I recently caught up with Sebastian Siemiatkowski, the founder and CEO of Klarna – one of Europe’s leading providers of payment solutions for e-commerce and took a trip down memory lane. He talks about his background, how the idea for Klarna came about, advices about investments (Klarna raised $155M in Series C funding late last year) and why even though people are moving away from paypal it is still a David vs Goliath story for them.

This is the full interview.

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

I was born in Sweden by polish immigrants who fled the communist regime. Ever since I was a kid, I have been driven to prove that my family “deserved” the same that the rest of the Swedes had, so I got involved in a number of different projects that I thought would enable me to do so. I used to spend a lot of time coming up with business ideas, some just ideas, some I wrote down and some I realized in a small scale.

Tell me about the early days, how the idea for Klarna came about?

Niklas and I were on a trip with the aim to travel around the world without flying, when we got stuck in Australia and had to wait a month for the next cargo ship that would take us to Mexico. Due to the delay, I wasn’t able to return on time to continue my studies in 2003. Instead I got a job as a salesperson at a factoring firm, where I started to learn the business. Eventually I started to gain an understanding of online shopping, and I realized that there was a huge difference in how people were paying and how they would have preferred to pay. The company I was working for eventually went bust after I left, but the idea survived and I joined forces with Niklas and Victor to start Klarna. At the time, we all were students at the Stockholm School of Economics, which has a business lab that supports students who start companies. The opportunity to join the business lab was too good to pass up, so we presented our idea to them and they urged us to pursue it.

What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

Probably the hardest part was the decision itself to start. We were in the middle of our studies and all of the other students were talking about getting jobs in banks in London. To do something different and start a business was a huge step. What helped us was when we said to ourselves, “Let’s not talk about a life commitment. Instead let’s give this all that we have for 6 months and then see where we are.” And so we did.

What is Klarna? Tell me how it works?

We provide after delivery payment solutions for e-commerce. The basic idea is that buying is fun, whereas payment is a nuisance. That’s why we want to separate buying from paying, and the one way to do that is to let consumers pay after delivery. In practice that means that consumers pay via invoice rather than for example with their credit card at the moment of purchase. For consumers, this implies total safety as they don’t have to pay for anything before they are able to hold the ordered products in their hands. For online shops we provide a full payment guarantee and handle all payment related administration. it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

How were you able to convince investors to invest in your company at that time?

We were extremely fortunate to meet Jane Walerud. The school we were studying at has a good reputation. When the business lab invited some business angels to listen to pitches from all the companies in the lab, Jane was one of them who attended that Christmas party. Jane has founded and funded a string of successful companies. We were a bit surprised that she gave us more money than we had asked for, and for less of the company. I think part of it was that she liked the idea but even more so that she saw three 23-year-olds who were extremely motivated and prepared to work 90 hours a week to become successful.

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

The company has changed a lot. When we started we were 3 students, now we are 600 employees. Back then we were happy amateurs, today we are one of Sweden’s larger companies. We have added more bank like products to the business such as Klarna Account, which allows consumers to make purchases online and then pay in instalments. We have expanded to a number of geographies outside of Sweden. And we have become regulated like a bank and this entails huge consequences, such as the establishment of rules, procedures and processes in a high growth environment. The underlying idea, however, to create payment solutions that help merchants increase their sales has stayed the same.

What is your business model?

The question is how we can increase sales for online merchants by making payments simpler, safer and more fun. Safety comes from the fact that we know that most people who shop online would prefer to hold the product in their own hands before paying for it. After delivery payments make this possible. On the other hand, online shops incur a huge risk when delivering something without having received payment for it. This is precisely where we come in. We let consumers pay safely when shopping online and at the same time take the associated risk for the shops. Simplicity comes from allowing people to buy stuff online with an absolute minimum of information entered. We only ask for email, name and address.

How many users do you have? Paying customers?

We currently have more than 14 000 affiliated online shops in Europe and more than six million people have used our services.

Are you profitable?

Yes, and we have been profitable since the very start. We raised 80 000 Euro during our first round of funding and we spent only about half of it before we achieved profitability.

It must be very encouraging for you as everyone seems to be moving away from Paypal these days?

You have to hand it to Paypal that they are growing at a 30 % per year rate. That’s pretty impressive for such a big company. At the same time the internet is constantly evolving at an impressive speed. Companies who used to rule the net such as Yahoo, Netscape and Altavista are now shadows of their past glory. We foresee such a shift in payments as well and hope to be the leaders in it. However, this is still very much a David vs Goliath struggle for us.

Speaking of Paypal, how do stay competitive? What makes you guys different from the likes of Paypal, Stripe etc..

I think it is a combination of many things. Though it might not be the most important factor,we are one of few players in the market who is not dependent on VISA or Mastercard. All of the other vendors including the ones mentioned and others such as Square are dependent on these brands, which limits them in many ways. They make less money per transaction as they only earn a fraction of the revenue that a payment transaction generates. Moreover, while they may build beautiful shells, they are built on top of the existing infrastructure of VISA and Mastercard that has a Cobol legacy.

How has your market changed in the past few years? How has your business changed to keep pace?

Actually we see more and more of the market moving in our direction. To us it has been much more about making sure we grow the business and our organization in line with the market’s evolution, so that we can maintain the high quality of our services. We will continue on our mission to provide a shopping experience that is as simple as clicking the “Like” button on Facebook.

What would you say has been some of the most crucial things that you’ve done to grow your business?

I think Klarna has grown partly due to the expansion of our customers (on average e-commerce merchants have been growing at rapid rates, which fuels our growth as wellsince we charge per transaction). But if we look at what we have done ourselves I would note a couple of important things. We have a very strong sales organization that has a great winning culture. We have a track record of being very selective when hiring. What we could have done better is starting on a smaller scale in more markets earlier. Finally, we have had the fortune to work with some of the best growth investors in Sweden and internationally.

