I admit it! I was abit jealous, in some ways I find Arnaud and my path a bit similar – I guess in the whole starting a Housetrip kind of website thingy – I actually did start it, this was before I knew anything about raising money and anything like that in university and ask anyone that has started, thinking of starting, ran an holiday rental website just how competitive and expensive it is if you want to compete or create a big business out of.

Before setting up the interview with Arnaud – I sat down on my bed for a minute browsing through the website- Maybe I was too cautious, maybe I just dint see it as a business then but just as a way to travel around the UK renting apartments, maybe I dint tell enough people or just maybe the better man won, these thoughts ran through my head.

It was impossible for me to ignore Housetrips. I saw what Arnaud had done with Housetrip that I was inspired, excited and jealous all at the same time, It brought some good memories and it made me decide to interview with on YHP about his journey so far.

Here is my interview with Arnaud Bertrand – CEO and Founder of HouseTrip

Can you give us some background information about yourself, were you the entrepreneurial type growing up?

I am 27 years old, grew up in France until I was 18 when I left to study at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in Switzerland. I founded HouseTrip with my wife Junjun straight out of university.

My parents are entrepreneurs and so are Junjun’s. From a very young age, I just could not see being anything else other than my own boss.

Tell me how the idea for Housetrip came about?

I remember exactly when and why I got the idea for HouseTrip. My wife and I were driving from London to Lausanne (Switzerland). The car was completely packed with all the stuff we had accumulated during our seven-month internships in London and I was thinking about an incident that had occurred a few weeks before.

We had been given some time off from our internship to enjoy a brief holiday and we decided on renting a property in Scotland as the idea of a little home overlooking the Lochs really appealed to us. If I knew how long it would take me to secure a booking, I would have thought twice about it!

To find a rental, I did what most modern travellers do: I typed “holiday rental Scotland” in Google. Used to booking hotels online, I naturally tried to find a website where I could do so for rentals. I looked for a long time and just couldn’t find one. I was puzzled. I researched a bit further and to my absolute astonishment I found out that there simply was no global website to book holiday rentals online!

Even though some rentals could be found online, it was through classified ads websites; so the actual booking was never done online. Eventually I used a classifieds’ site and called the owners of about 10 rentals until I finally found one that was available for our dates. I had checked availability manually through the phone: so inefficient! I also had to go to a local Western Union agency to send my payment to the host: I lost 2 hours for that when paying for a hotel is of course immediate online. It was also rather dangerous; who was to say that the person who had received my Western Union money was the real owner? Sending money directly to the owner versus using an intermediary (as in the case of hotels) is actually very unsafe. All in all, it had taken me 2 whole days to make an unsafe booking. But – we had found our opportunity!

So we return to the drive from London to Lausanne. As we sat in the car at Dover, waiting to go across the Channel, an idea popped into my head. Why not develop a website for holiday rentals that was safe and easy-to-use? When the idea forming, I remember picturing many images: a map with a lot of properties tagged on it, an online chat between an owner and a tenant, a “book it now” button, and so much more.

Funny how some mental images stay: they are still in my mind today and I often somehow refer to them – to the original HouseTrip vision – when I need to”

What is Housetrip? Tell me how it works?

HouseTrip is Europe’s largest holiday apartment website, offering holidaymakers and homeowners a safe and easy-to-use platform to find, book and list holiday apartments, houses and villas securely online. There are currently over 61,000 properties to choose from in thousands of destinations worldwide, with over 1,000 new listings added each week.

Once you know where you want to go, just browse through the list of properties available, enter your dates and put in your requests. As soon as the booking has been accepted by the host, you simply pay online with a credit card. HouseTrip holds on to your payment until 2 days after you check-in to make it safe for you at all times. Before you complete your booking, you can read reviews of past guests and get a taste of their HouseTrip experience.

Tell us about the first few months of running the business? What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

At the beginning of HouseTrip, our home was our office. Junjun and I were (and still are) working very hard. Free weekends were out of question. We were convinced that HouseTrip would succeed if we were 100% dedicated. We then convinced a few people that HouseTrip could revolutionise the way people travel and found our first angel investor. After that, things really kicked off and here we are today.

How have you been able to fund the business?

