Each year we take a look at the young entrepreneurs, based in the UK, who we think are set to have a great year, you can see our 2011 list here, and this year is no different.

So here are 20 entrepreneurs, founders and co founders, who you may want to watch in 2012, there are some great companies here and I’m sure you will be hearing a lot more about them over the next 12 months.

Here they are:

Josh Buckley (MinoMonsters)

Josh Buckley is the CEO and founder of MinoMonsters, a Pokemon type game where you can battle and trade pet monsters. Josh is the youngest CEO to have raised funding from investment giant Andreessen Horowitz at 19 years of age.

The Kent born youngster sold his first company at the age of 15. He created ‘Menewsha’ a community where users create whimsical avatars and interact online for fun. He sold this for a six figures sum while still in school.

He then moved to Silicon Valley & participated in Y Combinator to help take his company to the next level and take on Pokemon brand. His USP is it is a game for iOS where Pokemon is not available.

Expect to be hearing more of this young CEO as he ventures into the mobile gaming space with no fear.

Nick D’Aloisio (Summly)

Nick D’Aloisio is only 16 years old but he has already managed to raise $250,00 in funding for his startup, Summly. He created an app that offers a simpler way to browse and search the web by automatically summarising search results, web pages and articles to make content easier to sift to and find what is most relevant to you.

In it’s first 4 days after it reached 17k downloads and is now well over 100,000. Still studying for his GCSE’s he had to get special dispensation to delay his mocks while he traveled to San Fransisco.

So to sum it up, he is one to watch in 2012!

James Gill (GoSquared)

James Gill is the CEO and co founder of GoSquared a real time web analytics service which he started during his gap year. rather than taking the year to travel, he decided to build a web app which people would pay for and by the end of the year him and his co founders realised they had done just that.

James now works on GoSquared at White Bear Yard from which GoSquared got their angel funding and they are surrounded by other great startups which will help them as they look to grow and take on their main rivals Chartbeat.

You can see our video interview with James here.

Lucian Tarnowski (Brave New Talent)

Lucian Tarnowski is the founder and CEO of Brave New Talent, a social recruitment network.  The passionate young entrepreneur loves social media and leverages the sharing and engagement inherent in social networks and applies it to job recruitment.

Lucian has also been honored as Europe’s youngest Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum. He is also the youngest  entrepreneur to join UKTI (United Kingdom Trade and Investment) so age isn’t a factor as he goes about his mission to change the face of job recruitment and skills building.

He is a confident leader and looks set to have a big year in 2012.

Maria Constantinescu (Slick Flick)

Maria Constantinescu is the founder of SlickFlick, which allows you to create storyboards on the iPhone using your photos. An ex lawyer Maria left law to start Curious Quests and the Slick Flick app.

Maria is trying to take creativity to the masses and has been get the app out into the film industry and creative industries to get support and name out amongst a sector which will find it used by most. Being based in the heart of Shoreditch she is surrounded by creatives in every direction which should serve her well.

Having secured an association with Apsmart, they have a great partner which can help them continue to improve the app and add weight to their proposal when they go for funding.

Ry Morgan (PleaseCycle)

Ry Morgan (right) is the founder and CEO of PleaseCycle, provides products and services for organisations to encourage cycling within the workplace.

Ry went from being an intern at CURB media (a really cool startup by the way!) to founding PleaseCycle with the founder & CEO of CURB media, Anthony Ganjou (left). A born entrepreneur Ry has gone from top student, to graduate to founder & CEO.

He has a great drive to grow PleaseCycle massively and his determination and vision has helped him build a great experienced team which will in no doubt help see them progress rapidly in 2012.

Find out more about Ry from his guest post on YHP.

Michael Korn (KwickScreen)

Michael Korn is the founder of KwickScreen, a portable, retractable, room divider which provides isolation or privacy solutions. Initially the design was meant to be used in hospitals to act as a privacy barrier between patients and it was perfect for this. It’s small size and easy and quick set up was perfect for the hospital environment.

Michael has now seen the product, which took 4 years of design iterations to get it ready for release, enter new markets and is being used in universities, exhibitions, offices etc…

It is a well thought out design and the ideas has already received recognition. Michael was named Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011.

Look out for KwickScreens popping up near you in 2012.

Emi Gal (Brainient)

Emi a young Romanian entrepreneur started Brainient in 2009. Brainient is a a video advertising technology company, based in London’s silicon roundabout, and currently has two products. First an interactive video advertising product and second one is a personalised video retargeting platform.

