Enterprise Tuesday Videos
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Growing Your Venture
Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE DL
Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE DL, founder and Chairman of Cobra Beer, speaking about his entrepreneurial journey and the choices he made while growing the business, at the Enterprise Tuesday lecture series in February 2013.
The entrepreneurial journey begins with an idea and leads to the start of a new venture. Some argue that is the easy bit! The really hard part is the subsequent growth of the firm. This requires clarity, strategic thinking and a deep understanding of management in all its various components. One of the key issues that arise is whether people are clear enough about their choices. Should they grow a lifestyle business or a high growth business? What are the personal implications of such choices? What might be the motivations for either? What should you really think about as a founder or CEO of a growing venture?
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- Coming up with the idea is one thing - but to make it into a sustainable business is something else
- Absolutely anything is possible in life?
- What is the purpose of your life and does it match your business idea?
- Joining the dots - where good ideas come from
- The odds will always be stacked against you
- Early stages of growth - to adapt or die
- Shooting yourself in the foot while growing at 70% per year!
- Frugal and creative thinking to speed up marketing
- The 8 Ps of marketing! - What drives our basics
- What do you do when you see millions of dollars of value being wiped out?
- Brands are absolutely key - 6 truths to build a brand
- Being a visionary - Summary of Steve Jobs' views on the subject
- Defining Entrepreneurship - To aspire and to achieve against all odds - our vision
- How to get most out of the employees - give them freedom!
Q&A:
- What is the role of mentors and advisers?
- What is your end objective for Cobra and how do you keep going?!
- If you were a start-up Entrepreneur now, how would you keep yourself motivated to make the business a success?
- How big is a brand? Could you transfer your brand to other products?
- How did you maintain the relationship with the Indian restaurants in the early days?
- Can you still develop strong business relationships via social networks and the web?
- What is the role of mentors and advisers?
- What is your end objective for Cobra and how do you keep going?!
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Serendipity or Hard Work?
Rahul Vohra, CEO & Co-Founder, Rapportive
Dr Shamus Husheer, CEO, Cambridge Temperature ConceptsSuccessful entrepreneurs are often dismissed as having had a bit of good luck. Entrepreneurs too, are sometimes tempted to ascribe their progress to luck or serendipity - 'Things happen!' What is the reality of entrepreneurial success or indeed failure? How much can we rely on our own endeavours? How much do we have to wait for external conditions to change and go in our favour? Is it about the luck of being in the right place at the right time? Markets, technologies, social trends, access to funding finding the first customer but perhaps not where you were looking are all cases that challenge the rational model for enterprise development.
This session is delivered by two young, charismatic entrepreneurs, both of whom are experiencing success but in different ways. Dr Shamus Husheer completed his PhD at Cambridge, while Rahul Vohra took leave from his PhD and went to Silicon Valley with his co-founders to pursue his entrepreneurial dream. Shamus is building a business from Cambridge and Rahul has already made an exit by selling his venture to LinkedIn.
This Enterprise Tuesday lecture took place on 27 November 2012.
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- Introduction to Serendipity or Hard Work
- What is Serendipity?
- The Start of the Story - Serendipity or Hard Work?
- Building Teams
- Networking
- Key Skills - Selling and Raising Money
- Working with a Team to Develop Ideas
- Making an Old Idea Happen
- Accessing Resources and the Right Environment
- The Start of the Story
- Doing a PhD and Being a Parallel Entrepreneur
- Building the Team
- If Hard Work Led to Success...
- If Intelligence Led to Success...
- If Being Lucky Bought Success...
- If Persistence Led to Success...
- So What Works?
Q&A:
- Do you have any solutions for networking for introverts?
- Have you had experiences of the word 'NO'?
- How did you manage the process of deciding which ideas to work on persistently over time?
- What is it like in the early days when you are working hard but have no money? Can you set up a company alongside having a job?
- How do you balance skills, chemistry and equity when building a team?
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Mindsets and Motivations
Dr Darrin Disley, serial entrepreneur
"If you think you can or you think you can't, you are probably right..."
Henry Ford made this remark and it is so true in the field of entrepreneurship. In some ways, it is even more important for individuals to have an utter self-belief! If they do not, how will their investors, clients, staff and others believe in them? A mindset that is positive and alert is thought to be essential to entrepreneurship.
