KSEI

KSEI 

• 

King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship 

Institute Magazine 

ISSUE ONE: 2015-16 

Passion 

• Patience 

• Delegation 

• Innovation 

• A go-getter 

attitude 

Ariel Eckstein 

What do businesses look 

for in a LinkedIn profile? 

Let the MD of LinkedIn 

Europe, the Middle East 

and Africa tell you 

Cynthia Carroll 

Former CEO of FTSE 

100 company Anglo 

American PLC gives tips 

on making it to the top 

of a global company 

Sir Richard Branson 

Hear valuable business 

advice and marketing tips 

from the world’s leading 

business tycoon and Virgin 

Group Founder

The Principal’s introduction 

KCLSU President’s message 

Principal’s message 

KCLSU President’s message 

I am delighted to introduce you to the King’s Student Entrepreneurship 

Institute – our flagship student innovation platform. 

We are home to some truly remarkable and innovative students. 

Through creating a support framework the Institute works to inspire, 

up-skill and empower them further so they are fully equipped with the 

vital skills required as entrepreneurs, future employers or employees. 

As a key part of the student experience at King’s I am excited by what 

the King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute aims to achieve. 

Since our launch last year the Institute has hosted over 45 high-profile 

entrepreneurs and business leaders and generated attendance 

numbers of over 3,000 at 25 ‘Enterprise Connect’ events. An internal 

entrepreneurial ecosystem has been developed through many 

initiatives, including: a support fund for student-led societies to develop 

entrepreneurial projects; incubator space which has already housed 

over 20 start-ups since Spring 2015; and idea generation and testing 

through our renowned Lion’s Den Challenge Start-Up Competition. 

This is all enhanced by year round access to workshops and training 

on idea development, business and strategic planning, accelerator 

weekends and support for student-run events such as ‘HackLondon’, 

the UK universities’ largest hackathon. We have achieved much and with 

the enormous current and increasing interest of our students we will 

achieve more in the year to come. 

This magazine highlights some of our student and alumni successes 

and shows how much they have benefited from the Institute’s work. 

Their achievements are outlined alongside inspiring articles from some 

of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and business leaders. 

As a students’ union we work as hard as we can to empower 

and engage students to use their skills to make breakthroughs 

and changes to their immediate and global environment. 

We’ve seen students use their entrepreneurial skills to create 

start-ups that follow King’s mission of being in the service 

of society. It doesn’t just have to be business graduates who 

go into the field of start-ups either. 

In March, King’s College London’s Tech Society hosted the largest 

student-run, inter-university hackathon (HackLondon), where 

students had just 24 hours to create and code creative apps. 

KCL Enactus is another student group that aims to tackle social 

problems through innovative business. 

Innovative solutions to problems in the field of health have been 

improved through the use of new digital technologies too. 

King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute can be your support 

system if you need help to turn your ideas into practical solutions 

to society’s problems. 

King’s College London Students’ Union President 

Nadine Almanasfi 

Please do enjoy the read, join us in celebrating our successes and 

most of all be inspired to take part. All you need is a curious mind, 

enthusiasm and a willingness to give it a go! 

With best wishes, 

President & Principal 

Professor Edward Byrne AC 

2 

KSEI magazine 

KSEI 2015–16 issue 3

About us 

Contents 

05 About KSEI 

Introducing the King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship Institute 

06 Engage, Empower and Excel 

Familiarise yourself with the 

Institutes three pillars of excellence 

07 Academia and entrepreneurship 

at King’s 

Introducing the university’s 

Entrepreneurship Centre 

08 KSEI Activities 

Don’t miss out on the action – 

put these dates in your diary 

11 A few of King’s entrepreneurially 

inclined student societies 

12 Sir Richard Branson, 

Virgin Group Founder 

Global business magnate 

talks start-ups 

14 Ella Jade Bitton, Executive 

Director of Ella Jade Interiors 

and King’s alumna 

17 Agostino Stilli, co-founder 

of CYCL and King’s alumnus 

For the love of cycling 

18 Fares Alaboud, president 

of KCL Tech Society 

A little passion goes a long way 

19 Ashish J. Thakkar, founder 

of Mara Group and Mara 

Foundation 

Africa’s youngest billionaire on 

launching his start up at just 15 

years old 

20 Cynthia Carroll, Non Exec 

Director of BP and former 

CEO of Anglo American PLC 

The leading business woman gives 

advice on equality in business 

22 Bauke Anninga, President 

of KCL Innovation Forum 

The importance of preparing 

for life outside of academia 

23 Dr Cosima Gretton, recent 

King’s Medical graduate 

Are entrepreneurship and 

innovation the missing pieces 

in modern medicine? 

24 Carmarley Dennis, founder of 

Hubbly Bubbly and King’s alumnus 

25 Mustafa Al Bassam, King’s 

Informatics undergraduate 

The hack-king talks about hacking 

26 Mark Chaffey, CEO of hackajob 

and King’s alumnus 

Work harder and faster 

28 Emma Sinclair, UNICEF business 

mentor and tech entrepreneur 

University: an incubator for 

entrepreneurial thinking 

30 Richard Reed, co-founder 

of Innocent Smoothies 

Coming up with a lucrative 

start-up idea 

31 Mantas Gribulis, King’s 

MSc Robotics graduate 

Artificial intelligence: 

it’s got a life of its own 

32 Ariel Eckstein, MD of LinkedIn 

Europe, the Middle East and Africa 

What networking really means 

34 Peter Martyr, Global CEO 

of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 

Start-ups: 10 things young 

entrepreneurs should know 

36 Entrepreneurs Captured 

A sneak peek of some snaps 

taken at KSEI events 

38 Carlos Eduardo Espinal, 

Partner at Seedcamp 

Raising finance and seeking 

investment 

39 Fleurette Mulcahy and Alice 

Holden, founders of Attollo 

Lingerie and King’s alumni 

Funding rollercoaster 

40 Cameron Saul, co-founder 

of Bottletop 

The King’s alumnus who launched 

a luxury designer brand 

42 Richard Milburn, co-founder 

of Tunza and King’s PhD student 

Real business ethics 

43 Dr Elizabeth Adelodun, founder 

of MindTorch and King’s alumna 

The ripple effect: social 

entrepreneurship 

44 Nick Robertson, founder 

of ASOS 

Entrepreneurial experiences 

and learnings 

46 Sir David Tang, founder of 

Shanghai Tang, China Clubs 

and China Tang Restaurant 

Find out how the King’s alumnus 

turned into a successful business 

tycoon 

47 Sharan Soni, co-founder 

of Waffle and King’s alumnus 

48 Robin Knight, co-founder 

of IN-PART and King’s alumnus 

50 Julian Smida, co-founder 

of Wango and King’s alumnus 

David vs Goliath: underestimate 

me… I’m a confident competitor 

52 Chris Sheldrick, co-founder of 

what3words and King’s alumnus 

54 Huan Song, co-founder of 

PixaVida and King’s MSc student 

No man is an island: 

live the life you’ve imagined 

55 Entrepreneurs Captured 

A sneak peek of some snaps 

taken at KSEI events 

60 Contacts 

Get in touch with the KSEI team 

About us: King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship Institute (KSEI) 

King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute (KSEI) is the 

university’s flagship student entrepreneurship hub that 

offers support opportunities for King’s students, student 

entrepreneurs and recent alumni throughout their 

university journey. 

Our enterprising activities are run in line with the 

Institute’s three pillars of excellence: 

• Engage 

• Empower 

• Excel 

These provide our student entrepreneurs with support in: 

• idea development (Engage) 

• training in business and strategic planning (Empower) 

• acceleration and business development (Excel). 

The views, opinions and positions expressed by the authors and interviewees are theirs alone, and do not necessarily 

reflect the views, opinions or positions of King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute and King’s College London. 

Produced by King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute Editor: Anandana Bakshi, Head of Student Entrepreneurship Sub-editor: Hemali Patel, Entrepreneurship Coordinator 

Design: RF Design, www.rfportfolio.com Approved by brand@kcl.ac.uk, Sept 2015 

4 



Entrepreneurship at Kings 

Entrepreneurship at Kings 

Engage: inspire and learn 

The Engage pillar of the Institute 

is about increasing your contact 

with enterprising activity. We 

aim to deliver programmes 

and events that are designed 

to increase your curiosity, 

confidence and enthusiasm for 

entrepreneurship and innovation 

as a viable career path. 

What does this mean for you? 

• Feel inspired and motivated to control your destiny. 

• Feed your curiosity about entrepreneurship and start-ups 

by attending informative events. 

• Learn about the idea development process. 

• Meet other students who have already launched their businesses 

at our networking evenings. 

• Explore your enterprising personality by taking part in 

student-led society events. 

• Develop your society’s entrepreneurial projects by applying 

for additional funding. 

Please see page 8 for a list of engage activities. 

Excel: King’s Accelerator 

The Excel pillar is focused 

on accelerating the best 

start-up ideas to reach 

reality, through the King’s 

Accelerator in partnership 

with external businesses. 

The King’s Accelerator will 

be coming soon. 

Coming to you soon: 

• Unrivalled access to mentors, investment and goal 

implementation. 

• Excel Funding Programme aimed at the early stage development 

of your business, innovation or proto-typing. 

• Investor Network – connect with sector-aligned businesses, 

high net worth individuals or groups that have a specific interest 

in investing in innovation. 

• Back Office Solution – PR, administration, accounting systems 

and support, policy, legal, intellectual property and IT. This is 

a whole suite of services offered to the student or business to 

support the strategy, structure and launch of your start-up. 

• Accelerator facility – a dedicated office space from which you 

can run your venture. The King’s Accelerator will be coming to 

you soon – keep updated via our website. 

Empower: up-skill and train 

The Empower pillar 

focuses on up-skilling the 

entrepreneurial capabilities 

required for entrepreneurial 

achievement. Develop your 

interest and motivation in 

entrepreneurial activities with 

initiatives that will provide 

you with added skills, insights, 

incubation and assessment. 

What does that mean for you and your 

idea/project/start-up? 

• Attend workshops and boot-camps, designed to up-skill 

and develop your entrepreneurial potential. 

• Provision of in-depth mentoring and advice to guide and sustain 

your progress on your entrepreneurial journey. 

• Enter a wide variety of competitions designed to take your 

start-up to the next stage. Here you can win anything from 

support from sector-specific mentors to funding for proto-type 

testing or growth. 

• Grow and develop your early stage companies in a start-up 

nurturing environment. 

Please see page 9–10 for a list of empower activities. 

Academia and Entrepreneurship at King’s 

Outside of KSEI 

King’s College London has 

recently established an 

Entrepreneurship Centre, 

led by Professor Sabine 

Rau, lecturer Department 

of Management, King’s 

College London. 

The Centre will start teaching in 2015/2016 with three Bachelor 

courses: Entrepreneurial Finance, Psychology of Entrepreneurship, 

and Entrepreneurial Family Firms. In the Master of International 

Management the Centre offers an elective on International 

Entrepreneurship. The Centre is planning for an Entrepreneurship & 

Technology Master for non-business students as from 2017 onwards. 

The Centre is doing research in the area of innovation in long-lived 

family firms, on business family communication and conflict and its 

influence on business performance and succession, and they are 

running a research project together with PwC and Financial Times 

on Innovation in UK family firms. Professor Sabine Rau, along with a 

King's doctoral student and colleague recently won the ‘Best Family 

Business Paper Award’ from the Entrepreneurship Division Academy 

of Management at their 2015 conference in Vancouver. 

6 KSEI magazine 


KSEI activities 


Engage: Inspire & Learn 


Support 

Fund (ESF) 


Support Network 

(ESN) 

Student-led societies can 

apply for up to £2,000 

in funding to implement 

projects or activities that have 

entrepreneurial or innovative 

goals. It is designed to strengthen 

and grow the university’s 

entrepreneurial eco-system. 

Description: ESN is a monthly 

committee roundtable discussion, 

led by KSEI. The forum is open 

to King’s societies presidents, 

vice presidents or nominated 

persons. 

The aim of the network is 

to update students on KSEI 

initiatives, find out what support 

students need, encouraging cross 

collaboration across societies, 

partnering with societies to assist 

them in achieving their goals and 

delivering entrepreneurial impact. 

Application deadline: 6pm, 16 October 2015 

Please visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI for more information 

The monthly network meetings will re-commence 

in October 2015 and are restricted to two people 

per society. 

If you are interested in joining please email 

Innovation@kcl.ac.uk, or visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI. 

KSEI activities: 2015/16 

Engage: Inspire & Learn 

ENGAGE INITIATIVE DESCRIPTION DATES 

Enterprise Connect Listen to inspirational, highprofile 

Series 6: 

entrepreneurs delivering 

Official hashtag: informative and motivational 

#econnectors 

keynote speeches. 

Spread the word and 

Tweet us: 

@InnovateKings 

Following each event we host a 

networking reception where you 

can obtain advice and guidance 

from our expert ‘Connector Pod’ 

mentors, covering different topics 

and giving hands on feedback. 

Furthermore you can connect 

with students and alumni who 

have already embarked on their 

start-up journey at the King’s 

Start-Up Junction. 

30 September 2015 

Ben Lewis, CEO River Island 

Greenwood Lecture Theatre, 

55 Weston Street, SE1 3RA 

28 October 2015 

Kevin Roberts, Executive Chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi 

James Caan, founder and CEO of Hamilton Bradshaw. 

Brent Hoberman CBE, Co-Founder Lastminute.com 

Greenwood Lecture Theatre, 

55 Weston Street, SE1 3RA 

11 November 2015 

Jacqueline Gold, CEO Ann Summers and Knickerbox 

Lecture Theatre, New Hunts House, 

Great Maze Pond, SE1 1UL 

Empower: Train & Learn 

EMPOWER INITIATIVE DESCRIPTION DATES 

Lion’s Den 

Challenge Start-Up 

Competition (LDC) 

Official hashtag: #LDC. 

Spread the word 

and Tweet us: 


KSEI aims to ensure all activities 

initiated are in response to 

student demand. This committee 

serves as an important platform 

in achieving this. 

The university’s flagship start-up 

competition provides you with 

practical skills in business. 

• Five business workshops 

• Live pitching classes 

• Sector-specific awards 

• Up to £10,000 grant funding 

No previous knowledge or 

experience in business required. 

Workshops: 

7 October 2015 – Launch event 

21 October 2015 

4 November 2015 

2 December 2015 

27 January 2016 

10 February 2016 

Location: Room G.79, FWB, Waterloo Campus 

5:30pm – 8:30pm. Details may be subject to change. 

LDC applications open: 


LDC applications close: 6pm, 16 February 2016 

Please visit www.LionsDenChallenge.co.uk for updates 

Series 7: 



2 March 2016 

9 March 2016 

Please visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI for updates 

activities continued overleaf 




Student-led societies 

KSEI activities: 2015/16 

Empower: Train & Learn 

EMPOWER INITIATIVE DESCRIPTION DATES 

King’s Mini 

Accelerator 

Weekend 

King’s Incubator 

King’s Start-Up 

Mentor Clinics 

King’s Experience 

Enterprise Award 

Tier 1 (Graduate 

Entrepreneurship) 

Visa 

A unique, intensive, three-day 

accelerator programme for King’s 

thriving start-up community. 

Successful applicants will: 

• go through intensive training 

• receive 1-2-1 coaching 

• pitch to win up to £10,000 

grant funding. 

A dedicated, pop-up workspace 

designed to support the growth 

and development of early stage 

start-ups. 

Visit King’s resident mentor 

during term time to seek 

extensive guidance and advice 

on your business plan. 

The King’s Experience 

Enterprise Award aims to 

develop, enhance and recognise 

student enterprise activity 

in economic, social and/or 

cultural contexts. 

Enterprise Activity 

(minimum 25 hours) 

Reflection on that experience 

Undertaking the assessment 

(circa 50 hours) 

An opportunity to endorse 

international graduates identified 

by King’s as having a credible 

idea for a business. 

If successful, endorsement could 

help support your extended stay 

in the UK in order to launch your 

venture. There is an application 

round once per term. 

Dates and Times: 

23 October 2015, 6pm – 8:30pm 

24 October 2015, 9am – 8pm 

25 October 2015, 9am – 6pm 

Location: Rainmaking Loft, 1 St Katherine’s Way, 

London, E1W 1UN 

Applications are now open. 

Please visit our f6s page for more information or to apply: 

www.f6s.com/kingsweekender2015 

Deadline: 11:59pm 12 October 2015 

The application process reopens every three months. 

Visit www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI for up to date information 

Dates and times: 

Every Wednesday afternoon 

For further information or to book an appointment 

go to www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI. 

Deadline: 


For further information; or to apply please go to 

www.kcl.ac.uk/enterprise-award 

Round 1 – autumn 

Open for application: 21 September 2015 

Deadline for applications: 30 October 2015 

Round 2 – spring 

Open for applications: 11 January 2016 

Deadline for applications: 26 February 2016 

Round 3 – summer 

Open for applications: 3 May 2016 

Deadline for applications: 24 June 2016 

For further information please email: 

careers@kcl.ac.uk 

A few entrepreneurially 

inclined student societies 

Enactus at KCL: 

SleepCoats, apple 

chips and mobile 

money apps: 

what do all these 

things have in common? They’re all 

businesses (social enterprises to be 

precise) started by students at Enactus 

KCL. Students just like you and me 

get to be part of exciting businesses 

and contribute what they know and 

learn what they don’t. You get to turn 

your ideas and aspirations into reality 

with all of the support and none 

of the risk! We do wonders for your 

employability and you do wonders 

for the world. 

www.enactuskcl.org 

@EnactusKCL 

KCLEnactus 

Public Affairs & Communications 

Society (PAC): 

The PAC society is King’s only 

society concerned with the wide 

fields of Public Affairs, Strategic 

Communications and Marketing, 

and PR. Its mission is to establish and 

strengthen relationships and exchange 

between the academic community 

at King’s and the relevant sectors 

of industry. In particular, PAC 

aims to establish strong links between 

students and employers, and to 

foster intellectual exchange between 

academic staff and industry 

professionals. 

PAC’s strategic objectives for 

establishing this vibrant and effective 

interaction are based on its uniquely 

designed career-weeks and chaired 

debates. 

www.kclpac.com 

@KCLPAC 

kclpac?fref=ts 

KCL Tech Society: 

KCL Tech is an award-winning 

student society founded by a small 

group of people passionate about 

technology for the purpose of 

spreading knowledge and creating a 

network of students and staff who have 

an interest in tech. We partner with 

some of the largest tech companies and 

start-ups across the globe, including 

Facebook, Uber, Google, Bloomberg 

and many more, to bring quality 

events and opportunities for our 

members. We host some of the largest 

student-run hackathons, workshops 

and conferences for a range of 

audiences including those with the 

slightest interests to those who 

consider themselves tech enthusiasts. 

www.kcltech.com 

@KCLTech 

KCLTech 

King’s Robotics Society: 

We are the droids you’re 

looking for! Jump in, get 

your hands dirty, and 

learn how to build 

whatever you want. 