Emi has a lot of experience with startups at his young age, having previously founded two and has also been an advisor or helped out on various other tech startups.

This experience will hold him in good stead and help as Brainient looks to grow further in 2012.

Check out our video interview with Emi here.

Damian Kimmelman (Duedil)

Damian founded Duedil in April 2011 with the aim to make business more transparent, helping executives and entrepreneurs make well-informed business decisions, by allowing users to easily find company information for free.

Damian has pivoted Duedil from a people recommendation system, like a ‘Yelp for people’, to it’s current state as a database of companies.

He has also overseen Duedil raise funding from some of the investors behind Skype, LastFM & Yahoo as well as being chosen as a Microsoft Bizspark company which should help his disruptive startup make big strides in 2012!

Kevin Flood and Mike Harty (Shopow)

Kevin & Mike started the company, a social shopping engine and community, straight out of university raising £830,000 in angel funding.

Founded in early 2010, it was launched in May 2011 and currently works directly with over 22,000 online retailers to help give them the most accurate price comparison.

Currently available in the US & UK they look to grow further in 2012 and with the social nature of the site and strong community it has the ingredients to  rapidly accelerate growth as members share recommendations across there networks.

The company is expecting to surpass £3million in revenue in it’s first year has already seen it’s popularity abroad with 50% of revenues coming from overseas.

It has been dubbed the ‘Facebook of shopping’ & the two founders have already been named in Growing Business Young Guns.

Chris Prescott and Daniel Noz (Fantasy Shopper)

Fantasy Shopper is a social shopping game, only launched in October 2011 and has already seen massive interest. Users spend fantasy currency to buy clothing & create a virtual wardrobe full of different outfits from over 300 real high street shops. It’s a bit like creating a wishlist but what’s great is you can then buy your virtual outfits from the real life stores.

It’s a fantastic idea that Chris dreamt up one night and has proved very popular to date. apparently it is very addictive and it shows. Within 2 weeks of launching, the platform was seeing a fantasy sale every 14 seconds.

One feature that brings users back for more is that every hour you gain more credits, so users login multiple times a day to collect their virtual paydays.

The fact that it is linked to your Facebook also helps increase awareness of it to your network and this social sharing will greatly help with it’s growth.

Chris has come up with a great idea and is described on the Fantasy Shopper site as “having all the traits of a mad inventor… i.e. he’s a little bit nuts!” Which is good right? Even better is he is backed up by Dan, the tech guy who ‘get’s stuff done’.

All this will help Chris & Daniel take Fantasy Shopper to the masses in the next year.

Fiona Wood (Naturally Cool Kids)

As a mum Fiona has had to deal with all sorts of skin allergies which led her to search for natural skincare products for her kids, but to her surprise found a lack of natural skincare products for kids.

She entered the ‘Barclays Take One Small Step’ competition, where she was one of the 10 regional winners, after mum’s across the country voted for her idea. She started the company in July 2010 and has not looked back since.

Fiona spotted a gap in the market and is taking full advantage of this. She has the passion and determination to see her products being sold across the world. After her initial plans to launch two skincare products, she actually launched with six products and has already seen them in over 20 retail stockists, including John Lewis & Tesco Nutri centre, as well as online.

She has big plans ahead and look out for her products across the UK this year as she looks to further expand the number of stockists.

Luke Hood (UKF)

Luke Hood is a 19 year old from Frome, Somerset who is taking Youtube by storm with his UKF channels. After starting putting up his favourite dubstep tunes up on youtube and showcasing fresh new music he found his subscribers rocketed and he was soon over 1 million!

What started as a hobby has become a business. He is super passionate and since this was what he was passionate about in the first place it will help in growing it as a business.

He has started expanding into events and live online events as well so youngsters into dubstep and drum n bass who can’t get into these events can view it from online.

There is lots of scope to grow and he already has the subscribers, maybe in 2012 he can do what Jamal Edwards has done in 2011.

Jack Smith (Vungle)

Jack Smith is the founder of Vungle, a mobile app user acquisition platform focused exclusively on video ads. The company helps those with apps to show the apps full potential through video advertising rather than just text descriptions and user reviews. Using video to help acquire quality users.

Although just 22, Jack has a fair bit of experience having started his first company at the age of 15 and then while at uni, set up ideabox an undergraduate business ideas competition and was MD at Mediaroots.

