Graduates share their Start-Up Stories to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs
Tuesday 3rd of April saw the launch of the Gradpreneur Club, an entrepreneur club directly aimed at supporting entrepreneurial students/graduates and start-ups. The Club's first event ‘Startup Stories’ provided a platform for young entrepreneurs
• Jack tang – Founder of ‘thestudentjob’
• Keith Chaplin-Mabbutt- Founder of ‘CVseeME’
• Jason Gibbs- Co founder of ‘Compare the uni’
to showcase their talents and inspire other Gradpreneurs with their start-up stories.
The Gradpreneur club seeks to encourage collaboration between young entrepreneurs, yet provides links to experts, mentors and experienced entrepreneurs who can support and facilitate the journey of those starting in business. The first event was kindly sponsored by Kingston Smith who allowed Gradpreneur Club to host the event at their offices and Agnes Cserhati of AC Powercoaching who sponsored the prize draw giving away 3 months worth of entrepreneurial coaching, something of great value to entrepreneurs.
Universities are a breeding ground for young talented individuals. Many of whom wish to start their own business, but assume their lack of knowledge; finance and support, will prevent them from doing so. The reality however, is that you don’t need to have all the knowledge in the world, or access to millions of pounds to start or develop a business. What you really need and what the Gradpreneur Club aims to provide is access to people, relationships and strategic networks, which in turn provides you with the greatest asset of any entrepreneur (resourcefulness).
The Gradpreneur Club’s founder Raspinder Singh a recent graduate himself, highlights the fact that:
“Universities set us up to become employable, the option to become self employed has never really been there, till now, and not because it’s given to us, yet driven by necessity and the creativity that prospers as a result.
The job markets are tough, but as university graduates we have the intellectual capacity to attain great things and should not be limited by our fear of failure. At this age we have nothing to lose, no real commitments and with perseverance, time and access to people we have the scope to achieve greatly. Most students/graduates just don’t know where to start, a good starting point however, is to surround yourself around people who are like minded and like yourself want to do something different”
There are a lot of young change makers in today’s society, we need to harness their abilities and bring them together, connecting them with people who can support the journey from vision to venture.
James Eder, Co-Founder of UK’s leading student lifestyle website Student Beans said “"When we first started out almost 7 years ago there was nothing like the Gradpreneur Club. It is great to see such support for young entrepreneurs today; there are constantly lessons to learn along the way so to have the advice and support of people who have 'been there and done it' is invaluable. The job market is tough for graduates and we need to encourage young people to see that entrepreneurship is a viable career path."
After the success of the first event and the great feedback received, Gradpreneur Club events will continue to grow and find more interactive ways to engage and support young entrepreneurs.
If you wish to connect with other Gradpreneur Club members, please register to the platform at www.gradpreneur.net
Follow us on twitter @gradpreneurclub
Like us on www.facebook.com/gradpreneur
