Interested in hearing the ideas of the most promising entrepreneurs Cambridge has to over? Then mark your calendars for June 14^th, as Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) will be concluding one of its most successful business creation competitions to date at the CUE Grand Finale 2012.

Grand Finale 2012 will showcase the most outstanding business ideas in the areas of technology, biotechnology, software and social enterprise, and awards worth over £40,000 of cash and prizes will be handed out to the winners of CUE’s £5K Challenge.

Apart from the awards ceremony, the highlight of the evening will undoubtedly be a Dragon’s Den segment, where finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of renowned angel investors – comprising of Neil Davidson, Sherry Coutu, Tony Purnell, Paul Anson and Andy Richards. There will also be a keynote speech by Eben Upton, founder and trustee of Raspberry Pi, as well as poster and networking sessions.

The event will be held at the West Road Concert Hall from 6 to 9.30pm and interested guests should register at cuegrandfinale2012.eventbrite.com.

Thank you to all those who took part in CUE’s £5K training! We hope that the session gave you a better understanding of the different aspects of a business plan and we wish that you can translate this knowledge into winning entries in our 5K Challenge.

If you would like to refresh yourself on the various talks, you can download the audio recordings and slides from the links below.

Audio:

Talk 1: What a judge expects to see in the £5K competition.

Talk 2: Conducting effective market research.

Talk 3: Dealing with general legal issues.

Slides:

Talk 1: What a judge expects to see in the £5K competition

Talk 2: Conducting effective market research

Talk 3: Financing your business

Talk 4: Dealing with general legal issues

Talk 5: Intellectual property

Want tips on developing an outstanding business plan?

Join us at our training sessions and learn from the pros!

Session 1

When: Wednesday 7th March 2012, 18:30 - 21:30

Where: Lecture Room 4, Department of Engineering,

University of Cambridge, CB2 1PZ

Session 2

When: Friday 16th March 2012, 14:00 - 17:00

Where: LT1, Judge Business School,

University of Cambridge, CB2 1AG

REGISTER HERE: http://cue5ktraining2012.eventbrite.com/

The stakes are running high as we approach the final stage of CUE’s series of business creation competitions - the £5K Challenge. Entrants for the £5K Challenge are required to submit a 2000 to 3500 word business plan by the 27th of April. It is not required to have been an entrant or winner of the £100 for 100 words or £1K Challenge to participate in the £5K Challenge.

In line with the greater demands of this stage of the competition, CUE will be running two training sessions to give you the opportunity to pick up the skills you need to come up with a winning entry.

For Session 1, CUE has invited a series of experts from serial entrepreneurs to lawyers and financial gurus to cover all the aspects involved in a complete business plan. Not only will you get the chance to hear from these experts, you will also be able to get personalized advice for YOUR business during the surgeries.

Speakers for the session include:

Ted Dewhurst

Principal at Kesteven Law with extensive experience in dealing with venture capital and private equity transactions, as well as commercial agreements

Ilian Iliev

Serial entrepreneur and current CEO and co-founder of CambridgeIP with experience ranging from medical diagnostics to the electrical industry

Simon Anderson

Chief Strategy Officer for Green Energy Options

James Francis

Director at Ensors

Mentors for the surgeries include:

Daniel Paterson

Individual winner of 2012 Manufacturing Leadership 100 award in the Advocacy category, alongside famous inventor James Dyson

Angelo Mastrogiovanni

Senior project manager for FABCP Consulting, who will focus specifically on implementation of business plans

Schedule for Session 1

1800-1830    Registration
1830-1850    Talk: How to write a winning business plan
1850-1910    Talk: Conducting effective market research
1910-1930    Talk: Financing your business
1930-1950    Talk: Dealing with general legal issues
1950-2010    Talk: Intellectual property management
2010-2130    Personalized surgeries and networking

In Session 2, we will have one of our competition judges, Dr Darrin Disley, to give tailored advice to the participants through 1-2-1 surgeries. Darrin will meet with individual teams for 30 minutes each to give his thoughts on their business ideas and how they should carry their ideas forward to the 5K competition and beyond.

To register, e-mail nicholas.tan@cue.org.uk with the subject “5K training - Session 2″ and state your team name, one preferred time slot (14:00-14:30, 14:30-15:00 etc), one alternative time slot and the names and phone numbers of the members that will be attending the surgery.

Spaces are HIGHLY LIMITED, so ACT NOW!

By Nicholas Tan

Over 150 people gathered at the Wolfson lecture theatre last night to listen to business ideas of some of the brightest young minds Cambridge has to offer at Cambridge University Entrepreneurs’ (CUE) £1k awards ceremony.

Last night’s event marked the close of CUE’s £1k business plan sub-competition, which required entrants to submit executive summaries of their business ideas in not more than 1500 words. This year’s competition received an unprecedented number of entries, which more than doubled the number from last year. Despite the large increase in quantity, David Gill, Managing Director of St John’s Innovation Centre and one of the competition judges, was quick to point out that the quality of the submissions remained impressive.

The event was kicked off with a keynote speech from Prof Ian White, master of Jesus College, who highlighted CUE’s business plan competition as a key part of the University’s efforts to support entrepreneurship at various levels, be it spin-outs, spawn-outs or snuck-outs.

Ready, get set, pitch! The exciting and fast-paced pitching segment allowed participants up to 75 seconds to share their business ideas, which ranged from designer genetic solutions to a device that allows for advertising on bicycle wheels. Participants used a variety of techniques to capture the attention of the audience during their 75 seconds of fame, including the use of videos, props and even a live demonstration of their technology.

As the pitching session drew to a close, we reached the climax of the night, where the £1k award winners were announced. This year saw an unprecedented number of prizes being handed out, with 7 winners, 8 runner-ups, as well as prizes for the best pitch and best poster. In total, over £7000 in cash and over £11000 worth of patent database subscriptions were handed out to our winners.