He has now seen Vungle expand to the US with an office in San Fransisco and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jack get funding for Vungle this year.

Joshua March (Conversocial)

Joshua March is now onto his second business, Conversocial an integrated Social CRM and marketing software which helps companies with marketing and customer support via social media.

With social media becoming a mainstay in our day to day lives it is essential for all businesses to be active on social networks and be able to effectively monitor conversations around your business and industry.

Josh saw this and started Conversocial a couple years ago and has developed it too a position where they can expect to grow rapidly as more and more businesses start realising the potential of social media.

Josh previously founded the first preferred Facebook Development company in the UK with Dan Lester and has lots of experience in the social space from it’s early days.

Helen McAvoy and Naomi Kibble (Rocktails)

Helen & Naomi two Cardiff based young entrepreneurs tapped into the huge popularity of cocktails drunk by the population on nights out. Despite this there isn’t a competitive offering for easily making cocktails at home.

These two cocktail fans went about changing that spending over £20,000 developing frozen cocktails in a pouch. Great for consumption at home with friends, the two friends managed to secure a six months trial with Sainsburys which could lead to a wider deal.

Helen & Naomi have already secured a big deal early on in the companies life & are ahead of their forecasts, this should hold them in good stead as they look to expand in 2012.

Mansoor Hamayun, Christopher Baker-Brian & Laurent Van Houcke (BBOXX)

Christopher, Laurent & Mansoor started BBOXX a company which develops methods of distributing renewable energy to developing countries. The three young entrepreneurs have spun off the company from e.quinox, a charity at Imperial College London.

With power consumption growing in developing countries, solutions to cope with the increased demand for energy will be more in demand than ever and these two entrepreneurs are making sure they are in a position to supply a suitable solution in the way of portable solar products.

They will look to rapidly expand on their partnerships in developing countries over the next year.

Emma Sinclair (Target Parking)

Emma Sinclair is a passionate young entrepreneur. She had the high powered, high paid city job but she left it to start Target Parking. After investing in a small car parking firm she set up Target parking which offers services for car parks across Britain. Including cash handling, security & facilities management.

The 29 year old is the youngest person to float a company on the Alternative Investment Market and her business acumen has seen her tie up some big deals which helped the company see revenues of just over £1million and she fully expects that to grow further in 2012.

She is excited to see what the future holds and determined to make the company the best in it’s industry and her background suggests she has what it takes.

Russell Whitter (Rate Your Player)

Russell Whitter (right) is the founder of Rate Your Player (RYP) an online social football network. Having started it after seeing his favorite football forum close it’s doors he has developed the website into a fully fledged social network based around football.

Russell is the brother of footballer Wayne Routeledge (left) and has therefore been able to call on him and his footballer friends to help endorse the site and increase it’s popularity. He was able to call on his friends to help him build the site and keep costs down and hopes to see the site increase in popularity as social networks do. Since this is targeted specifically to football which has more fans than any other sport in the UK he has a large market to tap into.

Russell hopes to expand the network into other sports as well and looks to grow the number of users quickly in 2012 as the social aspect snowballs with more and more users helping it grow further.

Rashid Kasirye – (Link Up TV)

Rashid Kasirye started Link Up TV, an online music and talent platform, straight out of college and has seen it grow from humble beginnings to a strong online community, which sees their YouTube page hitting over a million monthly views and thousands of fans on Facebook and Twitter.

Rashid has already seen the company make music videos for artists on some of the top UK music channels and his popularity is sure to keep growing in the industry. As we journey through 2012 and Link Up TV step up their video production capacity I’m sure you will see even more music videos in the charts made by Rashid and his team.

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Who have I missed? Who are your young entrepreneurs to watch in 2012?

Let us know in the comments we would love to hear from you!

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

Editor’s Note: Michael Tyrimos is co-founder at Synups and the Cypriot Enterprise Link. He was awarded as the “NACUE President of the Year 2010”, and as a “Leader of Tomorrow” at the 41st St Gallen Symposium. Michael is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate of King’s College London.

Picture via Tech City

Over the years there have been several discussions about how hard it is to be an entrepreneur in the UK – pointing at the absence of an appropriate infrastructure to support entrepreneurial clustering and the lack of a risk-taking culture, which can embrace failure as a lesson learned.

