housing, especially in a city that is unfamiliar and new. This is where The Next Step Realty comes in. Not only do we enable you to skip the step of finding an apartment on your own, we put you directly in touch with a young, accomplished real estate broker who specializes in your leasing needs and will take care of the entire transaction for you.”

Here is the full interview.

Blair Brandt (left), Belton Baker (Right)

Hi Blair, thanks for joining us on YHP, how are you doing?

Well, I’m amongst the living. Between earthquakes and hurricanes, its been an interesting week.

Can you quickly give us some background information about yourself before we move on?

Born in Manhattan. Grew up in Palm Beach, FL. I went to boarding school in New England at a great spot called Deerfield Academy. I went to college at the University of Richmond in Virginia and graduated in 2010. I’m thankful to have had incredible parents, teachers, and mentors. I’m 23 and currently live in New York City.

When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I started a laundry business for students my freshman year of college and loved the independence of being my own boss. After that, I never decided to be an entrepreneur, I just kept exploring new opportunities and learning as much as I could about each industry I worked in.

Good entrepreneurs never sit down and decide to be entrepreneurs. They hit the pavement hard and keep their ear to the pulse of the streets. When they see an unfulfilled demand, they properly investigate the opportunity and execute efficiently. I’m proud to say we are of this category.

We never decided to be entrepreneurs, we were already doing this on a person to person basis long before it was a brand.

Tell us about The Next Step Realty and how the idea came about?

When I started working in real estate, I took the hands-on approach and, over time, happened to stumble upon a point of frustration I had with the market. Being a 22 year old sales associate, I didn’t have the respect of the clients I wanted to work with, but when I started working with young professionals relocating to the Palm Beach area – I saw that I was instantly building my client base, making more money, and learning a lot about my job.

My partner Belton Baker also believed that our friend’s who were seniors on college campuses were suffering from an inability to seamlessly find housing after graduation. A few of my friends, knowing I was immersed in my real estate job, had even reached out to me to be connected with the right broker in other cities. So, we decided to systematically connect and strategically match-make these two groups through an exclusive network. This would solve the slow pace of business that young brokers were initially experiencing, while also assisting the graduates in their relocation.

Why the name The Next Step Realty?

We sent out an e-mail before we launched the website to test the viability of our idea. We chose a few fraternities and sororites at UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Richmond, our alma-maters, as our sample group, and the title of the e-mail was “Here’s to The Next Step: Post-Collegiate Housing”. We sent it to seniors in the spring of 2010. When the feedback from the e-mails was overwhelmingly positive, we used that e-mail subject line to name the company.

Tell us how the process works?

Go to www.thenextsteprealty.com. Choose the city you are moving to. Tell us about yourself, how to contact you, and what type of apartment you are looking for.

Within minutes, your hand-picked Next Step certified broker will call you to confirm an appointment, review your parameters, answer your questions, and begin to e-mail you listings of apartments.

The broker who contacts you will be not only be pre-qualified to work with recent graduates based on our rigorous selection process, but they will also be available to assist you at times you have listed as convenient and be a specialist in the type of apartment you requested.

Our brokers in most cities are free to use, with the exception of London and Manhattan, where we have pre-negotiated discounted rates on behalf of our clients in advance. Everywhere else, landlords compensate brokers for bringing tenants to the property.

Typically our clients spend a day or two out with a broker weighing all the options, sign a lease, and move on with their lives! It’s that easy, and it’s free to use Next Step, so there’s nothing to loose.

What would you say was probably the most difficult part of starting the business?

The biggest obstacle is overcoming the inertia of your audience – making them aware that there is a different way to do things, and that your route is the most favorable.

What’s the toughest feedback you’ve ever received and how did you learn from it?

The toughest feedback we ever received was that our service wasn’t necessary because people could find brokers on their own.

We learned from it by improving our system so that our network of brokers is so well-qualified and well-researched by us, it is almost a crime not to go to us for a recommendation on which broker in your new city is the best fit for you. We created a certain quality guarantee, which has created great word of mouth and enabled people to trust our brand.

It is a safer bet to rely on that type of standardization then the one-off referral of a friend or family member who got lucky using a mediocre broker a year ago. Also, our match-making system ensures you work with a specialist. Finally, the pre-negotiated discounts are important because they save our users money, and those types of savings can’t be procured by going it alone. Our network creates these benefits, and makes being a part of it worthwhile.

Negative feedback is always just an opportuntiy to improve and make your product better, and I think our efforts to make our website indispensable to graduates are starting to pay off.

Tell us some of the key lessons you’ve learnt so far on your journey as an entrepreneur?

Persistence is crucial. You have to keep driving your product every day. Making it better, spreading the word.