It is also important to be clear about the reasons for pursuing an opportunity. Why would we want to pursue an opportunity? Is it to make money? Is it to change the world? Is it to see our product out there? Is it to feel a sense of autonomy and independence? Or is it just because we can't get a job? And how is this motivation affected? For example, do we have family support, a great team, or a robust venture proposition? Are the surrounding factors running in our favour or against us?
In the Enterprise Tuesday session on 13 November, we had an opportunity to explore mind sets and motivations in the context of one of the fastest growing biotech firms in Europe. Horizon Discovery has been growing at 100%+ per annum by leveraging its strong IP, technology and customer base. It is a fast growing company rather than a lifestyle venture. What implication does this have on the management team and the business itself? How does a team form the skills to complement their vision to tackle the appropriateness of business models, regulatory challenges, the need for deep research pockets, sales to large corporates and other bureaucracies and more generally manage teams of very bright people? These and more questions will be tackled by our guest speaker Darrin Disley, a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in the start-up and growth of ten high-tech business ventures.
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- Introduction to Mindsets and Motivations
- The Coat of Arms
- Introducing Darrin Disley
- How Cambridge Changed My Life
- Definition of a Mindset
- Defining Motivation
- The Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Putting My Life Into Perspective: Intrinsic Motivations
- My Start-up History
- Horizon Discovery – Mindset and Motivation
- Horizon Discovery - The Success Story
Q&A:
- Do you think intuition shapes your decision-making? If so to what extent?
- How difficult was it to persuade people to invest in a new and unproven area such as translational genomics?
- Did your failures influence your mindset?
- How did the ideas behind Horizon crystallise into the business?
- Have you ever been in a situation where the idea has little opportunity for revenue generation?
- What is a good strategy to persuade investors to invest in your idea?
- What did you learn from the failures and what were the benefits of failure?
- How do these ideas about mindset and motivation apply to big pharma?
- Which of the phases of growth did you personally find most difficult? When should you bring others in to help?
- What three top tips would you give to novice entrepreneurs? What are the three biggest challenges?
- Darrin's Coat of Arms
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Recognising Opportunites
Professor Sir Richard Friend FRS, Cavendish Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge
Dr Simon Bransfield-Gart, CEO, Eight19
Dr Seena Rejal, Chairman, Cambridge Policy Associates, former Head of Business Development, Eight19Lecture from the Enterprise Tuesday session on 6th November 2012 chaired by CfEL Director, Dr Shai Vyakarnam with guest speakers Professor Sir Richard Friend, Dr. Simon Bransfield Garth and Dr Seena Rejal.
A central question in entrepreneurship is when and how do people recognise an opportunity that is worth pursuing? Should it be ideas that are evident in the market place based on alertness? Should it be about deep research that leads to ideas of how to disrupt markets? And when should we pursue them? Is it only when they offer watertight business cases or when they get us excited? In other words, what is the typical anatomy of an opportunity?
One of the more popular definitions of entrepreneurship is by Prof Howard Stevenson at Harvard Business School: "It is that an opportunity is pursued regardless of access to resources." This may well apply to some opportunities but can it also apply to the translation of deep research into commercially viable products and services?
This question was examined at the first Enterprise Tuesday session of the 2012/2013 series through a live example, Eight19, a "hot" Cambridge company and the third start-up of Prof Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor at the University of Cambridge. Eight19 has plastic solar technology that can revolutionize lives of people who are "off-grid". The game changer is a printable plastic solar cell that is extremely affordable and scalable.
The guest speakers are members of a top team both in terms of scientific research and commercialisation. Professor Sir Richard Friend is co-presenting with Dr. Simon Bransfield Garth, CEO of Eight19 who has deep experience of taking disruptive technology to market and a PhD in Engineering from St Johns College. They will be joined by Dr Seena Rejal, who has a strong track record too including time at the Clinton Climate Initiative, and was Chairman of Cambridge University entrepreneurs when he was a PhD at Cambridge.
WWW:
Professor Sir Richard Friend's Biography
Simon Bransfield-Garth's Biography
Seena Rejal's BiographyCan't see a video? Download the free Adobe Flash Player »
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- The Scientist, The Technology and The Landscape
- Technology Logic and Economic Logic
- Technology Push - A good sell?
- Eight 19 and Organic Solar Panels
- Finding a Viable Market
- New Market, New Business Model
- The Energy Escalator - Vision and Journey
- Why do we do it?