Taking a step towards change, last year the British government joined forces with entrepreneurs, students and major corporations, aiming to transform East London into an uprising technology cluster. Following the unveiling of the TechCity map by the Prime Minister in November 2011, the “Digital Capital of Europe” (as it was proclaimed) was now in the spotlight. Would the “Silicon Roundabout” be Europe’s equivalent to Silicon Valley in California, or the new Silicon Alley in New York?

By definition a technology cluster is a place where intelligence is connected and the “knowledge spillovers”, as the Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman describes them, become prominent as a result of the free knowledge exchange by the various local actors (firms, entrepreneurs, supporting institutions, etc.). According to Bresnahan, Gambardella and Saxenian (2001), the development of a cluster divides into the stages of formation and growth. The formation starts with the first investments towards new innovations and the bundling of talent (which is exactly what the government is now trying to achieve), while the growth phase begins when the cluster actually captures its target market and begins to attract more talent and supporting institutions (e.g. VCs, consultants, legal firms) to join it. As a result, the benefits to a single firm are also of benefit to the entire region, hence a greater accumulation of talent and expertise at a local level is creating an unparalleled competitive advantage that “distant rivals cannot match”, Porter (1988) explains.

Despite the general enthusiasm around the Techcity, there have been various concerns regarding its future and long term development in terms of: a) the funding available to the region’s new businesses, b) its geographical location against the organic development and structure of the Silicon Fen (in Cambridge) and the Silicon Glen (in Scotland) (Source: The Guardian, Nov. 2011) and c) the fact that the current development programme, created around the Techcity and provided by Entrepreneur First, is only offered to University graduates. Hence Zuckerberg, Gates, or Jobs would not qualify as a Wall Street Journal article describes – nonetheless there’s a misconception here. Let’s be honest 1) if you launch the next Facebook, Microsoft or Apple, I highly doubt that you will ever need to join any enterprise development programme and 2) for that reason Entrepreneur First is focused on graduates, which don’t see themselves in a corporate environment, yet are looking for an alternative route to help them develop as leaders and put their creativity and skills into practice; to become entrepreneurs. As Matt Clifford (CEO, Entrepreneur First) states: “these are the people most likely to postpone the entrepreneurial dream in favour of something else – only to find that they never find time to make the dream a reality”. Therefore, Entrepreneur First gives you the chance to break away from the conventional career path and work on your ‘thing’. If you ask me, this is awesome to say the least.

Whatever the case, one should not forget that Techcity is currently at “version 1.0” and many upgrades as well as “bug fixes” are expected in the future. We should not fail to acknowledge the bigger picture and connect the dots. In my opinion, here are three (of many) reasons explaining why Techcity matters:

It constitutes the next link to an entrepreneurial chain: As previously mentioned along with Techcity, comes Entrepreneur First – backed by the UK government and launched by McKinsey & Co, Entrepreneur First aims to support talented students, who wish to build and grow their businesses, for a period of up to two years. This could be a significant extension to the tremendous work of NACUE (National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs), which launched in 2009 by students and is now supporting more than 40,000 members in 100 colleges and universities. The two organizations could complement each other at a great extent. Considering NACUE is providing leadership training and student enterprise society support at University level, while Entrepreneur First’s curriculum picks up after graduation by helping students to launch their business and put their ideas to market, the two entities automatically create a continuation in the entrepreneurial path of a student, ultimately contributing to the creation of a new generation of entrepreneurs.

It is a new hub in an entrepreneurial ecosystem: The initiative came to fit in nicely with grand enterprise events, such as ‘Silicon Valley comes to the UK’ (SVc2UK) event series, which was hosted at multiple universities in the UK, as well as Techcity itself (at the SVc2Techcity). Moreover, the Techcity initiative also came to feature the activities of rising British startups, such as Enternships, which connects student and graduate talent to startups and small businesses with more than 3000 companies (including Groupon, Paypal, Huddle and others since 2009), and that now supports the operation of Entrepreneur First’s website. As the region develops, further entrepreneurial collaborations will undoubtedly become prominent.

It bridges two contrasting worlds: To some extent the development of Techcity managed to bridge the two contrasting worlds of entrepreneurs and corporates, via the investments and mentorship of major corporations such as Google, Vodafone, Intel, Cisco and other non-tech related companies, towards the development of the region and its startups. During the creation of Entrepreneur First for instance, it was remarkable to see how the McKinsey associates, engagement managers and even senior partners sat down with other corporate executives (even with competitors), university professors, student leaders and young entrepreneurs, to create a joint plan of action on how the programme’s curriculum should be designed and implemented. Everyone had a say and everyone’s opinion mattered.