Like a good challenge? 

Assemble your own maze-solving 

robot. Prefer to relax? Design a robot 

to water your plants for you. Enjoy 

a laugh? 3D print a robo-roach to 

scare your flatmates. 

Anything you dream up, we’ve got 

you covered; space, tools, equipment, 

hands-on workshops for all skill levels, 

talks by experts on hot topics and the 

chance to make some like-minded 

friends (sentient... or not). 

We’ll be waiting. 

With love, the Robots. 

www.kingsrobotics.co.uk 

@Kings_Robotics 

robotics.kings 

King’s College London Innovation 

Forum (KCLIF) 

Students and 

researchers in the life 

sciences are not often 

aware of the skills 

required to develop 

innovative ideas into 

viable products or businesses. King’s 

College London Innovation Forum 

(KCLIF) is the only post-graduate 

society at King’s that exists to help 

bridge the gap between academia, 

industry and the public sector. Our 

objectives are to enlighten and inform 

students across King’s of the vast range 

of opportunities outside academia, and 

assist them in assembling the skills 

necessary to be successful drivers of 

innovation and businesses. 

www.inno-forum.org 

@KCL_IF 

KCLInnovationForum 

King’s College London Business 

Club (KCLBC): 

The King’s College London Business 

Club (KCLBC), in the past voted as 

number one student enterprise society 

in the UK, is with over 4,000 members 

the largest student-led society at 

King’s. The main objectives for 

KCLBC include driving student 

entrepreneurship at KCL, as well as 

showing students what opportunities 

they have beyond their degree. By 

connecting students with experts 

from the corporate, as well as the 

entrepreneurial sector, KCLBC helps 

students establish connections and 

relationships, which will help them 

succeed in the future. 

www.kclbc.com 

@KCLBC 

KCLBusinessClub 

For further information on all KCLSU societies please visit: www.kclsu.org/societies. 



Entrepreneur Q&A 


Focus on 

SIR RICHARD BRANSON 

King’s undergraduate Sam Werner interviews Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Founder. 

during these difficult days where the 

passion you have for a business really 

helps you stick with it and make it 

a success. Whenever we have faced 

a challenge at Virgin, we have always 

put our heads together to come up 

with a strategy that will allow the 

business to overcome a setback 

or challenge. Remember failure 

is a hurdle, not a dead end. 

‘Dream big’, is what people are often 

told. Looking back at your early days as 

an entrepreneur, what has helped you 

shape your vision of the future the most? 

I believe you should dream big and 

set yourself seemingly impossible 

challenges. You will then have to catch 

up with them. Mentors have always 

helped me shape my vision of the future 

and I’ve always been lucky to have 

them in my personal and business life. 

My mum has been a mentor throughout 

my life as well as Sir Freddie Laker who 

gave me invaluable advice and guidance 

as we set up Virgin Atlantic. If you ask 

any successful businessperson, they 

will always have had a great mentor at 

some point along the road. If you want 

success then it takes hard work, hard 

work and more hard work. But it also 

takes a little help along the way. 

In recent years there has been a 

significant growth in student start-ups 

at King’s College London. How do you 

see young entrepreneurs that are still 

in full-time education and what advice 

would you have for them so that they 

could use this particular position to 

their advantage? 

I left school at 15 to start Student 

magazine but when I was in my 40s, 

I considered taking a couple of years off 

to go back to studying. My wife talked 

me out of it – earning a degree takes a 

lot of time, and I simply wouldn’t be 

able to study and continue my work at 

Virgin. Many people assume that young 

entrepreneurs must choose between 

continuing their education and starting 

a business. In reality, these two choices 

can co-exist but there are three changes 

I would make to the system in order to 

produce more entrepreneurs. 

Encouraging students to start-up 

Universities should be encouraging 

students to start businesses linked to 

their studies. Especially in business 

programmes, professors should be 

encouraged to foster an entrepreneurial 

spirit in the classroom. Universities 

should offer guidance to students who 

have launched businesses, helping them 

toward success – budding entrepreneurs 

shouldn’t be forced to go it alone. 

Shorten degrees 

One way to help student entrepreneurs 

is to make some degree programmes 

shorter, some three-year programmes 

could easily be completed within two 

years. This would decrease students’ 

debt and put them in a better position 

to start their own businesses. 

Instil the importance of networking 

in students 

College is an environment in which 

you’re always learning, and while 

many subjects you’re exposed to won’t 

be directly relevant to your business, 

you will learn to think critically. The 

learning environment also provides 

students with many opportunities 

to meet new people and share ideas. 

This is a huge benefit – the number 

of companies and lifetime friendships 

that are formed in college is endless. 

When first-time young entrepreneurs 

enter a new business field, how can 

they best use their lack of experience 

as an asset rather than a liability? 

Virgin’s history shows that a lack 

of experience does not have to be 

a liability – it can be an asset. It 

is something you should play up 

when you discuss your ideas with 

prospective investors, partners and 

employees, rather than directing 

the conversation toward your 

other strengths. 

From the first days of my career 

as an entrepreneur, I have always 

used my own and my team’s lack of 

experience to our advantage. In fact, 

at our first venture, Student magazine, 

we used our newcomer status to 

secure great interviews and generate 

publicity – people were excited about 

our new project and wanted to get 

involved. Our inexperience fed our 

restless enthusiasm for trying new 

things, which became part of our core 

mission. No matter which industry 

you are planning to enter, you will 

almost certainly find that the same 

holds true for you. 

Have you ever dealt with fear when 

it comes to making wrong decisions or 

even potentially losing the company 

you have created? 

There will always be some very 

challenging moments when an 

entrepreneur starts a business. At 

times you are afraid everything you 

have worked to build will vanish. It is 

during these days that entrepreneurs 

should use this fear as fuel to push 

them forward and try to resolve 

whatever problem is facing the 

business. When harnessed positively, 

fear can be the energy that spurs you 

forward and keeps you on the road 

to success. Virgin certainly has faced 

many through the years and it is 

What piece of advice could you give 

young entrepreneurs when it comes 

to successfully marketing their 

proposition? 

There’s no guarantee that spending a 

huge amount of money on marketing 

will slingshot your business forward. 

When we launched Virgin Atlantic 

we didn’t have the budget to take on 

British Airways’ marketing campaigns. 

One piece of advice Sir Freddie Laker 

gave me was ‘You’ll never have the 

advertising power to outsell British 

Airways. You are going to have to get 

Lightning round 

Now this is the lightning round: 

all you need to do is give the first 

answer that comes to mind! 

Cats or dogs? Dogs 

What picks you up when you feel 

low? Apart from spending time 

with my family, I’m most happy 

when I am kite surfing – give me 

a kite and a board and some wind 

and waves, and you won’t wipe 

the smile off my face. 

Winter or Summer? I’m lucky to 

live on Necker Island where it’s 

summer all year round! 

What is your favourite film? 

Breaking the Taboo, a film 

produced by my son Sam and 

Sundog Pictures. It ensures that 

the topic of global drug policy will 

continue to be thought and talked 

about. 

What is your top tip for business 

success? You’ve got to take risks if 

you’re going to succeed. I would 

much rather ask for forgiveness 

than permission. 

What three things couldn’t you live 

without? Family time, my notepad 

and kite surfing. 

out there and use yourself. Make a 

fool of yourself. Otherwise you won’t 

survive.’ And I’ve been making a fool 

of myself ever since! I took his advice 

and I’ve been thinking up fun ways to 

stand out from the crowd and draw the 

media’s attention to our company ever 

since, from breaking world records to 

pulling pranks. 

The King’s Student Entrepreneurship 

Institute has effectively brought 

together all the different student 

enterprise organisations at King’s, 

created a structure to engaging, 

empowering and investing in start-ups 

through incubating space, workshops, 

events, mentoring, and much more. 

How important do you think it is for 

universities to dedicate services and 

time to support student entrepreneurs? 

It’s fantastic that King’s has 

created a dynamic environment for 

entrepreneurs to prosper. I think it’s 

essential for universities to dedicate 

time and support to foster the Virgins 

of the future. I also believe that 

governments should provide the 

finance and energy to foster a new 

generation of entrepreneurs and open 

markets for them to compete in. 

One of the best policies has been the 

introduction of the Start-Up Loans 

scheme. It was originally aimed 

at university-aged students and in 

just three years the Start-Up Loan 

Company has expanded to take on 

all ages, and has lent more than £140 

million to 27,000 businesses across 

the UK. Virgin StartUp is our notfor-profit 

organisation, which gives 

budding entrepreneurs the funding, 

information and support they need to 

get their business ideas off the ground. 

It has helped hundreds of businesses 

get early financing and Virgin StartUp 

also focuses on supporting the next 

round of financing through further 

loan schemes, crowd funding sources 

or traditional angel investment and 

private equity. ■ 

Virgin StartUp 

Virgin StartUp is a not-for-profit 

organisation which gives budding 

entrepreneurs the funding, 

information and support they 

need to get their business ideas 

off the ground. Find out more at 

virginstartup.org. 

Interviewer’s profile: Sam Werner is a 

final year Business Management student 

and the president of the King’s College 

London Business Club (KCLBC) after 

having been involved for the past two 

years in the club’s enterprise department 

and as Vice President. 

www.kclbc.com 

@KCLBC KCLBusinessClub 

12 



Alumna Q&A 

Alumna Q&A 

ELLA JADE BITTON: 

Co-founder and Executive Director of Ella Jade Interiors 

PROFILE 

Age: 24 

What did you study at King’s College 

London? Business Management 

What year did you graduate? 2013 

What campus were you based at? 

Waterloo 

Were you part of any King’s 

societies? President of King’s College 

London Business Club (KCLBC) 

How old were you when you 

launched Ella Jade Interiors? 16 

Ella let’s start with a little background 

information on you – what did you 

study at King’s and how did you find 

your experience here? 

I was a Business Management Student 

at King’s College London – a degree 

that you can relate to any industry, 

although I’m probably biased! I feel 

the community at King’s enables 

students to learn and develop through 

friendships and societies whilst also 

growing up in the capital city of 

London. Being involved in KCLBC 

and becoming President was an 

experience I will never forget and one 

I look back on and utilise to this day. 

Tell us a bit about Ella Jade Interiors; 

what is it and how did you come up with 

the idea? 

My interest in the entrepreneurial 

sphere started at the age of 16 when 

I registered and launched my brand 

Ella Jade ® into the Cosmetic and 

Interior design department in Harrods. 

It was an opportunity to launch 

a new brand into Harrods which 

I took with open arms. My father 

was the continual force of inspiration 

and mentorship at that time. 

The concept of Ella Jade Interiors 

has developed considerably since 

its opening in Harrods. We initially 

concentrated more on Bathrooms and 

Kitchens, and now it has become an 

Interior Design Brand where we pride 

ourselves on our designs. The very 

unique element being that we not only 

design any room in the house, we then 

supply and manufacture all the products 

and also install everything. Essentially 

a one-stop shop for the entire house. 

What were the main challenges you 

faced early on in your venture? And do 

you still encounter them to this day? 

I was still growing up when it all 

started so I had to learn very quickly 

on the job. When you’re a teenager, 

you’re still finding yourself but I also 

had to find myself in the world of 

business. But I would say to any young 

entrepreneur that starting early is the 

best decision you could make. 

University provides a rare 

bubble where you can test ideas 

and learn things without burning 

your hand too much 

I encounter challenges every day 

and it would be boring without them! 

As an entrepreneur you’ll never stop 

learning and you have to make sure 

that you accept that. 

In general, the biggest challenges 

have been when I didn’t understand 

how to deal with a situation. So the 

more knowledge you have, the more 

challenges you can overcome without 

an issue. 

Do you have any suggestions for coping 

with set-backs, negative experiences? 

‘What doesn’t kill you makes you 

stronger’ is a saying I live by. Negative 

experiences give you a backbone, 

strength and knowledge to deal with 

anything. 

In all my negative experiences I’ve 

learned something. It actually shows 

you in that very moment what went 

wrong or what you could improve on, 

or even who isn’t working well in the 

team. If you solve it, you can move on 

and grow further. 

Where did your organisation’s funding/ 

capital come from and how did you go 

about getting it? How did you secure 

investment for your business? 

At the initial stage of creation, I had an 

agreement with a company in a similar 

industry to lay the foundations. I was 

fortunate to have that opportunity and 

I do believe in working together with 

people you know. We haven’t had any 

external investment in the business, 

but that’s something I’m considering 

in the future to move the company 

international. 

I would however promote Angel 

investors, crowdfunding and 

partnering with someone as other 

means of investments. 

What influence has King’s had on your 

entrepreneurial achievements? Please 

give us an insight into the university’s 

initiatives and programmes you took 

part in and how they equipped, 

developed and prepared you for your 

entrepreneurial journey. 

King’s College London Business Club 

was as important, if not more than, my 

degree. I got involved with the society 

from freshers’ week in first year and 

went on to become President. The 

society provides opportunities to help 

students develop their future careers, 

whether in the entrepreneurial or 

corporate sphere. I was leading a team 

of 30 on a daily basis, working with 

international corporates such as 

Accenture, Deloitte, Google, 

generating sponsorship and with the 

team achieved the first ever student 

trip to Silicon Valley. Taking students 

to companies including Facebook HQ, 

Microsoft HQ and Google HQ. 



Alumna Q&A 

Alumnus article 

I learnt so many business skills in a 

practical sense. Leadership, teamwork, 

delegation, organisation, creativity, 

target markets and client relationship 

management. To this present day 

I use examples from the society and 

I probably always will! 

What three pieces of advice would you 

give to university students who want 

to become entrepreneurs? 

Firstly, practical experience. Utilise 

the logical reasoning and knowledge 

you learn studying and apply it in a 

practical sense either through a society 

or in your own business. 

Secondly, build your network and 

your community. Do NOT social 

climb in any sense! But understand 

your fellow students, build a network 

so that you can perhaps in the future 

work together and benefit one another. 

Thirdly, take risks, challenge 

yourself and work hard. University 

provides a rare bubble where you can 

test ideas and learn things without 

burning your hand too much. If you 

succeed the first time, fantastic! 

If not, you will be learning in a safe 

environment. 

In 2014 you took part in the BBC’s 

television show ‘The Apprentice’. Can 

you give us an insight into how you 

found that experience; what skills did 

you gain and what lessons did you learn? 

Being on The Apprentice was definitely 

the best and craziest experience of my 

life. The experience itself was very 

intense and non-stop. The 20 minute 

wake-up call is no joke and the hours 

are long from early morning until 

late evening. 

You only have yourself. You can’t 

hide behind technology or friends. You 

have to learn to be quick-thinking and 

understand many different characters. 

It was a character-building regime and 

I definitely learned the most after the 

airing of the programme where you 

have to take opportunities quickly 

and fairly. 

If you could go back in time to when you 

first entered Lord Sugar’s board room, 

what would you do differently? 

I don’t actually regret anything. 

I would know how to deal with 

situations better and say the right 

things because I’ve been through it. 

But essentially, it is an entertainment 

programme as well as business. So 

instead of concentrating solely on 

the business tasks I would show a bit 

more of my personality – hopefully 

in a positive way! 

How do you find people to bring into 

your organisation that truly care about 

the organisation the way you do? 

This is the golden question. For 

me, it’s all about the team. You can 

achieve anything together if you have 

the best team. I come across people 

in social situations, through events, 

networking and you trial them to see if 

they truly care about the organisation. 

The team I have is incredible and 

the team feel proud of the company 

as though it’s also theirs to grow 

and nurture. 

Have you had any start-up businesses 

that have been unsuccessful? If so, what 

have you learned from them? 

Absolutely! I created an organisation 

during a summer in university (not 

naming any names) and only two people 

turned up to a ‘seminar’. You have to 

laugh at it now, but at the time I was so 

embarrassed! It’s taught me about target 

markets and also not to diversify my 

time too much. I was concentrating on 

too many things at once and you have 

to learn to focus. 

How long do you stick with an idea 

before giving up? 

That all depends on the idea, some 

ideas will take months to realise its 

potential and some will only take 

weeks. It’s all about analysing the 

situation at hand. In my experience, 

you should go for an idea but also 

understand life has a natural course 

of working and sometimes better 

things will come along. 

What would you say are the top three 

skills needed to be a successful 

entrepreneur? 

Without a doubt, hard work is number 

one. Being an entrepreneur is a full 

time job 24 hours, seven days a week. 

It’s also the most rewarding and 

exhilarating job in the world! 

Secondly, ability to learn and 

analyse situations. This comes from 

LIGHTNING ROUND 




Android or iOS/Apple? Apple 

Twitter or Facebook? Twitter 

Starter or dessert? Dessert 

Home-cooked food or take away? 

Home cooked food 

Night in or night out? Night out 

Gym or gin? Gym 

Lazy Sundays or active 

weekends? Active weekends 

Where & when was your last 

holiday? Vegas and LA in April 2015 

Cats or dogs? Cats 

Winter or Summer? Summer 

Risk or regret? Risk 

experience, a willingness to learn and 

challenging yourself. 

Lastly, to be a great and successful 

entrepreneur you have to be humble 

and fair. My greatest inspiration is my 

father. He was a very shrewd and 

successful businessman, but he was 

also extremely kind and adored. 

Can you give us an ‘Exclusive’ on your 

plans for the next 12 months? 

I can reveal I have a press launch 

for Ella Jade Interiors coming up in 

September. I’m creating a new concept 

for interior design which has never 

been done before and it’s exciting to 

get a good reaction and interest from 

the media. Following that, my aim is to 

take the brand international. You can 

follow all the updates on social media, 

Twitter and Instagram! ■ 

www.ellajadeinteriors.com 

@EllaJadeBrand 

@EllaJadeBrand 

FOR THE LOVE OF CYCLING 

– CYCLING SAFETY – 

King’s alumnus, Agostino Stilli led the start-up that won the Lion’s Den Challenge 2014-15. 

Here he gives us an indication of what they did to become a successful start-up. 

CYCL® is an 

international team 

that relocated to 

London at the 

end of 2013. We 

are focused on 

creating and 

manufacturing 

innovative solutions for cycling safety. 

First of all we are a group of friends 

who really love cycling. 

It has been a long journey, but a 

rewarding one at that. When we first 

began working on CYCL in April 

2014, Luca and I never envisioned 

presenting WingLights in front of 

the Duke of York (Pitch@Palace) or 

seeing ourselves in the London Evening 

Standard. However, with hard work, 

persistence and a helping hand from 

King’s College London, our company 

is now at a stage where we are working 

with major retailers and distributors 

within the cycling industry. 