Marketing is important. Of course you have to perfect your offer first, but the press is your friend and any opportunity for one single person to learn more about your company is a worthwhile use of time.

Brand control is also key. Being able to determine how it appears to others rather than it becoming something you don’t want it to be.

What would you say has been your most memorable moment so far?

That’s a great question. I was very excited when we signed our first lease. But, ultimately, it’s a toss-up between being invited to the White House and getting off the set of my first live interview on Bloomberg TV.

I was 22, had graduated from college only a month before, and we had been working at break-neck speed for 3 months. We’ve made incredible strides since then, but something about how quickly it happened and the shift that it represented in our lives made it very memorable. It was nice afterwards to go to the rooftop of our friends apartment, enjoy a beer, and reflect on an insane 3 months.

How do you stay grounded with your recent success in business?

Knowing that we haven’t succeeded yet.

Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 years?

We’ll have a strong market share in the U.S. and abroad of recent graduates and young professionals relocating from campuses to cities or between different cities, and we’ll definitely be changing the real estate market’s usual norms and conventions. Less money will be spent recruiting wealthy clients through expensive, out-dated advertisements, and more money will be pumped into developing the relationships we are initiating with young renters early on.

What can we be expecting from you in the future?

Beyond expansion within our core real estate services, The Next Step brand is currently exploring different business opportunities that consistently revolve around our niche audience of undergrads, recent grads, and young professionals.

We currently have projects underway in fashion, television, and vacation rentals. We also are becoming a desirable avenue for other brands who want to reach the twenty-something, high end demographic that we cater too. We are becoming a platform for companies to promote their products to our targeted demographic, and a consultant to companies who need assistance engaging members of our website.

What advice can you give to entrepreneurs out there looking to get involved in this industry?

Pursue industries and jobs that you love, and be infinitely curious about how it works. If you think it can be done better, then do it.

Thanks for your time Blair

If a foreigner were to ask about life in Great Britain, what would we answer?

Would we tell of our lives driven by family and community, of our young people engaged, educated, motivated, healthy and responsible, of our doctors and police valued and respected, of our innovative and forward-thinking politicians motivated by integrity and the genuine welfare of their countrymen, of a nation of social and business entrepreneurs fixing society and the economy?

Or would we tell of our individualism and lack of social awareness, of our young people’s disrespect and disillusionment, of our out-of-touch politicians’ detachment and ineffectiveness, of greedy and selfish mega-business, of our obsession with money, celebrity, fashion and material gain, of our blame culture destroying personal and collective responsibility, of our political correctness replacing common sense and common courtesy, of our pervasive security and fear culture stifling growth, or our welfare state promoting dependence rather than self-initiative?

We have arrived at a critical moment in time. The time has come to ask, here and now, what kind of society we wish to live in, what kind of society we leave for our children and their children, what kind of example we wish to set the rest of the world. Because as society stands, our future is bleak.

We therefore have no choice but to set an entirely new agenda for the way we live our lives, laying new foundations for a healthy society that places its values on individual and collective hard work, taking responsibility for our own lives, being involved in community and with family, on finding wellbeing and purpose.

It’s a task that calls on each and every one of us to take our place at the table and play our role in a better society that will continue to serve many generations after our time. It’s a task that requires us to stand up within our communities, to look around us, to help each other, to help ourselves.

In 1997, at age 18, I found myself with no job, little education, no home and no future. Despite coming from a broken home, a broken education and the odd encounter with police, I decided to take charge of my life and make something happen. Higher education was not going to provide the direction or the hunger for getting stuck into life and a conventional workplace was not suited to my creative drive.

Instead, I invested the £300 savings in my bank, printed some letterheads and started a small business. Over the next 11 years, that business went on to employ nearly 200 people, provide a valuable service to its customers and gave me a life of character-building hard work, determination and financial security that I could be proud of. My starting point was never something as cheap as money, prestige or material goods, but the inherent value of creating something and making things happen for me and others around me.

Entrepreneurialism, from the French ‘entreprende’ for ‘undertake’, is typically associated with business, but it is really about making things happen, in business or society. It is about identifying problems and creating and trying out new ideas and solutions, whether starting a business venture, a community project or a personal project, simply taking a seed and growing something new and unique.

Across the undeveloped and developing world, the one aspect of poverty that nobody talks about is the entrepreneurialism and industriousness. Despite the harshest conditions, millions of individual people make the most of their lives, running businesses, scratching a living and in doing so, they achieve self-worth. Not a single handout sought or blame apportioned. Just hard work and self-help. And always with a smile.

In Britain, we have seemingly lost the power to help ourselves, looking to others for solutions. But we are capable beyond measure. We are our own leaders if we choose to be. We do not need politicians or bureaucrats to tell us what to do, how to live and what we need to improve our lives, what is best for us and when, where and how. We have the self-knowledge and power to take control of our own lives and those around us, to do what is best for our children, our families and our communities. Politics is simply the business of people and public affairs.

