Get to know our panellists

Yum Chop Foods

Mon, 29 May 2023 16:55:48 GMT

Tasty Food with an African Twist

Abi Adefisan had entrepreneurship in her family, with Abi's mother running a pub and bringing Abi into the kitchen at age 12 to help cook various types of meals.

Later, after working in project management for 20 years, Abi co-founded with her husband Yum Chops. "We both love cooking and have a passion in the kitchen" declares Abi, who enjoys preparing and testing foods. "So we converted our passion into a business."

Yum Chops brings a fusion of African flavors and other cultures to the mainstream by providing meals throughout the United Kingdom with a "batch freeze" process. Flash frozen foods have a long shelf life - 18 months - and retain the flavor of fresh products. This allows new and exciting foods to reach larger markets. Abi is also bringing technology into the enterprise, using online data to notify customers of specials and know when to refill Yum Chops food vending machines.

After starting Yum Chops in December, 2019 as a home-to-the-market business, the Pandemic came. Abi pivoted by serving food as a supplier to the National Health Service and experimented with preparing meals for nieces and nephews at universities. She then conducted market surveys of universities and student habits to identify on-campus food preferences. This led to new product channels, bulk meals and expansion to 24/7 self-service vending/microwave warming sites. Today 70% of Yum Chop revenues are from vending sales with Yum Chops franchises spreading across the U.K.

Abi notes that food manufacturing is capital intensive, requiring upfront equipment to scaleup and maximize opportunities. Although Yum Chops obtained small competitive grants and won recognition as a promising startup, these funds "were a drop in the ocean" to what was needed. Bootstrapping revenues were the method to survive and grow. Facing both the Pandemic and financial barriers, Abi says "you can't let a problem hold you back - use it as an opportunity to guide a venture into new pathways. With her positive attitudes, energy and strategies, Abi forsees significant growth for Yum Chops. Home - YumChop

Tackling Homelessness One Home at a Time

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 16:27:32 GMT

John Evans; CEO of New Meaning Foundation Inspires US ALL

John Evans developed a social purpose in life following his father's footsteps who was a town mayor and general manager at Westinghouse Brake and Signal Ltd – which is still operating, till today. Following his father's passing at a relatively young age, John found solace in a minister and his first boss - who had a caring attitude towards the less fortunate. Those experiences laid the foundation for John's commitment "to do something different - to choose who we work with and how we do it" while "helping people decide what to do with their lives" whether they came from prison or poorer communities.

"Give meaning to what you are doing" advises John, who shares stories of helping people who are burdened with abnormal events such as unexpected debts or failed relationships. He describes the path to homelessness as an unintended journey in which some resort to drugs and feel easier "to stay at the bottom rather than pull themselves up". Just as the process downward is gradual, so is the tentative journey back to normality and to recapture self-confidence.

This inspired John to co-found in 2006 the charitable New Meaning Foundation, a youth training service and a construction enterprise - with a focus to improve lives of "the modern day version of Oliver Twist". Former addicts, ex-offenders and those who overcame mental health conditions are part of the workforce of 120 employees. The youth training component provides vocational courses for those 14 -25 years who benefit from a non-academic setting to learn math and trade skills. John sees the before-and-after of youth who were ignored, seated "back in the class", fragile and not academically oriented to love discovery of talents, prosper a bit and enjoy being part of a team that completes a home with a warranty for others.

While John's commitment is to provide a strong pipeline of training and building, cash flow is sometimes difficult and leads to short-term borrowing. "We deliver a (home) product several months before getting paid" so the youth training academy that contract with schools are a vital component to maintain financial liquidity. He described a six-month crowdfunding campaign that raised 7,500 UK pounds for equipment as a lot of effort - and advises it only if an organization has the time horizon, contacts and contributor appeal to achieve success. Among new initiatives are to raise positive fiscal returns from building garden studios alongside existing homes and creating a food cafe that provides training, catering and delivery services.

John's psychology degree and his partner's corporate banking experience complement each other as they manage the modular construction business that builds low energy micro-homes in 28 days using sustainable materials. "We both tolerate different personalities" declares John, "and share everything through talking, listening and giving mutual support. We also share the underlying aim of the enterprises and meet in-person every three weeks without an agenda - while also referring any problem or issue to one another at any time."

Image of a micro home built by New Meaning Construction

Wearing Multiple Hats and Saying Calm

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 15:42:42 GMT

Wife, Mom, Full Time Employee, and Entrepreneur!

Influenced by her military-trained mother and her father as manager for Tesco grocers, Laura Tamara learned early the value of time management - which Laura considers to this day her best resource. As an entrepreneur, Laura also emphasizes the "USP'' (unique selling point) to customers. "There is value you can create by putting quality into products'' where "clients get hooked" on the brand that is formed from using time-invested talents and offering the best services.