The award winners of this year’s £1k business plan competition are:

£1k prize winners: Cambridge Biocompatibility, CamPores, RealiaWind, Old Bond, Wedu, Green Tutor, Cambridge Interactive Video Solutions

£1k runner ups: Cambridge Stem cell Systems, Heliomobil, TPS Limited, Shuruat Mobility, Simple Tax Calculator, Collide, Hopskip, VocallQ

Best pitch: Cedric Deur representing StuStu

Best poster: Self-Cervix

As the participants look towards the upcoming £5k business plan competition and beyond, John Bird, founder of The Big Issue, encouraged them to pay greater attention to their presentation skills and to show greater enthusiasm and clarity when pitching their ideas, which will be important when seeking investor funding for their businesses.

Also, Dr Andy Richards, founding member of the Cambridge Angels and serial entrepreneur, urged participants to think about whether they just want to win the business plan competition or to actually start a business. If they seek the latter, he cautioned that a considerable amount of effort is required to implement a business plan and bring it to fruition.

We hope to see more brilliant and exciting entries in our £5k competition, which opens on the 7th of March.

CUE would like to thank our generous sponsors for their support, without which this event would have never been possible.

Gold sponsors: Horizon Discovery, EPSRC, Carpe Diem, ARM

Silver sponsor: Redgate

Bronze sponsors: Cambridge Science Park, Ensors

We would also like to thank CambridgeIP for sponsoring the patent database subscriptions.

CUE is proudly presenting the £1K award ceremony of 2011-2012 competition.

When: 18:30 - 21:30 Wednesday 22nd February 2012,

Where: Wolfson Lecture Theater, Department of Chemistry,

University of Cambridge, CB2 1EW.

Register at: http://cue1kaward2012.eventbrite.com/

This year, CUE’s £1K Awards Ceremony is promising to present a banquet of fresh and exhilarating business ideas, including pitches and poster presentation from all entrants of the £1K competition. Up to 10 £1K prizes will be given out during the evening.

For the entrants, this event is not to be missed as you will find out if you are one of the 10 best budding entrepreneurs during the evening. You will also have the chance to pitch in front of the the audience, among which you might find your future investers. The networking session of the evening if your best chance to find your prospective mentors.

Come along, even if you have not thought of entrepreneurship before. You will be treated to a night of inspirational and exciting new ideas that are most likely to open you to a world of new possibilities.There will be free food, drinks and the chance to network with the CEOs and representatives from ARM, RedGate, Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Enterprise, venture capitalists and CUE mentors.

Please sign up now to avoid disappointment as we do expect a huge crowd for the  evening!

Agenda of the evening:

18:00-18:30 Registration

18:30-18:45 Keynote speech

18:45-19:40 Pitching session

19:45-20:00 Comments from a judge

20:00-20:15 Winner announcement

20:15-21:30 Networking

McKinsey & Co,  in collaboration with CUE, is proudly presenting the 2012 McKinsey Innovate Cambridge Launch

McKinsey & Co. is launching the 2012 McKinsey Innovate: realise your social enterprise business plan competition. This is a national competition for students at UK universities that aims to promote creative and entrepreneurial spirit by supporting a student team to launch a business that benefits society.

This is a unique opportunity to create something of your own, that makes a real difference to the issue you choose to address. The winning team will receive seed funding and support from McKinsey consultants to transform their idea into a real social enterprise.  Participants will have the opportunity to get skilled up in project planning and business development through workshops and guidance provided throughout the competition. Above all else, it is a chance to test your ideas and have great fun with your team!

Last years winners, Fertilait, now have a global patent for converting dairy waste into organic fertiliser. We are continuing to support them launching their product- check out their entry video as a taster to the competition: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150177805664961

We will be holding the campus launch on 31st January at University of Cambridge in Lecture Room 4, Department of Engineering. All are welcome to find out more about the programme. In the meantime information and the application portal is now available at http://www.innovate2012.mckinsey.com/. First round applications close on the 29^th of February.

What more can you do before submitting your executive summary?

Come join us for a free training!

Proudly presented by CUE:

The Entrepreneurs’ £1K Competition

Second Training Event

Date and Time: 14:00-17:00 Monday, 16 January, 2011

Location: Lecture Room 4 (LR4), Department of Engineering

Register at: http://cue1ktraining2011.eventbrite.com/

Dr. Darrin Disley, one of our competition judges is dedicating half a day to help you make your executive summary better before the competition closes on 20th January. Don’t miss your chance to increase your odds of winning the 1K competition!

Dr Darrin Disley is CEO of Horizon Discovery Ltd, the fast growing Cambridge-based company that provides research tools to support the development of personalized cancer medicines. A Cambridge alumni with a PhD in Biotechnology, Darrin is now an experienced and successful parallel entrepreneur who has been involved in the start-up and growth of ten high-tech business ventures.

The £1k Competition – What’s the market?

SubmissionDeadline: 20thJanuary, 2012 11:59pm

Winners Announced at the £1k Awards Ceremony:22February,2012

Our second competition is about you developing your business opportunity and writing an executive summary of no more than 1500 words. The £1k prizes are awarded to well‐presented propositions that show clear market potential and competitive advantages.You will need to clearly identify and quantify your market niche.Upto 10 cash prizes of £1k each will be awarded and winners and runners-up get free entry to £5k Competition.

Details of the submission can be found on https://www.cue.org.uk/2011/11/23/cue-1k-competition-registration/.

Thanks for all who made the £1k Training Event last night!

The video of the judges’ talk is available for viewing now with the slides downloadable here.

Part I

Part II

More photos can be viewed on CUE Facebook Page.