King’s played a major part in 

motivating us and providing the team 

with the facilities and connections 

we required getting our start-up off 

the ground. The Incubating Space 

The experts at King’s will provide 

you with the help and knowledge you 

need to make your dream a reality 

for example allowed us to develop 

the business and network with other 

inspiring start-ups, and winning 

both Best Business (£5,000) and Best 

Pitch (£1,000) awards at the Lion’s 

Den Challenge meant that we could 

further invest in improving the quality 

Three pieces of advice for someone thinking about starting up: 

1 

Do not rush when looking for 

investors and do not evaluate 

them only on the money that 

they can potentially bring to 

your business, but also on 

their network of people. 

2 

Select your business partners 

wisely, especially when you are 

looking for founders. Always 

ensure that they believe in your 

idea as much as you do! 

of our product. 

Attending and speaking at events 

such as Enterprise Connect and 

becoming involved in the Sirius 

Programme led us to win second place 

at the Santander Universities Award 

in the Postgraduate Category. As well 

as providing us with further money 

to invest, the competition resulted 

in even more useful networking 

opportunities and introductions. 

If you are thinking of launching your 

own start-up company but aren’t sure 

where to begin, the experts at King’s 

will provide you with the help and 

knowledge you need to make your 

dream a reality. It may be daunting at 

first, but once you have begun your 

own journey, you won’t look back! ■ 

www.cycl.bike 

@CyclBike 

3 

Make the best out of the city 

where you live: London offers you 

the opportunity to be involved in 

so many events for start-ups that 

you will never need to pay someone 

to teach you about it. 

16 



Student article 

Enterprise Connect alumnus Q&A 

A LITTLE TECH 

– GOES A LONG WAY – 

Focus on 

ASHISH J. THAKKAR 

Third-year King’s Computer Science student Fares Alaboud demonstrates how a little desire 

and a lot of passion can help mould an alternative path for your future. 

King’s graduate, Ross Lindgren, who launched Stolen Productions Ltd at the age of 21, quizzes Ashish 

(Africa’s youngest billionaire) on the entrepreneurial journey he started at just 15 years old! 

I remember the 

first day I walked 

through the Strand 

Campus, with 

the same dream 

everyone else had: 

to be the next Steve 

Jobs or the next 

Bill Gates. I had so many ideas and so 

much passion, just like many others 

around me. I was ready to take on the 

next biggest challenge, to solve the next 

problem, to set on the next adventure. 

The only thing that is different today 

is the fact that it is no longer a dream. 

It is actually a feasible goal. 

Over the past few years I’ve discovered 

that studying at King’s keeps you busy. 

There’s always a networking event to 

make connections in the industry, a 

workshop to attend to gain new skills 

and a group of students set to make 

King’s a better place. I am lucky to 

be part of the latter, as this year I will 

proudly lead King’s fastest growing, 

multi-award-winning Tech Society (for 

information on the KCL Tech Society 

please see page 11). 

When I joined King’s, informatics 

students had little or no connection to 

the tech industry, and were destined to 

work in fin-tech (financial technology) 

firms or banks. The KCL Tech 

Society was founded with one simple 

goal in mind: to connect students to 

opportunities. I was in my first year 

when the founder, Ammaar Reshi, 

saw my passion for technology, and 

one thing led to another: I was a 

committee member in my first year, 

a vice president in my second year, 

and now I am president. 

Our first big accomplishment was 

our first event; HackKing’s, where 

we brought together over 100 

students from across the country, 

including Manchester, Southampton, 

Nottingham, St. Andrews, Oxford, 

as well as half a dozen London 

universities. We convinced Facebook, 

Codecademy and JUST EAT to 

sponsor us. In fact, Index Ventures 

gave £15,000 to the winning team. 

KSEI brought HackLondon some 

of its biggest sponsors 

The society slowly grew and our 

reach expanded beyond Informatics, 

with over 600 new members joining 

us in our second year from over 20 

fields of study. We had at least one 

event a week, ranging from studentled 

workshops that taught people 

how to code; to guest speakers from 

both London’s growing start-ups 

and the world’s most prominent 

tech companies. We were making a 

difference, and finally achieving our 

goal. My favourite part was seeing the 

students flourish as they start making 

connections and developing skills that 

will benefit them for the rest of their 

careers. And we know we’re making 

a difference. The founders of KCL 

Tech moved on to work at companies 

like Amazon and Palantir. 

As our outreach grew, so did the 

support we received from many parts 

of the university. Financially, the 

Department of Informatics funded 

many of our events. In terms of 

publicity, we were given much support 

from the Vice Principal of Education, 

as well as the Dean of the Faculty of 

Natural & Mathematical Sciences. 

However, the real players were King’s 

Student Entrepreneurship Institute 

(KSEI), who led the successful 

campaign to take over some space in 

King’s for student start-ups to work in. 

With this support, we grew even 

more. We ran the UK’s most attended 

hackathon since 2010, HackLondon, 

with over 220 people from across 

Europe and names like Google, 

Bloomberg, Dell, Intel and SwiftKey 

backing us up. 

Much of those who see our 

accomplishments thank the committee, 

but there’s one important factor that 

made all of this possible: the incredibly 

supportive environment. Lecturers 

attended our events and spread the 

word to other departments. Professor 

Ed Byrne AC, President and Principal 

of King’s College London, quoted 

our accomplishments at graduation. 

KSEI brought HackLondon some 

of its biggest sponsors. 

KSEI’s Entrepreneurship Support 

Fund has opened doors for prospective 

impacting start-up founders and 

project leaders across the university. 

From the perspective of KCL Tech, it 

has given student societies the ability 

to host both local and international 

events and competitions. Allowing us 

to bring together some of the world’s 

brightest minds to create solutions 

to the problems that exist in the 

world today. 

It is one of humanity’s marvels that 

a man’s footsteps will always remain 

on the moon. The reason King’s is a 

fantastic place to be is that everyone 

does everything in their power to leave 

something positive behind, and to 

enhance experience for those who 

are to come after us. ■ 

As a 15-year-old entrepreneur did you 

age ever create obstacles when doing 

business? Certainly at a young age, 

starting a business selling computer 

parts in Uganda, there were obstacles 

– particularly in people taking me 

seriously, but I really learned how 

important hard work is and not 

accepting the status quo. I don’t 

accept ‘no’ for an answer. Another 

key lesson starting a business at any 

age is to surround yourself with people 

you can trust and come alongside you 

to drive your vision forward. 

In your Forbes article you speak on the 

importance of having a mentor when 

beginning as an entrepreneur. What do 

you look for in a mentor and how can 

young entrepreneurs find experienced 

industry mentors? As I said earlier, 

it’s important to surround yourself 

with people you can trust. People 

that can give you valuable input and 

are not afraid to be disruptive – in 

a positive way. It’s the reason that 

Mara Foundation has set up Mara 

Mentor – in order to help young 

people learn from each other and learn 

from industry leaders. Mara Mentor 






low? My spiritual leader Morari 

Bapu is a major part of my life. 

His teaching is truth, love and 

compassion 

Twitter or Facebook? Twitter but 

soon Mara Chat! ;) 

What was the last TV show you 

watched? House of Cards 

Favourite Film? Godfather 

Cats or dogs? Lions!!!!!! ;) 

is designed to cultivate enterprise 

through idea and knowledge sharing 

and my belief is that this crucial 

interaction amongst peer groups will 

lead to fewer mistakes longer term. 

How do you identify and attract 

the most talented individuals when 

hiring? Having a strong team is key – 

you’re only ever as good as your team. 

At Mara we are proactive at putting 

the right people in the right positions. 

Our DNA is entrepreneurial and we 

make sure we get team members 

who are the best of entrepreneurial 

and yet institutional. 

The Mara group is highly diversified 

and engaged in a variety of activities 

such as financial services, real-estate 

and tourism. How do you decide which 

markets are worth entering and which 

ones to avoid? We focus on sectors 

that we are passionate about and we 

understand well. What has worked 

particularly well for Mara is that we 

also look for partners with international 

companies with substantial industry 

expertise. Coupled with our deep local 

understanding of the region, we have 

found this model works for us. We are 

not interested in reinventing wheels; 

we aim to be a disruptive force in 

whatever sector we are involved in. 

How early do you get up in the morning 

and how do you stay motivated? 

I travel a lot, so I don’t have the luxury 

of more than a few hours of sleep. For 

me, I find staying positive and inspired 

keeps me productive and motivated. 

What do you think are the most 

important attributes for a young 

entrepreneur to succeed? 

Be bold and surround yourself with 

good people; people with valuable 

input. It’s very important to learn 

from your mistakes, because you 

can’t afford to make the same mistake 

twice. Overall, I always encourage 

entrepreneurs to think big, but start 

small. If you have a bold vision, pace 

yourself and understand the details. 

Also to never compromise on your 

values and ethics, don’t take short cuts. 

What advice would you give to 

someone working within an existing 

company who’s thinking about taking 

the leap into entrepreneurship? 

Take the leap if you are sure about it. 

Take advantage of every opportunity 

to learn. Whether working for a 

company or starting your own 

business, it’s important to be bold, 

innovative and have a relentless work 

ethic. Being an ‘intrapreneur’ (an 

entrepreneur within a company) is just 

as fun, bold and exciting, as long as 

the company allows you to. ■ 

Interviewer’s profile: Ross Lindgren 

is the Founder and Head Producer of 

Stolen Productions Ltd. Ross currently 

runs Stolen Productions from the King’s 

Incubator. Ross is a King’s College London 

Business Management Graduate (class 

of 2015) and was a member of the King’s 

College London Business Club (KCLBC). 

www.StolenProductions.com 

@RossCLindgren 



Enterprise Connect alumna Q&A 

Enterprise Connect alumna Q&A 

Focus on 

CYNTHIA CARROLL 

King’s alumna Yee-Mun Thum interviews the inspirational Cynthia Carroll, Non Exec Director 

BP and former CEO Anglo American PLC. The leading business woman, who spoke at Enterprise 

Connect, tells Yee-Mun about her 5:30am starts and gives advice on equality in business. 






Twitter or Facebook? Neither! haha 

White board or Post-it? Post-it 



low? My family 

How would you describe your 

leadership style? Is it one that you 

would encourage others to emulate? 

I believe in giving everybody in 

an organisation the opportunity to 

contribute and am highly supportive 

of teamwork. It is my view that 

better solutions to problems are 

found through input from those with 

different perspectives and experiences, 

and I strongly support diversification 

within an organisation. I work to build 

consensus and decision making, but it 

is clear that significant decisions rest 

ultimately with the executives and 

with the CEO. As a leader of a global 

company, I spent much of my time 

engaging with those inside and outside 

of the organisation, visiting operations, 

meeting with executive management 

teams, or working with governments, 

labour, or community representatives 

at all levels, and importantly, 

interacting with shareholders. 

In your working life, you’ve had to deal 

with many a naysayer and detractor. 

How do you handle both – the personal 

working relationship (if it was a 

colleague or a working partner), as 

well as the publicity surrounding what 

they say if they choose to critique you 

in the public eye? 

As a leader of a global organisation, 

you are always in the public eye and 

receiving scrutiny and evaluation. It 

is critical to maintain focus and belief 

in yourself, working continuously for 

the greater good of the organisation 

and not simply making decisions in 

response to media critique, a demand 

from a single shareholder, or the need 

of one business or a few individuals. 

In driving towards more efficient and 

effective organisations, I have made 

many tough decisions with respect 

to people, despite my close personal 

relationships with individuals. 

Although difficult, I always maintained 

a broader perspective relating to 

corporate enhancement, increased 

competitiveness and value creation. 

I was travelling almost 75% 

of the time at my last job when I was 

running a global organisation 

Do you feel that the gender issue 

is still one that affects women entering, 

and re-entering the corporate working 

world, particularly at management 

and executive levels? 

There is no question that women 

have many more opportunities today 

than they did in the past. Having said 

that, there are still prejudices and 

barriers that women need to overcome, 

particularly as they rise up through the 

ranks. Despite always working in 

male-dominated industries, I have 

stayed focused, believing in myself 

and trusting my business judgment, 

and expect mutual respect in an 

organisation. It is important for 

women to align themselves and to 

express their views and opinions 

about what is working and what 

is not. The business world still has 

a long way to go, particularly in the 

more male-dominated corporations 

and industries. 

Have you ever felt that you’ve had to 

make sacrifices that men might not 

have had to make, in the same position? 

I have been very fortunate to have a 

husband who has supported my career 

and our marriage since we met 28 

years ago. While he is an accountant 

and has a master’s degree in finance, 

he stepped away from his corporate 

job when we moved to Montreal in 

1998 so that I could head up a global 

business. We then had our fourth child 

and we made the decision that he 

would work from home while looking 

after our children. 

What are three practical bits of advice 

that you would give a young woman 

starting out today? 

1. Take risks and try different 

experiences, working 

internationally if you have the 

opportunity or working in a field 

where you have not been trained 

(i.e. moving from finance to 

operations or a technical job 

to finance). 

2. Be confident and believe in 

yourself, don’t be intimidated by 

those in more powerful positions 

– everyone has something to 

contribute. (Be sure to strengthen 

your presentation skills.) 

3. You can have a family and 

have a career, but know that you 

cannot do everything, so you have 

to be good at organising 

and prioritising. 

What advice you would give 

to men working alongside them? 

Actively support women in the 

organisation through recruitment, 

development, and inclusion. Men 

AND women should be considered 

for all positions in an organisation. 

Consider imposing specific diversity 

targets linked to remuneration to 

prompt the organisation to promote 

and hire more women. 

What were the toughest challenges you 

had to face when balancing your career 

and raising your family? How did you 

overcome them or work around them? 

I had children almost from the very 

beginning of my career. We have 

had the opportunity to live in four 

countries, and my children have had 

exposure to very international and 

diverse environments. As a result, 

I think that they are broad and open 

in their perspectives. My challenges 

were minimised by the fact that my 

husband stayed at home while I was 

travelling almost 75% of the time at 

my last job when I was running 

a global organisation. 

What’s a day like in your life? Do you 

have a specific routine to get your day, 

and that of your family’s, started? 

My routine has changed over the 

Men AND women should 

be considered for all positions 

in an organisation 

years. While running Anglo American, 

I usually was awake at 5:30am, and 

left home at 6:30 in order to get into 

central London to start my day. 

Fortunately I was driven to work, 

and so spent the commute in the car 

on the phone with people in places 

like South Africa, China or Australia. 

My day was spent participating in 

one meeting after another, and often 

involved interaction with shareholders, 

media or government officials. I was 

usually home about 7:30pm, and tried 

to stay at home during the weekends. 

Travel was frequent and my weeks 

began on Sunday evening when 

I would leave our house to catch 

a plane. It would not be unusual 

for me to visit South Africa, Chile, 

Brazil, and Peru in one week. This 

would involve a trip to an operation, 

addressing employees and meeting 

with union and government officials. 

Considering that approximately 90% 

of Anglo American’s operations were 

in developing countries, I was often 

away from home. 

What’s in the horizons for Cynthia 

Carroll, both professionally and 

personally? 

I am on the boards of Hitachi, 

Ltd. and BP. I want to keep working 

and being part of organisations 

that strive to be world-class and 

the best in their industry, making a 

difference to people, to communities, 

and to nations around the world 

while creating shareholder value. 

Personally, I look forward to spending 

more time with my husband and 

four children. 

And finally, to end on a light note, 

what do you eat for breakfast? 

I try to stay healthy, so I generally 

have yoghurt with some fruit. ■ 

Interviewer’s profile: Yee-Mun Thum 

is the Co-Founder of Scarlett of Soho, the 

UK’s first eyewear subscription service. 

She completed her MA in Digital 

Culture & Society at King’s College 

London in 2014. Yee-Mun was also 

an active member of the King’s College 

London Business Club (KCLBC). 

ScarlettofSoho 

20 



PhD student article 

Graduate article 

CONTROL YOUR DESTINY 

– TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS – 

MED-TECH 

– DOCTORS AKA ENTREPRENEURS – 

President of KCL Innovation Forum, Bauke Anninga, conveys the importance 

of preparing for life outside of academia. The current PhD Cancer Studies student 

introduces the practical support that is offered by the society. 

Dr Cosima Gretton, King’s recent graduate, shares her views on how entrepreneurship 

and innovation are the missing pieces in modern medicine. 

King’s College 

London Innovation 

Forum (KCLIF) 

is the only 

postgraduate 

society at King’s 

that exists to help 

bridge the gap 

between academia, industry and the 

public sector. Students and earlycareer 

researchers in the sciences are 

not often aware of the skills required 

to develop innovative ideas into viable 

products or businesses. 

Our objectives are to enlighten 

and inform students across King’s 

of the vast range of opportunities 

outside academia, and assist them in 

assembling the skills necessary to be 

successful drivers of innovation and 

businesses. By doing so, we hope to 

enlighten and educate researchers at 

King’s such that they feel confident 

to commercialise suitable ideas 

ABOVE: Professor Karen O’Brien 

(Vice-Principal Education at King’s College 

London) awarding Bauke Anninga the King’s 

Experience Enterprise Award in 2015. 

RIGHT: Bauke Anninga speaking at the 

Enterprise Connect event: ‘An Evening 

on Student Entrepreneurship at King’s.’ 

or become attractive prospects 

to the private sector – be it for 

entrepreneurship or other roles. 

To best meet these goals we 

organise a number of seminars each 

year that address the varied nature 

of opportunities outside of academia. 

Through seminars and workshops 

delivered by inspirational figures 

in research and industry, we aim 

to encourage our members to think 

about their education, experience 

and unique skills and how these can 

be used outside an academic route. 

Students and early-career 

researchers in the sciences are not 

often aware of the skills required to 

develop innovative ideas into viable 

products or businesses 

I took over as President of the 

society this year and am very excited 

to be working together with a very 

talented and enthusiastic team. 

I am thankful for the support 

that we received from King’s 

Commercialisation Institute, King’s 


and the King’s Graduate School 

and hope we can build upon that 

experience. Notably, KSEI’s 

Entrepreneurship Support Fund 

enabled us to grow our network 

by 250% and offer various great 

events that were relevant to our 

members. We have some amazing 

plans for the coming year and are 

looking to connect with innovators 

at King’s, and beyond. We are 

originally founded from a life-sciences 

postgraduate background but are 

planning to expand into other 

scientific disciplines. By organising 

cross-disciplinary events we hope 

to create favourable circumstances 

for enterprise. We believe that 

by facilitating serendipity, true 

innovation occurs and great start-ups 

can be generated. 

If you would like to know more 

about the work that we do, please 

get in touch by either sending us 

an email via kcl@inno-forum.org, or 

alternatively go to page 11 for more 

contact details. ■ 

www.inno-forum.org 

Cosima Gretton: sharing tales from her experience at the 

ten-week programme in NASA hothouse, Singularity University 

Technology is 

set to change 

medicine radically. 

