Our New Entrepreneurs

Meet the Class of 2012

After leaving the LSE Andrew Rajanathan ran straight into the City of London but found M&A to be a poor use of his time and decided to leave after securing his blackbelt in PowerPoint & Excel. He moved onto work at Groupon in the operating team and learnt a lot about how venture backed companies work. Earlier in life Andrew learnt to invest his money and amassed enough to pay off his parent’s mortgage in full. His long-term career goal is to start up a successful internet venture and become an early stage investor. He has published work in the LSE CCPN Journal, BBC & Financial Times. Andrew is now learning how to build a business with James Miles & Justin Gibbs at Liv-Ex: The Fine Wine Exchange through the NEF programme.

At the age of 10 Ben Wigoder was already coding and building several successful websites, this profit making experience embedded Ben’s love for entrepreneurship and he has continued on this path ever since. Last year Ben was elected LSE Entrepreneurs president having launched London's largest student-run entrepreneurship conference (Sparks@LSE). He also beat stiff competition to join student run investment fund Global Platinum Securities and also completed a coveted swaption trading internship at JP Morgan. Ben wishes to follow an entrepreneurial career path as he enjoys taking ownership of his projects and seeing them through to fruition. Ben is working at Skrill on the NEF programme.

Ed East was part of the team which launched the New Entrepreneurs Foundation earlier this year. Ed graduated from the University of Virginia in May 2010 where he read Foreign Affairs. After graduating he spent 6 months in Beijing and Mongolia as an analyst with the private equity firm, Origo PLC, which invests in gold and copper mines. He has a range of work experience, having worked in South Africa, Portugal, London and New York. As a student Ed founded 2 successful small businesses: Daymer Bay Tennis School in Rock, and colouritgreen.com, an online scheme which raised funds to help save rainforests. He is currently developing and running a website called Glitterazi, which delivers online news for the public, created by the public. In May he started working at LBi (Lost Boys International), one of the world's leading digitial marketing agencies, as part of the NEF scheme.

Prior to joining the New Entrepreneurs Foundation, Gordon McQuoid set up a niche technical recruitment consultancy focusing on the defence and aerospace industry, working with some of the country’s largest defence contractors. Having recently sold his shares in the business Gordon is now working on a new start up, the Jobs in Network, with its primary focus on making it easier for people to find local jobs via a network of area specific local online job boards.

Hamish Grierson gets a massive kick from transforming ideas and opportunities into concrete businesses. The opportunity to pitch for a painting and decoration project inspired the birth of Grierson Landscapes and Decoration. A business that was awarded a number of high profile contracts that helped fund the final years of university. Post university, Hamish worked for 2 years in new media/new tech as a commercial strategist and project manager. With growing experience in the app space he then co-founded Cyclo – a business focused on the development of an app for the London Cycle Hire Scheme. Hamish's latest venture, Ski Neon (www.ski-neon.com), was born from the realisation that 18-25 yr old (ABC1) skiers should not have to sacrifice fun for service. Ski Neon saw profit in year one with turnover in excess of £110k. Hamish is placed at Travelex.

Joséphine Goube was very actively involved during her time at Sciences Po, Paris, and continued with this energy at LSE where she founded a business incubator that brings together entrepreneurial minded students, mentors and investors in a safe environment where ideas can be born and developed. Joséphine built a team around her in 3 months and thoroughly enjoyed seeing her project flourish and helping other students. Josephine has always followed her heart and passion, taking risks wherever necessary and looks forward to demonstrating her energy and drive to make the most out of the NEF programme. She is placed with Springboard.

In 2010 Jake Higgins founded his own business, Going Social, a digital marketing agency which offers creative campaigns, in house filming and editing, web analytics, graphics and technical support. Developing his own business has provided Jake with a steep learning curve and the chance to develop his business development / client facing skills, describing this experience as a ‘fantastic time’. Jake feels that the NEF programme will provide him with the dynamism that he requires to stay inspired in his career. He is also excited about the prospect of working alongside successful people so that he can continue learning. He is placed with Cognitive Match.

Jason Malone is an an engineering graduate specialising in product design & development. On graduation he started a small business in the food & drinks industry called Bath Soup Company which has developed into a community centric social enterprise. He has worked in high street retail supply within an entrepreneurial growth company seeing products from conception through to delivery for some of the UK’s biggest brands. Jason has won awards for innovation, business planning and presentation and is currently production manager for YouGovLabs through NEF, who he joined to meet fellow young entrepreneurs and gain commercial exposure to back up conceptual work. Jason is working at YouGov for his NEF placement.

Kathryn McGeogh's previous experience is in banking but is taking part in the NEF programme because she would like to be involved in a dynamic, entrepreneurial culture where she can learn to take her ideas and creations and build them into something that will be of use to society. She enjoys the intellectual debates that occur when a group of creative and driven people come together to achieve a shared goal and thinks that the output produced from this debate is invaluable. The NEF programme is an ideal platform on which this can occur.

