Prime Minister David Cameron helped launch the ‘StartUp Britain’ initiative this morning. StartUp Britain is a ground-breaking response from the private sector to the Government’s call for an “enterprise-led” recovery. The campaign aims to deliver the support and advice for startups and is led by entrepreneurs and is not being backed by government money.

StartUp Britain is the UK’s response to surprise, surprise, Startup America. The American campaign however is funded by the government.

The initiative is essentially offering a package of discounts and free trial on business services like insurance, broadband, advertising, office space and more. The claim is that this amounts to over £1,500 in value for every startup company in Britain. The StartUp Britain site is a portal to all these offers and sources of advice.

David Cameron has always been pro-enterprise and earlier had this to say:

“We won’t build the future we want to see in this country if we go back to the bad old days of big government spending, big borrowing and big debt. The recovery we need is a private sector-led recovery, a recovery with ‘Made in Britain’ stamped all over it.

“We need to see a country where new businesses are starting up on every street, in every town; where entrepreneurs are everywhere.

In the UK we see 270,000 businesses startup every year and unfortunately a high number of these fail, many due to the lack of support. What I like about this campaign, is that although it is backed by the government (and has David Cameron’s face plastered all over it; sigh) it is actually an initiative run by entrepreneurs. The fact that already over 50 businesses have signed up to offer help is a good sign and can hopefully spur others into helping startups in the UK; although at the moment it needs to progress beyond what looks like a bit like a coupon site.

It remains to be seen how this campaign will progress but it looks promising. Here is a list of the entrepreneurs that are backing this project:

- Jamie Murray Wells, Glasses Direct
- Rajeeb Dey, Enternships
- Duncan Cheatle, The Supper Club
- Oli Barrett, Co-Sponsorship Agency
- Emma Jones, Enterprise Nation
- Michael Hayman, Seven Hills
- Richard O’Connor, Chocolate & Love
- Lara Morgan, Pacific Direct

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That’s right YHP is hosting a networking event in London on the 23rd November 2010 between 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM (GMT)

Event Details

ABOUT

The YHP Connect is a monthly meet up where entrepreneurs, investors, talents can both come together under one roof to chill, relax and connect.

YHP Connect gives entrepreneurs and talents a place to network/connect with each other in a spontaneous way, Good music, Classy Location, and an opportunity to listen to top entrepreneurs, investors, talent give tips & advice about their journey.

A place where you can invite a business partner and associate to meet up with you to have a drink and talk business.

While sending emails, texts, tweets, skype are all quick and effective way to communicate and network, nothing still beats the physical connection between people. Word of mouth is still the most powerful advertising tool.

As the event keeps expanding, we hope to invite key investors, so you never know, you might get your opportunity.

This is a community where we could all help each other, in collaboration, feedback, advice and funding.

AGENDA

6:30PM: Registration, Mini- networking session & Entertainment (Sara Sullivan)

6:50pm: Joseph Ajilore, Founder of YHP – Quick Introduction

7:00pm : Rajeeb Dey – Founder of Enternships

7:15pm – Reshma Sohoni – CEO of Seedcamp

7:30pm – Viviane Jaeger – Co-Founder, Managing and Creative Director at SquidLondon

7:45pm: Entertainment (Acoustic Performance by Sara Sullivan), Break & Networking

8:15pm – Jessica Rose – Founder/Director of the London Jewellery School

8:30pm – Becky Benfield – Founder of UH (Utterly Horses)

8:45pm – Rob Soltanie – Founder/Acquisition Director of Best Property Company UK LTD

9:00pm: Questions & Answers

9:15pm – 10:00pm: Networking

SPEAKERS

Rajeeb Dey – CEO/Founder of Enternships

Rajeeb is the Founder/CEO of Enternships.com, a service providing “entrepreneurial work placements” by
connecting talented students and graduates to start-ups, SMEs and “intrapreneurial” firms worldwide.

Rajeeb – who has been named as one of the UK’s “rising stars of the business world” by Spectator Business Magazine – graduated with First Class Honours in June 2008 from the University of Oxford in Economics & Management. Whilst at University he was the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs, one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe, with over 4000 members.