Following the riots which brought home quite how broken and separated we are from ourselves and each other, we have an opportunity to change the course of history and every single person has the power to be a part of that change.

But that is only possible if we stand up and take part, if we participate, if we are interested, if we take responsibility, if we lead our children by example and affect others to do the same with a sense of common good. It is every man’s responsibility and anything less is a dereliction of duty. And in doing so, we can be proud of the society that we have each played a part in creating.

The time has arrived to become a nation of business and social entrepreneurs who make things happen, for ourselves, our families, our communities, our country. As a great man once said, ‘become the change you want to see’. In work, in personal life, everywhere, walk out of the door today, find purpose and make something happen that matters to you and for those around you. It’s not apathy or lack of purpose that has stopped us so far, it’s just that nobody has shown us how fulfilling and rewarding it is to participate and make things happen.

This post was written by RUDI SCHOGGER
Rudi Schogger is an Business and Social Entrepreneur.

The amount of startups founded by young entrepreneurs under the age of 20 is rapidly on the rise. The latest teenage generation are the first too have grown up with the internet, and with the ease of access when it comes to starting a business online many bright entrepreneurs have emerged whilst still in their teens.

It is also more common place to see teens who have taught themselves code and are able to create innovative web apps due to the freedom they possess. As this generation have grown up along with social networks they know how to leverage these. What may start out as hobby/after school project can turn into a real business.

But how do you survive as a real business when you are just seen as a kid?

As a teenager you are left with less responsibility. No kids, mortgage etc… (Well most of the time)  to look after. The risks to consider for a teenpreneur are much less in this sense.

Often a lot of the larger organizations that are more established,  are seeing real competition from startups with young founders who are have grown up with a different way of thinking. As the world continues to change and the face of business changes as well, the mindset of the older organizations are different too those of the younger entrepreneurs and that is where the next generation of young entrepreneurs can gain a competitive advantage over larger corporations in older industries.

We as a younger generation take for granted much of what we see as being the norm, but in reality it is still very new. This is a new way of doing business, older generations grew up and learned a different way of business. As a younger generation comes through and spend ever increasing amounts of time online, businesses no matter what background are having to have an online presence, which may be more than just a website and actually have to offer their products & services online.

A big consideration whens starting your company whilst still very young, is how are you supposed to be taken seriously as a young entrepreneur? It can be harder when getting loans or trying to work with suppliers and partners. How about when trying to get funding? It’s obviously a lot easier when you can show that your business is making money and your model is working, but it can often take a lot of attempts to get there (also having a co founder helps). This is where the power of networking and building strong relationships can help, especially within your own industry.

Entrepreneurs these days have a greater network to learn from than before. It is so easy for anyone to get online and find networking events they can attend or just interact with others who have been through it already. Social networks are the main facilitators of this. Places like Twitter & LinkedIn have allowed young entrepreneurs to compete with the corporate world as they have been able to build strong networks with other young entrepreneurs and also gain knowledge from many others young and old.

I think that young entrepreneurs are not seen to be as much of a pushover as maybe they were previously. Many young entrepreneurs have made it in the past, just look at Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. But I think it’s only now that with the internet, that entrepreneurship has opened up for a lot of under 30′s to be able to take their ideas and go through with it. The barriers to entry are so much lower and the nature of many businesses have changed giving young entrepreneurs the advantage in many industries, except maybe manufacturing.

I think one aspect that is slowly changing is the acceptance of entrepreneurship as a viable career choice, especially when you are young and have no experience, but you have passion and an idea. Much of what we get taught in school is still a very old way of thinking. The education system can’t keep up with the way world and business is progressing and innovating.

Only now are universities offering entrepreneurship courses, but to be honest it’s not just offering a course at university. The entrepreneurial spirit is something you have inside you, it’s a way of thinking and it’s something you grow up with. What about before university, can we see that entrepreneurial spirit and let it flourish?

Starting your own business whilst still being young can be daunting, but surely it’s more daunting when you are older and potentially have more to lose. Big steps have definitely been made and with more media attention being put on the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, hopefully young entrepreneurs can make a bigger impact across many industries and not just in tech (online).

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Startup Weekend is an intense 54 hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

Here is a video to explain a bit more:

Next weekend will see Startup weekend take place in many cities including San Francisco where it is being held at pariSoma between 3-5th June. Every weekend after that will see more cities across the world play host to this hugely popular event.

The London event will be held over the second weekend of September with the venue TBC. To see the list of all the cities and dates visit the Startup Weekend site.