By Nicholas Tan

Almost 100 students, aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned serial entrepreneurs from around Cambridge came together to share their ideas and to network at tonight’s inaugural Co-founder Speed Dating event organized by the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE).

Participants were given the opportunity to interact through a fast paced speed dating format, where they had 2 minutes to exchange ideas, and business cards, before being rotated to different partners.

This was designed to give participants the opportunity to meet as many like-minded individuals as possible within a short time, in hopes that they will be able to build strong teams to further develop their businesses and ideas.

Over 20 individuals also took to the stage to give 1 minute elevator pitches of their business ideas to the crowd.

These business ideas spanned a wide range of areas – from the new methods to create embryonic stem cells to a website that analyses patterns in grocery shopping and even an attempt at generating coherent conversational threads from random twitter posts.

Feedback from the participants was extremely positive and most went home with new business partners and even new business ideas.

The climax of the night came when CUE vice president Michelle Stewart announced the 25 winners of the £100 for 100 words competition.

The winning entries for this year can be viewed at www.cue.org.uk.

Next up in CUE’s Business Creation Competition is the £1k competition and it is now officially open. Entrants are required to submit a 1000 word executive summary of their business plan by 20th January 2012 and will stand a chance of winning £1000.

Entry to the £1k competition is open to all and not limited to those that participated in the £100 competition.

To provide additional support for aspiring entrepreneurs in preparing for this upcoming competition, CUE will also be organizing a training session led by two of the competition judges next Wednesday, 23rd November.
Interested parties can register at http://cue1000training2011.eventbrite.com/.

Want to learn to write like a CEO?

Come join us for a free training!

Proudly presented by CUE:

The CUE £1K Competition

Training Event

Date and Time: 18:00-21:00 Wednesday, 23 November, 2011

Location: Lecture Room 4 (LR4), Department of Engineering

Register at: http://cue1000training2011.eventbrite.com/

The £1k Competition represents the next stage of the Entrepreneurs Business Creation Competition. New competition entrants are welcome. It is not required to have been a 100 word entrant or winner to enter this stage of the contest.  To enter the competition you must submit a 1000 word Executive Summary by the 20th of January. To help you write the best possible entry, CUE is running a £1K Competition Training Event on Wednesday, 23rd November 2011.

Two of our competition judges will talk at the event about what they want to see in the 1K business creation competition, followed by surgeries with CUE mentors, covering topics including Market research, Finance, Intellectual Property, and Legal, basically everything you need to know at this stage of the competition.

Agenda of the evening:

18:00  Arrival and registration

18:30  Main speech: What judges expect for an executive summary

19:00  Networking and Surgeries with mentors and experts in Market Research, Finance, Intellectual Property and General Legal Issues

(Photo by OneLeap)

By Shakiba Kaveh

H.I.P.P.B.E.R.T ! This was the buzz word of the night! Until that night, it is difficult to realise the power of a good pitch in attracting clients, investors and kick-starting an entrepreneurial career! Two of the Cambridge alumni and Simon Campbell, now a serial entrepreneur pitched us in 10 minutes how to give a “pick-up pitch”.  If you can articulate your idea in two sentences that is also appealing to the investor’s background, then you’ve nailed it! explains Simon. You need to Hook your audience with a magical sentence then Identify the Problem, Propose your idea and explain them the Benefits, indicate your Execution strategies, Repeat your idea again and Take action and ask for their business card. Simple!

This is why you see many scientists with patents but very few with a business. We are used to having at least 20 minutes for long and joyful discussions and this is often one of the pitfalls which we may fall into while pitching.

The event was a success and people have certainly learned something which they did not know before. We are not born with a natural instinct of entrepreneurship; we have to be trained and it takes a certain spirit to be one, a phoenix rising from the ashes type of mentality and CUE is doing exactly that.

Register here: http://cuespeeddating2011.eventbrite.com/

If you missed the night marking the beginning of a new round of CUE Business Creation Competition, here’s the highlight of the night!

By Michelle Stewart

Last Thursday, 13th October 2011, CUE kicked off the year with its annual Grand Launch event. More than 200 participants showed up to share the experience of ushering in a new year of exciting CUE events and activities for the 2011/2012 academic year.
The event kicked off with a brief introduction to the society and their renowned business creation competition. This was then followed by some very inspiring speeches by 3 extremely enigmatic and influential speakers, all of whom have had significant successes in entrepreneurship.

Dr Shamus Husheer, a former CUE business creation competition winner and Cambridge alumni kicked things off by sharing his experiences of taking his product and idea and turning it into a sustainable business venture. 4 years after winning the CUE business creation competition, his business venture, Cambridge Temperature Concepts (CTC), with their trademark product, the DuoFertility fertility monitor, have grown leaps and bounds. With the product now being sold in selected Boots stores nationwide and international expansion in sight, CTC is living proof that the initial challenges faced when starting your own company is well worth it as you see it succeed further along the road.

Next, Dr Darrin Disley, a successful parallel entrepreneur involved in the start-up and growth of no less than 10 high-tech business ventures, energised and motivated the audience through sound advice and words of wisdom from someone who has literally “been there and done that”. He stressed on the need to always try and never give up, as well as how sometimes, the simplest of ideas and innovations make the best businesses. But more importantly, he also emphasised the role of entrepreneurs in building and creating markets and the economy; successfully fuelling the crowd’s passion.

Last but not least, we were treated with Lord Karan Bilimoria’s heartfelt account of his journey when founding Cobra Beer. He narrated how his business venture was plagued with problems right from the start, including how he had almost lost it all on 3 separate occasions! But from these anecdotes, he drew some pretty important lessons for the audience, which were to seize every opportunity you get and to always believe in yourself. As our most experienced speaker, Lord Bilimoria really managed to capture the crowd’s attention and respect, instilling a new found conviction that they too can succeed as he had.