New digital 

health solutions 

arise every day, 

radically altering 

how healthcare 

could potentially be delivered. But 

much of the innovation is currently 

coming from outside the field. The few 

doctors who step out of the relative 

safety of the profession often do so 

at a loss to their clinical careers. 

Innovation and entrepreneurship 

are not rewarded or included as part 

of formal training programmes in the 

UK. Audits and quality improvement 

contribute towards career progression, 

start-ups do not. 

When applying for Foundation 

training, it was clear there was no room 

in the online form for my achievements 

outside clinical or academic medicine. 

Points are awarded for academic 

publications, academic degrees and 

clinical training – but nothing else. 

We need to bring the training of 

junior doctors and medical students 

up to speed with the pace of change 

we are seeing outside medicine 

We need to bring the training of 

junior doctors and medical students 

up to speed with the pace of change we 

are seeing outside medicine. Technology 

will inevitably improve healthcare at 

every level, but without the involvement 

of medics the pace will be slow. 

In the USA, ‘doctors as entrepreneurs’ 

is a common pathway, and one that 

is well rewarded. Thankfully things 

are changing. This September, Tony 

Young, the National Clinical Director for 

Innovation at NHS England, is launching 

a new programme called the Clinician 

Entrepreneur (visit bit.ly/CosCEP for 

more information). It is a radical new 

programme open to junior doctors and 

trainees, aimed at supporting innovation 

and entrepreneurship alongside clinical 

practice. It’s a great step forward, but 

lacks involvement of the other members 

of the multidisciplinary team, like 

nurses and physiotherapists. I really 

hope it is successful and the formal 

support kicks off a culture of innovation 

and eagerness for improvement 

throughout the NHS. ■ 

www.cosimagretton.co.uk 

@cosgretton 



Alumnus Q&A 

Student hacking article 

CARMARLEY DENNIS: 

MUSTAFA ON HACKING 

– HE’S THE HACK-KING – 

Founder of Hubbly Bubbly 

PROFILE 

Age: 28 


London? Law 

What year did you graduate? 2013 

What campus were you based at? 

Strand and Waterloo 

Were you part of any King’s societies? 

Fund Director of KCL Investment Club 

How old were you when you launched 

Hubbly Bubbly? 26 





Android or iOS/Apple? iOS/Apple 


Starter or dessert? Dessert 

Home cooked food or take away? 

Home cooked 



Where and when was 

your last holiday? Miami 

– a few years ago 




Winter or summer? 

Summer 


What did you study at King’s and how 

did you find your experience here? 

I studied law, and had the best time. 

What is Hubbly Bubbly? 

Hubbly Bubbly is a premium vaping 

company – we develop our own 

range of fruit flavoured e-liquids 

and vaping devices. 

What has your start-up journey been 

like whilst you have been at King’s 

and how has this impacted Hubbly 

Bubbly’s evolution? 

I started the company in my final 

year and had great support from the 

outset. I’ve worked closely with the 

King’s Student Entrepreneurship 

Institute (KSEI) and was a part of the 

first cohort of the King’s Incubator 

(March 2015). During this time 

I regularly attended their Enterprise 

Connect events, which included talks 

from entrepreneurs who had built 

their brands into household names. 

Following one event, KSEI connected 

me with the speaker Sahar Hashemi 

(Co-Founder Coffee Republic) who 

had built and exited two retail brands. 

Sahar had great insights to share 

about distribution, which I’ve since 

put into practice. 

Do you have a process for idea 

generation and testing for market 

viability? 

I start with finding solutions for 

problems close to me, and as far 

as market viability – I love data, 

the more the better, but I’ve found 

the best way to know if something 

works is to speak to users. I’m a big 

fan of pop-up stores for testing. We’ve 

run several of these for new ranges 

and flavours before moving to full 

scale production. 

How important is it to network 

at an early stage?? 

Some of the relationships I’ve built 

over the years were vital in getting 

things moving with limited resources 

at the very start. As the business 

grows, identifying good mentors 

and advisors with domain expertise, 

and experience in scaling successful 

businesses is equally important. 

This will save you making some 

painful mistakes. I’ve been fortunate 

to have some great ones throughout 

my journey. 


faced early on in your venture? And 

do you still encounter them to this day? 

The main challenges were fundingrelated 

earlier on. Following 

graduation, I secured angel investment. 

Since then, the main challenge has 

been distribution and keeping cash 

flow healthy. We’ve been able to 

overcome these challenges by focusing 

on our strongest revenue sources, 

with the shortest sales cycles. 



I have a list of things I want to achieve 

in any given year posted above my 

desk – that keeps me focused when 

then things get tough. 

Have you any advice for a young 

entrepreneur who is held back by 

a fear of failure? 

Start your venture as a side project 

whilst at university or during 

employment, then aim to get your 

first paying customers within a realistic 

time span. Those early wins will give 

you the confidence to take the leap. 

What can we expect from Hubbly 

Bubbly over the next 12 months? 

The next 12 months you can 

expect to see our products listed 

in more retailers. ■ 

www.hubblybubblyeliquid.com 

hubblybubblyeliquid 

hubblybubblyeliquid 

myhubblybubbly 

Mustafa Al Bassam has experienced all aspects of hacking; the good, the bad and the ugly. 

The Informatics undergraduate student introduces us to the modern world of hacking and 

how it nurtures creativity and innovation. 

When the media 

uses the word 

‘hacker’, it’s often 

accompanied by 

a stock photo of 

a man in a dark 

room tapping away 

on a keyboard, 

siphoning bank account information. 

The man is usually wearing a balaclava 

and gloves indoors, presumably 

because banks have CCTV cameras 

on their websites too and logging into 

a website leaves your actual fingerprint 

on it. This is the mainstream 

perception of hackers, derived from 

Hollywood films and the media. 

Within the wider tech community 

however, the word ‘hacker’ has very 

different perceptions and meanings. 

To hack means to be playfully clever 

and computer crime is only one 

of the many subsections of hacking. 

A hacker is someone who likes to 

explore and understand in detail the 

inner-workings of systems, particularly 

computer systems, and manipulates 

them in playful ways to discover clever 

solutions to problems – the solution is 

called a ‘hack’. A mobile app that uses 

GPS to alert you when you pass the 

grocery store every day so that you 

remember to pick up the milk can 

be an example of a hack. 

Admittedly I have been involved 

in the subsection of hacking that is 

more stereotypical of a Hollywood 

film’s perception. 

When I was 15 years old 

I co-founded a hacking group 

called ‘LulzSec’ that compromised 

the computer systems of a variety 

of governmental and corporate 

organisations including Sony, FBI 

affiliates, NATO, and Fox. The 

authorities weren’t happy about this, 

so I was arrested in the summer of 

2011. I was on bail for two years on 

condition that I didn’t access the 

internet. Living in 21st century Britain 

without access to the internet is harder 

than one might think. 

Computer code has social 

and political implications 

Hacking is inherently rewarding. 

Finding a security vulnerability in 

software at 1 o’clock in the morning, 

that would allow you to gain access 

to the systems of any head of states’ 

official website during a revolution – 

defacing it with a pro-revolution 

message gives you a high. It’s 

pleasurable in two ways: technically 

(finding the vulnerability) and 

politically (participating in a 

revolution). 

I taught myself how to code by 

playing around with my computer, 

trying random ‘what if...?’ ideas with 

programming languages and Googling 

everything I didn’t know. If you’re 

passionate enough about something to 

learn it yourself, you will always be far 

ahead of anyone who is spoon-fed the 

skills in an academic environment. 

Computer code has social and 

political implications. Free (as in 

freedom) software developers selfidentify 

themselves as hackers, and 

they build software under a common 

hacker philosophy: that information 

should be free and that we should 

share our knowledge (and code) with 

everyone so that others can build 

upon it and use it to improve the 

massive rock we live on. 

This is the principle that the 

Linux operating system is built under. 

Unlike Windows, Linux is entirely free 

and the source code is open, which 

means that any programmer can edit 

the code and improve it. It’s arguably 

the largest collaborative project in 

human history with thousands of 

contributors, that powers over a 

billion devices and 96.6% of websites 

on the internet. It’s a project that is 

responsible for trillions of dollars of 

trade in the world economy – and yet 

it’s 100% free to use, made possible 

by the hacker principle of sharing that 

it’s rooted in. 

Hackers and people with technical 

skills have the responsibility and power 

to impact the world in positive ways. 

A hackathon is an event, often 

24-hours, where hackers congregate in 

teams to build innovative technologies, 

and then share what they’ve built at 

the end of the hackathon. Recently 

the hackathon scene has exploded 

and has become more mainstream, 

with banks, governments and 

old corporations organising their 

own hackathons (there’s even 

a McDonald’s hackathon). 

The KCL Tech Society, where 

I am a committee member, brings 

together students with different 

skill sets from various disciplines to 

create an innovative and supportive 

community of like minded people in 

the cross-section of technology and 

entrepreneurship. We run hackathons 

and coding workshops for absolute 

beginners. If it sounds like your 

calling, visit www.kcltech.com ■ 



Graduate start-up article 

Graduate start-up article 

WORK HARDER 

– AND FASTER, AND KICK DOWN DOORS – 

Mark Chaffey is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of hackajob and a recent Business Management 

graduate (class of 2015) from King’s College London. 

Find your 

other half 

A good business 

always starts in 

one place; mine 

started two years 

ago when I met 

my co-founder, 

Raz, through the King’s College 

London Business Club. Finding your 

other half is hard, really hard, but 

when you find the right person, it’s 

worth every second spent searching. 

If you want to start a business one day, 

whether that is next week or in five 

years, the first thing you can do is start 

the search today, right now. And yes, 

treat it like you’re trying to find the 

love of your life, you’ll end up 

spending more time with them than 

your life partner! 

Shout from the rooftops 

Once you’ve found the other half, 

and you’ve started working on your 

idea, you now need to be loud. Really 

loud! Building a product and waiting 

for users to come to you simply 

won’t happen. 

Being loud typically falls into 

two categories; public speaking and 

talking to users/customers. 

The King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship Institute (formerly 

part of the King’s Commercialisation 

Institute) has been incredibly 

supportive to us and in March 2015 

gave us the opportunity to speak at 

one of their Enterprise Connect events 

(Scalability: growing your business). 

Whilst I enjoy speaking generally (just 

ask anyone who knows me), I know 

it can be daunting for new founders. 

You need to get over this fear and 

quickly. From that one event, we 

gained two new customers, a mentor 

and a potential employee. Never turn 

down a speaking gig; you never know 

who’s sat in the audience and with 

every gig you do, you refine your 

skills and improve. 

When it comes to selling to users/ 

customers, as a start-up you have to 

All the hard work is starting 

to pay off as we were recently 

1 of the 11 start-ups selected to 

join Techstars London, out of more 

than 1,000 that applied 

kick doors down. It’s a pure numbers 

game; the more calls you make, the 

more emails you send, and the more 

meetings you take, the more customers 

you’ll have. Yes, you might annoy 

some people, some may even be rude 

to you, however the trick is simple… 

ignore them and keep on knocking 

on those doors, and your resilience 

will pay off. We managed to land 

prestigious institutions, such as the 

BBC, just six months after founding 

the business by not taking no for an 

answer (and admittedly building a 

kick-ass product). 

Time management (work harder) 

A question I have been asked a lot 

recently is ‘how did you manage 

to do your finals at uni and still work 

full-time on hackajob?’ I use a recent 

quote from Ryan Giggs, one of my 

idols, to answer: ‘If you want to be 

the best, work harder than everyone 

else.’ That rang true to me and it is 

something I try to live up to. Whilst 

my finals were happening the only 

choice I had was to work harder than 

my peers; 8am-7pm in the office, 

7pm-11pm in the library, for four 

weeks. Working from the free King’s 

incubator space at Guys Campus gave 

us the ability to work as a team all 

together in one place, building our 

company culture whilst making the 

trips to the library much shorter! 

All the hard work is starting to pay 

off as we were recently one of the 

11 start-ups selected to join Techstars 

London, out of more than 1,000 

that applied! 

If you’re struggling to keep up 

with all your work, there’s always 

something you can do… sleep faster. 

Graft and hustle are two attributes 

every entrepreneur shares. The ability 

to work harder and faster will give you 

a seriously unfair advantage. 

Learn from others’ mistakes 

Mistakes are costly. So why bother 

making the same mistakes other people 

have already made? My final piece of 

advice to any budding entrepreneur 

would be to read the following books: 

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, The 

Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, Hooked 

by Nir Eyal, ReWork by 37signals, and 

The Hard Thing About Hard Things 

by Ben Horowitz. 

Don’t be afraid of being a young, 

first-time founder. Learn quickly, work 

fast and kick down doors. You’ll be 

just fine! 

I am more than happy to help any 

budding student entrepreneurs with 

advice on sales, product and customer 

development and Techstars. ■ 

www.hackajob.co 

@hackajob_co 

hackajob 

Co-founders and King’s graduates Mark Chaffey and Razvan Creanga 

celebrate their first day in Techstars with the whole hackajob team. 



Enterprise Connect alumna article 

Enterprise Connect alumna article 

UNIVERSITY: 

– AN INCUBATOR FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL THINKING – 

I am an impatient person. Period. Always was. Always will be. At 15 I (Emma Sinclair, co-founder 

of EnterpriseJungle) worked in a chemist, graduated to a McDonalds Saturday job at 16, worked 

behind bars at 18 (the alcoholic kind, as opposed to prison!) and latterly, behind a computer screen. 

University was an interesting time 

for me. I can’t say I was the most 

dedicated of students but I always read 

the prescribed reading list (well, ish…), 

handed work in on time (well, ish…) 

and crammed for exams. Fortunately 

I passed with pretty good grades 

thanks to some great teachers and a 

good memory. I had a good time too. 

University evolved my 

entrepreneurship skills. For those 

of you with no intentions of starting 

your own business don’t be fooled 

into thinking they are irrelevant 

None of us know exactly where 

we’ll end up in life but many of us are 

excited to get started: to start to study, 

start to live an independent life away 

from home, start to work, start to 

impact the world, start to climb the 

career ladder and if you’re like me, 

ditch homework. Others are keen 

researchers and are ready to graduate 

from bachelors and masters degrees 

to PhDs and teaching posts. Brilliant 

– but not something I can comment 

on. I can’t wait to be given an 

honorary PhD (take note King’s) but 

was never the kind to commit to that 

many years of voluntary study! 

So to those reading this, you might 

be forgiven for thinking that if I had 

my time again I might not go to 

university but rather go straight to a 

full-time job. Or I would have chosen 

to study business (instead of languages) 

given my obvious inclination towards 

the world of commerce. Or that 

committing four years to university did 

little to foster my entrepreneurial spirit. 

You would, however, be wrong. With 

the benefit of hindsight, I wouldn’t 

change a thing. 

Go get those social skills! 

For many, university is a fantastic 

incubator. Most of us arrive at 18 

(unless you’re one of those nine-yearold 

child geniuses I see on TV!) with 

a small circle of friends limited to the 

area you grew up in, the schools you 

went to and the sports clubs you 

frequented. Suddenly you’re exposed 

and introduced to people you might 

never have had the opportunity to 

meet otherwise, from all walks of life 

and all corners of the world. There 

were some I liked, some I loved and 

some who didn’t resonate at all that 

I downright avoided. But either way, 

as with working life, I had to learn to 

try and get on with everyone where 

possible. In retrospect, it was an early 

master class in networking. 

University isn’t the right path for 

everyone but when I reflect, I can see 

why my parents were so keen for me to 

have the experience. It shaped me. 

And business skills... 

At university there were societies and 

clubs to cater for every interest. I was 

responsible for my own profit and loss 

(no money, no lunch). I was thrown 

into accommodation with people from 

all over the world, crowded (and 

sometimes intimidating) classrooms, 

a city I didn’t know and a rhythm 

where on the whole, I was responsible 

for my own time for the first time. 

It didn’t take me long to figure out 

you get back what you put in. If you 

stay home and watch quiz shows all 

day you won’t meet anyone and more 

importantly, are unlikely to pass your 

degree. That’s no good. But if you do 

venture outside of your bedroom, the 

school of life awaits. 

I spent a term abroad studying in 

Spain and a year abroad working in 

Paris. Many of my contemporaries 

lived in small towns and took up 

teaching assistant posts. I was adamant 

I wanted to work in the capital city – 

and was lucky enough to secure an 

amazing job working on the shop floor 

of the infamous Virgin Megastore on 

the Champs Elysees. Being multilingual 

I was always asked to escort 

and help some of the pop stars who 

came to the store for record signings so 

I built up an envious collection of CDs 

all the while learning to speak French. 

Entrepreneurial skills are required 

in all walks of life: they mean 

applying yourself to situations with 

agility, applying innovative thinking 

to whatever you do 

It took me out of my comfort zone 

and ultimately gave me confidence. 

I had to navigate a new city, a foreign 

subway system, supermarket shopping 

where initially I couldn’t understand 

most of the labels and make new friends. 

I had to start a new job whilst initially 

struggling to express myself and had to 

concentrate harder to learn the skills 

required because… asking questions 

meant having to speak French! 

There is no better way to learn 

the value of networking – building 

your friends and acquaintances so that 

your access to advice and study and 

work opportunities is extended – than 

by living independently; abroad or 

not. Being young for my academic 

year, I was 17 when I secured a place 

at university, barely 18 when I arrived 

and 19 when I moved to Paris. I grew 

up fast. 

King’s College London: 

the land of opportunity. 

University evolved my 

entrepreneurship skills. For those 

of you with no intentions of starting 

your own business don’t be fooled 

into thinking they are irrelevant. 

Entrepreneurial skills are required in 

all walks of life: they mean applying 

yourself to situations with agility, 

applying innovative thinking to 

whatever you do – and self reliance. 

I met people from all walks of life 

who I learned to live and work with, 

as you must do at work. I learned 

how to live on a budget as opposed 

to coming home to my parents’ full 

fridge. I learned to find a job despite 

living in a city with thousands of other 

students seeking a job too. I learned to 

do a lot with a little; money, wardrobe 

and time. I learned that you get out 

what you put in. I learned to chase 

what I want. I learned that the world 

is a competitive place and I needed 

to define myself and soak up as 

many opportunities as possible 

before thinking about graduating 

and joining the workforce. 

Careers – wherever you find yourself 

and whatever you find yourself doing 

– require a plethora of skills: Skills that 

were unrefined when I rocked up to 

my first day of university but which 

I had definitely honed on the day I left. 

So to those of you arriving at 

King’s for your first year, those of you 

returning for a second year or those of 

you in the final furlongs of your 

degree, step out of your comfort zone 

and social circle and soak up as much 

as you can because never again will 

you have so many opportunities at 

your finger tips, all under one roof, 

designed specifically to help you get 

wherever you want to go. And of 

course… have fun! ■ 

Written by Emma Sinclair; serial 

entrepreneur. Currently, co-founder 

of software company EnterpriseJungle 

and the youngest person to have floated a 

company on the London Stock Exchange. 

www.enterprisejungle.com 

@ES_Entrepreneur 




Student robotics article 

Focus on 

RICHARD REED 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: 

– IT’S GOT A LIFE OF ITS OWN! – 

Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Smoothies, talks to us about 

how he ended up with a lucrative start-up idea! 