Coming back again to investments especially in Europe, a lot of people have talked about how difficult it has been to raise money, how have you seen this change over the few years?

There has definitely been a change. When we started this business in 2005 we did not even know what a series A was. We just needed money and really needed someone to invest. As mentioned, we had the good fortune to meet Jane. When we wanted to raise additional fundingin 2007 before the financial crisis there was no interest. We visited a lot of Swedish investors. However the VC market in Sweden at that time was totally dead. The only firm willing to invest was Öresund and so eventually they did. A lot had changed in 2009/2010 when we ventured on the international VC market. It helped that a number of Swedish companies had proven successful such as Skype and Spotify, while it also helped that we received mentorship from people in companies like Tradedoubler, Gymgrossisten, Pricerunner. The access to this type of money has dramatically changed in the Stockholm startup scene.

Klarna has been very successful raising money, you guys have just raise a staggering amount of $155 million in your Series C funding, why so much and what kind of plans do you have in spending that money?

Part of that money was used to purchase secondary stock from Öresund who had decided they wanted to sell a part of their shares. However it was still a big raise and the reason for that was simply that there are huge international growth opportunities for Klarna. Just as importantly, we believe that if we spend the money wisely to pursue our ideas about how to revolutionize payments, then we will build the foundation for a global giant in the payments industry.

What kind of advice could you give to startups looking to raise money, is there a special route or process that you have?

Well, over time I have learned to just stay in touch with any investor who contacts you and at least update him or her with a few emails now and then. Otherwise reach out to the usual suspects, often the firms that you find written about on sites such as Techcrunch. Make sure you have a good pitch prepared, and never go into exclusivity until you have received indicative bids. All investors will try to spend as much time as possible and keep asking for as much data as possible before they put in a bid. Just give them a deadline and a limited amount of data. If they are not ready to buy into your company at that point, then it’s not meant to be anyway. Don’t spend your time on too many people – choose the ones you feel like working with. Always have a route open to go to someone else if they start pushing too much about legal issues or during the business diligence process. Always raise funding when you still have money and try to avoid winding up in a situation where you need money ASAP.

What would you like to say to an entrepreneur contemplating bootstrapping or getting investment?

With so low start-up costs as we have today I would definitely bootstrap until I would be able to see that your services/products are getting some traction. Then I would raise money as you quickly want to expand the business.

What is an average workday like for you?

No day is like the next. I travel quite a lot between our different offices. I sit in interviews with people for all kinds of positions. I have meetings with my management team and the product teams. I meet existing and potential customers. I answer a LOT of emails.

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

The first thing is really boring but entirely true. If you work a lot, things happen; if you don’t, nothing happens. When we were sitting in the business lab we and one other company were the only ones who came in 7 AM in the morning and left 11 PM every day, Monday to Sunday. It’s also only our two companies that are still around. Scalability is the second thing. Do something that makes money when everyone is on vacation(i.e., that is as little people dependent as possible).

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

There are numerous ones, but I would say the most important thing is that there has been so many. When Niklas and I travelled around the world without flying, we spent 143 days moving from one place to another. When I came back from that trip I felt physically old. My brain was stuffed with as much memories from the trip as I probably had from the rest of my life up until leaving for the trip. It reminded me of the truth in that old saying “the journey itself is the goal.” Or as we say in Klarna, change is not always enjoyable but it is always memorable.

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

Klarna will launch a new product that we believe will revolutionize the way people shop online.

What are your other plans for Klarna in 2012?

We want to become market leaders in all of the countries that we are present in – a goal that we are now closer to than ever before. And of course we want to continue to push the limits of e-commerce by launching new services and expanding to new geographies.

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

If you believe in your idea, stick to it no matter what others say. If we had not done that, Klarna would not be where we are today.

I briefly caught up with Vladimir Oane, founder of uberVU – uberVU is an end-to-end social intelligence dashboard which is used to track and monitor all social media platforms in real-time.

In our conversation, I ask Vladimir a few questions on his journey so far as an entrepreneur and running uberVU, and how his business has changed over the years.

Hi Vladimir, Thanks for doing this interview with me.

It’s my pleasure.

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

Not at all, I grew up in a small Romanian town. My mom was an engineer and my dad was an history teacher and if I think about it now there was no one around me who started or owned a business. To this day my dad tells me to stop calling myself an entrepreneur because it’s not a proper job and it makes me look jobless.

During my time in high school and university, I studied computer science and never thought of starting a business, I was just passionate and more into computers. My dream job back then was to become a coder and work for Microsoft, it’s funny how things end up.

In my second year of college I decided to start up an interactive agency and later partnered with 3 friends (2 of which are still my cofounders at uberVU). We had no idea what we were doing but we had 3-4 years to learn all about it so why not?. Learning business seemed more interesting than learning how to wire a network.

Tell me how the idea for uberVU came about?

We had an CMS called Bluo (5 years ago everyone had a CMS) and while working on version 2 I had an epiphany moment, at the time we were doing a lot of social media for the company and our clients so I figured out the personal website is loosing its importance.

Facebook and Twitter + all the platforms who were popular back then (remember Delicious or FriendFeed?) were about to steal the thunder of the personal website. So we said: let’s build a CMS for the social web. That was the seed of what has grown to become uberVU.

What is uberVU?

uberVU is an social media intelligence platform. We are a comprehensive end-to-end social media solution helping our clients to monitor anything that’s being said about them, their products or their competitors, to measure and report on key metrics and to engage with their customers or top influencers. Our clients love how easy they can use our services especially the fact that we are a full-package

Talk me through the first few months of running the business? What would you say was the hardest part of starting the business?