Laura believes in the power of networking to expand market share: "Push yourself outside your comfort zone" to increase connections, including exposure to different cultures. "You cannot plant too many seeds" declares Laura when positioning for prospective customers. She also advises diversifying revenue sources wherever possible. "Monetize the Moon if you can," suggests Laura. Her advice includes being responsible for sustainable practices - keeping supplies out of landfills.

Setting up a bespoke tailor shop using her husband's skills, Laura focuses on the best possible public relations by providing a great customer experience. That includes greetings as they enter the store, giving one-on-one attention, offering unique tailoring and gauging customer preferences for the desired product. This results in customers willing to pay for fabric quality, made-to-measure clothing and giving customers "a hand in designing their garments". However, the startup faced difficulty due to COVID, losing an entire season while not knowing when the pandemic would end. In the meantime, the couple sold a one-bedroom flat, purchased a guest house for income and worked a 9-to-5 job to satisfy the lender of the real estate loan. For new entrepreneurs, Laura recommends having 18 months of living expenses saved or working part-time to ease into unpredictable business cash flows.

Laura is optimistic about the future - forecasting more fast fashion, more retail seasons and more technology integrated into clothing. In this environment, she sees word-of-mouth referrals as the new gold standard for tailored clothiers.

Here's what James McMillan had to say

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:04:10 GMT

Summary of our January Fireside Chat

"The more I can collect skills, the more capable I am" declares James McMillan during his Fireside Chat. Following studies in biology and genetics, James converted to business and accounting - leading to work in accounting and product management. As a business consultant to small and medium sized enterprises, James saw himself as a problem solver while matching people to the right connections. This led to his formation of joinmynexus.com - allowing entrepreneurs to answer: How ready am I? What should I do next? Where can I get help from an incubator, accelerator or investor?

To clear the idea validation hurdle, you need vision, well defined values and an understanding of the "real world" marketplace. Joinmynexus offers an E-Skills Assessment covering specific areas of startup vitals and advice for early-stage entrepreneurs. James defines entrepreneurs as "subject matter experts" with a focus on industry and customer markets. Winifred Soribe cited this as the "intellectual capital of firms" - sourced from social, human and structural assets that form relationships to achieve the objectives of a firm.

Joinmynexus also seeks to recognize systemic bias in finance while matching the ambitions and risk profiles of entrepreneurs with investors, "much like a dating role" characterized James. Investors have biases that must be considered in this process, For instance, James advises not to secure an investor who "drip feeds" an entrepreneur that needs more initial capital in the startup phase, nor use an Artificial Intelligence approach to predict investor:entrepreneur matches. James declares "if you use this kind of monitor to predict the future, something in the world will change - the future is predictably unpredictable."

"The investor is buying into you, so show your true passion and capture those qualities in your pitch" recommenda James - "raising funds is more an art than a science".

Powering entrepreneurial capability - myNexus (joinmynexus.com)

The Pestiigious Diana Award

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 15:34:50 GMT

The People's Princess Lives on.....

The Diana award is a prestigious award given to young people across the globe for their humanitarian work. This award was started in remembrance of the beautiful life, Princess Diana lived and her philosophy that young people had the power to change their communities which was shown in the charities she supported while alive.

The charity exists to empower young people to make that positive change by UNLOCKING POTENTIAL. With the right support, guidance and opportunities every young person can reach their full potential, ensuring no young person is left out or left behind.

The charity seeks to CREATE OPPORTUNITIES to ensure that young people have a seat at the table where decisions that shape their future are made. Their voice enriches decision-making and inspires us all to do more and do better.

The charity also INSPIRES ACTION through providing the right support and advocacy. This would make a positive impact because young people have the passion, energy and insight to lead the change they want to see, for themselves, their communities and the world around them.

This year, our very own Founders and Mentors Eden Tadesse received this prestigious award for her amazing work supporting refugees in North Africa.

INVICTA_ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA_25

Whether speaking at global conferences or designing innovative programmes, Eden is unyielding in her commitment to serve others. In response to Africa’s worst refugee crisis, Eden founded ‘Invicta’, an award-winning, tech-enabled, social impact platform that helps refugees and internally displaced people find opportunities for remote work, skills development, mental health counselling, digital education, and entrepreneurship. So far, ‘Invicta’ has enrolled 29,000 refugees and internally displaced youth in more than 80 countries. Through this and other impact ventures, Eden works relentlessly to educate, enable, and empower young people. She is also an award-winning journalist, digital innovator, and activist. She is passionate about economic justice, refugee empowerment, gender equality, digital rights, and financial inclusion. 

Please join us on the 26th of October 2022 from 6:30 - 7:30 BST for our virtual fireside chat where Eden tells us how she's changing the world one refugee at a time. Please register here.

How to Fully Charge your Business

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:44:07 GMT

How this Mother and Daughter Duo are Smashing their way through the Healthy Snack Industry

We all gathered virtually on a Wednesday morning for those in the states and evening for those in Europe and Africa to hear A tell us about how she and her mum have expanded their business into twenty-four locations across five cities in Washington state.