We had a couple of Angel investors on board in 2010 which allowed us to create the first version of the website. In April 2011, HouseTrip attracted $2.7m in Series-A venture capital funding from Index Ventures, one of the world’s most renowned Internet investors. Then, last November, we announced a $17 million (15M CHF) Series B funding round. The investor consortium, led by major UK venture capital firm Balderton Capital also includes existing investor Index Ventures who re-invested pro-rata.

How has the business evolved comparing to your first year of running it, the business model? Strategy?

The business model is identical to when we started. The strategy is clear and ties up with our vision “to delight guests with a great travel experience in rentals anywhere in the world and act as the partner of choice for individuals or professionals who want to generate income for their properties”. It hasn’t changed. Of course, many other things have changed since the very beginning (for one thing we now have 80 employees, 3 offices, etc.) but the core, the vision and the business model, have remained very consistent.

Have you ever rented one of the properties on the website before?

Of course! Many times! I’ve booked twice for myself already in 2012.

What is your business model?

HouseTrip is a marketplace for people to book and list holiday rentals. When guests book online, we take a commission typically between 10 to 20%

How many customers do you have?

I can tell you that we recently celebrated our 500,000th night booked through HouseTrip since we first launched in January 2010!

How do you ensure that the properties are safe for customers to book?

We transfer the money to the host two days after the guests have checked in to ensure that the properties match guests’ expectations. We also have a quality control team that checks each new property added on the site and ensures all the profiles are accurate and as detailed as possible. On top of that we have a “Fraudbuster” team whose job is to track anything suspicious that occurs on the site.

There is a lot of noise in this space, What makes you different from other competing startups out there?

Two things:

We focus on whole properties (i.e. you get the whole apartment for yourself) whereas other companies have a stronger focus on shared spaces

We are the largest in Europe in terms of number of properties we offer

Raising funding can be such a tricky thing to do for startups, especially in Europe – how have you seen that change over the years?

Honestly we’ve been pretty lucky because – apart from the very beginning – we never really had issues raising money. The funding is there and has always been in our lifetime: it’s all about showing the momentum you have with users and how good an investment opportunity your startup is.

As mentioned, you’ve been very successful in raising finance for the company, what advices would you give to startups looking to raise money?

Focus on proving:

That you can grow thanks to the investment (by showing you’ve done it in the past)
Do not be fuzzy: you need to be super analytical in proving the investment rationale
Have a great team: by having people onboard who’ve already proven they can succeed, you reassure investors
Show that making your company succeed is your team’s sole and only focus, show passion

What could you say has been some of the key things you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur?

Focus, focus, focus: better to be excellent at one thing for one audience
Be super analytical
You need to attract the best people
Building a great business takes much more money and effort than I ever imagined

What has been your most memorable moment so far on your entrepreneurial journey?

It might sound very trivial but my absolute best moment was when I helped solved some problems our customer care team in Lisbon was having, as they were really thankful for it. No better feeling for me than making a difference in people’s lives.

What trends, startups, technology are you personally looking forward to in 2012?

I am fascinated by any technological advance that has to do with the human brain (i.e. ability to read our thoughts, making blind people see by making their brain read electronic signals, etc.) so it would be very interesting to see some innovations around that.

What are your other plans for Housetrip in 2012?

Our three key goals for the year are:

Improve the Product (through increased functionality of the website)
Increase Inventory (through additional outreach to holiday apartment hosts)
Reach (through marketing and localisation)

What pieces of advices could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs out there looking to start their business?

Just do it! It’s like swimming for the first time – the most difficult thing is to jump in the pool.

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

After our feature on him a while ago, I decided it was time to do an long overdue catchup and interview with him.

This is my interview with Chester Mojay-Sinclare – Founder of Charity Checkout

Hi Chester, Its’ great to have you on YHP, how are you doing today?

Great. I’m in a really good place right now; things are going my way both in business and my personal life right now.

What about you?

I’m great Chester, thanks for asking, as you know we launched our digital magazine, so that’s been great.

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I was born in London, but grew up in Devon. I was a difficult child and got expelled from primary school at a young age. I went on the ‘straight and narrow’ during secondary school and went on to read Philosophy at UCL, were I set-up a couple businesses. I graduated last year and am now the Consultant Entrepreneur at UCL Business Plc and I also run one of the businesses I founded while at UCL.