In this regard, Techcity as an initiative is not an island, but a powerful addition to an enterprise revolution, which began a few years ago by many contributors – NACUE, Sandbox, Enternships and many other enterprise activity-based hubs (including the website you are currently reading!) As Abraham Lincoln once said “I will prepare and some day my chance will come”. Without a doubt, a new wave of entrepreneurship is now underway in the UK, ready to make its landmark in an ever-dominating global digital economy. The nodes are being connected, the synergies and relations around Techcity are becoming denser, and for the ones prepared to jump in the loop, it looks like the day has come – your chance is now.

‘They say anything’s possible, you gotta dream like you never seen obstacles’ – J Cole

What are the qualities that make people successful? Hardwork? Perseverance? Passion? No doubt these are traits which are rightly attributed to successful people, like the young entrepreneurs featured on this site. However there is one quality which is often undervalued and that is one of vision. They have all pictured how either they will look or the business will look when it becomes successful. That is not to say that what they have seen in their heads has come to fruition in the same form, however they have aimed in that direction and kept going until some form of the vision is realised.

‘Everything around us was once a thought in someone’s head’

This quote is so significant not just to entrepreneurs but to the world in general. Take a few seconds and observe the things in your room. Laptop, speakers, cosmetic products, books etc. Each product or part of the products originally came from one person. Of course it took many more to amend the product and bring it to fruition; though the fact still remains that it originated from one person. Why can’t that be you?

“When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software,” recalls Bill Gates. “We had dreams about the impact it could have. We talked about a computer on every desk and in every home. It’s been amazing to see so much of that dream become a reality and touch so many lives. I never imagined what an incredible and important company would spring from those original ideas.”

‘Seeing is believing’

You know the stories. ‘You’re crazy!’ It’s impossible!’ ‘That’ll never happen!’ ‘Why don’t you try something else.’ Entrepreneurs who have to plough through doubt about their vision, sometimes even from those closest to them! It’s not just relevant to entrepreneurs, it happens to most people who want to do something different that those around them haven’t seen before; from losing some weight to becoming a world class athlete. Now in some circles these people would be known as ‘haters’. However I have come to realise that it’s not hate, it’s just that they can’t see your vision. And how could they? They don’t have the same images in their heads as you do, feel the same attachment to the vision as you and so on. It’s only natural. You can’t let this get you down. In fact some entrepreneurs view these opinions as positives! Also, you have to be clear as possible with your vision not just so those around it can understand it better, but also so you can!

‘Be like water’ – Bruce Lee

The point Bruce Lee was trying to make with this quote is that water adapts to its conditions without carrying any preconceived conceptions or barriers from the past. This is how you have to be with your vision. Life is a bumpy road (cliché time!) so things may not turn out how you planned. However if you adapt to your conditions both personally and with your vision you can be a success anywhere. There are many young entrepreneurs that started out doing one thing and ended up being a successful at something completely different such as Tom Ellis who went from selling tennis balls to champagne! Your vision is also like water because it changes and can become bigger as you and your business grow. For example, Jamal Edwards of SBTV originally started a youtube channel featuring local MCs and now that vision has grown to become one of the biggest entertainment platforms in the world.

Though this article is written with a focus on young entrepreneurs, you don’t have to be starting a business to have vision. You can apply it to life in general. I like to say the question we should ask ourselves and future generations is not ‘what do you want to do?’, but ‘what type of person do you want to be?’ and work towards that.

Dubem Menakaya is the President of Southend Enterprise Society
Twitter: @dmenax
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dubem.menakaya

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?

Wahanda, a health, beauty and wellness community & marketplace that connects consumers, wellness businesses and professionals through content, community ratings & reviews and commerce.

Basically Wahanda partners with spas, salons and health centres across the world to offer the best deals around and they also have mob deals which follows the Groupon model, where the large number of buyers brings the price right down.

Founded in 2008 by Lopo Champalimaud and Salim Mitha, on Valentines day no less, Wahanda has grown to a point where the site receives over 10 million hits a year and lists 250,000 businesses offering over 5,000 exclusive deals.

“Our vision is to do for health, beauty and wellness what Amazon did for books,”

……………………………………………………………… Lopo Champalimaud

The two young entrepreneurs set up Wahanda because they were frustrated with the lack of online resources to help consumers make informed buying decisions.