I guess we had no idea what we were doing. You can see this is becoming like the theme of the interview, But we persevered, started talking to clients and 2 years later we got something people really wanted to use. So I guess this is the hardest part initially: coming up with something people need.

Would you say the initial idea for the company, or that your business model has changed since its launch in 2008?

Yes. Many, many times. We moved from B2B to B2C, then we had an API strategy, etc. We had no idea so everyday we brought another crazy idea to the table and kept persevering.

How big is your team now?

We are almost 30 people.

What is your business model?

We are a SaaS business. That means companies buy access to our software by paying a subscription fee.

Is the business profitable?

Yes.

What was the experience being one of the winners of seedcamp in 2008 and how have things change since then?

Seedcamp changed everything. They helped us transform an idea into a business by putting us into the limelight, exposing us to the right investors and charter customers.

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

Everything takes longer than you estimated. So you need to have patience.

What pieces of advices could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs out there?

Start charging for whatever it is you’re building.
Start now!

What can we be expecting from you and uberVU in 2012?

We will be expanding in the US. We already have a very cool office in Boston that we opened in 2011. From a product perspective expect some revolutionaries features and a lot of polish. We hope to disrupt the industry.

Where do you want the company to be in five years?

We will be one of the most important players in this space. If not the most important one.

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.

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…

I recently caught up with Kingston university graduate, Jayesh Hirani, who talks us through his startup journey and his company – Safer Minicabs. Jayesh who graduated from Kingston university in 2009 studying Software Engineering has devoted most of his time since graduating into making his business work, getting the technology right and he’s hoping that his latest app which was launched October last year convinces people that his business is here to stay.

Hi Jayesh, great to have you on YHP, how are you doing today?

Doing great, thanks for asking.

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I am 25 and from London, went to Kingston University where I studied Software Engineering. My core skills are in the technology space and products, I love building products and then pushing them out into the market place and seeing the results.

So Jayesh, tell me about yourself growing up? What was your ambition? Were you the entrepreneurial – making a quick buck type?

Well it depends what you want to know about my growing up side but I was certainly not the business type whilst growing up. I was more interested in going into things that were fun e.g. the police force, army and security services type places and therefore, my goals were completely different to where I am to date.

However, on the other hand I was the type who was interested in making some quick money which would be by selling small bits here and there where I used to collect coupons to get the Coca Cola Sony Ericson phone which I would then sell on, sell mobile phones and SIM cards on various networks and furthermore, I was into selling IT kit so things like hard drives, ram memory etc… this gave me the quick learning on the buying and selling process and how to mark up your prices to make a profit.

Let’s talk about Safer Minicabs, how did the idea come about?

The idea came about whilst at Kingston University during my final year. I was developing an app for taxis at the time for my final year dissertation and was fascinated about GPS and mapping technologies and the impact it can have on everyone. I then thought if I am involved in social and community related things to help make a difference I thought why not the same in my business, have an aspect that does exactly that. So I built the same for minicabs but made sure customers can be safe and get quotes and allow them to make bookings.

Can you elaborate for those people still wondering what Safer Minicabs is still about and how they can get involved in it?

Safer Minicabs is a mobile app for minicabs that allows customers to get a quote for the cheapest or the quickest fare within 90 seconds. The app has a panic button and live customer tracking which means you can be assured you are safe at all times. Our aim of the service is to ensure we increase security for our passengers but also get you the fare which is the cheapest or the quickest.

We work towards our safety goals by working alongside our supporting partners such as Camden Council, Camden Police, Vodafone, UnLtd – The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs and many others.

Safer Minicabs app is available on the iPhone and Android so feel free to go and check it out,, remember if it didn’t work for you then that would be due to coverage so please be supportive and let us know and we will try and bring in coverage in the area you may use it.

How were you able to fund the business?

Safer Minicabs venture was funded in various ways, it invested into the venture using a combination of personal funds, grants and external funding which we do not wish to disclose on the types they were.

Tell us about the early days, what would you say was the most challenging in setting up the company?

The most challenging part of Safer Minicabs was the know how of the product. When I first came up with the idea I struggled to understand what the product will actually do, how it will look, what information will be processed to show the customer and the companies, who gets paid and how and how much do we make. It was a pretty tough business and when you have an idea you really got to understand this and until you don’t you cannot build a product or have any partners to come onboard to help you in anyway.

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

The most crucial thing we have done at Safer Minicabs has been partnering and working alongside Camden Council and Metropolitan Police Camden who helps promote the service to the night time economy. This gives us the creditability to keep reiterating our safety position because of the partnerships created.

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

Hmm, a tough question here. At Safer Minicabs there has not any specific memorable moment. But the best thing that ever has happened to us is getting lawyers to be on outside to work with us on pro bono basis for a number of areas. As we all know lawyers would generally work towards pay checks and very rarely they would like to do work for free. When we had a lot of interest from lawyers it kind of made it exciting because it meant we got a lot of support from various lawyers in Data Protection to commercial contracts to communications to promotional deals contacts which could of cost us £50k+.

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

The most crucial parts we have done to grow Safer Minicabs is by continuously bring on new partners who value our mission and see they can help but on the other hand we improved the product so customers and companies user experience was better and as a result of this it helped us grow the business and move forward.

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

If I had to give advice on starting out then it would be simple and they would be the following:

1. Make sure you know your business, service or product you want to develop because believe me if you don’t then when someone is standing in front of you wanting to know more will tear you to pieces in matter of seconds and you will have no chance in defending unless you know your idea inside out, so be careful and be prepared!