How did you get into entrepreneurship? What was your first business?

I started my first business washing cars at the weekend, when I was about 7 years old. I started selling CDs in the playground by 13 years old and I formed my first company at 17 years. I used to import jumping stilts and other daft items from China for UK market traders, but I closed that to finish my A Level exams and then take a year to travel Australia, before university.

Tell me about your university experience, graduating from UCL?

Yes, UCL is where my passion for wheeling and dealing was nurtured into something more sophisticated. I won several entrepreneurship awards while at UCL and received a lot of support and investment from UCL Advances, the universities centre for entrepreneurship. I still have tied with UCL, as I am the Consultant Entrepreneur at UCL Business Plc and they have invested in my business.

What would you say was some of the biggest lessons you took away from your university experience?

I learnt that a university has much more to offer than a good education in your chosen subject and that it is the things you do when you are not in class that really matter.

How did the idea for Charity Checkout come about?

The idea was inspired by the very first charities to register on our not-for-profit site, AliveandGiving.com. When we launched the site in 2009 I made a real effort to speak to as many of the new charities as possible. I noticed many were telling me they were intended to use the site to accept donations via their website. I did not think this was a good idea, sending donors off to a third party site to make their donation. Then I realised this was almost the norm amongst smaller charities, so I figured we could build something more flexible and suitable for this purpose.

What is Charity Checkout?

Charity Checkout is a donation-processing gateway for charities. We provide a utility that allows charities to easily set-up branded and customisable donation pages for their own website, email newsletters and social media profiles, so they can take donation easily via the web. We also process Gift Aid on behalf of our charities and are the only provider in the UK to offer discounts to smaller charities.

Since the last time we wrote about your company, what has been happening?

We’ve actually made some really positive changes. We have gone commission free, which means we do not take a cut of your donation for ourselves. This means we have the lowest transaction costs in our industry. We also offer free trials and we have been acquiring new clients much faster.

How have you been able to fund the company?

We’ve had various investors; UCL Advances and UCL Business Plc have been a great support.

What’s your business model?

We charge a small monthly fee for access to our system and we are now also offering websites to small and medium charities.

Is the company profitable?

We run a subscription based revenue model, so this will take time as the number of charities using our platform grows month on month. We’re making sales and growing our user base a good pace so we’re looking good.

What has been your most memorable moment so far on your journey?

The launch party AliveandGiving.com was pretty memorable; I’d never launched anything like that before and was very optimistic about the whole thing. It was great fun, although someone broke my laptop that night.

What has been some of the most crucial things you have done to grow your business?

I’ve managed to put together a very experienced and talented team through a partnership with another company. That’s protected me from making some major mistakes that most young entrepreneurs will probably make.

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

Can I give a quote instead? Nolan Bushnell said, “A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

What plans do you have now to expand your business further in 2012?

We’re going to significantly increase our sales effort and affiliate scheme. This year is all about sales. We’ve also got a few little tricks up our sleeve…

Concept Cupboard is an online marketplace with a social purpose. It’s a place where businesses can work with the next generation of creative talent to produce professional and cost effective marketing [Click here to learn more about how it works] and today I had the opportunity of Interviewing one of the founders of the company, Chris Dodson, and this is what we talked about.

Can you give us some background information about yourself

My background is in marketing. After studying marketing at university in the UK & US I decided to go and work for an agency. Joining a big corporate just wasn’t that appealing and it has been that way ever since. Prior to starting up Concept Cupboard I was working for an awesome advertising agency called archibald ingall stretton, just off Oxford Street. It was a brilliant place to work, with lots of fun talented people.

The last 12 months have been incredible and it’s been a massive learning curve. I’m now Managing Director of Concept Cupboard, one of 30 Marketing Academy scholars in the UK & I also managed to make it into the final 8 of the Shell LiveWire’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. I’ve even been to 10 Downing Street. All of which has been made possible by setting up Concept Cupboard.

How did the idea for Concept Cupboard come about

I had the idea for Concept Cupboard while on a train from London to Nottingham en route to a stag do. I had two hours where I switched off my phone and just scribbled down some business ideas and after the weekend was over I asked one of my client’s at O2 what he thought (luckily I didn’t lose my notes). It transpired that he loved the idea and wanted me to meet some of his friends to discuss it in more detail. During dinner we decided to join forces and go into business together. I left my job about 6 weeks later and started working on Concept Cupboard full-time.