Wahanda allows consumer the ability to learn about treatments, read and contribute ratings & reviews, and ultimately transact by booking online with businesses and independent therapists.

Lopo and Salim started Wahanda just before the economic downturn hit, but saw that many people affected didn’t want to give up on luxuries, such as spa days, but couldn’t afford to go anymore as the recession hit. They took advantage of this, and not in a bad way, they are offering great value and service to customers while helping businesses attract more customers, but they were able to make the most of an opportunity during the economic crisis.

In 2008 they secured £1.5 million in seed funding which helped the duo rapidly grow business and just last week they announced that they had secured another round of funding of £3.5million, which will help fuel growth further and also help in expanding overseas as Lopo and Salim look to take their UK startup global.

The two young entrepreneurs sum up the name of the company, Wahanda, which is native American for ‘great spirit and creator.’

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With student debt loads haunting college grads and jobless joining street protests, President Obama yesterday announced plans to ease student loan burdens by capping payments at 10 percent of what borrowers earn. On top of helping young people in lower wage jobs, the White House hopes the program will aid aspiring entrepreneurs whose student debts might otherwise discourage them from starting businesses.

The White House is building on the existing income-based repayment program that limits loan payments for low-earners to 15 percent of their income, and forgives all debts after 25 years. Starting next year, the cap will be lowered to 10 percent of income (a change that was already slated to happen in 2014). The payment timeline will also be shortened to 20 years, after which remaining debts will be forgiven. The White House estimates the change will lower payments for 1.6 million borrowers.

Coordinated with Obama’s announcement, the Young Entrepreneur Council (a nonprofit membership group) is unveiling a $10 million “Gen Y Fund” that will invest up to $250,000 in startups and cover founders’ federal student loan payments for up to three years. The group is also pushing for legislation that would expand loan deferments and forgiveness specifically for entrepreneurs.

The theory that student debt holds back young entrepreneurs has gained enough traction that venture capitalist Peter Thiel is actually paying would-be founders to drop out of college. I haven’t found any hard data on how educational debt actually affects people’s decisions on whether or not to start a business. But college tuition is rising twice as fast as inflation, and by some estimates Americans now have more student debt than credit card debt. There’s a lot of teeth-gnashing over how many top graduates (especially in math and science) go to Wall Street. These efforts to lower loan payments may make some of them more likely to start companies instead.

This was post originally appeared on BusinessWeek and was written by John Tozzi.

So finally a few days after Startup Weekend London 2011 I have had the chance to reflect on what was a great weekend!

For those of you that don’t know Startup Weekend, it is an event held from Friday evening to Sunday night where a bunch of ambitious and determined entrepreneurs come and pitch an idea, build a startup and present to the judges  over the 54 hour period.

Here is a video to explain a little more:

So I gave a little update ‘27 hours in‘ but this is a more comprehensive review of events.

Startup Weekend Day 1

So Friday evening roles up and so do over 200 entrepreneurs, all ready to network, pitch, build, eat, drink and generally have a good time. Stocked up on pizza and beer over 60 participants took to the floor to pitch there ideas. With only 60 seconds per pitch and 64 pitches it was a frantic hour and a bit. Ideas where then voted on and over 20 where then picked.

This is where it got even more frantic as those chosen now had to form a team, how, by shouting over everyone else to attract people over to you. With half an hour to find attract people with the right skills the room felt like a busy trading floor. It was evident that developers were in high demand, as always.

I joined a team called Social Stadiums, pitched by Sam, the idea was a social network for sports stadiums where fans could comment, share pics/vids, vote on polls and even purchase merchandise and food and drink from the app.

Due to such a large number of participants the venue was moved to Ravensbourne college right in front of The O2, fo rmally the Millennium Dome. A beautiful venue as this was, it did not have the capacity to accommodate people overnight, which the previous venue did.

This meant after the pitches it was virtually closing time and so with little chance to meet the team so far we decided to hit the bar and get to know each other over a couple beers.

Startup Weekend Day 2

Saturday morning and with half the teams based in Ravensbourne college and half the teams based in Club Workspaces in Clerkenwell (the original location) everyone got underway.

We had a large team, a very large team, 11 to be exact! There goes the lean startup model, but at least we had a lot of skills available to us. Having such a large team brought about in benefits as apart from a large skill set we got to work intensely with a diverse amount of people that we have all got to know each other well. The downside was that it took a little longer in making decisions and sometimes peoples roles were undefined. But everyone wanted to get stuck in and took it upon themselves to get involved, contribute and be proactive. 10 guys and 1 girl, 3 designers, 1 designer and the rest in business and marketing roles, it certainly was an interesting team, if what a little unnecessarily big. But we all got on well, which always help.