The night concluded with the customary networking over nibbles where Cambridge’s entrepreneurial minds mingled and shared visions for the future.

PitchMe!UK in association with CUE presents an evening of enterpreneurial tips, prizes and fun where you will learn how to master the art of the pitch!

Wednesday, 26 Oct, 2011

6:00pm – 9:00pm

Department of Engineering, Cambridge

Register at: http://cuepitchmeuktraining.eventbrite.com/

What’s a pitch?
Persuading people, normally in 60 seconds, why they should give you a shot at something you need.  Most probably them or their money.

Why go to this event?
Your goal might be to present your amazing business plan / demonstrate your product to investors.  But you’ve got to get there first.  Learn how to use 1 or 2 minutes to earn the attention you need to get there.  Learn how to turn chance encounters at networking meetups into the opportunities you need to get ahead.   That’s what the pitch is all about. This directly supports the skills you need to get ahead in this year’s CUE competitions.

Who should go?
Definitely entrepreneurs.  Equally anyone entrepreneurial, trying to get into a startup or entrepreneurial company, or just trying to get an edge in today’s competitive job market where playing the application lottery works for fewer and fewer people - even Cambridge grads.

Who’s running it?
PitchMe!UK is a national roadshow supported by OneLeap (the London/NYC startup of two former Cambridge alumni) and several corporate partners.  Successful entrepreneurs including serial entrepreneur Simon Campbell of the Sandpit, successful entrepreneur and startup marketing guru Charlotte Hogg, and OneLeap founders Hamish Forsyth and Robyn Scott will tell you the secrets of how they raised money, got partners and kickstarted their startups.

What’s in it for me (apart from free drinks?)
You’ll get tips, ask lots of questions, then you’ll practice it.  Prizes for the winners, free drinks for all! If you’ve got an entrepreneurial bone in your body, you’ll be there.  Otherwise, I gather there’s a tax professionals networking event on at the same time…?

Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) invites you to the Grand Launch of the CUE Business Creation Competition; a showcase of home-grown business talent and how you, too, can become an entrepreneur by entering the CUE competition!

CUE Grand Launch
Thursday, 13 Oct, 2011
6:00pm – 9:30pm
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge

Register now

CUE invites students, investors, and all interested parties to the Grand Launch of the 2011-2012 CUE Business Creation Competition. Meet, mingle, and learn about CUE and the Competition, which has awarded over half a million pounds in prizes to help fund over 400 teams and their ideas in the past 11 years.

To kick-start a new academic year of creativity, CUE presents an exciting panel of speakers and business leaders: Dr. Darrin Disley, executive chairman of Horizon Discovery Group; Dr Shamus Husheer, co-founder and CEO of Cambridge Temperature Concepts, and Lord Bilmoria, founder of Cobra Beer.

Karan Bilimoria (Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea) is founder of the popular UK beer brand, Cobra Beer. Winner of 85 Gold Medal awards, it’s no wonder that Cobra Beer is one of the fastest growing beer brands in the UK, sold in nearly 48,000 restaurants, bars and supermarkets, with a retail value turnover of £178 million. Founded in 1990, Lord Bilimoria created a unique beer which led to a Joint Venture with Molson Coors, the biggest family owned brewer in the world. Lor Bilimoria has won numerous awards in recognition of his business achievements and charitable work, including an Honorary Life Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA). In 2006, he was appointed The Lord Bilimoria, of Chelsea.

Dr Darrin Disley is CEO of Horizon Discovery Ltd, the fast growing Cambridge-based company that provides research tools to support the development of personalized cancer medicines. A Cambridge alumni with a PhD in Biotechnology, Darrin is now an experienced and successful parallel entrepreneur who has been involved in the start-up and growth of ten high-tech business ventures.

Dr Shamus Husheer is co-founder and CEO of Cambridge Temperature Concepts. He is the inventor of the technology behind the successful DuoFertility and a proud winner of the CUE Entrepreneurs´ Challenge 2007. Shamus also returns as Cambridge alumni, with a PhD in Nuclear and Structural Chemistry, and has founded several other companies before the successful Temperature Concepts.

The event is free and open to everyone, including those with no business experience and only the slightest curiosity of what business entails. Over free refreshments and food, come meet like-minded potential teammates or simply learn about this year’s Entrepreneurs’ Challenge.

Previous winners and participants of CUE’s various competitions will be present to talk about their experience through CUE and the business development. Come along and find out what it takes to be a winner and how you can be one by entering the £100 for 100 Words Competition.

Agenda:

18:00-18:30 Registration, CUE alumni company showcase

18:30-18:45 Introduction to CUE and the business creation competition

18:45-19:00 Speech by CUE competition winner, Dr Shamus Husheer, CEO of Cambridge Temperature Concept

19:00-19:30 Speech by Dr Darrin Disley, CEO of Horizon Discovery Ltd.

19:30-20:00 Speech by Lord Karan Bilimoria, Founder and Chairman of Cobra Beer

20:00-21:30 Canapé reception, CUE alumni company showcase, and networking

CUE is organising an Appathon as part of the Silicon Valley comes to the UK events! Registration is now open so sign up at: http://bit.ly/appathon

The Cambridge Appathon is a two-day hackathon event taking place on the 8th/9th October in the Computer Laboratory. Hundreds of students across the country will also take part in regional Appathons.

The aim is for students to get together and build web and mobile applications on well-known consumer facing platforms, using newly released government data sets. We’ll have support available on the day from the platform providers (to be revealed - though I’m sure you can guess!) and also the government data guys.

There are some spectacular prizes available for the best apps, including trips to Silicon Valley!