Reshma Sohoni – CEO of Seedcamp

Reshma is one of the co-founders of Seedcamp and runs it on a day-to-day basis as its CEO. She joined Seedcamp from the Venture team at 3i. Prior to 3i, Reshma spent over 3 years at Vodafone in their Commercial Strategy team, working across the Europe and Japan footprints in marketing strategy and pricing functions. Reshma started her career in the US in investment banking (Broadview) and venture capital (Softbank). Reshma also serves on the boards of Launch48 and Zoombu along with managing 21 companies in the Seedcamp portfolio.

Viviane Jaeger – Co-Founder, Managing and Creative Director at SquidLondon

Viviane is the co-founder, managing and Creative Director of Squid london, a company that she and her co-founder started in june 2008, to give you a perfect picture of what squid london is about. Imagine you are walking down the street, it starts to rain and your ordinary black umbrella interacts and changes colour in the rain, creating a walking piece of art – called a ‘wearable piece of art’ by Time Out New York.

She is a graduate(BA (Hons) from London College of Fashion where she studied Product Design and Developement.

Jessica Rose – Founder/Director of the London Jewellery School

Jessica Rose is a jewellery designer and Founder/ Director of the London Jewellery School, the UK’s largest independent jewellery training centre. The jewellery school is based in the heart of London’s famous jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden and attracts 100’s of students per year. With over 100 different classes to choose from, from beading and silver to glass and resin – there is something for everyone. Aged just 23 Jessica regularly teaches classes as well as Directing the school and she is soon to be featured on a documentary for BBC2 focusing on young creative entrepuners.

Becky Benfield – Founder of UH (Utterly Horses)

Becky started the company at the age of 16. Utterly Horses is now recongised as the UKs leading Model horse specialist and is known as “The Home of the Model Horse” Utterly Horses have been featured in countless National Newspapers, on TV and on the Radio.

Becky won the Essex Entrepeneur of the Year Award at age 17. The youngest winner in the awards history. In her spare time, she does lots of active things like climb mountains and run in marathons to raise money for charity. She also does lots of volunteering work with her local community and is studying towards an Degree in the Arts.

Becky is a Member (or fellow) of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Her company reached their 50,000th order in 2009.

Rob Soltanie – Founder/Acquisition Director of Best Property Company UK LTD

Robert is a London based entrepreneur, with expertise in the London Property and Financial Markets.

He is also Chairman, Ex-President and Founder of Kingston Entrepreneurs at Kingston Entrepreneurs

His company Best Property Uk Ltd specialises in Property acquisition which includes short term fund raising from high net worth individuals and acquiring distressed London property below their market value with the view of adding value and disposing within 3 – 12 months either via private treaty or auction.

So where is it being held?

Juju Bar
316 – 318 King’s Road, Chelsea
SW3 5UH
U.K London
United Kingdom

You can purchase your £5 tickets here!

Follow me on Twitter to keep up to date on YHP Connect events.

After last year and also with the financial instability of the country, everyone was practically diving into the pool of entrepreneurship and i just wanted to highlight some of the entrepreneurs that i think due to their hunger, passion and dedication(Giving credit to whom credit is due or something like that) to their work are definitely going to kick ass in 2010.

Enjoy and Share

Rajeeb Dey

Check out my interview with him.

Rajeeb Dey is the 24 year old Founder & CEO of Enternships.com- Enternships provides ambitious and dynamic students and graduates with an opportunity to learn about business and enterprise through work placements in entrepreneurial and innovative environments, from start-ups to global venture funds around the world.

David Langer

David Langer is the CEO/Co-Founder at GroupSpaces, A funded startup making it easier to manage groups online.

Funny Enough, I actually just finished an interview with him, check it out!

Kieran O’Neill

Kieran O’neill is a 22 year old serial web entrepreneur and Co-Founder/CEO of Playfire.com – the fast growing social network for gamers.