2. Once you know what you want then you will know the types of people you may need to connect with or bring on, now this is the part where you network and keep on networking to build contacts, most important thing about networking is don’t EVER feel the person your speaking to cant help you for what you want so you move away, they could be the person who could potentially connect you to someone you need, been there and had it myself

3. Finally make it happen, now you can spend some of your own cash whether you work part time or raise from friends and family but you ultimately as the Entrepreneur needs to get the ball rolling and then others will follow

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

The plans for the 2012 and simple but due to commercial confidence we cannot mention them all but what we can say is Safer Minicabs will be rolled out across the UK with apps on all platforms you can think of.

Follow me personally at @jayeshhirani and Safer Minicabs at @saferminicabs or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/saferminicabs or visit www.saferminicabs.com

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.

Finishing off our interview, I asked – What advices would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their own business? He said:

The theory of evolution claims that only the strong will survive, may be so. However the theory of competition states that even the strong can get their arse‘s kicked!

Continuing with my interview series with the NEF participants, today I interview Louis Mech. Louis is currently working at Talk Talk PLC and today talks us through his journey so far.

This is the Interview.

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

I am good thanks; excited to get things moving after the Christmas and New Year break.

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 am a 22 year old recent graduate from Royal Holloway (University of London). When I was 12 my families moved to America; so for the last decade I have been flip flopping between the UK and the US. I consider myself very lucky to have grown up on both sides of the pond. Also I am a sports nut! I enjoy all sports however I particularly love going to watch Rugby on Saturdays and then playing Tennis in the summer.

So Louis, tell me how you got into entrepreneurship, what was your motivation?

I am very dyslexic and entrepreneurship always came more naturally to me than English, French or Physics etc. I think at school I really enjoyed the human element that business studies had over other subjects. Business Studies/ entrepreneurship at school motivated me because I was so rubbish at other subjects! I was the worst in the class at the traditional subjects (religious studies use to bore me to tears) then suddenly I was the best in the class at business studies, a lot of people say improve on your weakness; however I prefer to build upon my strengths.

What was your first business, tell us about your experience running that?

Well I went to boarding school when I was 13 and I was always flying backwards and forward from the UK to the US and vice versa. As a result I use to buy stuff in the US and then sell it at school. Typically the UK is about 6 to 9 months behind the US on trends so I would see what my US friends were wearing or using e.g Ugg’s, Abercrombie clothes and iPods; I would then go and buy some, then sell that stash at school for tuck money, If I bought it forr $100 I would sell it for £100, that’s not bad money when your 14!

After that business, what else did you get involved in?

I got involved with Young Enterprise (a national student enterprise competition) at school and was given the lofty title of ‘Director of Sales’. One of the big YE regional competitions was the Somerset Christmas fair. The intention was that each team would make their own products to sell at the fair however I searched and found a local craft store that was going out of business so I bought their Christmas stock. Needless to say our stall had loaded full of really nice handmade Christmas gifts compared to the other stuff the others were selling. My team had the highest sales but however we lost the competition because we ‘did not compete in the spirit of the YE’ I remember thinking this competition just does not get what enterprise is all about.

So you attended Royal Holloway University? what was the experience like, a lot more people are deciding to go into entrepreneurship straight after school rather going to university, what made you realise that this was the right choice for you?

Well I think entrepreneurship is all about calculated risks; the way I saw it was if I got a University degree that would provide me with a safety net should I ever need to get a “real job” in the city. University is great for serendipity you never know who you will meet or listen to. These random meetings plant the seeds of idea and who knows those ideas might just become successful business. University is a great place to start a business because the down side is so minimal. When suppliers would ask me for personal guarantees I would always say of course. This was because I knew that I owned nothing – what’s the worst they could do, take my dorm room off me! Also University is a lot fun, you can’t beat a boozy nights at the SU dress as a Smurf!

You also studied abroad at University of Georgia, how was that experience, why did you decide to do that?

One of the best experiences of my life! UGA was vote the number one party school in all of the US, so that was a big influence on why I decided to go there.

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

If you’re determined enough you can make anything happen. I think there is a great quote that summarises this school of thought from Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo 13 “it’s not a miracle that man walked on the moon, we just decided to go”.

Is this something you would recommend to other students at the university?

Yes 110%, everyone needs to get outside their comfort zone.

Tell me about how VEO started, how did the idea come about?

Well when I was studying in the US I heard of a company call TOM’s shoes and how they were championing the one for one business model. one for one means every time someone purchases a product a similar product is donated to people in need. I though wow that is really cool! TOM’s were successfully proving that you can utilize the purchasing power of consumers to deliver social change! Then I though how could I make a dent in the Universes through social enterprise.

What is VEO? Tell me more about it?

VEO was a social enterprise sunglasses brand. Every time someone purchases a set of VEO sunglasses, VEO donates a pair of Adjustable Eyewear to a person in need. As I am sure few people will know what Adjustable Eyewear, let me just take a moment to explain the incredible/bazaar/very fun invention. Adjustable Eyewear were created by Professor Josh Silver as a way of distributing prescription eyewear to people in some of the most remote parts of the world, where optometrists do not exist. These somewhat Harry Potter-ish glasses have syringes on the side, and with a few simple twists the recipient then has working prescription eyewear. Once they have found their prescription the person then simply cuts off the syringes and they have normal working prescription glasses.

What kind of challenges did you face when starting the company and how did you deal with it?

We had loads of challenges such as cashflow, balancing uni workloads, writing business plans etc…you just find a way to get it done because you believe in what you are doing.

Talking about balancing your university work with business? How were you able to balance your time on both of them?

I guess I was lucky because I studies Business Management at University; so a lot of my work for say accounting or marketing I used VEO as the case study. I thought of it as killing two birds with one stone.

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

Businesses consist of three parts those are 50% people, 25% idea and 25% business plan if you don’t get the balance right you’re in trouble.

Tell us about NEF, why did you decide this was the next step for you, what was the process?