After spending most of the day figuring out what we are going to work on and talking to mentors, which where useful although after about the fourth one a little annoying. Slowed us down a little having to explain what we were doing 6+ times. They did give us some great pointers and take apart aspects of our strategy which put us on the right track.

The day was long but enjoyable and after dinner everyone retired to the bar in The O2 for a night organised by one of the other startups in attendance, PartyWithALocal. They do exactly as the name suggests, find locals for you to party with when travelling.

Startup Weekend Day 3

The last day of the weekend begins with a few looking a little worse for wear afterthe previous night, but with the pit ches only now hours away, heads were down working hard. As the afternoon rolled on teams began practicing their pitches. After lunch we grabbed a couple mentors showed them our pitch. They shot it down, changes needed to be made. Again, new pitch, more mentors to hand us even more advice and therefore changes. It was all fantastic advice and come 4 ‘o’ clock we felt we had a great pitch, but the multiple revisions gave us little time to practice the pitch. We did however take on all the questions mentors asked us and create the perfect responses. This proved useful as you will see later.

As the clock hit 4.30 the presentations began. 4 minutes to pitch and 4 minutes of Q/A from the judges. In a room of well over 200, it got a little toastie to say the least. There were plenty of beers and crisps to last the four hours or so of pitches.

Our pitch for Social Stadiums, came just after the midway break, so people were a little more fresh and alert at least. Our presentation started fantastically, Sam did a good job, but unfortunately as we came to our slide where we embedded a video, of some market research we carried out, the volume didn’t work. In trying to rectify this the tech guy switched screens and in the end we were glad that we added subtitles on. Anyway despite the disruption the pitch went well although we were unable to finish due to the time lost during the video incident, aagghhh technology!

So the Q/A next and thankfully we fully covered every potential angle they could come at us beforehand. Sam answered every question with aplomb and impressed the judges with the answers.

The Results

Did we win?! No

The prizes were as follows:

The main prize, most innovative, went to Portal Entertainment an independent cross-platform production company (who were already a little more established before they turned up at the weekend)

The most likely to get funding were Trendset.me who delved into crowdsourced market research.

The finally prize was most likely to make a million which went to Invizua a digital marketing accountability company. (Again a bit disappointing since they were already more established before the weekend)

Oh yeah and since there were a couple of fun apps that would definitely go viral, they made up a category, funniest app which went too ImClockingYou, who I thought had a fantastic app and funny, well done pitch. Basically you can set time limits, say if you are going shopping with your girlfriend and the time limit is exceeded she forfeits and you gain a reward from your girlfriend. It can be anything that you determine from cooking dinner to ‘special time’ as they put it in there pitch. It works both ways and for any situation you wish. It’s a pretty funny idea, and that’s why they won funniest app I guess!

And all though these were the winners there where no losers over the weekend, I think everyone learned something and was part of a fantastic experience one which many will want again and one which many entrepreneurs encounter across the world at other Startup Weekends.

So what are my takeaways, well here are a few Startup Weekend Tips:

Remember your building a company, not just a product!

This was the first thing we did, build a strategy and make sure we knew what we wanted to say on the Sunday night pitch. This helped us prioritise the app we built. This is what will help us take the company forward in the future as well. With the number of Bus/Marketing guys in the team, it’s no surprise we took this route.

Find a way to be different

There are a lot of people, ideas and pitches, and with only 60 seconds to pitch you need to make sure you stand out, whether it is how you present or what you wear it doesn’t matter just make an impact or your cool idea might get lots and forgotten about amongst tens of other cool ideas

Make the most of the mentors

They’re there for a reason. You may think you have the greatest idea in the world but don’t be afraid to share it with others, that’s the only way people can pick holes in your idea. They are there to help push you in the right direction and offer advice on your pitches, ideas etc…

And one last thing, enjoy it! It is a great experience and make the most of it, just have fun.

I can’t wait till next years!

Follow @rishi_chowdhury
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Top 20 Student / Alumni Shakers

Emerging Students is conducting a global search for new and emerging movers and shakers across universities around the world. These will include students/recent alumni rebelling against mediocrity during their time at university and beyond. These individuals however, are not simply people of achievement but of substance and character.