Some of the key things you’ve learnt along the way

I’m learning all of the time. There is no guide for running a business and so you make it all up as you go along. Getting advice from other business owners is a massive help, and you often find people are experiencing similar difficulties. But every business is different and the way you approach problems will never be the same so ultimately it is your call. It’s quite scary but also extremely liberating.

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt so far is to focus. I am very clear on the things that will drive the business forward and I ensure that they are prioritised above everything else. AS you can imagine it also helps the team know what they need to do.

A difficult period starting the business and how you overcame it.

We haven’t had any real difficulties to date (touch wood). I think they become more common as you grow and stop being a startup, e.g. when you have 30+ staff. We aren’t quite there yet, but hopefully soon.

The business now: your plans for the future?

We’ve had a good first year winning a number of business awards, including being named as one of the 20 best UK startups of 2011. That’s given us a nice confidence boost and helped shape our plans of where we can go with Concept Cupboard. We are coming up to our first year anniversary so that is a great milestone in itself. It is crazy to think that about 12 months ago Concept Cupboard didn’t exist in the public domain.

Later this year we’ll be launching Concept Cupboard globally as well as adding new services & features to the UK site. Watch this space.

Advice to young entrepreneurs starting out.

There isn’t a better time to start your own business, especially if you are leaving school or university. Startups are in vogue in the UK at the moment, and investors & the media are looking out for the next big thing. It’s a perfect environment for young new companies to thrive in.

My advice to anyone starting out would be to as follows:

- Have a clear idea of what the business is and how you will generate revenue. I personally don’t think you need a 20-page business plan but you do need a document that sets out your vision. If you can do that in a few pages then great, but put energy and effort into making it as good as it can be. You can always update it as you go.

- Develop a thick skin quickly. People will say no. Some might even say that your business won’t succeed. By all means listen to constructive criticism and don’t ignore feedback because that can be dangerous. They might have some good points, but you’ll meet people who don’t have the vision you do. Don’t let it get you down.

- Pick up the phone & get out a meet people. It is really easy to just sit behind your computer and get a business started, but to create partnerships and generate word of mouth recommendations you need to get out and meet people. Go to relevant events, call up potential partners/customers, set up meetings etc.

- Enter business awards. There are so many business awards programmes out there so even if you have just started you can find competitions to enter. They are so good for PR and raising your awareness, especially if you enter competitions specifically for young people. Competitions like Shell LiveWire not only offer cash prizes, but really do give you some credibility.

Skip has pioneered territory on the digital frontier for nearly 20 years. All told, he has brought a dozen new media models to market for startups and giants alike. As a college student, he started the first Super Bowl website, selling out sponsorships in two weeks. He raised more than $10 million to build the first educational network (ASPIN), founded top Southwest web development firm Rhino, and launched one of the country’s first broadband networks at Cox Communications. He ran and sold SimpleDevices, headed sales and business development for JiWire, and helped establish, Excite@Home. On the corporate side, Skip ran the Yahoo! Global Alliances organization, introducing several media innovations for the company’s top 50 accounts multi-million dollar accounts. Simply put, he’s always running something. When it’s not a company, it’s endurace races: more than 50 marathons, 10 Ironman Triathlons and too many adventure races to count.

Hey Skip, great to have you on YHP today!

First of all what is Martini Media?

Martini Media is the digital media and content platform for engaging the richest audience with the most money and influence online. With more than 1,000 publishers organized across multiple lifestyle and business verticals, Martini Media has helped the world’s leading brands reach more than 90 million consumers across the globe that invest in their passions at work and play. Martini Media’s full-service marketing capabilities encompass display, video, mobile, social and audience targeting to effectively engage the most valuable audience online at scale.

And so when did you come up with this idea and what were you doing at the time?

The more money an audience makes, the more digitally savvy they are. In addition, this affluent audience is projected to overtake other demographics to become the most engaged group on the web. In my mind, when a consumer group moves from the least to the most engaged, this provides a great business opportunity and Martini Media was created to take advantage of that opportunity.