A Kouture’s roots go back to a generation of caregivers from her great-grand parents to her grandparents who were caregivers to the sick to her mother who worked as a nurse and ran a side catering business for people with allergies. She grasped the skill of service from seeing people she loved serve others with care. Starting 18 years ago with her career in fashion, A worked as a product development consultant and project manager for various companies in the luxury, real estate, hospitality, food, and beverage sector. Her entrepreneurial career launched in 2005 when she launched her own luxury style magazine.

These experiences opened her up to serving customers and giving them the best value, so it wasn’t difficult for her to pour her into a great tasting recipe that was equally healthy. A described "most successful entrepreneurs as those who connect the dots from their personal experiences to customers", always thinking "What makes the product better?"

A offers advice: "Do not do what everyone else does ... but go where the need is." Indeed, Fully Charged Allergy Friendly Snacks has gone where the need is, going into local stores with less competition, the business has also been completely bootstrapped financing itself via sales and grant money, winning competitions such as the William Factory Idea Pitch Competition.

Bootstrapping Fully Charged Allergy Friendly snacks has meant with telling her brand story with confidence, having a clear plan, and matching personal values with underserved markets such as those catering to the needs of consumers with food allergies. Although A considers herself an introvert, her manner of storytelling and engagement tells us otherwise, which means anyone can do this with practice.

A recommends adopting a “step by step” approach to growth by starting out with small goals, thus launching in a few stores to gauge interest and then scaling into more stores as customer demand grows, "We want to be popular in a small pond versus lost in a large lake”.

This step-by-step approach would also help you understand your “business health related to accounting, legal and unique marketing." Fully Charged Snacks now has direct online sales, wholesale orders and products in over twenty-five stores. A is selling her way into an expansion and letting the opportunity lead her - Fully Charged Allergy Friendly Snacks is now going into airports via partnerships and growing store locations with the ability to fulfil orders.

Future options include a subscription program, aligning with major retailers, and identifying "the best bang for the buck” by finding resources that you can maximize such as Amazon to stretch your marketing dollars as far as possible". A describes herself as "not a hanging out kind of girl" despite being in the middle of a conference at Chicago's Midway Airport where A was a featured speaker. While A is the primary sales leader for the company, her co-owner mother "is the engine that keeps things flowing. She can create amazing things." Their mutual motivation is to "take care of people and dream on a level outside of money that creates an iconic brand".

We are routing for you, A; you can connect with her here . You can watch a replay of our chat here

We wish to thank our sponsors, Washington State Department of Commerce and William Factory Small Business Incubator for their tireless efforts in promoting the interests of small businesses in Washington State.

Making Entrepreneurial Finance more accessible in Tacoma, WA; A summary.

Thu, 19 May 2022 15:40:57 GMT

A policy brief which highlighted barriers faced by entrepreneurs from historically under-financed backgrounds and provided some recommendation was written by Winifred Soribe . On the 30 ^th of March, we all tuned in to hear from key entrepreneurial finance stakeholders during a roundtable discussion focusing on the policy brief, replay can be found here . Our expert panellists represented notable financial institutions comprising of Jenny Choi – Special Counsel, Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dennis Joyce - Director of Investments for Tacoma Venture Fund, Julia Terlinchamp - Director of Strategic Initiatives and Small Business Grants/ Director of Agricultural Innovation at the Washington State Department of Commerce, Jenefeness Tucker - Vice President of Community Relations and Public Affairs at Seattle Credit Union, Kerrie T. Hurd - Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration in the Seattle District Office and Lisa Smith – Executive Director of Washington State Microenterprise Association.

The discussion was kicked off by Jenefeness Tucker from Seattle Credit Union who emphasised the “adverse to risk” nature of banks and why they required proof in the form of collateral, mid to high credit scores and high interest rates before borrowing you money. She highlighted the importance of reflection before taking debt finance by asking yourself “Do I really need the money? I know a lot of entrepreneurs that have taken out debt and when the business isn’t going as planned, they walk out, but guess what the debt walks right with them”.

Kerrie T. Hurd from the SBA advocated for preparedness as a path to avoiding rejections often associated with debt finance. She highlighted several no-cost SBA funded support provided by Small Business Development Centres such as Women's Business Centres , Veterans Business Outreach Centres , Ventures , and SCORE chapters “which helped you get ready for loans" from micro-lenders and traditional bank through adequate research and financial planning. Having run her own loan brokering company in the past, Kerrie recapped experiences of her loan application to a bank being rejected despite it being her field of operation. This was due to insufficient amount of research conducted before applying to financial institutions “You need to know what the financial institution is willing to fund”.

Julia Terlinchamp with the Washington State Department of Commerce announced the soon-to-be-available Working Washington Grants: Round 5 with $70 million appropriated by the legislature; $45 million of the appropriation has been directed to eligible businesses and non-profit organizations in the arts, heritage, and science sectors, including those that operate live entertainment venues, in addition to the existing Flex Fund Program . The Flex Fund has been designed to financially assist small businesses affected by Covid 19 with up to $150,000 at 3% - 4% interest rates repayable over a 60-month period and can be used on a variety of business needs such as payroll, rent, utilities amongst others.