The top 20 movers and shakers feature will seek to identify 20 university student and recent alumni who have shown much potential. This final list will feature students and alumni from a variety of universities around the UK, an authentic representation of highly commendable emerging students alumni across the university graph with a rebellion against status quo expectations and loyalty to no university brand or status.

A panel from Emerging Students and pending partners will decide on a shortlist from which those candidates will be contacted for a short interview and then the final list will be chosen and published in the Emerging Students launch issue.

This will be an annual feature in hope of raising the standard of expectation and aspiration of university students/alumni across higher education community.

The Top 20 finalists will have access to a world of opportunities, including amazing industry placements.

ABOUT EMERGING STUDENTS (ES)

Emerging Students (ES) is a new national/global university news and media company providing reportage on university culture and the real world. With the aim of redefining university culture in the UK, (ES) is a new subculture and expression; students & alumni aspiring to talent, character and knowledge and in doing so defy mediocrity.

Covering anything from emerging entrepreneurs, rogue university policy makers, graduate fashion, Film makers in Peru, alumni shakers to the best place to buy fresh bread for life on campus. (ES) is blend of engaging thought, design, rich culture and tight community.

NOMINATE

To nominate yourself or someone – email top20@emergingstudents.com with NAME, SHORT BIO and contact details!!

KEEP UP TO DATE

Follow @emergingstudent and www.facebook.com/emergingstudents to keep up to date with the latest news on the Top 20 Movers/Shakers.

Blessing Maregere and Adam Bradford are two ‘young entrepreneurs’ from Yorkshire. Young entrepreneurs are not commonly referred to, yet… These two ambitious young people are about to change that and are celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week by holding a Boat Party for Entrepreneurs on the River Thames!

Blessing is an Award-winning 18 year old social Entreprenuer and Author. He is the Managing Director of Munch Student, CEO & Founder of Bright Futures Enterprise and author of ‘Who said you can’t be young and successful’. His early success motivated him to inspire the next generation of Entreprenuers. Adam is also an award-winning 18 year old entrepreneur, founder of UnITe Technology International group of companies and Peter Jones Enterprise Academy National Ambassador of the Year.

The Boat Party is an event for aspiring entrepreneurs, business leaders, social entrepreneurs and professionals to network with like minded people and celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week. Live entertainment, music and drinks will be available on the boat.

So much more than just seven days, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an entrepreneurial movement of individuals and organizations: inspiring, connecting and equipping entrepreneurs while showcasing the support that is available to them all year round.

Every year in November, host companies within each country co-ordinate a network of partners to run events that inspire and challenge both aspiring and existing entrepreneurs.

GEW 2010 was the biggest and most successful year yet, with a record 104 countries taking part.

The Boat Party will form part of national celebrations to encourage entrepreneurship to catalyse the economy’s recovery across the country, and across the world.

ROCKTAILS is a premium frozen cocktail, sold ambient and frozen by the consumer. It is created for 20-35 year old females who entertain more and more at home, but can’t get access to convenient, bar quality cocktails.

Background

Naomi and her co-founder Helen both left uni and moved to london to work. Naomi worked for an FTSE company while Helen worked for AISEC.

After spending time in the corporate world , Naomi decided to leave her company to find something she was more passionate about.

Helen long year’s sabatical came to an end and instead of going through the corporate route, she decided she wanted to do something much more fulfilling.

The co-founders who initially met through a leadership development organisation AISEC were set for the next adventure.

The Idea

After spending their fair share of time in cocktail bars, they realised it was much more complicated to re-create the bar experience especially when it came to house parties or cook-up for friends.

The ingredients were expensive, it was time consuming and no-one wanted to miss out on the party preparing cocktails.

They kept waiting for someone else to spot the opportunity and create the service. For years, nothing happened until Naomi decided to plan a summer money spinner and instead of selling alcoholic slush puppies, they decided it was time to put their passion to action and create the cocktail and since then, the idea has blossomed.

At the end of August, the two co-founders decided to move out of london and work full-time on their startup, after weeks, weekends and evening planning the business whilst also juggling their full-time jobs.

On 7th Spetember 2010, they opened their makeshift office in Cardiff and the rest now is history.

The company won the Wales ‘The Pitch’ Heat and are also nominated for Venture Candy Metro Advertising Award, as well as being in the last 5 for Startup Britains MAA Marketing Award.