Having the desire to enter business from a young age and get started as quickly as possible, Kevin Robinson chose to leave school at 16 and get going on his business career. Kevin’s first entrepreneurial venture was a financial comparison website that was picked up by Markco Media, the biggest voucher codes website in the UK. Kevin worked for free for this company for 6 months and was then pushed aside and moneysupermarket.com was founded. Kevin picked himself up and went on to launch further comparison sites and a small telecommunications company. Kevin is completely self taught, running all areas of his business himself. Kevin then worked as a freelance business developer to support his other ventures and has worked for companies such as IBM and Dell. Kevin is working with Ranjit Singh at 2 Sisters Food Group.

Whilst at university Louis Mech founded VEO Ltd, a social enterprise sunglasses brand. Every time a person purchased a pair of VEO sunglasses, a pair of prescription eyewear was donated to a person in need. VEO utilised the purchasing power of the financially secure to benefit the greater good. Louis secured £7000 of start-up capital by winning two national business pitch competitions and one internal university SE completion. VEO is proof that both financial and social goals can be reached simultaneously. As an entrepreneur Louis is attracted to this programme because he realises what a great opportunity it presents for him to follow the career path that is his calling, he wants to be the key decision maker and drive a business forward. Louis is placed at TalkTalk for the NEF work placement.

Mike Bandar recently graduated from Aston University with a degree in Management and Strategy. During his time at university he worked on a variety of business ventures. In the last 18 months he was President of Aston Entrepreneurs society, a fellow of NACUE; The National Consortium for University Entrepreneurs and member of the Karios Society; a global network of top young entrepreneurs and global leaders. He joined NEF to fast track his entrepreneurial development over the next 3 years by gaining a greater insight into new sectors and building his network. Since the age of 15 he has run a variety of companies including a small import and reseller, a promotions company, a paintball company, an energy consultancy, as well as working as a freelance consultant for clients including PETRONAS, the Malaysian Oil Company. His most recent project is My Health Cards, an award winning socially focused enterprise benefiting people who suffer from various food allergies and intolerances. He is placed at LONDON Advertising.

Prior to joining Monitise in September 2011 as part of the NEF scheme where he is supporting and shadowing Alastair Lukies (founder & CEO), Paul Rider worked at Deloitte in both the Consulting and Corporate Finance teams from 2007-2011. His industry experience ranged across a number of sectors with clients including ITV, GE Money, the European Union and Barclays Bank. He primarily focused on Strategy and Technology consulting roles across the European Union and gained significant experience in advising entrepreneurial SMEs in the technology and design/fashion industries. Whilst working at Deloitte he invested in and co-founded Malaya Jewellery Ltd in 2008 which has now expanded and sells high quality jewellery across the UK and Europe. Paul studied Economics at the University of Durham and is about to qualify as a Management Accountant (CIMA). Paul’s interests include tennis, rugby, cricket, cooking, fine wines, travelling and opera. He is involved in social action projects with his Church and helps run a Foodbank in south London.

After graduating from the University of Auckland in BEng Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pradeep Raman launched an online recruitment portal called Myskillpool, a business idea which won the Spark 40k Challenge from the University of Auckland’s Business School. The site grew to over 1000 employers and 3000 jobseekers. Pradeep later sold the business to a large recruitment firm, QJumpers. Pradeep then led English-to-go, a No8 Ventures portfolio company which supplies English language training software to over 60,000 teachers reaching over a million students globally. Post MBA Pradeep worked as an Innovation Manager at Newcastle Science City where he was involved in evaluating various new venture opportunities and launched a unique in-image online ad network capable of serving over 60 million impressions monthly. Pradeep is based at Piton Capital this year with NEF.

At Warwick University, Ravi Patel set up a company called Eagle Entertainment along with two other students. The company grew to encompass a series of society and student events, including the 2 largest student nights at Warwick University. After an internship at Deutsche Bank in 2010, Ravi left the banking industry feeling disillusioned at the lack of career progression and responsibility. The New Entrepreneurs Foundation appealed to him as it gave him the chance to learn how small organisations are created and grow organically. Being able to work with senior management, rather than just for them, was the biggest selling point of the NEF for him. He is placed at Virgin Active based in Milton Keynes.

At the age of 16, Rory Bate-Williams set up Top Up Tents in order to fund his university education. Top Up Tents is a unique marquee hire business, which consists of a five man team and continues to flourish. Rory then tried to establish an online action sports video store before joining a graduate scheme working in investment management. However, he felt he couldn't develop to his full potential in a corporate and structured working environment and was keen to return to the entrepreneurial environment that he loves. He is passionate about change and following through with his business ideas. Rory is working with Ranjit Singh at 2 Sisters Food Group on the NEF programme.