As you can imagine, numbers are strictly limited so please register now to save your place! http://bit.ly/appathon

For more info about the overall events, see svc2uk.com/appathon

CUE will be organising the Cambridge Appathon on 8th and 9th October, 2011, as a part of the SVC2C activity.

Get ready to mingle and brainstorm with fellow developers to come up with solutions to some of the most pressing issues.

More details to follow soon! Stay tuned!

Proudly presented by CUE.

Register at http://cuegrandfinale2011.eventbrite.com/

Date and Time: 18:00 - 22:00 Wednesday, 8 June, 2011

Location: Cambridge Union, The Chamber

A showcase of the business ideas from this year’s finalists of the CUE entrepreneurs’ challenge. They will be pitching to a penal of angel investors, hoping to win the grand CUE prize of £5000 and maybe even the special Angel Prize!

• “Dragon’s Den”-type pitching with Angel Investors
• Finalists’ Poster Session
• Drinks reception, Food and Entrepreneurs’ Networking

The finalists are:

Technology

Anharmonika: Sourav Ghosh, Ashley Butcher
e-Comm: Tongyun Li, Michael Crips, Richard Penty, Ian White
Spherico Biotechnology: Shah rukh Abbas, Faisal Khan, Habib Abdur-Rahman
Trainsense: He Yu, Ruiqi Chen, Sinha dhiraj

Social Enterprise

RISE: Baillie Aaron, Daniel Marshall
Craftslink: Rudradeb Mitra, Ali Marjowy, Steve Power
Elpida Cambridge Health: Muntaqa Umar-sadiq, Lu Tan, Michael Freeman
Green Pace: Sargam Tyagi, Anuja Sinha
Khadija’s Business Park: Shah rukh Abbas, Faisal Khan, Habib Abdur-Rahman

Software and IT

Stella: Wenqi Chen
Qiqqa: James Jardine, Nicholas Smit, Elbert Marais, James Phillips
Labbridge: Min Hu, Peng Li, Ankur Mutreja

The competition is fierce and entertaining, and all you need to do is to come along and enjoy the night with a glass of champaign on the house!

Agenda

18:00 Arrival and Registration

18:30 Welcome from the President

18:35 Introduction to the Panel

18:50 CUE Finalists Pitches

19:40 CUE review and pitches from CUE competition entrants

20:00 Winners announced

20:30 Poster session, Food, Drinks, Cake and Live music

21:30 Close

This year’s angel investors:

Charles Cotton - Serial Entrepreneur and founder and Chairman of Cambridge Phenomenon Ltd

Dr Jonathan Milner - Business angel and CEO of Abcam

Jonathan Milner is a highly experienced entrepreneur and business leader with a background in genetic research. He gained his doctorate in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University after graduating in Applied Biology at Bath University. He was a research fellow at Bath University and the University of Cambridge in the laboratory of Professor Tony Kouzarides, studying genes and proteins associated with human cancers. Whilst working in research he identified the potential market opportunity in supplying high quality antibodies to support protein interaction studies. He founded Abcam, with David Cleevely and Professor Tony Kouzarides, in February 1998 as an internet-based business to supply a rapidly growing market. He is an active member of the Cambridge, UK, business community and is chairman of Cambridge Temperature Concepts Limited, a Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) Entrepreneurs’ Challenge winning team, also a privately held medical device company developing a reliable system for ovulation monitoring.

Dr Andy Richards - Serial Biotech Entrepreneur and business angel

Dr Andy Richards is a serial Biotechnology entrepreneur and business angel. He is currently Chairman of Altacor, Novacta and Ixico and is a director of Vectura plc, Summit Corp plc, Theradeas, Cancer Research Technology (commercial arm of CR-UK) and Babraham Bioscience Technology.He is a Cambridge graduate with a PhD in Chemistry who spent his early career with ICI (now AstraZeneca) and with PA Technology. He was a founder of Chiroscience and an executive director through to the sale to Celltech in 1999. Since that time he has been founding and investing in new Cambridge based biotechnology companies including several of those listed above as well as Arakis, Geneservice, Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd, Amedis Pharmaceuticals, Sirus Pharmaceuticals, Daniolabs and Pharmakodex, all of which were recently sold.He is a council member of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), a founder member of the Cambridge Angels, the founding Chairman of BIA Bioangels.

Ted Shelton (CEO, Open-First)

Ted Shelton, CEO, Open-First. Open-First is a consulting firm based in Palo Alto and London working with clients ranging such as Alcatel-Lucent, General Motors, and ThomsonReuters on innovation and market ecosystem projects. Ted has spent the past 20 years working in the high tech industry, as a software developer, in product development, marketing, and as a senior executive in both public and privately held companies. Previously Shelton served as the Chief Strategy Officer of Borland Software and Senior VP of Sales and Marketing for WhoWhere (acquired by Lycos in 1998) and several other software and Internet start-up companies.

Cambridge University Entrepreneurs presents the first ever careers event for Cambridge students and partner companies

On Wednesday May 4th, Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) will be launching its first ever Careers Event for local start-up and CUE alumni companies to attract and network with Cambridge undergraduate and graduate students for internships or full-time positions.

Date: Wednesday 4 May 2011, 16:30–19:30
Location: Hicks and Meade Room, Cambridge University Centre, Granta Place, Mill Lane

Schedule:

16:30–19:30 Main careers event, Hicks Room
16:45–19:30 Company pitching sessions (10 minutes per company), Meade Room

In collaboration with the Cambridge University Careers Service, Employment Bureau of Anglia Ruskin University, The Open University Careers Advisory Service and AIESEC Cambridge, the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) will be launching their first ever Careers Event for local start-up and CUE alumni companies to attract and network with Cambridge undergraduate and graduate students for internships or full-time positions.

Students are asked to register for free tickets at http://cuecareersevent2011.eventbrite.com/.