Prior to Martini Media, I worked at a start-up company, JiWire, which connects advertisers to the mobile audience, using the world’s largest location-based interactive media channel.

Had you started a company before and if so, what did you find was your biggest challenge when starting your first company?

I started my first company in college. The start-up I created, Rhino, focused on the movement from sports teams and engaging content to the web. Rhino still exists and is profitable. However, that start-up has the same challenge I face today, which is educating and proving to the marketplace that digital, whether it is in web development or in advertising in the case of Martini, is the right area to shift traditional dollars into.

What was been you’re biggest challenge at Martini media and how did you overcome it?

The top challenge for Martini is finding the best talent who can devote a considerable amount of resources and effort to ensure that Martini Media not only achieves its goals but disrupts the status quo in B2B, B2C and the lifestyle space. Talent is required to innovate and that innovation is required to achieve market share.

You recently raised $13 million in venture capital, how will you use this to help Martini media grow?

We plan to use the capital to ensure our company can horizontally scale in the U.S. and in Europe, resulting in more products and revenue per head based on technology and product investments.

How did you fund the company initially?

Venrock allowed me to work inside of its incubator called “The Quarry” and take advantage of the existing resources Venrock provided, as well as the sister and brother companies that were born there.

What would be your tip for aspiring entrepreneurs?

You need to have pig-headed determination, persistence and discipline. Professionally, you need to make sure your company can answer the 4 T’s:

• Do you have the right team?
• Are you seeing traction?
• Do you have technology?
• Is the timing right for your company in the marketplace?

So you are a pretty active guy, having run marathons and completed ironman triathlons, how important do you feel it is to have a real passion outside of work, to maybe help improve you while you are working?

It’s very important to be a well-rounded person. If you do not have passions outside the workplace it makes it very difficult for you to draw on other non-work experiences that will ensure you are constantly invigorated, interesting to engage and testing yourself/balancing yourself outside the workplace.

What do you hope to achieve over the next 3 years?

I hope to continue to be able to scale Martini Media vertically, horizontally, geographically and culturally, begin to establish myself and my company as a technology leader and lastly, run the Western States 100 mile race.

Thanks Skip, some great tips there and good luck for the future!

—–
Follow @skipperbrand
Follow @rishi_chowdhury

Brainient is a Shoreditch based startup started by Emi Gal in 2009. Brainient makes it easier for advertisers to get the most out of their video campaigns through interactive video advertising and personalized video retargeting.

We caught up with the company’s 25 year old founder and CEO who started his entrepreneurial journey as a 10 year old creating business cards for the teachers in school.

In the interview below you find out more about:

What Brainient does

Video Advertising

How they got investment

Seedcamp

Most important asset to a company

Biggest Mistake

Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs

Ever since the collapse of the housing market, the American economy has been struggling to recover from the depths of a deep recession. Even though the recession officially ended in 2009, the economy has failed to produce robust job growth for the 13 million unemployed workers in the United States.

Indeed, the unemployment rate still remains stubbornly high at 8.6 percent, a number that is actually artificially low due to the extensive underemployment of skilled workers and the numerous unemployed individuals who have dropped out of the labor force completely.

Meanwhile, corporate profits have rebounded nicely over the past year. In the third quarter, the total net income of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index increased by nearly 18 percent. In total, corporate America is now holding more than $2 trillion in cash on its balance sheets, the largest reserve held by companies in half a century.

However, these large companies are reluctant to use that cash for new jobs and investment given the considerable uncertainty that exists in the current economy. Between the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and low GDP growth in America, companies have decided to sit on their cash and do nothing with it.

In this environment, relying on large, traditional businesses to bring the United States strong economic growth is a risky proposition on account of their risk-averse behavior. Instead, America will need to turn to young, innovative startups to lead the country into its next era of economic prosperity.

One of the few areas of strong growth in American business over the past three years has been in Silicon Valley, a hub of technological innovation and development. In a time where the manufacturing industry has been damaged considerably by foreign competition, the United States still has a distinct advantage in advanced computer and internet technologies.