Jenny Choi with the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation in the US Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that networking is important to raising investment funds. She also highlighted the similarity bias common in investment circles and stated that to overcome " pattern matching phenomenon " - in which venture capital firms identify firms with characteristics that often look like firms previously funded - the SEC supports "The vibrancy of our capital markets [which] depends on having companies of varying sizes, from micro-cap to mega-cap, to provide investors with meaningful options for investment, the trademark of our public markets".

She also provided advise on how to broaden your network - Join an incubator, accelerator or participate in demo day. Research on people who have invested in similar companies.

Jenny highlighted that the SEC offers to "bridge the gap" of knowledge on capital raising via education available on their website: SEC.gov | Navigating Your Options , SEC.gov | Capital Raising , OASB Annual Report for FY21 (sec.gov)

Dennis Joyce of Tacoma Venture Fund identified their purpose to provide private funds for "venture scale enterprises" which are likely to have multi-million-dollar revenues in future years following investments and technical support. Dennis suggested that entrepreneurs "bring in allies" through an advisory board or informal advisors "so you are not alone in pursuing your dream." Dennis also suggested crowdfunding is a good method of getting market research on products in early-stage operations and mentioned resources available at the Rain Factory for this purpose.

Lisa Smith of the Washington State Microenterprise Association who sponsored this project re-iterated the significant role that small businesses play in the economic development of our local communities. She also reaffirmed her organisations commitment to funding technical assistance provided to micro enterprises as these businesses keep Washington’s local economy humming.

Simon Krystman , co-founder of Founders and Mentors which is an amazing and innovative global mentoring platform for the pre-launch ecosystem gave a delightful closing remark saying that “Washington state has a delightful and wonderful ecosystem for early-stage enterprises”. He recapped key contributions of all panellists and thanked everyone for their time and commitment to making Washington state a “great place to start a business”.

We would also like to thank Tim Strege , Executive Director of the William Factory Small Business Incubator for tirelessly advocating for the interests of entrepreneurs from historically under-financed backgrounds. Please feel free to connect with our distinguished panellists on LinkedIn and visit their respective websites for more information. Hyperlinks to their websites have been provided. You can also check out the William Factory Incubator page on this website for more resources related to this project.

The Global Roundtable Event; A summary

Sat, 25 Sep 2021 02:40:26 GMT

On a sunny September evening in the UK, we hosted a virtual global roundtable event which attracted attendees from nineteen countries across four continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. The intention for this event was to share global best practices on advancing the cause of entrepreneurship. For this we looked at several pressing topics within the filed namely access to entrepreneurial finance, gender, and its implication for raising finance, mentorship, access to entrepreneurship education and expanding globally.

The event was moderated by Winifred Soribe and Dr Mohamed Saeudy , both form the University of Bedfordshire in the UK.

The wealth of knowledge within the panel leading these discussions was second to none; from leaders of public institutions; Dr Rebecca Corbin of NACCE and Dr Luisa Alemany of London Business School Mandy Sanghera an advisor to the UN to charities with Timothy Barnes of NACUE and private organisations represented by Seven Jacobs of StartrHub and Johan Franzén of Entnest , everyone at the event certainly had something to take home.

The first round of discussions centred on access to finance; The European pessimism, and American Optimism – differences in culture. It kicked off with a poll asking which country ranked highest in access to entrepreneurial finance according to GEM data, the UK came in first place. Dr Corbin and Dr Luisa approached this from an educational context where basic training on key business financial metrics helped entrepreneurs understand types of financing available to them and how best to access it (GEM 20/21 can be found here ).

Dr Corbin – “If there isn’t a deep knowledge of finance and it doesn’t have to be a complicated one, you don’t need to be an accountant or have an accounting degree but you have to have the right tools and resources...wherever you are on the continuum, having more tools as NACCE does through our partnership with Intuit that provides no cost QuickBooks to aspiring entrepreneurs, that’s where the conversation really begins, I think that’s where we can make the greatest impact”. This deep financial knowledge can also be introduced to students at a very a young age according to Dr Luisa so that potential entrepreneurs begin to think in terms of costs, profit, and loss etc.

Other panellists agreed on the cultural different between these two continents with Tim highlighting “irrational exuberance” common to the American investors and “Undue pessimism” popular amongst European investors. These differences he said strongly affects how finance is raised; thus it's advisable that entrepreneurs seek finance within countries and cultures they are conversant with.

Gender and its implication for raising finance was next on the agenda with all panellists agreeing there were some disparities in accessing finance which were not only triggered by gender but also by socio-economic differences according to Dr Corbin. Mandy and Seven stressed that the pandemic had created an uneven playing ground for women and young people. Intent on the other hand was identified by Dr Luisa and Tim as affecting the amount of monies raised by female entrepreneurs as they sometimes do not seek to start large corporations and thus may not need large financial resources.