- The Lessons
- The Personal Journey to the Opportunity
- Key Influences: Sustainability and Entrepreneurship
- Serendipity, Eight 19 and Building the Brand
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Creating Star Teams
Alex van Someren, Partner, Amadeus & Angels Seed Fund
Uday Phadke, , Chief Executive of CarteziaAlex van Someren, Partner, Amadeus & Angels Seed Fund, and Dr Uday Phadke, Chief Executive of Cartezia, speaking at CfEL's Enterprise Tuesday lecture series on the 7th February 2012. The first Enterprise Tuesday session of the Lent term starts with two investors who have, between them, helped to incubate nearly 100 businesses during their respective careers. These experts have experienced the roller coaster ride of forming teams, breaking up dysfunctional teams and reforming them. They have also experienced developing and working with successful, star teams. They will talk about what they look for, how they make judgements, when they make changes and how they find talent.
One of the most frequently cited reasons for the success or failure of a venture is the effective formation and development of the team. This session will focus on how the composition of teams based on experience, expertise, chemistry, soft skills and shared purpose and values can impact success. It will also deal with the role of the 'Alpha entrepreneur', born or made leadership qualities, characteristics, competences, the ability to change and the ability to manage detail.
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- Introduction by Shai Vyakarnam
- Seizing personal opportunities
- What investors look for = Team
- Leadership and the alpha entrepreneur
- Is the alpha entrepreneur born or made?
- Qualities of a leader
- It's not just about the entrepreneur
- Experiences of building teams
- What investors really look for
- Team building from another perspective
- Leadership and team culture
- Stages in team formation
- Team conflict leads to progress
- The chasms - where companies come unstuck
- Critical team roles
- Methodologies for getting the right people
Q&A:
- When should a start up with little or no money start to hire people and how should they pay them?
- How prevalent is the view that VC's invest in ventures of global potential rather than niche businesses?
- Where have you made a bad hire and what did you do?
- What are the sources of talent for ventures in the early days?
- Is it better to recruit someone with the right skills or someone who has passion for the vision?
- If the company is not working out – what do you recommend should be done?
- How do you deal with situations where the vision doesn't fit with the team?
- How do investors view ventures started by groups of friends or family members?
- Is getting people to work for you for free in the early days a form of exploitation?
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Mindsets and Motivations
Andy Hopper, Chairman of Real VNC and Ubisense
Richard Green, CEO of UbisenseAndy Hopper, Chairman of Real VNC and Ubisense and Richard Green, CEO of Ubisense, speaking at the CfEL Enterprise Tuesday lecture series on 1st November 2011. Two founders and serial entrepreneurs worth millions and making products that are changing the world. Andy Hopper and Richard Green will talk about entrepreneurial mindsets and motivations - what drove them to take university technology and turn it into a global business success story. This session provides an overview of entrepreneurship as a process and method using the example of their company, Ubisense - a start-up that went from an early stage idea to being a real venture.
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- The Entrepreneurial Academic
- Introduction to Ubisense
- Having Fun and Making Money
- Meeting and Joining the Team
- A Risky Proposition?
- The Rollercoaster Ride
- Getting Customers Takes Time
- The People Make The Business
- It's Not About the Money
- Dealing with De-motivation
- Summary - Technology, Customers and Funding
Q&A:
- Are you still your own boss even though you are now a public company?
- Did original shareholders liquidate in the IPO or did it just raise additional funds?
- What are your key strategies for finding new markets? Have you crossed the chasm?
- How useful was the market research - even though you entered different markets?
- How do you spend your time as an academic entrepreneur? Which leads the research or business?
- Who should be your first customer - a big brand or small start-up?
- How do you recognise when the focus of your business is changing? Should you stick to the plan?
- How do you divide responsibilities among the early team and when do you bring new people in?
- Have you thought about using technology partners to explore new markets?
- Key Take Home Messages
- Summary of Learning Points
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Serendipity or Hard Work?
David Brown, scientist and intrapreneur
This session is about innovation in the business world and the role played by 'intrapreneurs' in taking discoveries to market. It tracks the progress of two block buster drugs – Viagra and Relpax.
Dr David Brown is a scientist, intrapreneur and has held many senior positions in the Bio/Pharma industry. He has a truly distinguished record of not only doing the science, but also of taking key discoveries to market. Dr Brown is one of the patent holders of that 'accidental' discovery Viagra, one of the biggest brand names of recent years. He is also part of the team that actually made it a commercial success taking it through the early years of drug efficacy trials.