Event brochure – including profiles of companies, their representatives, and descriptions of advertised positions

Companies interested in taking part at the event can contact career_division@cue.org.uk.

Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) is a student society which organizes business and entrepreneurial events and training opportunities for students throughout the year and runs one of the most successful student-run business creation competitions in the world. Since 1999 CUE has awarded over £500k in prize money to more than 40 start-ups, many of which have developed into influential companies. Collectively, CUE alumni companies have secured over £42 million of investment.

What you can expect from being the CUE president:

• Have an impact, make a difference
• Working with many of the most talented in Cambridge and beyound
• Full-time sabbatical position with stipend
• Managing a £100,000 yearly budget
• Unparalleled access to high-profile sponsors and contacts within the Cambridge, London and international business community
• Future employment opportunities
• National leadership training and international conference opportunities

Do you have what it takes? 

• Passion
• Commitment
• Excellent communication skills
• Initiative, motivation, and creativity

Please submit a CV along with a cover letter by 15th April 2011. Should you have preliminary questions about the president position please get in touch with Shen L. Wei at shen.wei@cue.org.uk.

Thursday 11 November 2023

With Lucy P. Marcus

Lucy P. Marcus (Founder & CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting, Chair of the Mobius Life Sciences Fund, Fellow of Judge Business School and Non-Executive Board Director – full bio below) will share her outlook on the state of venture capital in the UK, Europe and beyond, examining how the model            is functioning and asking whether it is robust enough to function in the future.

The session will examine the changing nature of what it means to be an accomplished VC in an arena of increasingly complex deals and sectors in a transitioning economy. It will also look at the impact of the economic environment where limited partners and venture capitalists are becoming increasingly risk averse: who is left to invest in early-stage ventures? Finally, Lucy will look at the responsibility the investment community bears when investing in sectors like biotech and cleantech, areas that impact people and the planet. 

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Thursday 11 November 2023

Capacity: 200 people 

Agenda: Networking and Drinks (from 6:30 onwards); Talk (7:30); Q&A Session (8:00);             Drinks and canapés, networking (until late)

Venue: Clifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank Street, London E14 5JJ‎ - 30th Floor                                       (we hope you’ll enjoy breathtaking views of London and the River Thames !!) 

Registration: here.

Proceeds from the event will go to the International Step by Step Association (ISSA),       a charity promoting equal access to education and care for all children.

ABOUT LUCY MARCUS

Lucy is the Founder and CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting, Ltd. Committed to fostering sustainable success for funding organisations, Marcus Venture Consulting works with clients from around the world in venture capital and private equity funds, institutions and corporations to help them create robust businesses with strong foundations for their funding efforts, and to ensure that they are recognised as smart and good money in what is a competitive and challenging funding environment. She is also a Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, teaching and researching on leadership & innovation, and exploring the changing landscape in funding in biotech, pharma, and cleantech.

Lucy serves as non-executive chair of the Mobius Life Sciences Fund, chair of the Mobius Life Sciences Fund Investment Panel, non-executive director and chair of the board audit committee of BioCity Nottingham, and as an independent non-executive director and treasurer on the board of the International Step-by-Step Association (ISSA). She is co-founder, judge and chair of the board of the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Awards, a member of the international advisory board of the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, is also on the board of the Wellesley College Business Leadership Council. She recently completed two consecutive terms on the advisory board of the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, and was a non-executive director and board treasurer and fellow of the British-American Project. She co-founded and chairs the Leadership in Conflict project which is developing leaders in conflict and post-conflict zones. Lucy is also the Chair of The Global Task Force on Building Women Leaders, and the Founder of HighTech Women.

Bringing a 360 degree perspective, Lucy has worked in a numbers of sectors from software and the internet to government and financial services. Prior to founding Marcus Venture Consulting, Lucy was co-founder and VP of Marketing and Sales of an enterprise management software company, she was in charge of Marketing and Business Development for EMEA at Infinity Financial Technologies, ran the EMEA operations of a communications consulting company, and worked at Price Waterhouse in the East European Services Division and at the US Treasury Department’s Economic Policy Division.

Selected as a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow, Lucy is also a fellow of the Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship Program and a fellow of the British-American Project, and was selected to take part in the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt Transatlantic Forums, and the Council of the United States and Italy’s Young Leaders Forum. Lucy was featured as “Director of the Month” in Director Magazine for December 2009. She has been listed as a “face to watch” in Management Today Magazine’s list of Britain’s 50 Most Powerful Women and in Business Age Magazine’s “10 Women Changing the Direction of British Business”. Lucy also served on the jury to select The Wall Street Journal Europe’s Most Successful Businesswomen in Europe, and on the “Digital Democracy” steering group of the John Smith Memorial Trust.

A regular speaker on global economic trends and best practices for investment, private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurship, technology, corporate governance, and women in business, Lucy is frequently quoted in the press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Reuters, Investment Dealers’ Digest, Les Echos, the Guardian, Globes, Financial News, Venture Capital Journal, Infoconomy, and Red Herring. She has been profiled in the Financial Times, Tornado-Insider Magazine, and Lynne Franks’ Seedfusion. Lucy has appeared on CNBC, Sky Business Report, and BBC World Service; her articles have been published in Management Today Magazine, Tornado-Insider Magazine, netimperative, and Business 2.0. She was also profiled in the book “Powerful Women: Dancing on the Glass Ceiling” (Wiley 2001), and contributed to “Women in the New Economy: A Regional Perspective” (The Smith Institute 2001).

A dual American and British citizen, Lucy holds a B.A. from Wellesley College (Wellesley, Massachusetts) and an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, England). She can be found on Twitter via @lucymarcus

Wednesday 26 January

With Tom Chatfield, Nicholas Lovell, Margaret Robertson and Michael Acton Smith

Venture Lectures invites you to a discussion on the future of the gaming industry, with 4 renowned panellists bringing with 4 distinct perspectives: starting and growing games companies; funding, profitability & transactions in the industry; sociology & uses of gaming; game design and traits of games for the future…. 