Mantas Gribulis is a King’s College London graduate, class of 2015. Whilst reading 

MSc Robotics, he launched the university’s first ever Robotics Society in September 2014. 

As the society’s first President, he introduces us to the complex world of Robotics. 

Where did your inner entrepreneurial 

desire come from? 

Business is an amazing aperture where 

you can create and do things. As a kid, 

I worked at a dog factory for £2 an 

hour. I was picking up dog biscuits off 

the floor and I am down on the floor 

thinking, “there has to be something 

better than this”. I then went on to set 

up a lawn-mowing business and before 

I knew it I was inundated with work. 

I received £2.50 an hour, I got so 

much work that I employed friends 

and paid them £2.25 an hour. 

I recognised early on in life that 

‘If you don’t like it, change it’. 

How much research do you need 

to do before you start? 

I have found that the most important 

thing is to just get started. The world 

is full of people that never got started. 

That’s all that matters. We started 

our business with £500 of fruit and 

we crushed it up in the house we 

lived in at the time. We took the juice 

along to a music festival with a 

market stall and put up a sign saying 

‘shall we give up our jobs to pursue 

the smoothies’ with one bin saying 

‘yes’ and the other ‘no’. We got to the 

end of the weekend and the ‘yes’ bin 

was full. 

Richard Reed networks with students 

at Enterprise Connect. 

How did you raise initial funds? 

Well we wrote a business plan, we 

went to the market, we applied for 

a small business start-up loan to 20 

different banks and all said no. We 

also went to venture capitalists and it 

was a flat no from everyone we met in 

the beginning. But one of our friends 

suggested this basic principle of six 

degrees of separation effect, i.e. we 

don’t know anyone rich but we might 

know someone who knows of 

someone. Following this we went 

to our respective workplaces, stole 

all the email addresses and spammed 

all of them with information on the 

smoothies. A school mate got in touch 

following this, and said he did an 

I recognised early on in life that 

‘If you don’t like it, change it’ 

Bill Clinton visits Richard at the Innocent 

Smoothie offices. 

Essentially, it’s all about 

‘Starting small and thinking big’ 

internship with someone, who we met, 

and said yes, and without him there 

would be no Innocent. 

Does a good team help success? 

A good team has a shared set of values 

but different skills. I was obsessed 

with consumer-facing activities, while 

my fellow founders were passionate 

about selling and production 

respectively. We were a dream team of 

complementary skills that worked as a 

source of confidence and motivation. 

We worked to empower one another 

on a regular basis. 

When did you feel that you had 

made it, so to speak? 

When we started Innocent we 

thought it was 95% likely to fail, 

but we thought why not, let’s dream 

about that 5% and think about what 

it would look like. So 15 years ago, 

our 5% vision was to build a business 

that would one day be big and 

successful enough that Bill Clinton 

would come to visit. 

Both of those things happened. 

Essentially, it’s all about ‘starting 

small and thinking big’. ■ 

Being a member 

of King’s robotics 

society is about 

bringing your 

ideas to life, it’s 

about seeing the 

equations in your 

books in the form 

of a robot, it’s about challenging yourself 

to think outside of the box, learn from 

others and work within a team. 

Our newly launched robotics society 

started in September 2014, when MSc 

robotics students wanted to learn more 

and travel the extra mile to apply what 

they learn in class. With the support 

of the informatics department and 

our lecturers, the society came to life. 

It started with only a few informatics 

students, but now there are more than 

20 active members from different 

courses and different backgrounds, 

both undergraduate and postgraduate. 

The society meets once to twice 

a week in the robotics lab, where 

members share ideas, build robots 

and meet new friends. 

Our first robot 

The first robot built by the society 

was Drumbot, which is a robotic 

drum-kit that can beat drums 

according to music tunes. This 

extremely loud robot received a lot 

of attention from the college in general 

and the department in specific. 

Drumbot was displayed in two major 

events: the Royal Institute Christmas 

lecture, as well as the cinematic 

premier of Big Hero 6. 

We have a deep interest in artificial 

intelligence, and did an event on 

whether it was a threat or a new 

beginning. Artificial intelligence is 

a broad technical field that deals with 

intelligent behaviour exhibited by 

machines or software programmes. 

Artificial intelligence developments and 

singularity were discussed during the 

session, such as how possible singularity 

is, how far we are from singularity and 

whether it is a threat or an opportunity. 

Technical singularity is a moment in 

This perfect mix of energetic minds 

and exceptional knowledge is maturing 

into commercially viable ideas 

time when general artificial intelligence, 

such that a computer would be capable 

of improving itself at an increasing rate. 

This would result in an intelligence 

explosion where smart machines design 

successive generations of increasingly 

powerful machines, creating intelligence 

far exceeding human intellectual 

capabilities. Many think that beyond 

ABOVE: The Drumbot 

BELOW: Visit from Google Deep Mind 

the technological singularity, events 

may become unpredictable and 

unfavourable for humanity. 

Google Deep Mind 

Our interest resulted in Google 

Deep Mind visiting us to present 

their work on artificial intelligence. 

Researchers from Google Deep Mind 

gave an exciting talk about artificial 

intelligence and the technology behind 

it. Amongst many things, speakers 

explained how deep neural networks 

work and how computers can recognise 

objects in images. Deep neural 

networks are designed to mimic the 

neurons of the brain so the computer 

programme could learn on its own by 

adapting to the data it is given. Today 

neural networks are increasingly being 

used to help to understand big data, 

while object recognition from images 

will be used in the near future in 

self-driving cars being built by Google. 

Every event we organise, every 

robot or programme we build shapes 

the society bit by bit into an 

innovation hub where passionate 

students bring their ideas to life 

and learn new skills. The insights in 

artificial intelligence from the previous 

conference gave us many thoughts 

on new applications. Moreover, 

the challenge of running society 

is teaching us how to build a deep 

technology start-up from ground-up. 

This perfect mix of energetic minds 

and exceptional knowledge is 

maturing into commercially viable 

ideas that students are now 

considering to pursue after graduation. 

If you are interested, please go to 

page 11 for details. ■ 

www.kingsrobotics.co.uk 

30 





Focus on 

ARIEL ECKSTEIN 

The Managing Director of LinkedIn Europe, the Middle East and Africa tells 

King’s graduate David Wilkinson what networking really means. Ariel shares his views 

on what potential employers look for and dealing with failure. 

At ClickThings you were promoted 

three times in the space of 14 months 

to the position of COO. What’s helped 

you climb the corporate ladder as fast 

as you have? 

I’d put it down to three things: 

hard work, loyalty and the willingness 

to be open to serendipity. That played 

itself out then, and has continued 

throughout my career. 

Over your career what are the most 

important lessons you learned that 

proved useful in later management 

roles at ClickThings, AOL and 

presently LinkedIn? 

Get the bad news early to ensure you 

are able to work to shape the outcome 

of any challenging situation. I learned 

that if you spot a challenge early, you 

give yourself much more room and time 

to manoeuvre than if you are playing 

hopeful games until it is too late. Also, 

it’s clear, but important to reiterate that 

you have to seek to surround yourself 

with good people. If you are afraid to 

hire and work with people better than 

yourself, you are underserving both 

yourself and your organisation. 

Given that half of all UK start-ups fail 

within five years, what advice would 

you give to anybody thinking about 

launching their own business today? 

Go after large market opportunities; 

ensure that your product or service 

solves a clear pain point that people 

are willing to pay for; don’t launch 

a one-product company; ensure that 

your first product is good enough to 

sell when you launch; and again, 

surround yourself with great people 

because you’ll need every single ounce 

of ingenuity, discipline, creativity, and 

resilience to succeed. 

What advice would you give to people 

afraid of networking? For example, 

they could be lacking in confidence, 

uncertain about sharing their ideas or 

have minimal industry experience. 

Networking gets a bad reputation. 

People think of a polyester-clad sales 

person aggressively intruding into 

other people’s conversations at a 

cocktail party. I try to focus on how 

can I inform or help someone and 

thus build my network with people 

to whom I have brought value. If you 





Twitter or Facebook? LinkedIn 


Favourite fast food? Burritos 


What did you want to be 

when you were 10 years old? 

Newspaper writer 

Ariel Eckstein: 

Enterprise 

Connect alumnus 

start by giving, it will be easier and 

more welcome if you subsequently 

seek to ask a favour or need help. 

What might new entrepreneurs 

do in practical terms to build their 

networks and start putting them 

to use? And how can aspiring 

entrepreneurs use LinkedIn to help 

grow their businesses? 

First of all, ensure you have strong 

LinkedIn profile, of course! Also, join 

groups, share your expertise by posting 

about key trends in business and 

industry. Offline, make sure that you 

are sharing your expertise in a way that 

adds to the ecosystem. If you do this in 

a valuable and non-transactional way, 

you’ll be in a better position to build 

brand equity for you and your company. 

You must have seen a lot of pretty 

varied LinkedIn profiles. What skills 

stand out to you as the most valued and 

important in the business world today? 

Resilience, optimism, compassion, 

creativity, and the willingness to 

understand before seeking to be 

understood. 

What have been some of the toughest 

things you’ve faced in your career? 

What kept you going? 

When we had to close ClickThings, 

I took it very personally. We worked 

very hard to try to keep the company 

going, but it was 2001 and funding 

sources had dried up. I felt like we 

had failed the team and tried to help 

everyone find another position. We 

weren’t able to do it immediately. 

What kept me going was the belief 

that we had tried our best to do the 

right thing and most of the employees 

realised that. 

Where do you see LinkedIn in 

five years time? With acquisitions 

including Lynda and SlideShare, 

is the company shifting away from 

professional networking and towards 

business services in general? 

We see LinkedIn increasing in 

importance to both our individual 

members and to enterprises. We are 

making major investments in our own 

products and in acquisitions like 

Lynda. I am as excited about 

LinkedIn today as I was six years ago. 

According to your own LinkedIn 

profile, you’ve been with the firm 

longer than anywhere else you’ve 

worked before. What’s next for you 

personally? If you beat Reid Hoffman 

at Settlers of Catan do you get to take 

over from Jeff Weiner? 

I’m going to continue to do what 

I enjoy most: work to create future 

LinkedIn leaders and also work with 

our largest and most demanding 

clients to ensure they get the most 

benefit from their relationship with 

LinkedIn. As for your question, Jeff 

is a fantastic CEO and we don’t want 

him to go anywhere. 

Interviewer’s profile: David Wilkinson is 

the Managing Director at Soho Strategy, a 

business he founded at the age of 14 (seven 

years ago). The firm’s client base includes 

political parties, global multinationals, 

charities, corporations and start-ups 

alike, with employees on three continents. 

David is also a King’s College 

London Political Economy Graduate, 

class of 2015. Whilst studying at 

the university David was President 

(2013–15) of the King’s Economics 

& Finance Society (EFS). ■ 

www.sohostrategy.com 

sohostrategy @sohostrategy 

32 



10 start-up tips 

10 start-up tips 

START-UPS: 

– 10 THINGS YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS SHOULD KNOW – 

Peter Martyr, Global CEO of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, gives his top 10 start-up tips 

to King’s young entrepreneurs. Whether you have a business background or not, 

the advice given by the experienced leader is a great starting point for all. 

In the rush to start a business, 

entrepreneurs can often overlook 

key steps in the process. Although 

making mistakes – and more crucially, 

learning from them – is an important 

aspect of the process of building a 

company, more important is the need 

to be methodical in managing the 

commercial, financial and legal 

issues to ensure your vision becomes 

a reality. 

Above all, common sense should be 

the primary driver when making any 

business decisions. The principles for 

ensuring a business’s success is no 

different at the start-up level than it 

is for a large-scale business; having 

a holistic view of the various facets 

of a business is crucial whether you 

are dipping your toe in the start-up 

waters or managing a global legal 

practice of more than 3,000 lawyers. 

Outlined below are 10 things young 

entrepreneurs should consider when 

planning their business venture. 

1 Understand your business 

objectives 

You’ve identified a business 

opportunity: define your goals and 

strategies at the outset, and establish 

a timeline setting out the necessary 

steps to achieve these goals. Having a 

clear understanding of your business 

objectives will also enable you to 

sell your idea and get buy-in from 

investors and potential stakeholders. 

2 Understand your market and 

don’t be afraid to seek advice 

At its most basic level, conducting 

market research will enable you to 

identify whether your business idea 

is a viable one. It will also serve to 

establish your client or customer base 

as well as identify potential market 

competitors. Establish the specific 

needs of your customer base, as well 

as what your competitors are already 

doing to meet these needs, and apply 

that insight to your product. 

As a young entrepreneur, you have 

a wealth of experience to draw on 

from a wide range of sources. Cast 

your net as wide as possible and 

equip yourself with as much advice 

and insight as possible from 

entrepreneurs; learn from their 

stories and apply those lessons 

to your business. 

3 Be optimistic with the business 

but conservative with yourself 

There is nothing wrong with 

anticipating success, provided that 

anticipation doesn’t cloud your 

business objectives. Make sure you 

have factored in a plan B. 

4 Understand the IT risks 

associated with your business 

As businesses become more creative 

with the ways they collect and use 

personal data, so too do the efforts 

of those who would seek to steal 

that data. Recent headline-grabbing 

stories have shown that even the 

largest organisation isn’t immune to 

data breaches. Conducting a careful 

analysis of your business’s exposure 

to IT security risks and setting out 

a detailed plan to mitigate that risk 

will help to keep your company 

running in the event of a crisis. 

5 Understand the various funding 

options available and choose 

the right one based on your 

business objectives 

Ensure you have aligned your business 

plan with your financial plan. An 

effective business plan should also set 

out why the capital is required – what 

equipment will need to be purchased, 

or what work will need to be done, 

and how much will it cost? 

Raising capital is a challenge for 

any start-up, but your chances can 

be greatly improved if you understand 

the various types of funding available, 

their benefits and the potential 

drawbacks. Whether you’re seeking to 

secure a loan from a bank, considering 

going the venture capital or angel 

investor route, or are thinking of 

exploring crowdfunding, 

choosing the right one will 

depend on your business 

objectives. Equity investors, 

for example, may bring guidance 

and industry access that could 

prove crucial in the early stages 

of a company’s growth, but those 

investors will also be expecting a rate 

of return and will be anticipating 

an exit – possibly at the worst time 

for your business. 

An entrepreneur’s financial 

concerns don’t end once they have 

successfully attracted funding – 

ensuring the business is generating 

steady revenues is crucial to its 

continued survival. Meticulously 

manage your cash flow to keep on 

top of what is owed to creditors. 

A number of things can affect your 

business’s cash flows, including 

commodity price risk, exchange rate 

risk, asset price risk or credit risk. 

Make sure you identify these risks and 

factor them into your business plan. 

6 Understand your business’s 

tax obligations 

Your company’s tax requirements 

will depend on the type of business 

structure you use. Therefore tax 

should be one of the foremost issues 

to consider when setting out your 

business plan and deciding on 

a company vehicle. 

7 Understand your employment 

law obligations 

Managing staffing issues can take 

up a significant (if not the majority) 

of an employer’s time. This can be 

compounded if you are unaware of 

employees’ basic legislative rights. 

Areas such as working hours, annual 

leave, pay, health and safety and 

discrimination are all governed by 

legislation which could result in costly 

litigation if not followed correctly. 

Employment legislation is regularly 

changing – ensure you are obtaining 

the most current information when 

seeking advice. 

8 Understand the regulations 

that affect your business 

Regulatory regimes are evolving and 

taking on an increasingly global remit. 

Any entrepreneur should ensure 

they have thoroughly researched 

the law that applies to the industry 

the business will be operating in. 

Complying with regulation can be 

costly at the start-up phase, but failing 

to take into account the requirement 

to comply with legislation can be 

a terminal misstep. 

9 Understand the 

importance of protecting 

your business’s IP 

Typically, one of the first questions 

asked is: what intellectual property 

does the company own? This could 

include the company’s name and 

logo, the domain name used for the 

company’s online presence, or the 

design and function of the product 

being developed. 

Intellectual property rights in the 

products and services that a company 

is seeking to commercialise must be 

protected before the company goes 

to market. Not only will this help to 

maintain an edge over competitors, 

but it could open the door to other 

opportunities, such as licensing 

and franchising. Coming up with a 

strategy to protect your company’s IP 

can be a complex process. Make sure 

you have thoroughly researched and 

understood the requirements and costs 

of intellectual property protection. 

10 Get the best advice you can afford 

Finding the right legal adviser 

at the start of your venture may 

enable you to identify and address 

potential issues before they arise. 

Make sure you consider multiple 

options and negotiate on costs – 

build a relationship with your legal 

adviser before any specific legal 

issues arise. ■ 



Photo album 

Photo album 

ENTREPRENEURS CAPTURED 

A sneak peek of some snaps taken at King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship Institute events 

Debbie Moore OBE, founder Pineapple 

Dance Studios. 

‘Zig when the rest of the world Zags’, 

Baroness Dido Harding, CEO of Talk 

Talk PLC. 

Cath Kidston advising the founders of Attollo Lingerie. 

Levi Roots founder of Reggae Reggae 

introduces his talk with a song 

King’s alumna Tamen Jadad Garcia, founder of Balanz. 

Oliver Zolman, King’s Medical 

Student and winner of UnLtd 

Social Enterprise Award. 

Founder of Coffee Republic Sahar Hashemi talks about 

being unique. 

Lord Bilimoria CBE, the founder of Cobra Beer, speaking at ‘An Evening on 

Student Entrepreneurship at Kings’. 

Craig Donaldson, CEO of Metro Bank. 

From left to right: Jon Moulton, founder and managing partner of Better Capital; 

Carlos Eduardo, partner in Seedcamp; and Julie Meyer MBE, founder of 

Ariadne Capital and Entrepreneur Country. 

Duncan Cheatle CEO Prelude Group, co-founder of Start-Up Britain and founder 

of The Supper Club, networking with Damilola Fajuyigb, King’s PhD student. 

Amit Bhatia, founder Swordfish Investments, 

co-owner QPR Football Club and Chairman 

Hope Construction Materials. 

From left to right: Roger Saul, founder of Mulberry; Duncan Cheatle, 

co-founder of Start-up Britain; and Cosima Gretton, King’s medical graduate 

and Science Curator. 

Ashish J. Thakkar, founder of Mara Group & 

Mara Foundation networks with King’s students. 




Alumni funding article 

Focus on 

CARLOS EDUARDO ESPINAL 

King’s graduate Daniel Gennaoui interviews the author of Fundraising Field Guide. 