Samata Angel

Samata Angel is a British-born Ghanaian award-winning fashion entrepreneur, author, designer and TV personality. Samata’s Muse clothing label specialises in womenswear with clients including the likes of Dawn Angeliqué Richard and Jennifer Lopez with press to date including VOGUE.com, Fashion United, Look Magazine (UK), Pride Magazine, ITN, London Lite, Fashion Africa and Fashion Capital.

Check out my interview with her

Andre Campbell

21 years old Andre Campbell is the Founder at Enfuse Youth a youth led consultancy aimed at improving the life opportunities for young people; a start up he intends to turn into a global organisation for the betterment of young people across the world.

Julian Polzella

Julian Polzella is CTO at VouChaCha- VouChaCha powered applications find the hottest deals within walking distance of your location, Great deals on your iPhone. He also holds a 1st class BSc (Hons.) degree in Computing Sciences.

They just recently partnered up with lastminute.com on the snaffle application.

Lucian Tarnowski

Lucian Tarnowski is the 25 years old founder and CEO of BraveNewTalent.com- An initiative to give young people a place to engage and have their voices heard about their future.

Jude Gomila

Jude Gomila is a 25 year old British entrepreneurand one of the co-founders of the website Heyzap- Heyzap is a casual games and monetization platform which allows users to embed games on any website or blog by way of a widget and/or API.

Hermione way

Hermione Way is the 24 years old founder of Newspepper.com and Techfluff.TV.

Techfluff TV showcases the more vibrant, lively side of the European tech scene, with interviews, reviews and features on tech start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Newspepper.com makes the hottest video for the internet, from events coverage to live streaming and video PR to promotional videos.

Robert Matthams

Robert Matthams is the 25-year-old founder and CEO of Shiply.com – Shiply helps you find cheap courier services by matching yourself up with couriers & delivery companies already making similar trips across the UK & Europe.

Watch out for our interview with him in 2010

Let me know your thoughts

Enternships provides ambitious and dynamic students and graduates with an opportunity to learn about business and enterprise through work placements in entrepreneurial and innovative environments, from start-ups to global venture funds around the world.

Enternships was pioneered in association with Oxford Entrepreneurs, a student-run society at Oxford University which encourages and supports student entrepreneurship and is one of the largest in Europe. They now have the support of key enterprise agencies and some of the world’s leading student entrepreneurial societies.

Rajeeb, Glad to be finally doing this interview with you, how are you doing today?

Very well thank you – slightly overwhelmed with the amount of work to do but glad that the Christmas holidays are fast approaching!

So can you give us some background information about yourself?

I am the Founder & CEO of Enternships.com. I recently turned 24 and graduated with First Class Honours in June 2008 from the University of Oxford in Economics & Management. Whilst at University I was the longest serving President of Oxford Entrepreneurs, one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe.

I have been heavily involved in social entrepreneurship and youth participation matters from an early age. At the age of 17, I became the Founder & Chairman of the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA) – the first national student run organisation empowering secondary school students, giving them a voice in education.

My work in promoting entrepreneurship has led to me becoming one of the first Ambassadors for the Enterprise UK’s “Make Your Mark Campaign”. My other roles include being a Trustee of UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs; Trustee of the Phoenix Education Trust; a Commissioner on the Carnegie UK Trust’s Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society; Education Advisory Board Member for Channel 4; and an Advisory Board Member of the UK-India Business Council (UKIBC).

Wow, Talk about doing a lot.

So what were you doing before you started this business?

I graduated from University in June 2008 and started working on Enternships pretty much straight after graduating.

When did you start your business?

The site was running as a basic listing service for a few years however I started working on the concept of it being a formal recruitment portal after graduating. I registered the company in February 2009; launched the beta website in May 2009 and had our ‘official’ launch party during Global Entrepreneurship Week on 17th November where 900 entrepreneurs & graduates go together to celebrate our launch.

I still can’t believe how i managed to miss out on this experience, I have julian polzella of vouchacha

What made you start your business? How did the idea come about?

Enternships.com started as a simple listing service which I set up as President of Oxford Entrepreneurs (one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe). Companies were approaching me to advertise opportunities as they were keen to reach entrepreneurial candidates. Over time it became evident that more and more small companies wanted to reach students and with no proactive marketing, word of mouth led to over 160 placements being advertised. It also became clear that in the current job market with less roles available in large corporations it’s time to look to the ‘long tail’ of industry.