• Tom Chatfield, author of Fun Inc.: Why games are the 21st Century’s most serious business, essayist and game theorist (working with online games and media companies, including Mind Candy, Grex, Red Glasses and Intervox)
• Nicholas Lovell (founder of Gamesbrief, consultant giving financial advice to computer and video games with a background in M&A in media and tech, in particular as former Director of Media Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank)
• Margaret Robertson (consultant to EA, Sony, THQ, Channel 4, and now game designer and development director at Hide&Seek)
• Michael Acton Smith (CEO/founder of Mind Candy and Co-founder of Firebox.com. Mind Candy created the award winning Perplex City and Moshi Monsters, a virtual world for children with over 26 million users in 2010).  

The conversation will explore upcoming orientation in the industry and recent trends in gaming, emerging and future uses and opportunities, education, the place for entrepreneurs and dynamics between large firms and garage developers, recent transactions, the gaming experience and how it’s changing… finally, panellists will throw open the discussion for your own comments and questions. 

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00: Drinks - 7:30: Panel talk + Q&A - 8:30: Drinks & networking

Address: Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), 12 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH

Registration: here. 

Tickets: £10

Anyone passionate about the business of gaming can register to attend.

Thursday 08 April 2023 - Creating Businesses from R&D

With Dr Hermann Hauser

Following our oversubscribed and very successful cleantech futures event last month, we have the pleasure to welcome                     Dr Hermann Hauser, Director of Amadeus Capital Partners, founder of many successful businesses, one of the most prominent figures of entrepreneurship in the UK and Europe.

Dr Hauser will share his vision and experience of ’Creating Businesses from R&D‘ next Thursday, 8 April at the Oxford & Cambridge Club, in London. More information and registration here.

Today, the Financial Times published ‘Teller of Hard Truths to Technologists‘, on Hermann Hauser. 

Lord Mandelson has recently accepted Dr Hauser’s recommendations to help the Government support the development of technology and innovation. Dr Hauser recently published an important report, commissioned by BIS and entitled ‘The Current and Future Role of Technology and Innovation Centres in the UK‘.

ABOUT HERMANN HAUSER:

In his long and successful history as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Hermann Hauser has founded or co-founded companies in a wide range of technology sectors. These include Acorn Computers, Active Book Company, Virata, Net Products, NetChannel, and Cambridge Network.

He was a founder director of IQ , IXI Limited, Vocalis, SynGenix, Advanced Displays Ltd, Electronic Share Information Ltd and E*Trade UK.

At Amadeus Hermann has been a non-executive director of many investee companies including CSR and Entropic Research Laboratory, a company that developed voice recognition software, which is now the voice recogniser in Microsoft Word. He is a non-executive director of Plastic Logic, which has developed a process for producing flexible plastic transistors for use in computer displays, and Solexa, which is developing ultra-high throughput DNA sequencing technology.

Hermann holds a PhD in Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory at King’s College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College. Hermann was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’ in 2001. In 2004, he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science & Technology.

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Thursday 08 April 2023

Time: From 6.30pm

Venue: Oxford & Cambridge Club, 71 Pall Mall, London, Sw1Y 5HD

LINKS:

• Hermann Hauser’s page on Wikipedia.
• Profile of Hermann Hauser by Ingenia Magazine.
• Cambridge Network founded by Hermann Hauser. Cambridge Network is a Europe’s leading high technology community, bringing together business, academia and venture capital with networking. 
• Hauser Forum, University of Cambridge. Opening in early 2010, the Hauser Forum is a new, mixed-use development at the University’s West Cambridge site, made possible thanks to a generous £8 million donation by the Hauser-Raspe Foundation. The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has invested £2 million into the project which will create a state-of-the-art enterprise hub to stimulate “open innovation”; innovative collaborations between clusters of academics, start-up businesses and established industries.
• Comprising two buildings, the Hauser Forum will be home to Cambridge Enterprise, the IdeaSpace, Seminar Centre and the Café Atrium.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Slides Creating Businesses from R&D by Hermann Hauser

Join CUE and 5K entrants for a free cocktail and more! 

 Finalist announcement & Cocktail party

 Date and Time: 18:00-21:30, Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

 Location: Main Bar, Cambridge Union 

Regisger at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1454112289

For your free cocktail, please register and bring your ticket along for the exchange of a token at reception.

18:00-18:30 pm: Registration 

18:30-19:30 pm: Poster Session and networking (snacks provided)

19:30-20:30 pm: Finalist announcements

 20:30-21:30 pm: Cocktails and networking

 
The £5K Entrepreneurial Challenge Cocktail Party is fast approaching! The cocktail party is a widely attended networking event during which the finalists shall be announced, thus marking the final leg of the challenge.

Come see which teams will have the chance to carry on in the Entrepreneurs’ Challenge and enjoy special guest speakers, networking, and drinks. The finalists will be put on the spot to pitch their plans and posters from all of the great entries we’ve received will be on display.

Join CUE and Cambridge Consultants for a short session on

Bathtub to Warehouse

  
Does your CUE business idea involve developing a product?  Either for a product company, or a service company or you may have a technology platform idea?  Would a demonstration of your concept and how it could be used help you sell your idea?  A really good demonstrator can help you not only gain the confidence of investors and potential customers but can also help you take huge steps towards a real order book.  

This session was also delivered at MIT, Cambridge, USA. [..]

Clothing courtesy of Mzansi Designers Emporium-Johannesburg. Transport provided by Virgin Atlantic. Make-up by Bobbi Brown. Part of Cambridge University Black & Ethnic Minority Week.