Let the Partner at Seedcamp enlighten you on raising finance and seeking investment. 

FUNDING ROLLERCOASTER 

– THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF FINANCING A START-UP – 

King’s Geography alumni, Fleurette Mulcahy and Alice Holden, recount the trials and tribulations 

of their start-up Attollo, a lingerie brand designed by D+ women, for D+ women 

Tell us a bit 

about Seedcamp, 

and what 

you look for 

in start-ups. 

Seedcamp is a 

global acceleration 

fund with over 

180 investments. We have been 

around since 2007, and we specialise 

in companies that have billion dollar 

ambitions and we provide them 

with the network, the capital, and 

the learnings to do so. We look for 

ambitious founders that have a world 

view on company building. 

What would you tell somebody 

who has a great idea but doesn’t have 

the monetary resources? 

Resources are necessary to create value. 

If monetary resources are scarce, the 

question becomes: are human resources 

capable of producing value in absence 

of monetary resources? If so, this is, 

in effect, bootstrapping. 






for work, Facebook for friends. 

What was the last TV show 

you watched? I love sci-fi – 

Falling Skies, Walking Dead, 

and Extant 


Favourite Film? The Matrix 

Cats or Dogs? Dogs 

What did you want to be when you 

were 10 years old? R2D2 

How can you build a great team and 

attract top talent without any funds? 

In an increasingly competitive market 

for top talent, it will be increasingly 

difficult to attract a team without some 

form of cash as part of the equation. 

That said, not everyone is driven by 

cash alone, as there are many other 

factors that can drive someone to help 

build out a company, and how they 

are compensated can also be creative, 

including deferred payments as well as 

equity stakes in the company. 

At what point should a 

start-up start looking for 

funding, and how much 

equity should a founder 

be willing to give up? 

A start-up should start 

raising capital when they 

feel their company’s 

expansion rate is being 

hindered by their current 

cash flow. Not all companies hit this 

point and not all companies that hit 

this point should alleviate it by raising 

external capital (as opposed to other 

creative forms of financing help, such 

as buyer financing, supplier financing, 

debt, etc). 

As for ‘how much equity to give up’, 

% dilution is a function of valuation, so 

you’re asking... what valuation should 

I have for my company. Hopefully the 

blog post below helps. 

What should an entrepreneur be ready 

for when meeting a potential investor? 

They should be ready to justify the big 

vision they have for the business. This 

includes outlining how the market will 

allow the company to blossom into 

its vision, how the team is capable of 

executing this, and how the product 

will be able to deliver it. 

What are the most important things 

for founders to look out for when 

signing an investment deal? 

To understand the difference between 

the economics of a deal and the 

governance of a deal. Sometimes 

it is tempting to get hung up on the 

economics of a deal (dilution, etc) rather 

than focusing on the overall picture, 

which can contain other mechanisms 

that can create problems for you. 

For more detail on this and many 

other questions you’ve asked above, 

I go in far greater detail on my 

book, which can be downloaded at 

www.fundraisingfieldguide.com 

What’s the single thing you 

would say to a student who 

is wary about taking the leap 

to start his or her own company? 

I don’t think there is one thing 

that can be said, nor do I think 

I’d be the right person to try 

and come up with that ‘one thing’. 

Entrepreneurship is not easy, it has 

its highs, but just as many lows and 

it is a journey that one should not 

be taken lightly. ■ 

Interviewer’s profile: Daniel Gennaoui 

is the Director and founder of Niume, the 

collaborative blogging platform. Daniel 

launched Niume with Francesco Facca 

whilst they both studied Mathematics at 

King’s College London. Daniel was also 

a member of the KCL Entrepreneurial 

and Investment society and KCL 

American Football Club. 

www.niume.com 

niume_official 

We met at King’s, 

while studying 

Geography and 

throughout our 

friendship, we often 

commiserated with 

one another about 

the dire selection 

and availability of pretty, stylish and 

uplifting bras available in our obscure 

and largely unavailable sizes. In April 

2013, at 20 years old and in the 

Waterfront Bar, we decided to take 

the plunge and found Attollo. Attollo 

meaning ‘I lift up, I raise, I excite’ was 

everything we wanted our bras to do, 

that current bras don’t. 

On the eve of founding Attollo, we 

were told that founding a business 

would be a rollercoaster. Having 

worked on Attollo for 22 months, 

we can honestly say that it is that 

rollercoaster every day! 

Our rollercoaster started on a high. 

At a King’s Enterprise Connect 

event we lingered, waiting to speak 

to speaker Lee McQueen, winner 

of BBC’s Apprentice. We received 

advice that we still reiterate to aspiring 

entrepreneurs – start your venture 

right away with your burning desire to 

see it come to fruition. Before we knew 

it, we had meetings lined up the next 

day with people already expressing 

investment interest. Dumbfounded, 

panicked, shocked and adrenaline 

fuelled, it quickly became clear that 

Attollo was becoming a full-time job, 

working in parallel to our degrees. 

Through competitions, we gained 

critical feedback about our business 

plan and financials. In our third year, 

we were taken aback to win ‘Best 

Pitch’ and £1,000 in King’s Lion’s Den 

Challenge and come ‘Joint Second’, 

winning £2,000 in Santander’s National 

Universities’ Entrepreneurship 

competition. In spite of 

our lack of business 

experience, our passion, 

enthusiasm and 

determination to 

launch Attollo were 

proving to be great 

assets. This validation 

increased our confidence 

and readiness to start building 

investor relations. 

Soon after, we were offered 

investment but unfortunately we had 

different ideas about the future direction 

of Attollo. Ultimately, it was with a 

huge leap of faith that we declined. 

Our company motto: “Carpe diem, 

Carpe noctem, Carpe monde” kept us 

going, empowering us to persevere 

Our start-up loan gave us the 

independence to design and create 

our first range with a team behind us 

supporting our ambitions for Attollo. 

Come March, with our loan quickly 

running out, we filled weeks pitching, 

applying to venture capitalists (VCs), 

angels and writing to high-net-worth 

individuals. We’ve gone as far as rock 

up at VCs’ receptions, asked to see 

the CEO without appointment and 

actually doing an ‘elevator pitch’. 

This was its own rollercoaster; one 

where you get so excited that certain 

individuals may be interested but 

which quickly becomes a series of 

disappointments as doors start to shut. 

Our company motto: ‘Carpe diem, 

Carpe noctem, Carpe monde’ kept 

us going, empowering us to persevere 

to create further funding options. 

The highs are great, and we 

cherish those days where it feels 

like it is all coming together. 

Those are the days that keep 

you going when it hits rock 

bottom. We have now had 

many lows, but the great 

thing about those periods 

are that they teach you more 

about yourself, your team, 

and your business than the highs 

ever will, therefore we find a way 

to cherish those also. ■ 

Three things we have learned from 

our two-year funding rollercoaster: 

1 

2 

3 

About Ourselves: Our experiences 

have taught us about evaluating 

our time and the importance 

of prioritising in terms of time, 

people, investors and investment 

opportunities. With this we have 

learned to be resilient, robust 

and to persevere with what is 

important to us and Attollo 

as a brand. 

Our Team: Through challenges, 

we have learnt who within our 

team genuinely cares about 

us and also who shares our 

mission for Attollo. 

Our Business: We have learned 

the importance of our own vision 

for Attollo, its ethos and mission, 

and making sure they don’t get 

lost along the way. 

www.attollolingerie.com 

@AttolloLingerie 

38 



Social entrepreneur Q&A 

Social entrepreneur Q&A 

King’s Economics and Management undergraduate, Renad Sheraif interviews Cameron Saul, 

a King’s alumnus. She quizzes the former King’s student on founding a luxury designer brand. 

Cameron, can you give us a little 

background information on you? 

I read Business Management at the 

Waterloo Campus, but made it my 

mission to combine languages where 

I could and took up French and Italian. 

I really enjoyed my time at King’s 

and they really supported everything 

I was doing. Bottletop gave me an 

arsenal of brilliant case studies that 

I could use throughout my degree 

and assignments. It gave me the 

opportunity to look at things from 

a macro perspective, a truly unique 

experience for an undergraduate. 

When I was studying there weren’t 

any activities like the ones run by 


Institute. I find it exciting that you 

now have these opportunities and that 

King’s has taken such a visionary role. 

Can you give us some of the early 

history of Bottletop; what is it and how 

you came up with the idea? 

It was really exciting time, one which 

I look back on fondly. The idea was 

conceived during my time in Uganda. 

I came across a handbag made of metal 

recycled bottle tops. I hadn’t seen 

anything quite like it and thought it 

was really charming and commercial. 

So I set my housemate from Uganda 

up with a bank account and email 

address. When I returned to the UK, 

I’d send him emails of what I wanted 

and transfer the money into his bank 

account for him to buy the samples. 

I got amazing East African products, 

such as goat hide drums and sold them 

Focus on 

CAMERON SAUL 

Oliver Wayman and Cameron Saul, founders of Bottletop. 

as coffee tables at a stall in Portobello 

Market. It was all just a bit of fun, but 

I really wanted to get my hands on the 

bottle top bags. 

Bottletop gave me an arsenal 

of brilliant case studies that 

I could use throughout my degree 

and assignments 

My housemate rounded up some 

friends, who gathered bottle tops 

to send to Nairobi to manufacture. 

It was a long process, but when 

I received the shipment while I was 

working in the Mulberry showroom 

– everyone fell in love with them. 

Resulting in the Mulberry-Bottletop 

Campaign; the bags evolved from 

‘raw and rustic’ to ‘finesse and luxury’. 

Unexpectedly, Bottletop was hit with 

a huge wave of publicity and raised 

over £150,000 for the charity I worked 

for in Uganda. 

We officially launched Bottletop 

at the end of the second semester in 

my first year at King’s (June 2002). 

It was challenging for me to juggle 

both a degree and a start-up, but I was 

determined to not let either slip. 

Why did you decide to launch your 

start-up as a social enterprise? 

I wasn’t looking to start a company 

at that stage so it wasn’t really a case 

of one or the other. I came back 

from Uganda inspired and wanted 

to continue supporting health and 

education for young people. 

I wanted Bottletop to be commercial 

and successful whilst delivering social 

impact, through creation of the designs 

and education. Back in 2002 there 

was no landscape for social enterprise, 

there was only luxury or charity, 

and I am happy to see that over the 

last 13 years this has changed. After 

the 10 years of running a registered 

charity, the Bottletop Foundation, we 

evolved with the emergence of social 

enterprises, and launched Bottletop. 

Now our social enterprise, Bottletop, 

is part of the Bottletop Foundation, 

but independent in its own right, with 

the ability to grow. 

How would you define a social 

enterprise or social entrepreneur? 

I think that a social enterprise sets 

out to tackle one (or more) of the 

world’s social environmental problems, 

through commercially and ethically 

run businesses. 

I see a social entrepreneur as someone 

who is excited by generating wealth 

for a cause through entrepreneurial 

and enterprising ideas. As opposed 

to the traditional entrepreneur whose 

end goal is to solely generate personal 

wealth. But there is no reason why 

a social entrepreneur should not make 

money during this process. 

Do you ever help other social 

enterprises that are just starting up? 

We’re still in the early stages of 

building the brand (three years), and 

spread like jam with a very small team. 

I don’t have the time to support other 

social enterprises and teams, but I am 

happy to help where it’s relevant and 

if I think I’ve got something of value 

to share. 

I was delighted to take part in 


Institute’s ‘Social Entrepreneurship 

in Education Festival’ (SEEFest) 

in November 2014. I gave a 

talk alongside a panel of social 

entrepreneurs and offered to mentor 

a student social entrepreneur as 

a prize. Richard Milburn was the 

competition winner (interview 

with Richard Milburn on page 42). 

We looked at ways to create an 

understanding of their cause and 

I advised him on growing his idea – 

he seems to be making great headway. 

There’s so much to do when launching 

a start-up, from business to marketing 

plans. How do you prioritise? 

This is something you have revaluate 

on a daily basis. Running a small 

start-up means focusing on what the 

really important ‘to-do’s’ are. Stay 

focused on what the business’ key 

driving factors are from one week to 

the next, but remain nimble enough 

to respond to opportunities unfolding 

around you – reach out and test 

them, that’s what leads to successful 

breakthroughs. 

Do you find having your own business 

is more rewarding than a more 

traditional career path? 

Absolutely, I have been very lucky 

to have experienced both sides of the 

fence. Working in a traditional business 

is not appealing to me. However I can’t 

say that will never happen, who knows 

what the future holds. 






Twitter or Facebook? Facebook 

White Board or Post-it? Post-it 

Cats or Dogs? Dogs 

What picks you up when you 

feel low? Singing, whilst playing 

the guitar 

What is your favourite aspect of being 

a social entrepreneur? 

Really seeing and feeling the impact 

of what we’ve been doing. Seeing the 

reactions to our products and brand 

at pop-up shops, festivals, boutique 

stands is really rewarding. Knowing 

the process it’s gone through and the 

people it’s supporting. 

What attributes do you think are most 

important for a person to succeed 

in starting their own business? Can 

anyone start their own business? 

Passion – you’ve got to eat, sleep and 

drink your start-up. The desire has 

to be there for you to put your heart 

and soul into making it a success. 

Otherwise there’s no point getting 

started, because it’s your rocket fuel. 

It’s the fuel to keep you going through 

all the rejection, naysayers and long 

days. Coupled with visions and 

determination, you’ve enough to make 

it happen! 

How do you find people that truly care 

about the core values of Bottletop the 

way you do? 

I’d love to say it’s been really 

organised and systematic, but they’ve 

always managed to find us. We 

managed to balance the message; we 

don’t want to overload them. Being 

a social enterprise pays dividends, 

people really want to be a part of your 

journey and mission. 

Networking is a really hot topic at 

the moment. Do you think people 

over-exaggerate the benefits of a wide 

network? What’s your experience 

with that? 

I’ve never really thought about 

networking as such, I’ve just been 

passionate about Bottletop and what 

we do, and that is conveyed every time 

I meet someone new. If someone tells 

me to come along to an event, they 

may know of a contact who might 

be a useful connection for me to have. 

I could meet people who share the same 

values, goals or objectives as me. If 

you’re passionate, they will remember 

you, and they’re more likely to connect 

you with others who will also be excited 

by you – it’s a great way to give/get 

advice and make introductions. 

1. make it look like you have your act 

together. 

2. never be afraid to talk to anyone, 

confidence is key. 

Starting your own business sounds 

very exciting, but I’m wondering, 

amongst all the stress of launching a 

start-up does the excitement last? 

Yes! I’m still really excited by it 

I think largely because I still feel there 

I so much potential – it still feels like 

it’s only just the beginning. Maybe 

one day when Bottletop is a global, 

sustainable, luxury household brand 

name, the excitement will be replaced 

by different feelings. I think right now 

I am still really passionate about it. 

What was so exciting about coming 

to the SEEFest was the amazing ideas 

behind the next big thing, as humans 

it’s what we should be doing on the 

planet. 

Which was more rewarding: making 

your start-up a success, or being able 

to continue keeping it successful? 

It really depends on how you define 

success. I don’t think we’ve achieved 

the level of success that I have in mind 

for Bottletop. I do what I do because 

I love it, success is a by-product. 

The real success will be when we 

have educated hundreds of thousands 

of people and helped them into 

employment. ■ 

Interviewer’s profile: Renad Sheraif 

is President of the Enactus society 

at King’s College London as well 

as a mentor for SHINE. 

www.enactuskcl.org 

@EnactusKCL KCLEnactus 



Student social enterprise article 

Alumna social enterprise article 

REAL BUSINESS ETHICS 

– TUNZA AND TUNZA GAMES – 

THE RIPPLE EFFECT 

– SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP – 

King’s PhD student Richard Milburn is proof that focusing on the ‘enterprise’ 

element of a ‘social enterprise’ is an essential component of success. 

Read how winning KSEI prizes developed his idea into a start-up. 

An article by King’s alumna Dr Elizabeth Adelodun on a series of events that resulted 

in the success of her mentoring organisation that empowers students and professionals within 

the scientific, medical and health sectors through knowledge sharing. 

I’m a PhD student 

studying wildlife 

conservation 

in warzones. 

I wanted to use 

my experience 

and research to 

have an impact 

beyond academia, so I’ve co-founded 

two social enterprises dedicated 

to protecting wildlife. 

My aim was to create products 

that would enable consumers to use 

their day-to-day purchases to support 

wildlife conservation, rather than 

relying solely on charitable donations. 

So I launched Tunza (which means 

‘care for’ in Swahili), an ethical 

fashion brand with a mission to protect 

gorillas in central Africa, and designed 

a board game ‘Conservation Crisis’. 

I joined forces with fellow King’s 

student Kirsty Benham to develop 

Tunza through the KSEI Lion’s Den 

Challenge. The business workshops 

offered helped us to identify our 

competitors and refine our product 

offering and USP, as well as testing 

market demand. We attended the 

Social Entrepreneurship in Education 

Festival (SEEFest) at King’s to learn 

more about social enterprise and were 

quite literally picked out of a hat to 

win mentoring from Cameron Saul, 

founder of Bottletop (Read King’s 

King’s provides the support needed 

to develop and launch companies 

that can help change the world 

alumnus, Cameron Saul’s interview 

on page 40-41). His experience in the 

ethical fashion sector was fantastic 

and his advice on how best to launch 

with minimal start-up capital and still 

achieve significant ethical impact was 

crucial to launching our brand. 

We adapted our plan after his 

meeting and then received more 

mentoring to develop the commercial 

viability of the company (the most 

crucial aspect, and something often 

overlooked by social enterprises) from 

two Lion’s Den Challenge business 

mentors; King’s Professor Mischa 

Dohler (full-time Professor in Wireless 

Communications at King’s) and 

Henry Chuks (King’s College London 

alumnus and Lion’s Den Challenge 

business mentor). 

While developing the fashion 

brand, myself and my co-founder, Ed 

Gilhead, a friend from outside King’s, 

won a Social Enterprise Award (from 

KSEI in partnership with UnLtd) 

of £1,620 to launch a second social 

enterprise, Tunza Games, to develop 

‘Conservation Crisis’. With that 

money we finished our prototype and 

launched our website, in preparation to 

launch our Kickstarter crowdfunding 

campaign in November. 

Three things I have learned 

in the last 12 months: 

1. Founding a social enterprise is 

great, but being ethical is not a 

guarantee of success in business. 

2. For a social enterprise to succeed, 

it needs a strong business model 

and product offering. 

3. King’s provides the support needed 

to develop this and to launch 

companies that can help change 

the world. ■ 

www.tunzagorilla.com 

@tunzagorilla 

tunzagorilla 

www.tunzagames.com 

@tunzagames 

tunzagames 

As the founder of MindTorch 

(mindtorch.org) I’ve learnt more 

lessons in the last two years than the 

last two decades of my life – because 

one woman, Kiki Maurey, MBA, 

OBE started a ripple effect with me 

as a mentor/coach. 