As Vice President of the Oxford Entrepreneurs Society, Rousseau Dasgupta helped bring in over £27,000 of sponsorship to run the society, a record for any year of its operation. Rousseau turned around the Keble College Bar, introducing new promotions, menus and also new branding - increasing revenue by over £4,000. Rousseau has a wealth of commercial internship experience (including at the Tata Group and PwC's Strategy Consulting practice). He has secured a place on McKinsey’s Analyst Graduate Scheme (commencing September 2012), and sees NEF as a brilliant Programme to get into before his Graduate Scheme commences. Rousseau feels that the combination of the two training programmes would allow him to build up a varied and highly competitive skill set that would leave him in an excellent position to start his own venture afterwards. Rousseau is placed at SHL based in Thames Ditton.

From the age of seven when Sahil Chugani sold personalized caricatures to classmates he knew he would eventually start his own business. He went on to commercialising and selling bubble-tea on campus at Imperial College London very successfully, organising and leading a social enterprise project in Tanzania that later ranked 7th in the UK, and is currently developing a new rotar system service with childhood and university friend Karan. Sahil knows this programme will provide him with the perfect foundations to pursue an entrepreneurial career path and believes that Britain’s recovery must be led by the private sector and more NEF-like initiatives.

Simon Phelan is an Engineer and former Irish Swimmer living and working in London. Simon was a Consultant at Turner and Townsend getting exposure to a wide range of projects including Private Equity, Healthcare and Education. However, he realised this career was not for him and has a long term plan to set him on the entrepreneurial path. Simon co-founded and now runs the London Irish Graduate Network (LIGN), a network which aims at raising awareness of Irish Business people in London, building a platform for young Irish Professionals to network. LIGN now has over 300 members; it has the Irish Economic and Finance Counsellor Eugene Forde as an advisor and has been asked by IIBN (International Irish Business Network) to partner with them as the graduate arm of their society. Simon feels this programme is the perfect step for him to reach his aim of setting up his own company and will provide him with great training alongside a valuable network. His placement is working with Jon Moulton at Better Capital.

On graduating Sophy Mills knew she wanted to get some solid training under her belt and a good name on her CV, so she joined JP Morgan on their Corporate Development graduate scheme. On completing the 2 year scheme she felt she needed a change, and following a trip to Brazil to learn Portuguese was contacted by Berenberg Bank who were growing their UK business, and brought her on board to help build their client base. Sophy said this was very much like starting her own business – they went out into the market from scratch and collectively brought on almost 100 clients over one year, growing the business from 20 to 120 people. She is passionate and determined about setting up her own company now that she has some experience under her belt, and is excited about the programme – both as a learning opportunity but also to network with fellow NEFers, and business leaders who have navigated the pitfalls. Sophy is placed at Travelex.

Tom Mursell is a digital entrepreneur who previously set-up the non-conformist website notgoingtouni.co.uk, helping school leavers identify alternative paths in life and organizations such as Tesco, the Open University and Logica tap into the young talent on offer. After growing the website through a large network of schools & colleges and via mainstream media, Tom sold the website before heading up to Edinburgh to be mentored by BBC online Dragon Shaf Rasul. 18 months later, having gained vast experience in varied divisions within Shaf's portfolio of businesses, Tom moved back down to Southampton to embark on a new disruptive digital procurement venture.

Ushma Soneji first discovered her interest in business during her final year at school, as MD of a Young Enterprise team, selling cushions with embedded speakers. She continued to explore this passion by working in the Oxford Entrepreneurs committee and as President of SIFE ( Students In Free Enterprise) at Oxford, recruiting her own team and running several projects throughout the year. She took on an advisory role with the Bhumi Project, a Hindu environmental response to climate change sponsored by UNEP and the ARC. She has developed an interest in green issues, writing her undergraduate thesis on global environmental politics and is a member of the Kairos Society, a global organisation of entrepreneurs focused on finding entrepreneurial solutions to global problems. Ushma hopes the programme will provide her with the experience to start up a business herself and is placed at DFS based in Doncaster.

Videesha Kunkulagunta attracted the interest of an Angel Investor in a food tour start up business whilst at University but decided she wanted to build solid business grounding, so took a position at Lehman Brothers Bank after graduating with a BSc in Management from Warwick Business School. After the collapse of the bank, she was headhunted along with a number of her peers by Barclays Wealth, beating several hundred applicants to secure her place there on the fast track three year Private Banking graduate programme. She also spent six months of her training in Singapore gaining international exposure in the Business Development Team. She is a technology lover, appreciator of art, design & photography and frequent traveller. She hopes to set up a business that helps people engage within a specific area of any one of her passions. For the NEF placement Videesha is based at TalkTalk.

Robert Runge started his own business at the age of 18 designing and programming websites. He mainly focused on building sites for SME's where there was an opportunity to compete on price, and leverage his strong ability to create and maintain successful relationships. At University Robert acquired a highly coveted internship for Bayer Business Consulting as a summer analyst. After graduating from Edinburgh University with a degree in Classics Robert was accepted onto the graduate programme with Vodafone. However, Robert grew restless of large corporate life and felt his skills could be more valuable in a start-up environment. He is currently working for Covetique as the 1st person to enter the firm after the two founders - he is helping build up the operational side of the business.