The amazing thing is that many of these leading companies have only existed for a few years, having been founded by bright college kids with a distinct vision for the future of the internet. For instance, the internet search giant Google, which employs more than 20,000 workers, was only founded in 1998 by two Stanford graduate students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

In addition, one could consider the phenomenal growth of Facebook, a company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room in Harvard, which is now a company rumored to be valued at nearly $100 billion and will be going public sometime in 2012.

Indeed, internet companies have been one of the few areas of growth in the IPO market in recent times. Companies like LinkedIn, NetFlix, Salesforce.com and FusionIO have already gone public, while others such as Zynga have held out. These companies are looking to raise large amount of cash to expand their businesses, not batten down the hatches.

For instance, many internet companies like Google and Facebook have been investing billions of dollars in data centers around the United States, particularly in rural areas that have been particularly hard-hit by the weak economy. Google has employed this strategy since 2006 when it built its first data center in The Dalles, Oregon, a town devastated by the loss of old, declining industries.

For decades, the United States has proudly worn a badge of courage and innovation, but a dying economy has slowed down and eliminated new jobs. Do you think a refocus of tech startups and businesses can save this struggling nation?

Author:

Jessica Silva is an avid skier, minimalist traveler and one of the marketing brains behind the world’s first iphone wallet case.

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?

If you’re still staring at the picture trying to figure out where you’ve see this face…Umm… He was probably on your TV screen on shows like Dragons Den and recently The Apprentice.

Leon is not just a wanna-trepreneur but runs several businesses, most of them during his time studying at the university.

Check out my interview with him.

Photo via [BBC]

When did you first recognise that you had an entrepreneurial spirit, and what is your first memory of you exercising that business acumen?

Paper boy > Lawnmower escapades

What was your first job?

When I was 12 I was a paper boy, then I realised I could double up my hard work. Every house I went to I left a flyer saying I would mow their lawns, that made about 5 times more than my paper round!

I’ve had loads of part time jobs during school and College. My only real full time job was being a Lorry driver for a year when I was 18. ( I was the youngest lorry driver in the country at one point (you had to be 21 but I got into a scheme and was the only one to pass)

Where did you grow up and what are your fondest memories of the area?

Wetherby. I had and still have a lot of great friends from there.

Which school did you attend, did you enjoy it and how well do you think school equipped you for life beyond it?

I went to Ashville College for 10 years and Wetherby High for 3. It equipped me to be a more well rounded individual.

Which university did you go to?

Huddersifeld Uni & Melbourne Uni I chose to study Logistics after my lorry driving days I thought I would set up a logistivs company (it’s way too cutthroat and start up costs don’t make it possible) Graduated in 2009

Tell me about your businesses?

Themastermenu.com – An online Takeaway Directory & Publication business with 900 Takeaways across the UK and Northern Ireland! We also print 10,000 Master Menu brochures advertising a collection of local takeaways menus for densely populated student areas (they are the biggest consumers of fast food)

Whitepumps.co.uk – an online retailer for cheap canvas pumps

0800Divert.me – A great money saving loophole! It costs up to 20p per minutes to dial 0800 & Freephone numbers from your mobile. With this workaround you can now download the app from the app store enter the 0800 number and it pre dials a local landline number then connects you as normal. If you don’t have an iPhone, you can save the landline numbers from 0800Divert.me website (so far we have saved the nation over 15,000 minutes in charged calls

All of my businesses are advertised in the Master Menu as it doesn’t cost me anything and it is delivered to our target demographic.

What first gave you the ideas to set each of them up?

Takeaway menus were constantly being delivered when I was a student in some cases up to 30 different menus per day. It was a light bulb moment. “ all of the takeaways are separately paying for their menus to be designed, printed and distributed “ I approached them with the idea of compiling the menu amongst their competitors and delivering one thicker, glossier brochure to their target market and it was an instant hit!

Whitepumps.co.uk was set up in a heartbeat as I saw so many students wearing these cheap canvas shoes. I met with the wholesaler of Primark and agreed to buy a figure off them. I was able to advertise the pumps in the Mater Menu brochure, which proved to be a great success.

0800Divert also came to me off the back of Master Menu. We have a server that generates landline numbers for our takeaways so with a bit of Telefonymagication it was up and running in no time!

Did you encounter any major problems when first setting up?