Dr Luisa also provided some interesting alternative insights from Kanze et al., (2020) which identifies that women are asked prevention questions by investors which puts them at a disadvantage while men are asked promotion questions by investors which puts them at an advantage - you can read more here . She further went on to highlight how industry affiliations also adversely impacts women’s access to finance – you can read more here .

The consensus from this round as suggested by Johan was “Entrepreneurship first” thus by focusing on advancing entrepreneurship globally, we can develop best practices and policies that bridge this gap.

We then moved onto the discussion on Mentorship with the moderator Winifred highlighting that it’s becoming quite popular to have a mentor on your entrepreneurial journey as she currently mentors on Nasdaq’s mentor makers in the U.S and Founder and Mentors in the UK. Dr Corbin got the ball rolling by stating that mentors play an invaluable role in their mentees’ life, something all panellists agreed on; however, Seven and Mandy highlighted the need to know the difference between coaching and mentoring as the former relates paid support while the latter relates to philanthropic support. Researching potential mentors before approaching them to ensure synergies between both parties was suggested by Tim and Johan.

The entrepreneurship education topic was introduced by Dr Mohamed Saeudy, one of the moderators of the event. The focus was on how to embed entrepreneurial mindset into the educational system; Dr Corbin started off with integrating entrepreneurial skills such as resilience and creativity in a “cross disciplinary fashion” so that people approach their calling in life with a sense of agency. Dr “Luisa built upon this by highlighting how education serves as a transformative tool in changing culture of a people. Thus, to have a more entrepreneurial focused societies, we must think of ways to develop educational structures not only within the field of academia but also through philanthropic initiatives as stated by Tim and Johan. Mandy and Seven also highlighted the need for more dynamic forms of education other than the conventional university structure prevalent in the west.

The final line of discussion focused on business environment and its impact on entrepreneurship survival rate. Large numbers of businesses have been registered since the pandemic started; however, 50% - 60% of them do not survive. Dr Corbin and Mandy suggested that government policies and proper education can minimise the failure rate.

Dr Corbin gave the final remarks where she encouraged everyone to be “audacious like Winifred” who reached out to her on LinkedIn about this roundtable event, a skill that can advance entrepreneurship globally. She also invited everyone to join NACCE at their annual conference scheduled for 3rd - 6th October, if you haven't already registered, you can register to attend here .

Our attendees left us with some positive comments indicative of their time spent with us:

“Very insightful discussions on entrepreneurial finance. All speakers were experts in the field but at the same time eminently approachable”

“Great exchange of information and comparison of different approaches by country. Please keep these global workshops going! These interactions improve knowledge of entrepreneurial education and resources around the world.”

“Panellists were awesome.”

“Great presentations, highly useful content and excellent facilitation of the event - thanks a lot! Look forward to attending a follow-up event.”

“Very insightful discussion, I really enjoyed the brilliant points made. I look forward to future conversations, organizers can maybe consider African perspective, and also developed/developing country dimensions.”

From the organisers and sponsors – NACCE , NACUE , University of Bedfordshire , William Factory Small Business Incubator and Winifred Soribe Consult we would like to say be audacious and change the world! See you next year.

Get to Know our Panelists

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:57:40 GMT

Dr Rebecca Corbin

Rebecca Corbin is president & CEO of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), a leading non-profit membership organization dedicated to providing leadership and sustainable, scalable resources to foster entrepreneurial thinking and action in one of the largest entrepreneurial ecosystems in North America.

She has forged several new partnerships with national foundations and corporations to advance STEM and skilled trades education, financial management and readiness for entrepreneurs, open education resources, entrepreneurship pipeline training from K-gray, ecosystem mapping, global entrepreneurship and intellectual property curriculum knowledge in

community colleges across the United States.

Prior to NACCE, Rebecca served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the BCC Foundation at Burlington County College (BCC). With her leadership, a new workforce development initiative at BCC was successfully launched. Rebecca also oversaw institutional advancement for the Foundation for New Jersey Public Broadcasting.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Kent State University, a Master of Public Administration degree from The University of Akron, and experience in the classroom as an adjunct instructor, teaching political science and public administration courses. She earned an Ed.D. in organizational leadership & innovation from Wilmington University in Delaware.

In February of 2016, Rebecca received the Audrey K. Doberstein Award for Leadership for outstanding leadership and dedication to the philosophy and mission of Wilmington University. In October of 2014 she was named one of the Top 40 Women in Business by SNJ Business People magazine. In 2011 she was named Fundraising Star of the Year by Fundraising Success magazine She also co- founded the Nonprofit Development Center of Southern New Jersey at Rowan University.

Rebecca understands higher education, nonprofit finance, and business development. She has presented on the topic of entrepreneurship education, ecosystem building, and transformational leadership at international, national, state and regional conferences with an applied focus on student success, STEM education, storytelling, and succession planning.