However, the awareness and 

support I received from the King’s 


is invaluable, and their impact on 

MindTorch is evident based on 

our achievements. Through the 

Enterprise Connect series, Lion’s Den 

Challenge workshops & start-up idea 

competition and support in the form 

of Social Enterprise Award (from 

KSEI in partnership with UnLtd), 

we’ve been able to lay the building 

blocks required to achieve our 

vision – to foster collaboration 

and find healthcare solutions for 

patient problems. 

People say that entrepreneurs are 

formed by a combination of these 

qualities: passion, profession, interests, 

keen observation and environmental 

influence. Nevertheless, I did not 

know I was ‘qualified’ to be an 

entrepreneur because I was on a 

different path as a neuroscientist; 

or so I thought. This changed when 

I was faced with a problem I was 

eager to solve – to help my colleagues 

with a service I wish I had as a student 

(and that Professor Susan Standring, 

Editor-in-Chief, Gray’s Anatomy, 

wishes she had 50 years ago!). 

After months of meeting, coaching, 

learning and listening – we are 

amazed by the feedback from our 

students; they have surpassed our 

expectations to continue the ripple 

effect Kiki started with me! 

Upon reflection, as a social 

entrepreneur, I have learnt four 

main lessons: 

• To confidently ask for help; 

people will rise up to help when 

you just ask. 

• To grow – leave your comfort 

zone, solve a problem and enjoy 

the ride! 

• Setbacks are an essential route 

to success! I learn from them and 

move on. 

• I keep the bigger picture in mind; 

and collaborate to innovate! 

On a final note, to budding social 

entrepreneurs – ‘move and the way 

will open’. ■ 

Speed mentoring session run by MindTorch 

at the Social Entrepreneurship in Education 

Festival (SEEFest), 2014. 

Article written by Dr Elizabeth 

Adelodun, founder of MindTorch.org; 

the match.com for doctors, scientists 

and pharmaceutical experts. ■ 

www.mindtorch.org 

@MindTorch mindtorch 





Recent King’s graduate Sharan Soni interviews Nick Robertson, 

founder of ASOS. The former CEO of the popular online retail store shares 

What inspired you to be an 

entrepreneur? Are there other 

entrepreneurs in your family? 

I have always been creative and 

I have worked in creative businesses for 

a number of years. In that role I heard 

of the nascent internet and saw an 

opportunity to develop a business 

selling what the stars wore, but much 

cheaper. The internet was a brilliant 

new channel to market with 

considerably lower costs… you didn’t 

need to have shops to sell your product. 

I come from a family of retailers 

with my great grandfather the founder 

of Austin Reed, so I suppose that part 

is in the blood! 

How did you start out? Was it due 

to disliking a previous job or did you 

just wake up in the morning with an 

idea and go for it? 

I borrowed money from my brother and 

started the business in a small lock up 

Focus on 

NICK ROBERTSON 

his entrepreneurial experiences and learnings. 

selling anything I could through a very 

basic and slow website, and posting 

it through the mail to customers… 

you would never buy anything from 

something like that today. 

Don’t try to do it all 

yourself, there will be others 

with more expertise than you – 

talk with them 

What are some of the biggest mistakes 

you made when starting out? 

In the early days not realising that 

cash was king, and supply chain 

management in order to meet demand. 

Were there times when starting out 

where you just wanted to give up? 

I was in pursuit of a dream and knew 

the internet was the next big thing in 

retail. As I say it is the most amazing 

delivery channel. It was hard 

sometimes, but I always had support 

from my colleagues and business 

associates that drove me on. 

How important were networks when 

growing your company? Do you still 

work with some of those people today? 

Important. As a marketing executive 

I had that drummed into me. It was an 

important life lesson that has provided 

many an opportunity over the years. 

While scaling your business what 

were the main hurdles you faced? 

Logistics and order fulfilment. 

I have always believed that our 

customer service is key and our 

customer proposition had to be 

the fastest. Delivery was the main 

hurdle and we still invest heavily 

in both those aspects today. 

Additionally, the fire at Buncefield 

in 2006 was nearly a crippling blow 

for the company, but with dedication 

and fast thinking we were up and 

running again pretty quickly. We 

also had a fire at our huge Barnsley 

logistics warehouse on a Friday night 

in 2014, but we were able to utilise 

the learnings from 2006 and were back 

in business by Sunday night! It is a 

credit to the teams involved that we 

came through both of these situations 

with flying colours. 

When you started your business 

what were the main attributes you 

looked for when hiring people? 

Have these changed? 

Driven creative thinkers with loads of 

energy, people who are internet savvy, 

people that can communicate well and 







White Board or Post-it? 

White board 



low? My kids 

those that understand the ethos and 

vision of what we are trying to do 

together. Those qualities remain today 

as part of the hiring process 

What are the three best pieces of advice 

you can give entrepreneurs who are 

just starting out? 

1. If you have a dream don’t give up. 

2. There is always a solution. 

3. Don’t try to do it all yourself, there 

will be others with more expertise than 

you – talk with them 

My girlfriend spends more time on Asos 

than with me, how do I stop this? 

Why would I want to advise her how 

to do that… she obviously has great 

taste and loves fashion! ■ 

Interviewer’s profile: Sharan Soni 

is the co-founder and Chief Waffle 

Officer at Waffle. He is a King’s 

College London Business Management 

graduate, class of 2015. 

Sharan is part of the current 

cohort in the King’s Pop-Up Incubator, 

he is planning on using this facility 

to grow and develop his start-up 

using the £150,000 investment 

he has recently raised. 

www.waffleapp.co 

@waffle_app 

waffleapp 

Imagery from the ASOS AW15 Collections 

44 




Alumnus Q&A 

Focus on 

SIR DAVID TANG 

SHARAN SONI: 

Co-founder of Waffle 

King’s alumnus Michael Truong interviews legendary Sir David Tang, founder of Shanghai Tang, 

China Clubs & China Tang Restaurant. The current King’s incubatee asks the King’s 

alumnus about how he turned into a successful business tycoon. 

What was the most difficult choice you 

had to make when deciding to start-up? 

To pretend that I had all the capital 

I needed. 

What was the biggest sacrifice you 

had to make? 

Spending a lot of time researching 

the background of companies and 

people that I was going to meet. 

As an entrepreneur, do you think 

you can really keep your work 

and life separate? How do you deal 

with scenarios where your business 

crosses into your personal life? 

One should only do business 

lunch, but never business dinner. 

Which of your mistakes have 

led to a successful outcome? 

To approve bad merchandising 

which eventually sells. 





Your top tip for business success? 

Buy low, sell high. And no matter 

what, always sell. 

What three things couldn’t you live 

without? My dog, my dog, and 

my dog. 

What was the last book you read? 

The Scramble for Africa 

by Thomas Pakenham. 

What is your favourite way to 

relax? Doing the Times crossword. 

If you ruled the country what is the 

one thing you’d change? To allow 

smoking everywhere. 

What was the last TV show you 

watched? A BBC documentary 

Are Our Kids Tough Enough? 

Chinese School. 

What did you want to be when you 

were 10 years old? A bus driver. 

Which ones led to failures? 

To approve merchandising that 

does not sell. 

If you could start your company again, 

which mistake would you make again? 

I am sure I will make the same 

mistakes, like everybody else. 

How much of your entrepreneurial 

journey has been you following in 

your role model’s footsteps, and how 

much are you figuring out on your own? 

Of course I try to figure out everything 

on my own. But it is so important 

to do the necessary homework for 

a proper assessment. 

How do you measure success? 

Excellent and rising sales. 

How do you measure failure? 

Bad and decreasing sales. 

What is your biggest source of 

motivation? 

The sound of the credit card machine. ■ 

Interviewer’s profile: Michael Truong 

is the Managing Director at ARTechs, an 

augmented reality business he founded 

less than a year ago. Michael graduated 

from King’s College London in 2014 

after completing his PhD in Imaging 

Sciences & Biomedical Engineering. 

Michael has been a resident in the King’s 

Incubator since March 2015, where 

he has had the opportunity to develop 

his start-up and grow his team by five. 

www.artechs.co.uk 

ARTechs artechs_uk 

artechs 

PROFILE 

Job title: Co-founder and 

Chief Waffle Officer of Waffle 

Age: 22 

How old were you when you 

launched Waffle? 21 


London? Business Management 

Graduated: 2015 

Campus: Waterloo 





Android or iOS/Apple? iOS 

Twitter or Facebook? Facebook 

Starter or dessert? 

Dessert 

Home cooked food 

or take away? Take away 


Gym or gin? Gym and gin 

Where and when was your 

last holiday? Ibiza, July 2015 





Summer 


Let’s start with a little background 

information on Sharan Soni – 

What did you study at King’s and 

how did you find your experience here? 

I studied Business Management. 

It’s amazing how entrepreneurial the 

university has become since I began. 

This really helped to compound the 

business fundamentals I learned on 

the course. 

Tell us a bit about Waffle; what is it and 

how did you come up with the idea? 

Waffle is an app that allows you to 

connect with people at your favourite 

events and follow the livestream 

without even having to be there. We 

created the app because connecting at 

events is a pain in the ass! We wanted 

a simple way to connect with other 

interesting people at events and spark 

conversations. 

Can you give us some of the early 

history of Waffle and how it has evolved 

during your time at King’s? Since 

I’ve been at King’s it has gone from an 

idea to designs, funding and a product. 

The only thing left is to publicly 

launch it. 


faced early on in your start-up 

journey? And do you still encounter 

them to this day? Having to rebuild the 

product multiple times because of 

disjointed product development. 

It’s a constant challenge, but it has 

definitely got easier. 

How much funding have you received 

to date and where did it come from? 

We have raised £150,000 from 

private investors and £5,000 from 

a Smart Grant. 

What is the best advice you have ever 

been given? Done is better than perfect. 

Can you share some of the biggest 

lessons you have learned so far as an 

entrepreneur? By and large the idea 

is important but it’s the team, the 

collective drive and vision, that fuels 

the start-up. Without a solid team you 

can forget the rest. 

What is your favourite aspect of being 

an entrepreneur? Creating and being 

part of something bigger that is going 

to make a difference. Also working 

my own hours is not so bad. ;) 

How do you keep your business focus 

– do you have any suggestions for 

entrepreneurs who are experiencing 

challenging times? Taking a break 

every once in a while helps to give 

a fresh perspective on the business, 

especially when stuck in a rut. 

What three pieces of advice would 

you give to King’s students who 

want to become entrepreneurs? 

Start now. Don’t put it off. Focus 

on your product and speed to market, 

even with a lo-fi prototype. Reach 

out to your network for feedback 

early and often. 

Can you give us an ‘Exclusive’ on 

Waffle’s plans for the next 12 months? 

We’re making Waffle publicly 

available very soon, going cross 

platform and beginning partnering 

with event providers in the tech and 

music scenes. ■ 

www.waffleapp.co 

@waffle_app 

waffleapp 

46 



Alumnus Q&A 

Alumnus Q&A 

Robin, could you share your background 

with us? What did you study at King’s 

and how did find your experience here? 

I started my career at King’s College 

London under the tutelage of 

Professor Mark Peakman within the 

Division of Immunology, Infection and 

Inflammatory Diseases (DIIID), where 

I researched how the immune system 

of Type 1 diabetes patients destroys 

their own insulin-producing beta cells. 

Diabetes UK funded my PhD work, 

and it was a very enjoyable period of my 

life, during which I made lifelong friends 

and developed an indispensable skill set. 

Tell us a bit about IN-PART; what is it 

and how did you come up with the idea? 

IN-PART was developed to aid the 

translation of academic research into 

usable technologies or therapies, and 

to enhance the level of universityindustry 

collaboration. It came about 

when speaking with a close friend 

about a disconnect we’d both 

experienced, between those in 

industry looking to interact with 

university research, and technology 

and new research in universities 

seeking partners for commercialisation. 

To address this problem we planned 

to develop a centralised platform for 

university opportunities seeking 

commercial or collaborative partners. 

From this platform we would use 

promotional streams to engage an 

audience from industry seeking new 

and innovative university technology. 

In collaboration with a close friend 

ROBIN KNIGHT 

Director and co-founder of IN-PART 

PROFILE 

Age: 29 

How old were you when you launched IN-PART? 27 

What did you study at Kings College? Immunology PhD 


Campus: Guy’s 

As part of the first cohort, Robin shows 

what the King’s Incubator has allowed 

IN-PART to achieve. 

(Patrick Speedie) with a background 

in legal publishing we co-founded 

IN-PART, and set about writing a 

business plan. After receiving a small 

grant, we were able to build a basic 

first iteration of our web-platform. 

The majority of our preliminary 

meetings for IN-PART took place 

in a local pub at London Bridge. 

Not only was this perfectly situated 

for me at Guy’s Hospital, but also my 

co-founder based in offices at Borough 

Market. Many a great idea has come 

from a pub, and on looking at our 

musings the day after each evening, 

we still thought them great and 

worthwhile to follow-up and develop. 

Within the first build of IN-PART 

(using the grant we acquired) we 

incorporated several core ideologies 

which have evolved and been built 

upon since. Specifically these 

included: only permitting access to 

relevant individuals within companies, 

and our own pro-active ethos when it 

came to stimulating interest from the 

audience we were building. 

For this first iteration of our platform 

we worked with six UK university 

technology transfer offices, alongside 

executives from roughly 30 R&Dfocused 

companies. We ran this 

business pilot (or ‘minimum viable 

product’, as some might term it) for 

two months, during which time we 

found collaborative contacts for 25% 

of the technology we’d been provided 

by our university partners. 

Subsequent to this success we 

pitched for investment at Venture Fest 

(York) in February 2013, and there 

found a suitable business angel investor 

with a very complementary background 

for aiding our business growth. 

Following receipt of investment in 

September 2013, we launched our next 

version of IN-PART in late January 

2014. Since our launch, our university 

clients have grown to 37, and we now 

work with universities across three 

continents, alongside executives from 

over 350 companies worldwide. 

What has your start-up journey been like 

and how has King’s impacted IN-PART’s 

evolution? Prior to IN-PART I had 

worked on another start-up business 

during my time as a PhD student at 

King’s. With a close colleague and 

another friend we’d both met during 

a conference we set about creating 

a platform for student engagement 

and research collaboration. It was this 

process, and our application to the 

King’s Lion’s Den Challenge that 

spurred an interest in following a 

business idea through to completion. 

Obviously in this first instance the 

business never came to fruition, but 

with the knowledge and experience 

gained through this process, it made 

the creation of IN-PART possible. 

King’s has also helped with IN- 

PART’s growth by providing us with 

incubator space at Guy’s campus. 

This has enabled us to expand the 

London team, and given us an HQ at 

an SE1 address. Within the incubator 

we’re able to interact with other 

King’s start-up businesses, which 

makes for a very productive and 

enjoyable environment. This office 

space is providing our business with 

a launch pad for our London location, 

and we value it highly. 

What’s the biggest lesson you have 

learned so far as an entrepreneur? 

I can’t claim to have that much 

experience relative to those who have 

started multiple businesses, but I would 

say that this journey was only possible 

with my co-founder. I would 

recommend to those thinking about 

beginning a business that they should 

do so in collaboration with a business 

partner they trust and can get along 

with in a perpetually close environment 

where communication is key. 

What advice would you give to students 

who are held back by fear of failure? 

It’s tricky to determine when 

‘the right time’ is, however if you’re 

currently a student I can think 

of no moment better; where your 

responsibilities are likely at their lowest, 

yet your enthusiasm and ability to make 

something work is at its highest. 

Personally I would recommend 

making your educational pursuits 

a priority, as that experience can be 

leveraged for use in business creation, 

as well as providing a safety net should 

things not work out. In whatever spare 

hours you have between gaining a 

degree, masters or PhD, work on 

business ideas, and use your weekends 

and holiday to build on them further. 

If you were to launch a project like 

IN-PART again, is there anything in 

particular that you would do differently? 

The one thing that did set us back was 

development timescales for our online 

platform. In another life we would 

have worked harder to manage this 

starting process, enabling us to get 

things up and running quicker. 

Do you think that you are born with 

entrepreneurial traits? (Nature/ 

nurture) The best response I’ve heard 

to this question that I agree with is a 

comparison to teaching music. The 

person being taught has to want to 

learn in order to be successful. 

I believe the same applies to teaching 

‘entrepreneurship’ (which seems a 



all you need to do is give the 

first answer that comes to mind! 



Starter or dessert? Starter 


Home-cooked 

Night in or night 

out? Both 

Gym or gin? Both 

Where and when was your 

last holiday? Jordan 

Lazy Sundays or 

active weekends? Active 

Saturday, Lazy Sunday 

Cats or dogs? Dogs... 

specifically a pug 


Summer 

Risk or regret? 

Risk 

Robin speaking at an Enterprise 

Connect event: ‘An Evening On Student 

Entrepreneurship At King’s’. 

contradiction in terms), the person 

being taught has to have a drive to 

want to set out on their own and 

to not be risk-adverse. 

What advice would you give to a young 

entrepreneur looking for a business 

partner? Look to your friends and 

those you trust. Try not to get 

involved with anyone too cynical, 

but those who maintain just the right 

amount of useful critical questioning. 

How do you motivate yourself 

and inspire your team? So long as your 

company is helping the communities 

you’re looking to work with, and 

you’re providing a valued service, 

motivation will come from your 

successes and building your business. 

Which KSEI-led programmes would 

you recommend to young entrepreneurs 

who are unsure about launching a 

start-up? I’d recommend taking part 

in King’s Lion’s Den Challenge, purely 

for the exercise of making a business 

plan, and talking through potential 

pitfalls that you’ll no doubt encounter 

when starting any future business. 

What do you have planned for IN-PART 

over the 12 months? We’re currently 

running a trial with several US 

universities, and as well as expansion 

into the US, we’re also planning to 

further relationships with several 

Japanese universities we’re currently 

in dialogue with. ■ 

www.in-part.com 

@IN_PART 



Graduate app article 

Graduate app article 

DAVID VS GOLIATH: 

– UNDERESTIMATE ME… I’M A CONFIDENT COMPETITOR – 

For every billion-dollar idea there are a billion challenges to overcome and no guarantee 

of success. Some take a chance, while others remain dreamers. 

Two years ago in the US, a brand 

new app named Tinder was about to 

bring disruption to the online dating 

industry. At the same time, in the UK, 

a similar idea had taken shape in my 

mind: Wango (short for “Wanna 

go...”). Today, Tinder is the leader 

of the growing dating app market 

with its $3 billion valuation and over 

50 million users worldwide. Wango, 

on the other hand, has reached its first 

1,000 organic users in less than two 

months since its launch earlier this 

year. I was completing my final year at 

King’s whilst working on my start-up 

‘Wango’ with my brother. 