I experienced several problems at the beginning down to inexperience. I got ripped off with the first brochures i printed. Now looking back I think I paid almost 70% more than what I pay now and still managed to make a profit on the first publication!

Most days there is a technical problem but that is part of growing a business and learning along the way

When was Mastermenu first up and running? And how did you feel the first day the website went live?

The brochures were the first thing to kick off in 2008 whilst I was at Uni. The Website was launched in 2009. Both felt amazing when we got the first takeaway order notification!

What impact do you think your age had? And do you consider it to be a help or a hindrance?

I’ve never thought of it as either.. It’s nice to know that I have experienced this kind of work now rather than working for someone else for 25 years then giving it ago.

What motivates you to get up each morning and run the businesses?

If I didn’t get up, I wouldn’t have a business.. I look forward to new challenges as everyday is different.

Who else works with you? How many staff do you employ?

5 staff including Designers, Developers, Admin, several Sales Agents and 3 Franchisees across the UK

Why did you decide to stay in Yorkshire, rather than moving to London?

London hasn’t offered me anything more than Yorkshire has, it would just be higher rates and longer commutes!. By the way we have over 150 takeaways in London and I go down twice a month.

What do you love most about the North?

Yorkshire businesses are WAY more friendly than Londoners FACT ( I can say this as I have business in both)

With university fees rising, how much value do you place on the institution for young people today?

It’s a great place to open up your social network. However if you don’t have £9k to blow on this luxury I’d give it a miss.

What impact, if any, has your appearance on The Apprentice had on the businesses?

Priceless promotion, the website crashed when it got 1Million hits during my exit show, I am regularly invited to share my business start up experience with schools and colleges (this is solely down to being on the apprentice )

What was your highlight of the show?

I got praised quite a bit for having entrepreneurial talent and flare (it wasn’t all shown but it happened) I got top sales out of 15 candidates and also did pretty well on the magazine task.

What is your honest opinion of Alan Sugar?

He would have benefited having me as a business partner so in that respect I’d honestly have to say he made a mistake.

What advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs?

Go for it.. learn from your mistakes along the way. Any nay sayers are just jealous!

What do you think makes a successful business person?

Someone who is focussed on the targets they set and also someone who is likeable. People buy from people so if they don’t like you or trust you, you’ve got no chance!

What future plans do you have for the companies?

We are looking to grow the proven business model in the form of Franchising as we have already sold 3 this year and they are working out really well.

Photo via [Flickr]

A while ago, a friend of mine sent me the link below asking for my perceptive on the whole issue. We ended up discussing it through emails and since then I’ve had more people ask me my opinions regarding the whole issue and I just wanted to share a bit of what we talked about in the emails.

10/12/11 10:40 AM

Interesting – @youngenterprise poll find schools give young people wrong skills for work. Do you agree? http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/can-entrepreneurship-be-taught

This is my 2 pence.

First of all – I think students are being taught throughout their time in education how to be excellent workers or employees. Students come out of education without no clue on how to link academia to real life work.

I know there’s been a lot of talk about introducing some courses about entrepreneurship to schools, I guess it makes sense with the low availability of jobs.

You could say companies understand that it’s either they get top employees, those that are creative, innovative and passionate about the company(You see Start-ups do this a lot when hiring – Looking for start-up enthusiasts) or they end up losing sight of their industry, their competitors which can only result to one thing, going out of business.

I guess going back to if entrepreneurship can be taught – I don’t think so, I think an entrepreneur thrives on uncertainty (the thrill), freedom of thought, the ability of make gut-feeling decision, their ability to ignore the structured way of doing things.

The structured and business way of doing things will be what these courses will give, nothing special from what they could have gotten from studying business studies or go one level up – Isn’t this what MBA holders are for – Great managers, Great CEOS which I have no problem with.

Maybe through introducing entrepreneurship in schools, we can have more equipped and capable workers – I don’t think they can build entrepreneurs, I think that through this; they will build excellent, smarter, efficient and capable workers who will become great CEOs and managers.

Also, the only way I can see any form of entrepreneurship been awakened through education is by starting the process at the grassroot, rather than waiting for when students are in secondary schools/university to begin the process.

Instead of a degree being the only solution and option, entrepreneurship should be considered as another option just as valuable and prestigious as getting a degree from a respected university.

What are your thoughts?