Rebecca serves as the publisher of the Community College Entrepreneurship journal and a guest editor for Emerald Publication’s Journal for Small Business and Enterprise Development. In 2018, Corbin co-authored Community Colleges as Incubators of Innovation: Unleashing Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Communities and Students which addresses the urgent need for community colleges to prioritize entrepreneurship education both to remain relevant in a changing economy and to give graduate students the flexible and interdisciplinary mindsets needed for the future of society. In 2020, she co-authored Impact ED: How Community College Entrepreneurship Creates Equity and Prosperity which aims to be a roadmap for building a more inclusive and equitable economy for a future that is unknown.

Be sure to connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn or Twitter

Timothy Barnes

Tim has a long and rich history managing large and small organisations, both in the private and public sectors. And as such has gained a wealth of experience in entrepreneurship as well as in corporate governance. He has served in various capacities and given an outstanding account of himself. Organisations where he has put his expertise to use range from universities to venture capital firms. Some of these organisations include start-up companies, charities, political campaigns as well as public bodies. Currently, he spearheads the day-to-day running of The Rain Gods; which was founded in February 2016 and also helped launch the Rain Cloud Westminster Incubator in September 2016.
As Head of UCL Enterprise Operations, Tim was responsible for the University’s outward-facing business engagement activities. He became director of UCL Advances in 2007 when the centre was first launched and built it into one of the largest delivering its kind of services in the world—offering thousands of places to UCL students each year to undertake entrepreneurial activities and providing direct support to hundreds of businesses whose roots were outside of UCL. He has managed and catered to the needs of various stakeholders which include senior academic faculty and government ministers, as well as students and high-level business leaders and has performed excellently—attending to their respective needs and adapting the work environment to their unique working styles.
Prior to 2007, Tim spent six years running his own business, which amongst many other things, helped universities and large corporations to spin-out high technology companies. Tim’s background experience includes working as an investment manager at a pan-European investment firm focussed on early-stage technology ventures, and as a management consultant at one of the world’s largest professional services firms.
In 2010 Tim founded the globally successful Citrus Saturday; a non-profit enterprise driving entrepreneurial ambition in school-age children. It now runs succesfully in fourteen countries. He is currently a Trustee of the National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs (NACUE) and a Non-Executive Director of Exemplas, a consultancy and programme delivery company. He graduated from UCL in 1997 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2014 he was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion for life.

Be sure to connect with Tim on LinkedIn

Mandy Sanghera

Mandy is an award winning philanthropist, consultant and global campaigner who is often referred to as a global catalyst. And in true catalytic fashion has fasttracked a series of initiatives that are geared towards positive impact on a global scale. A bonafide change agent, she has championed causes spanning international human rights & motivational speaking; Tedx inclusive. She is a Tedx speaker from the United Kingdom and has travelled extensively; crisscrossing the globe in a bid to spread the gospel of positive change. She has a lengthy career empowering & motivating people and boasts of over three decades of hands-on experience. She is an expert in various development-related fields and has a been an advocate for innovation, the building of strategic partnerships, as well as the promotion of advocacy and programming in the areas of human rights, gender equality, accountability and social justice. She has capitalized on gains made in her field and maximized her reach via social media as well as through her countless appearances on televisions worldwide and numerous public speaking engagaements. She has spoken at the US House of Representatives for three consecutive years. Last year, she was at the World Economic Forum and spoke at a couple of side events. Mandy has supported several Hackathon’s regarding AI for social good. She is an Advisor to the #KindnessMatters Council, coordinated by UNESCO MGIEP (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation In partnership with Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) global campaign). #KindnessMatter

Be sure to connect with Mandy on LinkedIn and Twitter

Dr Luisa Alemany

Associate Professor of Management Practice in Strategy and Entrepreneurship; Academic Director, Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital, MBA (Stanford) BBA PhD (Spain)

A distinguished academic with a stellar career spanning decades; Luisa Alemany is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. She was formerly at ESADE Business School and a Visiting Professor at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow at St Hugh’s College, Oxford University. Her main areas of interest are Entrepreneurial Finance, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurial Education, Business Angels, and Venture Philanthropy. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a PhD in Economics and Business from Universidad Complutense (Madrid).

Luisa began her career as a Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble in Madrid. She subsequently worked as a Business Analyst for McKinsey & Company in Madrid, Barcelona and later Lisbon. Subsequently, she worked as an Associate at Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking Division. She also worked in the venture capital fund Europ@Web, before serving as a Senior Associate of the American private equity fund The Carlyle Group, in its European buyout team.

Luisa Alemany was the director of the ESADE Entrepreneurship Institute for nine years (2009-2017) and the academic sponsor of ESADE BAN (Business Angels Network), which was awarded the Best BAN in Europe in 2016. She is a member of the investment committee of two early stage investors and is involved in Rising Tide Europe I and II, the first European Women-only business angels’ fund. In the past, she was a member of the Board of EBAN; the European Business Angels Network.