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- Big Companies and Small Companies
- Learning Drug Discovery
- Lessons, Luck and Challenges of a Low Priority Project
- Moving to Clinical Trials, but Heading for Failure
- Serendipity and Hard Work Intersect
- Getting a Breakthrough Medicine to Market
- Other Uses for Viagra
- Success - Challenges and Rapid Growth
- Systematic Exploration
- Spontaneous Recognition
- Timeliness and Creativity
- Excellent Execution
- Does this fit the models of Serendipity and Discovery?
Q&A:
- What would you have done if you didn't get funding for the clinical trial?
- Did you work on projects that didn't succeed? How were they different?
- Would discovering Viagra be easier in a start up company?
- Does the timing of patenting influence subsequent IP strategy?
- Would you recommend funding your own research?
- Is hard work enough? When do you decide to give up?
- What led you to do the initial research into MED? Have you considered developing something similar for women?
- Is it possible for a small company to take a drug to market?
- When you raise money for start ups now, how much influence does your previous success have?
- Is there a way to redefine markets and business models for the rarer diseases? What are the opportunities?
- Associated links:
- WWW
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Recognising Opportunities
Dr Shamus Husheer, CEO of CTC
Robert Brady, active mentor and investor for technology start-upsThe strap line, "Here to make millions of women pregnant", seems to have captured the imagination of investors and customers alike for University spin-out Cambridge Temperature Concepts (CTC). On 8th November, Dr Shamus Husheer, CEO of CTC, will talk about how a young team came up with an innovation and (with sheer persistence and the ability to promote the idea) have successfully taken it to market. He and Robert Brady, active mentor and investor for technology start-ups, discuss how to galvanise belief in the merits of an idea and persuade investors it is worth the risk.
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- What is worth pursuing and what is not? Who is responsible?
- The first critical decision
- Key Criteria for Opportunities
- Not all businesses meet the criteria
- Getting the world to recognise your opportunity
- What do you need to start a company?
- The opportunity
- The team
- Devising a Plan
- Iterating the Plan
- The CEO and Shareholder Value
- Raising Finance
Q&A:
- Do you have a work permit right now?
- Do you have IP Protection for your Product?
- How do you remain open with an idea that may become disruptive?
- Is there a leap of faith in going from a soft start to a product? How do you make the decision?
- How does Mojo relate to the Groupon Model?
- Was starting several companies at the same time a benefit or a hindrance?
- When you realise you have missed an opportunity, how do you deal with it at a personal level?
- What kind of business model do you operate to deliver your service?
- As an investor, what do you say to companies who have a strong theoretical base but not product, but are looking for finance?
- How have you dealt with self-doubt as you have developed your idea?
- What were the biggest challenges in moving from the academic to commercial world?
- Teams and Ideas – how did you build your team?
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How Do You Manage Your Time?
Andy Hopper, Chairman of Real VNC and Ubisense
Andy Hopper, Chairman of Real VNC and Ubisense, speaking at the CfEL Enterprise Tuesday lecture series on 1 November 2011.
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- Associated links:
- WWW
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Increasing the Odds
Mark Gerhard, Chief Executive Officer, Jagex Games Studio
This talk with Mark Gerhard, Chief Executive Officer at Jagex Games Studio, the UK's largest independent games developer and publisher, looks at doing the things that matter. This session focuses on how to prioritise in order to manage business growth and increase the chances of success. Entrepreneurs are usually open to opportunity and ideas but in the process of searching for revenue, funds and business concepts, it is easy to get distracted from key goals. Recorded at the Enterprise Tuesday lecture series in February 2011.
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- The history of Jagex
- Jagex - how we do it
- Employ people who love what they do
- Employ the experts
- Jagex - our philosophy
- Quality vs Growth
- Maintain your Integrity
- Incubate and retain the talent
- The definition of success
Q&A:
- How do you determine 'genius'?
- Do you use CVs and qualifications to determine the quality of applicants?
- As CEO of Jagex, what do you do with your time?
- Who are the core members of your team and where do you find them?
- What made you put in infrastructure such as marketing and finance?
- Where do you get your imagination for games?
- Was there ever a period where Jagex was at risk of going broke?
- How do you stop people's passions taking over their lives?
- With all the creative people around, do you ever suffer from having too many ideas?
- Does marketing have a role in designing a game?
- How do you compete with such giant competitors?
- Can the Jagex 'mojo' be applied to other industries?
- How do you scale up the culture of your company into a bigger organisation?
- How many technical women do you employ?
- Associated links:
- WWW