How did you get capital to fund your business?

As an online venture you do not need vast amounts of money to get going. I estimate that it has cost me between £10,000 – £15,000 to get started which has been a mixture of my own savings and financial support from my parents.

What is your business’s USP?

Enternships.com is a portal which connects students/graduates to start-ups and SMEs worldwide who provide entrepreneurial work placements (“entrepreneurial internships”). SMEs struggle to find talent and lack the recruitment budgets of “blue-chip firms” to undertake the traditional ‘milkround’. Enternships therefore provides these companies with visibility on campus and serves as a central place for start-ups to reach out to talent.

Up until now small companies have had to rely on adhoc listing services where often they would be spammed or inundated with irrelevant enquiries; Enternships provides them with a centralised system to manage recruitment in a more targeted manner.

How many people are involved in Enternships?

There are 4 of us working in the team

What are the tools that you would subscribe to young entrepreneurs doing businesses online?

LinkedIn as a means to keep in touch with your business contacts and storing the information on business cards. I have a personal (@rajdey) and business profile (@enternships) on Twitter. We also have a Facebook group for Enternships:

It’s important to embrace the free social media tools which are out there and which help promote your business.

What was your biggest surprise in starting and running your business?

How easy it is to officially set up and start trading (although there is a lot of nitty gritty admin e.g. filing accounts, keeping on top of legislation around employment law etc)

Would you have done anything differently if you could?

I don’t think I regret anything (yet); everything has been a learning experience for me – I am a big believer in learning my doing and making mistakes as you go along. I initially entered into arrangements with suppliers in a naive manner whereby I offered equity instead of cash (as I haven’t gone to raise investment as yet). Offering equity is great however it needs to be carefully thought out and the right agreements and arrangements need to be put in place in case things do not work out later down the line.

What is the most valuable lesson that you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur?

The need to develop a strong and multi-disciplinary team around you; you cannot have all the skills / answers yourself so it’s your ability to have support around you which will help you flourish.

What major obstacles and pitfalls have you had to overcome?

Mostly these have been related to delays with the development of the portal and hitting targets however I’d say that they have been blessing in disguise as the initial delay in “soft launching” the beta portal meant we launched at the peak of the graduate unemployment crisis meaning far more interest and coverage of our launch.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are struggling to achieve success? Especially during this time of recession?

Stick at it; the recession provides lots of opportunities to spot broken business models and new ways of tackling existing problems. Tenacity is a virtue and if you have conviction in your idea and belief in yourself just keep at it. It is also important to have a think about what success really means to you – people have different aims and objectives in life and you shouldn’t measure your success against other people but against where you were when you started, where you are now and where you hope to be. Success doenst happen overnight and the entrepreneurs who can weather the downturn are the ones who will emerge the strongest in the long-run. Ultimately some of the best businesses have historically been started in an economic downturn.

You, have achieved so much and so many accolades such as “Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Award” and also “02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009” . How does it feel to win all of these awards?

It’s great to get recognised through these awards and I am truly honoured and privileged to have received them. I should say however they are not the be all and end all. It’s a long and tough journey when you’re starting out – these awards provide you with additional impetus to keep going however you cannot lose sight of your end goal and vision.

What are plans for enternships.com? Where would you like to see it in the next five years?

Over the next 5 years I would like the word ‘enternship’ to be widely recognised and become increasingly common parlance to describe work placements in entrepreneurial environments (start-ups and small businesses). I hope that we will become the definitive place for students and graduates around the world to find the hottest work opportunities and just as future lawyers, accountants, bankers etc look for internships I want Enternships.com to be the first port of call for all aspiring entrepreneurs and those who want to learn firsthand about business.

What should we be expecting from you in the future?

Who know?! Lots probably…watch this space!

Thanks for your time, good luck and we hope to hear from you in the future.

Rajeeb Dey – Twitter
– LinkedIN
– Enternships

His Interview on CNN