Her research is published in top academic journals and she has written several books, the most recent being “Entrepreneurial Finance: The Art and Science of Growing Ventures” (Cambridge University Press, 2018), the first European textbook on the topic.

She has taught at both degree (MSc), MBA and Executive Education levels in different institutions. And has tutored students in cities across Europe, North America and Asia. She received due recognition and was conferred with the Best Teacher Award 2017; ESADE’s Executive Master in Finance, and her case “Scytl”, regarding exits options for investors, was honored Best Entrepreneurship Case Award by EFMD (2017).

Be sure to connect with Luisa on LinkedIn or Twitter

Seven Jacobs

Seven is a young social entrepreneur, speaker, and an advocate for mental health. Alongside being the Founder and CEO of an entrepreneurship education start-up called StartrHub and the host of a mental health podcast for young leaders called Lost and Searching, he has helped build start-ups in music, tech, and consulting, and is training as a coach. Versatile and result driven, he has maximized several opportunities through his forays into a variety of fields, impacting young leaders and breaking new frontiers.

Seven who was born in Los Angeles (USA), moved to London (UK) at the age of 12 to be with his family who were domiciled there. A series of experiences ranging from financial to mental as well as emotional challenges during his childhood impacted on his opportunities and his mental health. This helped shape his focus and life’s passion. He places a high premium on empathy and also believes in the power of listening to provide creative solutions and transform the world into a place that accommodates and caters to all. Seven is happiest when he’s with other people who are genuinely happy, and through social entrepreneurship he strives to create meaningful change in the world. His emphasis on humanity and the humane approach to solutions ensures that not only are problems solved but that the solutions provided are wholesome. He is a very passionate person with endless drive and wants to re-engineer work to be full of joy, wonder and discovery, through a two pronged approach that inculcates a positive work mind-set and a positive attitude.

Seven's early career was kicked off by him coaching young people and acting as a youth consultant for some of the biggest UK brands, which included AKQA and Nando’s. He worked on community projects, became an experienced facilitator, and developed entrepreneurial skills alongside an undying love for social entrepreneurship. In 2019 he was brought on board to help build a fashion tech organisation called The House of TAG, in which he is now a director. And in 2020 he was asked to help build a new record label in London called Just Entertainment.

Be sure to connect with Seven on LinkedI n

Johan Franzén

Johan who is currently the founder and CEO of EntNest; a social platform based purely on Entrepreneurship, is an innovator in every sense of the word. He harnessed 20 years of experience gathered from working in a multinational firm, in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry, and used it to forge solutions geared at breeding a new generation of successful entrepreneurs. Whilst working in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry, he was in charge of managing Strategic Sourcing and Product Supply regionally as well as globally before eventually leaving the corporate world in 2012.

He is now commonly referred to as an “Entrepreneurship Mountain Guide”. He guides young individuals through the tricky and sometimes treacherous terrain that is entrepreneurship. He lives and breathes entrepreneurship, as exemplified in these quotes which capture his personal dogma “entrepreneurship is the future of work”, “entrepreneurship is a contact sport” and “a rising tide lifts all the boats”. In this quote about the tide, he refers to entrepreneurs as the tide whose successes lift others up by causing positive ripples in the business scene. He believes in a future where young enterprise would rise to drive change and growth.

Be sure to join Entnest using this link

Dr Mohamed Saeudy

Dr Mohamed Saeudy is a senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance and Director of Research Centre for Contemporary Accounting, Finance and Economics (Res CAFE) at the University of Bedfordshire. His research area is in sustainable accounting and finance. He helps design postgraduate courses to help students learn how to use accounting and finance tools in managing contemporary challenges of sustainable development such as climate change, modern slavery, UN SDGs, human rights, and ecological biodiversity. He writes blogs on how students can start entrepreneurial firms in social and environmental industries. He also developed innovative academic courses in DBA, Green Accounting, Sustainable Finance and Financial Entrepreneurship. These courses cover many contemporary topics ranging from corporate governance to sustainable business strategies and policies. In addition, Dr Saeudy provides professional consultancy for many business organisations in the UK and overseas in the field of sustainable business solutions, entrepreneurial finance, green finance, risk management and virtual business innovation.

Be sure to connect with Mohamed on LinkedIn or Twitter

Winifred Soribe

Winifred Soribe is an entrepreneur at heart; one whose DNA can be said to encode genes for entrepreneurship. She started her first business at the remarkable age of 9, which coincided with her final year of elementary school. She cultivated the budding creativity in her and fashioned out story books using plain A4 sheets and fancy gel pens. She displayed an early knack for superior salesmanship by sticking candies on the cover page which were then sold to fellow students. Early tendencies at being organised were displayed by her and her team which comprised of she and three others with Winifred being the president of the group. Profits were evenly split at the month’s end and what could easily pass as an audit was also done. Though the business didn’t have any significant cost base as Winifred’s dad was all too happy to supply them with plain A4 paper and stationeries, they went about it wholeheartedly and even purchased the candies used by them.