Touch of Africa intends to make African fashion accessible to the western market using responsible trading and buying practices, and is supported by Cambridge University Entrepeneurs.

CUTEC and CUE have come together to challenge entrepreneurial minded students with real-life, hands-on problems. Representatives from some of the most innovative Cambridge-based companies are joining us to stretch your imagination and find original and practical solutions to the problems they face.

[..]

How to make your elevator pitch the best of all?

How to make your business plan stand out from 1000 others?

Come join us for an afternoon of free training!

Well done to all entrants for the £1k competition! If you’re interested in getting involved but for £5k this time, come along to our £5k Training Event this Saturday, register at ‎www.5ktraining2011.eventbrite.com!

[..]

One of the highlights of our entrepreneurial year is the Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge Summit, scheduled from the 18th to the 20th November 2010 here in Cambridge. The summit, powered by NESTA and organised by Judge Business School, CfEL, CUE, CUTEC and MBA Ventures Club promises to be an extraordinary gathering of leading minds from around the world, including students, alumni, faculty, and special invited guests. A number of serial entrepreneurs from Cambridge and Silicon Valley have assembled a timely and thought-provoking program that is sure to generate lively discussion on the important issues of how to best build or join the companies that will change the world as we know it today.

Silicon Valley Comes To Cambridge

The Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge 2010 is co-chaired by Sherry Coutu and Reid Hoffman and was inspired by a programme that has been run successfully in Oxford for a number of years. The intention is to inspire students and alumni to consider starting or joining an entrepreneurial business at some point after graduation and to foster relationships between the leading entrepreneurs, angels and investors and scientists from both world centres of ideas.

This is the third time the conference has taken place in Cambridge, London and Oxford, the previous times were in 2007 and 2009, both series received very favourable reviews.

18 Nov 2023 - 17:30

Mark your calendars now!

Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) warmly invites you to join us for one of the most exciting events in Cambridge, CUE Grand Launch, where you can find out how to be a real entrepreneur and win from £100 to £5K as a bonus.

18 Oct 2010, 6:30 - 9:30pm

[..]

Wednesday 16 June 2023

With Cliff Prior, Lily Lapenna, Christoph Warrack, Matt Kepple.

Social entrepreneurship is a rapidly growing sector, seizing interest in business schools, Government, think tanks, charities and companies. But the term is so broad that it hides major tensions. Participants will explore these tensions, the lessons learned on social entrepreneurs and impacts so far, and engage in a creative discussion about the future.

Oxford Entrepreneurs & Cambridge University Entrepreneurs bring you this event on social entrepreneurship which will be held at Adam Street Club on Wednesday 16 June. Keynote speakers and panelists include Cliff Prior, CEO, UnLtd, Lilly Lapenna, CEO, MyBnk, Christoph Warrack, CEO, Open Cinema and Matt Kepple, Cabinet Office Ambassador for Social Enterprise and Chairman of The Commission for Youth Social Enterprise.

About the theme

In the red corner: the active community agenda. People from disadvantaged communities taking initiative to improve their neighbourhoods. Community involvement, mutual ownership, and social capital are their touchstones.

In the blue corner: the social business movement. What matters is scaling up, social entrepreneurs with real business models who can deliver social impact at scale and with profit or at least financial self sufficiency. Impact, investment and growth are their icons.

And in the middle? the blended social enterprise model, with its asset lock and partial ability to distribute profits.

Which will win out? Or is it horses for courses, with market segmentation and greater clarity on which models are most useful when?

This session will outline UnLtd’s work, lessons learned on social entrepreneurs and impacts, and open out to engage participants in a creative discussion about the future.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Matt Keppel is Chairman of The Commission for Youth Social Enterprise and represents youth social entrepreneurship at the Cabinet Office. He has set up multiple social initiatives including GRADULICIOUS, WillWeMakeIt.com, Passion4Fashion, Sponsor-a-Kid-for-a-Quid which won him Channel4’s IDEASFACTORY Award and currently developing Wahblo.com. 

Lily Lapenna is Founder of MyBnk, creating an independent peer led banking programme which teaches young people how to save, spend and lend money responsibly. Working with young people as young as nine years old, she is fundamentally changing how people relate to finance, financial services as well as enterprise. In just 3 years over 20,000 young people from the ages of 9 to 25 have been exposed to MyBnk. Lily was recently awarded the Young Social Entrepreneur of the year by the UK Government. In January 2010 she was awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship.

Christoph Warrack, Founder and CEO of Open Cinema. Open Cinema is a national network of film clubs programmed by and for homeless and socially excluded people. Each year it helps 3000 homeless and excluded teenagers and adults to regain mental health as well as building their confidence and employability through weekly film nights, interactive discussions with major filmmakers, and practical filmmaking projects. Working with the NHS, Metropolitan Police, Crisis, St Mungo’s, Channel 4 and over 20 other leading film and social sector agencies, we are the only organisation providing such a powerful means of engaging chronically excluded people.

Cliff Prior, CEO of UnLtd. UnLtd is a charity which supports social entrepreneurs - people with vision, drive, commitment and passion who want to change the world for the better. We do this by providing a complete package of funding and support, to help these individuals make their ideas a reality.

EVENT DETAILS

Time: 7:00: Drinks - 7:30: Cliff’s talk - 8:30: Drinks & networking

Address: Adam Street Club, 9 Adam Street (Off the Strand), WC2N 6AA London

Dress code: none

Register here.

UnLtd is a charity which supports social entrepreneurs - people with vision, drive, commitment and passion who want to change the world for the better. We do this by providing a complete package of funding and support, to help these individuals make their ideas a reality.

Come meet us on the 5th-6th of October at the Fresher’s fair!!!