It sounded like a cool program, so I thought what the heck. It was one written application a few 100 words on your favourite entrepreneur. Then two phone interviews. After that there was an assessment day. In groups of 5-6 you had an hour to come up with a business and then pitch it sort of like dragons den. Then if you get through the assessment day you are interviewed by successful entrepreneurs (these are potentially the guys that you will shadow) to see if there is a personality match. It’s along process however it’s worth it in the end.

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

I am currently working for Talk Talk PLC(TALK) the UK’s third largest Telco provider with 5Million customers and £1.7 Billion in Revenue in 2010. It has been like drinking from a fire hose! There has just been so much to take in.

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

Look for disruption points that are occurring around you (The PESTLE framework is useful for this) and then consider how to take advantage of them.

If you can’t add value you can’t add margin!

Working capital is a very important thing to get your head around.

Why did you choose Talk Talk?

Maybe a better question is why TT chose me… only Lord knows why they took a punt on me! Haha! I got a great vibe from the CEO Dido Harding and the Founder Neil McArthur. I also like that TT is a challenger brand that it’s never scared to stick two fingers up to established players.

Is this something that you would recommend to other aspiring entrepreneurs? What’s the value in it?

NEF? Yes NEF is a great way to learn from the best! Also everyone on the program are ballers. NEF is loads of fun it’s sort of like a cool entrepreneurial fraternity.

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

Meeting Richard Branson was really cool or when we had an innovation work shop from McLaren F1. I never met an organization (McLaren F1) with such a clear focus “we are here to win” plain and simple. I LOVED IT!

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

Here’s the thing that makes life so interesting, the theory of evolution claims that only the strong will survive, may be so. However the theory of competition states that even the strong can get their arse ‘s kicked! All successful entrepreneurs will tell you that the odds are stacked against you however they will also tell you that entrepreneurship is not a maths test! Entrepreneur is a different type of test where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” Mark Twain

What can we be expecting from you in the future?

I will hopefully have some fun and make some money.

This is my third interview in the NEF series and today my interview is with Benjamin Wigoder. Benjamin is currently working with Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) – which is one of the largest online payments companies in the world, he currently works in the product team where he comes up with new business ideas or sometimes just tweaking existing products.

This is the interview.

Hi Ben, It’s great to finally have you on YHP, how are you doing today?

I’m very well, thank you!

How did you get into entrepreneurship? What was your first business, how did the idea came about and tell us about your experience running that?

To be honest I fell into it. When I was 11 or 12 years old we had some ICT lessons at school where we learnt the basics of building websites. I remember during break time when most of the other kids were outside playing football, I went to the computer room to keep learning how to code. I launched my own website and once I was getting thousands of visitors a day I started putting ads on the site. After about 6 months I received a cheque for $500 from one of the companies who were advertising on my site. That was a buzz. I’ve still got a copy of that cheque on my wall!

You went on to study at LSE , tell me about your experience?

It was hard work! I met some very interesting people, made some close friends, but also grew up. I think that’s what university is mainly about. Of course I learnt a lot on the course, but it was the extra-curricula activities and personal development which I think will prove to have been the greatest benefit to me going forward, as opposed to matrices and partial differentiation… There’s a lot to be said for the freedom you get as a student – you keep hearing about all these companies started by students, Facebook & Google are great examples, or if you go further back, Time Magazine was started by some Yale undergraduates – so that freedom means you have the space to be creative and try new things – so I had a great time exploring new ideas – even though I didn’t create the next big thing…

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 realize that this was the right choice for you?

I think before university I was in a bit of a hurry. I wanted to start work right away. My parents thought I should go to university to keep my options open – and they were right.. When I’m pitching to investors and I can say “I have a degree from LSE” it adds credibility and shows I can stick with something for a few years. I think I was pretty lucky to go to university when I did though, with the recent increase in tuition fees it’s a much more difficult decision for this generation when they come to weigh up the pros & cons of a university education.

While at LSE, you founded Sparks @LSE which is now one of the largest entrepreneurship society events in the UK, tell me about how the idea came about?

Just after I started my second year, I met Artur, who was then President of the Entrepreneurs society. I applied to run one of the existing society events, but we got chatting and decided we wanted to do something bigger. You know how sometimes you get a meeting of minds? You bounce ideas off each other and it’s totally natural – and that’s what happened.

Suddenly we wanted to launch this international event to inspire young entrepreneurs, helping them create a network, whilst raising money for a worthy cause.

So that’s how the idea came about – a brainstorm… but the end result was nothing like the initial idea. We didn’t raise the sponsorship we initially thought we would, we got turned down by many of the speakers we asked (which in hindsight was unsurprising given we were launching a brand new event that nobody had heard of), and we had a couple of last minute logistical issues which caught us by surprise!

I was very lucky to have Artur as the President – he gave me full autonomy in creating and running the event, but was also a great source of fresh ideas and sound advice. To answer your question – I don’t think I could say the whole idea came about at one time, it evolved up to the date of the inaugural conference, and with the second one on the way, and the second iteration of the management team in place, the idea has continued to grow.

I remember attending the event in 2010 and it was packed with amazing speakers, attendees, how did you manage to get all the speakers onboard, get sponsors and get such a great turnout for the event? What would you say was some of the key things you learnt from that experience?

Hard work, luck, and perseverance. I think we must have contacted 15 or 20 entrepreneurs before we got our first yes. That was pretty tough – rejection after rejection – you need to keep believing. None of us had any experience in this kind of cold-calling either – so we didn’t know what to expect. But once we got our first “yes”, that gave us the belief this was something we could do. I imagine that’s similar to what it must feel like to make your first sale – at that point you know you have something of value which other people want.