As she progressed on to High school, Winifred carried on with an unbending enterpreneural zeal. At her new school, which was an all-girls catholic boarding school, she restarted her business in the 10th grade and continued right on to the 12th grade. She sold fancy jewelleries at a 100% markup on cost to fellow girls, andby the time she got into university she had fully mastered the art of buying and selling. Her parents had an undeniable influence on her as they both were business oriented people and their business acumen had undoubtedly rubbed off on her. Her dad had a huge farming business, and her mum owned a fashion boutique.

Fast forward to this day; she is currently finalizing her PhD in Entrepreneurial Finance from the University of Bedfordshire in the UK, where she received a fully funded studentship. Her research focuses on how entrepreneurs can use their intellectual capital and social media to foster more collaboration, which in turn would aid them in raising finance.

Prior to undertaking her PhD, she obtained a master’s degree in Accounting and Business Finance from the University of Bedfordshire after completing her ACCA qualification and gaining a bachelor’s degree in Economics.

She has worked within the Accounting and Finance industry in the UK and is keen to explore the concept of using robust financing options to stimulate more entrepreneurial activity and innovation, thereby improving the overall economic welfare.

Her spare time is spent volunteering as a mentor for entrepreneurs within Nasdaq Mentor Makers, serving as a director on the University of Bedfordshire’s student union as well as advising entrepreneurs within 12 Ronnie’s Founders and Mentor. She enjoys philosophy, bead making, reading, and cooking.

Be sure to connect with Winifred on LinkedIn

Advancing Entrepreneurship Globally

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:36:22 GMT

Greater things together

In a rapidly evolving society where there is a shift in trend from conventional day jobs to entrepreneurship due to a variety of socioeconomic factors, there exists a growing need to not only inculcate entrepreneurship into the academic curricula, but to create ecosystems that foster and develop entrepreneurship amongst students in such a way that it synchronizes knowledge with practical application. It is on the backdrop of this realization that organizations such as NACCE in the USA and NACUE in the UK sprung up, to not only bridge the gap in the areas of entrepreneurship education but to also foster entrepreneurial thinking and action. Although separated by vast landmasses and expansive Ocean, both bodies are bound by a similar philosophy which is centered around the development and entrenchment of entrepreneurial thinking within community colleges as the nexus from which the next generation of entrepreneurs’ spring forth.

To that end, NACCE and NACUE are honored to participate in a Global Virtual Roundtable Event: The Changing Landscape of Entrepreneurship Across Borders on September 9, featuring international panelists who will address:

Access to finance: the European pessimism, and the American Optimism – differences in culture and its implications;
Access to entrepreneurship education and its adaptability in real life;
Internationalization and Expansion – ease of starting a business in the US or Europe with regards to regulations;
Gender and its role in raising finance; and
The role of mentorship in venture success.

During Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 8 – 12, 2021, NACCE will launch plans for its new coalition model, designed to unite an international ecosystem of entrepreneurial organizations, champions, and supporters that will fund the start-up and scale-up of small businesses. More information will be made available at www.nacce.com in the weeks to come.

About NACCE
NACCE strives to make community colleges North America's pre-eminent source for entrepreneurship and serves to educate, support, and inspire educators, administrators, presidents and entrepreneurs focused on igniting entrepreneurship in their communities and campuses. NACCE has two main goals: to empower college leaders to approach the business of running a community college with an entrepreneurial mindset and to grow the community college's role in supporting job creation and entrepreneurs in their local ecosystem. NACCE unites a dynamic network that includes more than 300 colleges and 2,500+ individuals serving more than three million students in the largest ecosystem of entrepreneurial educators and leaders in North America. For more information, visit www.nacce.com . Follow us on Twitter at @NACCE , like us on Facebook , and join our LinkedIn group.

About NACUE
NACUE is devoted to advancing education and creating tailor-made solutions geared towards deepening engagement with learners from various academic backgrounds in enterprise initiatives. Buoyed by the belief that students should have the chance to engage in unique opportunities, they support them to develop the skills they need to succeed.

NACUE was conceived in 2008 by 12 enterprise society presidents. Prior to its formation, students were already playing a leading role in the development of student entrepreneurship at their institutions, however they knew collaboratively they could create something bigger for the benefit of their societies. Thus in 2009, Oxford Entrepreneurs President Victoria Lennox, took the initiative to found what was then known as the National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs. This was done with support from the other enterprise presidents, Matt Smith and Cyprian Szalankiewicz. After a period, which saw the organisation rebrand and expand, On November 15th, 2011, the organisations name was finally changed to the 'National Association of College and University Entrepreneurs. That initial group has now morphed into a national non-profit organisation with a thriving national network, representing over 200 college and university enterprise societies. For more information, visit www.nacue.com like on Facebook .

Make sure to follow these great organisations for updates on their upcoming and on-going projects.