Founded by Andrew Hyde in July of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, Startup Weekend saw over 80 events take place within the first two years and it has now spread to over 100 cities in 30 countries.

So how successful are these startups, well over 36% of Startup Weekend startups are still going strong after 3 months & Roughly 80% of participants plan on continuing working with their team or startup after the weekend. One of the biggest successes has been Foodspotting founded by Soraya Darabi (who we covered last year) has over 600,000 users and has received $3.75 million in funding.

Here is a video from a recent event in Baltimore:

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Ian Hogarth is the CEO & Co-founder of Songkick. I recently caught up him to talk about the company he founded four years ago after quitting his job at Bain & Company, Singapore. Ian holds a Master’s in machine learning at Cambridge.

Songkick helps you keep track of live music. By integrating your iTunes, Last.fm or Pandora profile, you are able to receive alerts by email whenever a band you listen to announces a date in your city. It also shows users where to buy the cheapest tickets and see who else is going.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this with me Ian, How are you doing today?

Great thanks! Thanks for taking an interest in our product.

Can you give the readers some background information about yourself, especially about what you were doing before you started Songkick?

Sure. Pete and I are best friends from Cambridge where he studied law and I studied Engineering. Michelle and I met studying Mandarin in Beijing. We quit our jobs in publishing (Michelle), enterprise software (Pete) and strategy consulting (Ian) to start Songkick.

How did the idea for Songkick come about and what made you decide that this was the right idea for you to pursue?

We all share a huge love for live music, and believe that seeing your favourite bands live is something everyone should experience more. We knew a lot of friends who wanted to see more concerts but didn’t have time to keep track of when their favrouite bands came to town. We realised we could use our software development skills to simplify that process and autumatically tell you when bands you listen to announce dates in your city.

Can you tell explain to the readers what Songkick is about?

Songkick helps you keep track of live music. You sign up, give us access to your iTunes, Last.fm or Pandora profile, and we’ll then alert you by email whenever a band you listen to announces a date in your city. We’ll show you where to buy the cheapest tickets and see who else is going.

What would you say was the hardest part of setting up the business?

Finding our first few hires. We were very lucky to meet an amazing developer very early on, Phil Cowans who was working at Microsoft Research then. Looking back, persuading him to quit his job and join us was one of the most significant events.

You rolled out a new integration with Warner!, Can you tell us about it?

Yes absolutely. In order to able to tell our users about every concert by their favourite artists we have built up the most comprehensive database of concert information in the world. We’re very excited to be working with Warner to power the tour data on their artist sites, thus ensuring that bands can present the most accurate and timely data on their tour dates to their fans. This saves bands and managers significant time, and means they can spend more time on their music.

Should we be expecting any other new features on the platform anytime soon?

Yes we have two big launches coming…stay tuned!

How is Songkick funded and what is your revenue model?

We are funded by angels and VCs from the technology and music industries including Y Combinator, Index Ventures, Alex Zubillaga, Jeff Clavier, Stefan Glaenzer, Peter Read, Dan Porter, Betaworks and other great angels.

We generate revenue by generating sales of commerce related to live music – tickets and soon merchandise and live recordings. We are a lead generation engine for the live music industry helping to solve the problem that 50% of concert tickets go unsold.

How has the your market changed since the company’s launch in 2007 and how has your business changed to keep pace?

The ticketing market has continued to fragment with some fantastic new ticketing services emerging like Crowdsurge, Eventbrite, Ticketfly and Topspin, so we’ve continued to focus on aggregating the largest database of concert listings to provide the best service to our users.

What are the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

Improving the quality of our user experience. That leads to happier users who spread the word more passionately to their friends.

As a UK-Based company that is successful and has been successful with funding, Do you think start-ups in the US have it easier than the UK? What is your take on this?

I think wherever you do it a start-up is hard. In London you have a few advantages as well as the well publicised disadvantages – it’s slightly easier to hire a great team, and for us London has more concerts than any other city in the world, so we’re close to a major live music market which helps refine new ideas.

If you you were to start another enterprise, what might it be?

I would like to do something to help reduce child trafficking.

Since the launch of the company in 2007, what moment would you describe as the most memorable so far?

The night we logged 1 million gigs in our database, and stayed up watching the database before launching a major new version of our site.

What three pieces of advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out today?

Stay as focused as possible and keep simplifying down your ideas till you have something small you can launch quickly and iterate on. Be ruthless in hiring only the best people. Keep fit and try to exercise even in the longest times.

Finally before we go, Songkick has been a company that has been very successful with raising money, Could you share some tips on raising money?

Be authentic. Find other entrepreneurs to mentor you through the process. Try to avoid letting raising money distract you from what really matters – building a great product and delighting your users.

Thanks for your time Ian