We also made use of our alumni relations to secure speakers, and in this respect the university were very helpful. Getting sponsorship was tough. We didn’t find many companies interested in spending big bucks sponsoring an entrepreneurs’ society – had we been banking or consultancy or law it might have been different. So we got creative. For example we were sponsored by some of the other student societies on campus.

We also partnered with our university radio station, who provided the audio-visual for the event.
We had to constantly adapt to changes, for example we had issues with the university venue we had originally planned to use, and had to move the event to an external venue at the last minute. So lots of things changed, I guess my biggest takeaway is that things change quickly,but it doesn’t matter provided you are prepared to stay flexible, and make the best of what you’ve got.

I remember there was a worrying moment when I met with Artur and I said: “Look, we haven’t raised the projected funds, we haven’t got the right venue, and I’m not sure we’ll be able to afford lunch for the attendees – I think we might have to cancel the event!” – to which he replied: “Look, none of this matters – get a room, chuck in the speakers, chuck in the attendees – and you have an awesome event! Of course the other things would be nice, but they don’t actually matter – it will all work out!” – he was right – the next day we secured almost £2,000 in sponsorship from the Women in Business society.

So from this I learnt that sometimes, even when all the pieces aren’t yet in place, you just need to take a leap of faith. I love the definition of an entrepreneur as being someone who jumps out of a plane with all the tools needed to build a parachute – I think that’s a pretty good analogy.

I also learnt the value of having a strong team. Within that team you need leaders, people with initiative and drive and determination to succeed – I was very lucky to have these people. Without a strong team, the event quite simply wouldn’t have been possible – these were the guys who built the parachute after I said “jump!”

How were you able to balance your time and keep focus?

That’s a tough one. I’d like to say I was disciplined and kept focussed on my university work without missing a single lecture and submitting all my work on time. But the truth is I got really caught up in the excitement around the event – and for sure in the weeks preceding the conference that was my focus (and I roped in my flat-mates also!) Actually, that’s something I’d like to add to the things I’ve learnt from the experience – there’s nothing like having close friends who can help you out when you need it most.

You were also the president of LSE entrepreneurs. Talk us through how did that happened and some of the key things you learnt from that?

So running the society wasn’t really something I had in mind – but after successfully building Sparks@LSE, Artur (the then president) and I had a chat – he suggested I think about running for election as the next President. I think what excited me was the possibly of taking on a bigger role, where I could help inspire more people and create new and even more exciting entrepreneurship events.

In my mind it was also a great chance to manage a fairly large team – which I think will come in very useful in my future career. I think at one point we had 45 people in the team (this was broken down into sub-teams of 5-10 for different projects) – along with a management team. This was really hard! When I’ve read about how to motivate employees two things they really tend to want are to be well paid, and to have job security. When the team is made up of unpaid employees, who aren’t concerned about job security, you are forced to use other techniques to motivate the team. So here I learnt about the importance of ensuring people are challenged, are enjoying their role, and are striving towards a greater purpose (a common goal) – I think these are important lessons I’ll hold on to for the future – when I come to employ people for real.

What opportunities do you think being president or being involved in the LSE entrepreneurs gave you?

I was very lucky to be elected as President – and as an unintended consequence of being involved I was fortunate to have some unique opportunities. For example, I met dozens of very successful entrepreneurs, some of whom I’m still in contact with, all of whom not only have great stories to tell, but also sound advice to pass on.

I was also able to meet lots of other aspiring entrepreneurs – who were at different stages of launching their venture – and had exposure to lots of early-stage business ideas as they evolved. This was a fantastic chance to learn from other people’s experience.

I also had fun – for example we met HRH Prince Andrew at one point – to chat about what our society was working on.

Tell us about NEF and how you got involved?

So I was in my final year – and everyone was applying for graduate jobs – but I couldn’t see a single one I was interested in. I didn’t want to be a banker, a consultant or an accountant, I didn’t want to go into marketing, and I couldn’t see a single graduate scheme which actually made me think “yes – I want to do that!”

But in March 2011 I got an email from Freshminds (a company NEF hired to help with recruiting) – asking me to let the members of LSE Entrepreneurs know about the event. I was very happy to help spread the word – but also thought “finally – this is something I would really like to do!” So I sent in my application… I was pretty enthusiastic about the programme, and after a grueling interview process I was very fortunate to be selected.

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

I work for Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) – which is one of the largest online payments companies in the world. I’m working in the product team, which involves coming up with new business ideas – sometimes these are tweaks to existing products – sometimes these are radical ideas for new products. Because of the entrepreneurial spirit within the company, we are very fortunate to also receive a regular stream of fantastic ideas from people working in other teams.

Once we have developed the idea, and checked it makes sense from a business point of view, we work with our designers and developers to actually build and launch the product.

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

The one thing I was really keen to learn before starting work at Skrill was how a product idea travels from inception to launch in a large organization – so when I come to launch my own technology business I will understand how to scale it. It’s one thing to have a couple of guys in a room coding and launching new products, it’s another to have more than 500 employees and more than 23m customers relying on your products – and so I’m learning how to make sure that you don’t just gain customers – but that you keep them.

I’ve learnt how to work with different teams and people from widely differing backgrounds, and how to communicate effectively when working with people to a tight deadline. There’s a ton of stuff I’m looking forward to learning going forward – when that learning curve slows down, that will probably be a sign that it’s time for me to move on to the next challenge.

Is this something that you would recommend to other aspiring entrepreneurs? What value can they get from getting accepted in NEF?

For me, personally, I’ve had a fantastic experience so far on the NEF placement. I’ve really enjoyed meeting the other graduates on the programme and attending the workshops and speakers series which have been organized for us – I love the buzz that you get when you put a bunch of entrepreneurially minded people in one room!