What is Wango? 

Wango is the first all-in-one social 

discovery app, specially crafted to 

meet everyone’s needs. You can match 

with interesting people around you or 

even better, if you are going to an 

event, you can match with someone 

attending this same event – before it 

even starts, then meet at the event! 

Also, to avoid the classic “What are 

you doing in your life?” Wango offers 

you its unique ‘two truths one lie’ 

icebreaker, helping you start engaging 

conversations while having fun. And 

when you want to meet up, no need to 

worry about scheduling, the app does 

it all for you based on your respective 

locations making sure it’s always 

convenient for everyone. 

Initially, it all started with this 

one simple question: Shall I do it? 

In our everyday lives, several 

solutions come to mind for the various 

problems that we encounter. However 

not every ‘problem-based solution’ 

will be a commercially viable business. 

The important thing to consider is the 

potential market. Dating, housing, the 

food industry, etc. are what we call 

evergreens as the demand, while 

global, will never cease. So before 

thinking of creating a start-up, the 

first question is: am I the only one 

this idea/solution would help or 

am I meeting the (potential) needs 

of enough people to whom I could 

market my product in the future? 

Not every ‘problem-based 

solution’ will be a commercially 

viable business. The important 

thing to consider is the 

potential market. 

Two years ago when I had the 

idea for this dating app, I thought 

I was the only one as I had never 

heard of anything like it before… 

clearly I was wrong. As mentioned 

previously, Tinder, inspired by the 

gay dating app Grindr as well as some 

other apps, was already in the race 

for the upcoming dating industry 

revolution. Therefore, I wasn’t the 

only one and many were really further 

ahead than me. 

As the saying goes ‘all good 

things come to those who 

wait’. With Wango, I took 

my time experimenting, 

researching the market 

and listening to users’ 

feedback. I followed the 

evolution of the dating app 

market very closely and 

by the time we started 

the actual development 

of the app, the market was 

already saturated but this 

did not deter me from 

giving up on what 

I believed was a great product. 

I have always been motivated to be 

one step ahead of the competition, 

by anticipating the market’s evolution 

and I believe this allowed me to give 

Wango a competitive advantage. 

After two years of blood, sweat 

and tears, Wango was launched 

earlier this year. While the backing 

of my family and friends was very 

important, I was glad I could count on 

Kings College London for support. 


Institute has introduced me to some 

very valuable people that proved 

to be great connections. Events like 

Enterprise Connect include features 

such as the ‘King’s Start-Up Junction’, 

at which I was offered a stand. It gave 

me an opportunity to showcase the 

app during its development stages, 

while connecting with fellow student 

entrepreneurs. 

Where are we now? 

Wango is live and kicking, with a 

growing consumer base. While it 

has been a long journey strewn with 

pitfalls, there is still a long way to go 

in this red ocean market. 

On a final note, these are a few tips 

for anyone who would like to become 

an entrepreneur: 

• The life of an entrepreneur is 

made of a billion problems but 

successful entrepreneurs will always 

have two billion solutions – success 

is in identifying the right solution 

to run with. 

• Building the right team is a long yet 

essential and rewarding process. 

I have always been motivated to be 

one step ahead of the competition, by 

anticipating the market’s evolution 

and I believe this allowed me to give 

Wango a competitive advantage. 

• One does not need to possess all the 

relevant skills to start a business; 

learning, discovering and making 

mistakes is part of the journey. 

• Create your own identity – use 

portmanteau words like Wango 

and WhatsApp, or ones that are 

unrelated to your idea like Apple and 

Blackberry. These are the safest ones 

in terms of trademarks registration. 

• No two journeys are alike, but 

most of the challenges tend to 

be similar. ■ 

Written by Julian Smida, King’s 

Computer Science & Management 

graduate and former member of KCLBC 

and KCL Tech society. 



Alumnus Q&A 

Alumnus Q&A 

Chris, let’s start with a little background 

information on you – what did you 

study at King’s and how did you find 

your experience here? I studied music 

at King’s College London from 

2000–3. It was a great experience; the 

King’s music course sets you up for life 

in the music business incredibly well. 

As they allow you take specialist parts 

of the course at the Royal Academy of 

Music and SOAS, it’s a really rounded 

course. You come out very well 

prepared for today’s music business. 

Tell us a bit about what3words; what 

is it and how did you come up with the 

idea? I set up a music business which 

I ran for 10 years immediately 

post-King’s. We booked live 

music for private and 

corporate events around 

the world, for which 

organising the production 

suppliers was a big part. 

However, circulating an 

address and hoping everyone 

arrived on time (they didn’t) 

became the bane of my life. 

I realised that around the 

world, addresses aren’t 

very accurate, a lot of streets 

either have no numbers or 

numbering that doesn’t work, 

or in a lot of cases buildings 

have no address at all. We 

tried using GPS co-ordinates 

instead of addresses, but they 

were just too complex and error prone. 

I saw an opportunity to create an 

CHRIS SHELDRICK: 

Co-founder of what3words 

PROFILE 

Age: 34 

How old were you when you launched what3words? 31 

What did you study at King’s College London? Music 


Campus: Strand 

address system as accurate as 

coordinates, but utterly simple to use. 

So we divided the world into 57 trillion 

3m x 3m squares, and labelled each 

square with a sequence of 3 words from 

the dictionary via a mathematical 

algorithm. Now, referring to any spot 

in the world is as easy as saying ‘table. 

lamp.spoon’ – that’s it. 


faced early on in your venture? And do 

you still encounter them to this day? 

In the early days it was getting people 

to believe that just a few of us, from 

outside the geo industry, could really 

make this entirely new system into a 

global standard. A lot of 

people would take a 

look and then say they 

would use it again when 

their friends/colleagues 

did. We learned that 

when you offer 

a new way of doing 

something, getting the 

right people to be your 

advocates is key. There 

are some very 

independent thinkers 

out there who see a 

new system, like it, 

and are confident 

enough to both use it 

and spread the word 

when it’s still 

relatively new. These 

thinkers in our case have been 

consumers, businesses, apps and even 

governments, and driven the adoption 

through our early ecosystems around 

the world. Now we have such a 

compelling range of users across the 

world (in 170 countries) using it in so 

many ways that we no longer have the 

inertia problem, and that’s a great place 

to now be. 



First of all checking if there is a 

genuine problem or if it’s just a blip. 

I think in the early days little things 

can feel bigger than they are. And 

when there are issues, just going into 

problem-solving mode with as many 

heads who think differently to you 

around the table as possible. I love 

that our team has so many different 

ways of looking at the same thing. It’s 

surprising how often we get together 

and somebody says ‘this bad thing has 

happened’, and someone else says ‘no 

that’s a good thing’. I believe set-backs 

are in the eye of the beholder. 

If you could go back in a time 

machine to the time when you were 

just getting started with what3words, 

what would you do differently? 

Focusing on the ‘why’ is something 

we didn’t do enough at the beginning. 

When you make a new product, 

you spend much longer making the 

product than you spent thinking why 

it’s needed. It can be very easy when 

you launch to make all your marketing 

messages around your product and 

features which are fresh in your 

mind from the build, and overlook 

the necessity to explain why people 

need your product in their lives, 

which to you as a founder just seems 

obvious by this stage. People ask what 

I do and I now start by explaining 

how many people in the world live 

without an address and how that 

adversely affects their lives, before 

I get into any detail on how our system 

works. We’re consistent with this 

approach however people come 

across what3words. 

Do you think that you are born 

with entrepreneurial traits? Or 

is it something that can be learned? 

(Nature/nurture) A lot for me was 

nurture in terms of the motivation to 

turn ideas into reality. But I think there 

are some accompanying personality 

traits I have which I can’t associate 

specifically to nurture, so assume they 

are nature. I played chess for the first 

time in quite a while this week 

and I had a thought whilst playing 

that my approach to running a business 

is a lot like how I play a game of 

chess. I haven’t had much nurture in 

chess so I think the shared style must 

be nature. 

If all of your money, websites, contacts 

and products were wiped off the face of 

the earth tomorrow, what would you do 

if you had to start what3words again 

from scratch? What model would you 

use? What techniques etc? I’m not sure 

I would do anything dramatically 

differently to how we did it. There are 

little things I know now that I didn’t 

then, and we could have saved some 

time learning various lessons the hard 

way, but in general I think we would 

do it again largely how we did it then 

– we had good people and we worked 

fast. An example of this is that we 

took on investment steadily throughout 

the first two years as opposed to big 

amounts too soon or not enough to 

grow fast; the same with hiring – we 

grew the team steadily, filling the holes 

we had as they became apparent, so 

that the hiring plan now is more catered 

towards what areas of the business we 



all you need to do is give the 

first answer that comes to mind! 

Android or iOS/Apple? Android 


Starter or dessert? Starter 


Home cooked 

Night in or night 

out? Night out 


Where and when was 

your last holiday? 

Iceland, January 2015 

Lazy Sundays or 

active weekends? 

Active weekends 


Winter or summer? Winter 

Risk or regret? 

Risk 

want to drive more resources towards 

rather than filling holes. 

Having said that, the one thing that 

springs to mind I would do differently 

if we did it again would be to get 

more people involved with the manual 

review of our English word list, which 

was our first language. I manually rated 

35,000 words over a five-month period 

(we rated 70,000 words overall, so 

I did half myself). That’s not a process 

I would like to do again, but at the 

time it was important to learn 

the criteria ourselves so we 

could explain it to those who 

now do the process in other 

languages. My vocabulary 

has improved though. 

Based on your experiences 

with what3words, what 

advice would you give to a 

young King’s entrepreneur 

starting their first 

business today? 

I’d suggest: multiple co-founders, and 

have active shareholders early, it really 

helps. My music business was just me 

as founder and shareholder for a long 

time. Doing more quicker is worth 

every bit of the equity you give up. 

Hire senior not junior people in 

the areas you aren’t so good on in 

the founding team. You need to have 

faith in them to lead you in those 

areas more than the areas where you 

have experience. 

How you motivate yourself and 

inspire your team? We all inspire 

each other. what3words is not about 

selling, it’s about inspiring. When 

people join the team it’s not a case of 

training the trainers but inspiring the 

inspirers. We’re challenging people to 

re-think something that’s traditionally 

very rigid and unchallenged – an 

address, and aligning them with our 

vision. That’s an amazing thing to 

get up every day and do, and I’m 

pretty sure everyone else loves it as 

much as I do. 

What are your plans for the future? 

To enable each of the world’s four 

billion unaddressed people to learn 

and use their 3 word address, and 

improve the lives of everyone who 

struggles due to poor addressing. ■ 

www.what3words.com 

@what3words what3words 

52 


53

Graduate networking article 

Photo album 

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND 

– LIVE THE LIFE YOU’VE IMAGINED – 

An entrepreneur can either be a visionary, a technical specialist or a manager. Some people try to 

be all three. When you relinquish some control to someone who possesses the skills that you lack, 

the start-up will start to take shape! King’s MSc student, Huan Song, introduces PixaVida. 

ENTREPRENEURS CAPTURED 

A sneak peek of some snaps taken at King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship Institute events 

King’s Commercialisation Institute Director and 

KCLIF President talking health and innovation. 

King’s students collaborating at KSEI’s 

‘King of start-ups’ weekender. 

Luke Johnson talks about controlling 

your future. 

A good friend once 

gave me a little 

desk decoration 

that reads, ‘Live 

the life you’ve 

imagined.’ I love 

to travel and have 

had the great 

fortune of travelling to and living in 

many countries. Much of who I am 

has been shaped by my travels and 

I want travel to stay a fundamental 

element of my life. 

I chose King’s for my MSc. 

in Tourism, Environment and 

Development because King’s offers 

such a unique programme that 

explores the environmental, social, 

and economic impacts of tourism. 

I learned about the problem of leakage 

during some of my course work, where 

tourism revenue, instead of funnelling 

down to the local community, goes to 

big multinational corporations. The life 

that I’ve imagined is one where I can 

create tangible and direct benefits for 

locals who live in these destinations. 

Every time I move to a new country 

I have learned something new about 

myself and about how I can serve the 

world. For example, my previous work 

in a charity in Washington, D.C. has 

taught me that creating sustainable 

livelihoods is the key to achieving 

a lasting impact in a community. 

Moving to the UK has given me 

a chance to further expand my 

imagination. I never thought that 

I would become an entrepreneur 

until I attended some events on 

entrepreneurship at King’s and around 

the city. I was really inspired by 

several talks I heard from student 

entrepreneurs like Mark Chaffey of 

Hackajob, Robin Knight of IN-PART, 

and Yee-Mun Thum from Scarlett 

Entrepreneurship is essentially 

recognising a problem, crafting 

a solution, and testing this idea 

of Soho at KSEI’s Enterprise Connect 

events. They helped me to realise 

that entrepreneurship is essentially 

recognising a problem, crafting 

a solution, and testing this idea. 

I had the opportunity to network 

both online and offline and learn from 

entrepreneurs in London’s vibrant 

start-up community. I met my Co- 

Founder Bao Tieu, through a ‘Startups 

in London’ Facebook group. At the 

time, Bao was looking for an intern to 

help him with setting up a social media 

presence and I was looking for some 

experience working in a travel start-up 

environment. After a few months of 

working together, Bao asked me to be 

a co-founder. We both recognised 

a problem in the way the people travel 

today and believe that PixaVida can 

be a tool to address this issue. 

PixaVida is an online platform 

that connects travellers with local 

photographers. We advocate for a 

slower way of travel in which travellers 

can savour their destination, focus on 

creating beautiful memories, and not 

worry about frantically photographing 

every moment. At the same time, we 

also create jobs for locals. I have applied 

for the King’s Tier One ‘Graduate 

Entrepreneur’ Visa (see Page 10 for 

information on the Tier 1 Visa). If 

endorsed I will be able to test PixaVida 

in the world’s most travelled to 

destinations, scale our impact, and help 

travellers and locals alike to live the 

lives they’ve imagined. ■ 

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, 

and Instagram @PixaVida 

Motivated students at Enterprise Connect’s 

‘An Evening On Student Entrepreneurship At King’s’. 

Richard Milburn making full use of the mentor 

Connector Pods at Enterprise Connect. 

Dame Stephanie Shirley listens 

to students at Q&A sessions. 

Who says you can’t laugh on a panel? From left to right: Emi Gal, Dr Ulrich Bez 

and Richard Reed. 

Sophi Tranchell founder Divine 

Chocolate talks about social 

entrepreneurship. 

Jamal Edwards talking to King’s alumnus 

Henry Chuks. 

Vice-Principal Research and Innovation at King’s 

presents Agostino Stilli with award at the Lion’s Den 

Challenge finals 2014–15. 

54 



Photo album 

Sponsors 


Institute are very thankful to the 

organisations who have supported the 

KSEI magazine by way of sponsorship. 

King’s alumna Yee-Mun Thum 

and founder of Scarlett of Soho 

giving advice. 

Winners of the Lion’s Den Challenge Start-Up Competition, 2013-14. 

Dragons Den Investor Nick Jenkins 

speaks at Enterprise Connect. 

Enterprise Connect attendees enjoying speaker anecdotes. 

Hugh Evans, co-founder of Global 

Poverty Project talking about social 

enterprise at King’s. 

From left to right: Founder Curzon PR 

Farzana Baduel, founder Portland 

Communications Tim Allan and Kings 

alumnus Carl Pihl. 

King’s alumnus Ben Drury talking about 

entrepreneurship and online business. 

Karen Lynch CEO of Belu Water talks 

about sustainability. 

Founder venture scout, Carsten Koelbek congratulates 

King’s students who won the ‘King of start-ups’ weekender. 

56 



CHANGE IS HAPPENING 

WHERE GREAT MINDS MEET! 

With three major universities at the core of the Northbank contributing 

to a vast pool of skills, this is one of the most dynamic local economies 

in London and the opportunities for entrepreneurs are endless. 

To enhance the area’s potential within an ever-evolving London the 

business community has joined forces to reach a number of goals: 

THENORTH 

The Northbank encompasses everything that makes London a 

global city: great architecture, culture, and hospitality, with a 

strong commercial heart. A hub of activity with iconic landmarks 

like Trafalgar Square, The Savoy and Somerset House, amid 

award-winning parks, river views and unexpected treasures 

waiting to be discovered. 

A SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE NORTHBANK 

Encouraging local employment and internships, skills-sharing 

and small and medium-size enterprise support 

CHAMPIONING THE NORTHBANK 

Promoting the area’s assets with festivals, cinema and food markets 

in treasured open spaces 

A SAFER NORTHBANK 

Working with the police and partners to create a safer Northbank 

CLEANER NORTHBANK 

Working with Westminster for a cleaner and more sustainable 

Northbank, and championing initiatives for better air quality in 

partnership with King’s College 

Strand 

Fleet Street 

Aldwych 

Arundel Street 

0203 697 9273 

info@thenorthbank.london 

@TheNorthbankBID 

WWW.THENORTHBANK.LONDON 

St Martin’s Place 

TRAFALGAR 

SQUARE 

Cockspur Street Northumberland Avenue 

William IV Street 

CHARING CROSS 

Strand 

Southampton Street 

Savoy Place 

Burleigh Street 

VICTORIA EMBANKMENT 

GARDENS 

Strand 

Lancaster Place Waterloo Bridge 

SOMERSET HOUSE 

Victoria Embankment 

Proposed Garden Bridge 

STUDENTS & STAFF AT 

KCL STRAND CAMPUS! 

DISCOUNTS ON THE NORTHBANK 

Over 70 quality offers in bars, 

restaurants and shops 

To get your FREE privilege card 

and support your local economy, visit: 

The Mall 

https://thenorthbank.london/privilege-card/order/

The King’s Student Entrepreneurship Institute team are always happy to help and support you. 

For all entrepreneurial initiatives and for regular updates please visit the King’s Student 

Entrepreneurship Institute website: www.kcl.ac.uk/KSEI. 

Please see links below for further 

information on the projects outlined 

with the magazine. 

Lion’s Den Challenge: 

www.LionsDenChallenge.co.uk 

King’s Mini Accelerator Weekend: 

www.f6s.com/kingsweekender2015 

Tier 1 ‘Graduate Entrepreneur’ Visa: 

www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/services/ 

careers/index.aspx 

King’s Experience Enterprise Award: 

www.kcl.ac.uk/enterprise-award 

To find out about activities, opportunities 

and helpful information for student 

start-ups visit our social media channels – 

don’t miss out! 

Follow us on Twitter: 


Like our Facebook page: 

/EnterpriseConnectatKCL 

Connect with us on LinkedIn: 

uk.linkedin.com/in/InnovateKings 

Catch up on YouTube: 

youtube.com/EnterpriseConnect1 

For further information or if you have any questions please email 

the KSEI team on Innovation@kcl.ac.uk.

KSEI

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?