Videos & Podcasts

The Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning has developed a collection of online resources for learning about entrepreneurship featuring a range of leading entrepreneurs and experts. Our most recent videos and podcasts appear below, or please use the submenu to view our multimedia by category.

Recent Multimedia

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?

Serendipity or Hard Work?

Rahul Vohra, CEO & Co-Founder, Rapportive
Dr Shamus Husheer, CEO, Cambridge Temperature Concepts

Successful 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.

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 the 13th 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.

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, Eight19

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 Professor 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 Professor Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor at the University of Cambridge. Eight19 has plastic solar technology that can revolutionise 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.

This lecture from the Enterprise Tuesday session on 6 November 2012 was chaired by CfEL Director Dr Shai Vyakarnam.

Creating Star Teams

Alex van Someren, Partner, Amadeus & Angels Seed Fund
Uday Phadke, Chief Executive, Cartezia

Alex van Someren, Partner, Amadeus & Angels Seed Fund, and Dr Uday Phadke, Chief Executive of Cartezia, speaking at CfEL's Enterprise Tuesday lecture series on 7 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.