From talking to the other candidates on the programme, it’s clear that everybody is experiencing a completely different NEF programme. Not only does your experience depend on the company you are working in, it also depends on the entrepreneur allocated to you, the work you are being given and your own personality. For me I’ve derived value from the network I’m continuing to build through the programme, the skills I’m building from the NEF workshops, and the responsibility and autonomy I’m being given at Skrill.

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

Picking one moment is extremely difficult as there have been so many memorable moments in a very short space of time. One of my early projects was putting together a web-app to enable players to buy into the European Poker Tour – I went to the Hilton in London to see it in action – seeing a product I’d worked on from inception to launch being used and working well – that was a great feeling!

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

Find something you enjoy doing and try and find a way to turn it into a business. When you start a business it usually consumes your life – and it usually needs to in order to be successful. So it needs to be something you love, otherwise you will be probably be miserable. As long as you enjoy what you do, then the work doesn’t really feel like work – and so you will end up much happier, and your business will be much more successful. Also, try and find someone to build it with you – the ability to bounce ideas off each other and provide support when things aren’t going quite according to plan, can make all the difference between success and failure.

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

Building my own technology company is definitely the end-game. But in the meantime, I am really enjoying working at Skrill, where I am learning a huge amount from my colleagues and improving many of my skills. As hungry and impatient as I am to create my own business, the reality is that I’m still only 21 and have plenty of time to find the right opportunity and the right partners to help make it happen.

It was back in the Summer of 2010 when I had just finished the first year of my BA Hons degree in Media and Communications at Birmingham City University, that I had the idea for my business. As a vegetarian I and had become increasingly concerned by some of the ingredients in many well know High Street beauty products and cosmetics. Animal fats, crushed beetles and pig placenta are common ingredients as well as harsh alcohols. These ingredients are used predominantly because they’re cheap and they’re used as fillers but are clearly not ethical or good for the skin.

Over the summer I started to research halal products as I found their stringent criteria matched my own beliefs. I then found that actually there was a demand for these products not only from the Muslim community but also from vegetarians and vegans. In Islam, ‘halal’ means permissible or what is allowed in the Muslim faith. Where beauty products are concerned animal ingredients, animal testing and haram alcohol is forbidden. Halal certification is a strict process whereby the products are tested and certified halal meaning they comply with Islamic law. I was convinced that there would be a demand for these type of products.

Initially I was going to run the business online and thought that maybe I would be able to combine business and studies. One day whilst shopping, I came across a very small but perfectly usable unit in The Pavilions Shopping Centre in Birmingham. The unit had been empty for many years basically because it was too small for most businesses. I managed to get the unit at a very good price and with the help of friends and family painted it and did it up myself to keep costs as low. I soon realised that I had created something very special and was determined to dedicate all my time and energy into the business in order to give it a chance to grow.

There’s no way I could have combined both the business and studies so I made a choice and put my degree on hold. I believe I made the right decision and I found that I had learnt many useful things on my degree course that were very much transferable to the world of business, so my studies were certainly not a waste of time. At first there were so many new things that I had to get to grips with. Everything seemed so confusing; corporate tax, vat, rent and business rates, importation duties, my head used to spin with it all. As time went on though, I did plenty of research and sought advice from people like business link and my local chamber of commerce and things became a lot clearer. Everything in business is a learning curve and every day presents new challenges and obstacles to overcome. Pure Halal Beauty is a unique concept and the first store of its kind that sells solely halal certified beauty products.

When our store first opened in December 2010, we received a lot press features and articles from around the world from national press, international press, local press, bloggers and we were even on television.

As the months went by I realised that some products although they are halal are not particularly natural with regards to their ingredients. I knew we could improve on the products that were available which is when I decided I wanted to create my own natural, halal collection that was completely ethical and eco-friendly.

In the Autumn of 2011, just before we reached our 1st birthday, we launched The PHB Collection- the worlds’ largest range of natural, halal and vegan beauty products. The collection includes, skincare, body care, hair care, cosmetics and men’s and baby products also. Most of the collection is made by hand in the UK, and our packaging is 100% recyclable.

I am incredibly proud of the PHB collection and we have had some amazing reviews and feedback about the quality and efficacy of the products. We did a lot of research before finding a manufacturer that we were happy with and who could offer us what we needed with regards to the ingredients and ethical stance of the products. I didn’t want to use any chemicals, parabens or petro chemicals which are common ingredients in many beauty products, mainly because they’re cheap. We researched and selected ingredients that are gentle, natural and effective. For example rosewood, gardenia and rosehip have some fabulous anti-aging properties, so we use these in our Elixir of Youth range. Whilst ingredients like grape-seed, rose and aloe-vera are used in our Pure & Natural range for Very Sensitive skin because they’re incredibly kind to skin. Also it is important to me that none of our products or ingredients are ever tested on animals or contain any animal ingredients. The halal certification and vegan society registration serve to add extra assurances to my customers.

Since the release of the PHB collection we’ve been inundated with interest from around the world and had a number of exciting opportunities. We’ve had a lot of enquiries about potential distribution and franchise opportunities in the UK and Internationally – so this is something exciting that we are exploring. We hope to expand our number of store in the future also, as we are constantly getting calls from customers who can’t wait for us to open up shops in London, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford etc. So overall 2012 looks like being a very busy and exciting year for Pure Halal Beauty!

For more information visit: http://www.purehalalbeautyproducts.co.uk/
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I recently had the opportunity of interviewing the Co-founder of Fantasy Shopper – Chris Prescott. He talks about his crazy journey so far as an entrepreneur, especially with starting Fantasy Shopper.

This is the interview.

Hi Chris, how are you doing? Great to have you on YHP?

Thanks for having me, it’s a pleasure to have Fantasy Shopper featured on YHP. I’m actually doing great thanks, a few days off over Christmas has enabled me to recharge my batteries, so I’m raring to go again now after a rather busy 2011!

Can you give us some background information about yourself?

I studied Computer Science with a focus on AI at Exeter University, initially wanting to build robots, but the cynic in me decided to not risk an unfilled life chasing unobtainable AI ideologies. So instead, I opted for a more commercial path focussing on web development and digital marketing. I did this for a few years in between traveling and then decided to come home (to Exeter) to build Fantasy Shopper.

Tell us about Fantasy Shopper? How the idea come about?

The initial idea was going to be called Shop Shares and came to me a few years earlier. Shop Shares’ goal was to ‘turn life into a catwalk’. I wanted to develop a platform that would enable the purchaser of a clothing item to automatically become a micro affiliate for that item. I wanted to reward offline peer to peer marketing but soon discovered it would prove to be a logistical nightmare.

I shelved the idea and forgot all about it until one day, literally a few years later, I dreamt of a solution: if all the transactions were fantasy, the logistical problems of Shop Shares would become redundant while maintaining the same emotional experience. I bolted up in bed, went straight to the stationers, bought a big pad of A3 paper and spent the whole day in a coffee shop sketching out Fantasy Shopper – we still have those original sketches on our office wall today

What is Fantasy Shopper?

Fantasy Shopper centralises, socialises and gamifies online shopping. It’s widely reported that while consumers appreciate the utility value of shopping online, they feel it lacks the hedonic experience of real world shopping – consumers want to be social and they want to be entertained. We see social gaming as a solution to this, but at Fantasy Shopper we’re evolving social gaming by making it relevant through the incorporation of real world product data enabling players to capture real world value.

Tell me about the early stage of turning it from an idea into what it is now, some of the challenges you faced?

Fortunately for us, quite literally every person we spoke to about Fantasy Shopper just totally got the concept and vision straight away, so we were always pushing on open doors. That helped us get momentum but what I have learned this past year is that it’s all about execution and execution takes ALOT of hard work. We each averaged around 90-100 hours per week consistently all year and maintaining that was our biggest challenge. You have great days and you have bad days and startup life is an absolute roller coaster.

One thing that always helped us was to remind ourselves on a great day that a bad day was just around the corner, that helped us stay grounded and focussed. Then on a bad day, we’d remind ourselves that a great day was just around the corner, that helped us stay positive. Our motto is “get shit done” and we just work our way through all the challenges with sheer perseverance and determination. One word of advice to anyone thinking about doing an ambitious startup is to make sure you absolutely love it because it will completely take over your life, physically, emotionally and financially!

How have you guys been able to fund it?

We had the absolute pleasure of being invited onto the best accelerator program in Europe, HackFwd, founded by XING founder Lars Hinrichs. We’ve been the only UK startup invited onto HackFwd so far and the support we’ve received through HackFwd these past 12 months has been absolutely mind blowing.

HackFwd provided us with around £170k of seed funding which is designed to replace our salaries, but we opted to live like paupers on virtually zero pay and invest every penny we could into Fantasy Shopper. We also won Born Global (Southwest Business competition) which gave us £20k, IC Tomorrow (UKTI competition) which gave us £10k and most recently Amazon Global Startup Challenge in Silicon Valley where we beat 1500 other startups from 78 countries to become the first ever non US winner which provided us with $100k and lots of other goodies.

You guys just only launched in October and already having so much impact, how have you managed to do that?

Firstly, we have a great product. Without a great product, we wouldn’t have made any impact. Secondly, we’re absolutely fearless and that goes a long way. The culture within our team is one of complete confidence and we’re all prepared to run through brick walls to achieve success.

You mentioned above about Amazon Web Services’ global Start-up Challenge, tell me about your experience in the challenge and eventually winning it?

It was pretty crazy to be honest. Dan (my co-founder) and I were in London the night before we flew to Silicon Valley and literally didn’t get any sleep that night. We then missed the next night through travel and arrived in San Jose around 4pm having not slept for about 50 hours. There was a cocktail reception party at the hotel from 6pm to 8pm and after that, all the other finalists went to bed while me and Dan ended up going into town clubbing again until I think 5am.

Our first judging panel was at 7am which was a super intensive hour long scrutiny from all the Amazon VPs. Throughout the day we had all sorts of other work sessions and then I had to present on stage at 8pm, 13 hours after the first judging panel and with literally about 1 hour sleep of the last 90 and lots of jet lag and hangover thrown in for good measure.

It was a live web stream and the physical audience was probably around 1000 people and I was really struggling to stay awake by that point! We always promise ourselves that we’ll behave sensibly, but it never happens! Anyway, it was a happy ending because we won the Golden Hammer and leveraged its capabilities very well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyq1-RGO_Rs

What has been your most memorable moment so far?

There have been LOADS of fantastic moments already. The competition wins were great every time. The HackFwd Build Events are always amazing. The recent financing round produced a beautiful conclusion. Meeting each new member of the Fantasy Shopper team for the first time was always very special.. hmmmm.. let me think.. I guess one that really stands out was the day my partner Andrea went into labour. She was having contractions and I had a really important video pitch to do with Dan in the office that morning, so I promised her I’d be back shortly and got up to the office as fast as I could. I asked the organisers to rearrange the schedule allowing us to pitch first instead of last and had to explain my reasons why.

I pitched it hard and fast, left the office asap, picked up Andrea and we went straight to the hospital and Isabel was born a few hours later! Luckily, Andrea is super supportive!! Note: try to avoid launching an ambitious startup, having a baby and moving apartments in the same fortnight, it’s challenging to say the least!!

What can we be expecting from you guys in 2012?

Hopefully more of the same but on a bigger scale. We’ll have to just wait and see because we take things one task at a time.

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to him on Twitter.