The best applications will be invited to
Stage 2- Interview (all interviews will take place on 27 Feb)

An Awards ceremony will be held on 19th March in the evening, which you must attend in order to find out whether your application was succesfful. 

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION 25TH FEB

Open to Royal Holloway Students Only
Email me at president@royalhollowayentrepreneurs.com if you have any questions or would like some help with your application

http://www.thebusinessbootcamp.org/100-offers-of-support-for-london-start-ups-2

1. Bootcamps- Capital Enterprise’s sector specific bootcamps that will give entrepreneurs serious about starting or growing a high growth business an opportunity to get the insider knowledge, contacts and resources they need to get ahead. The Bootcamp extras are free seminars where you can meet funders and fellow entrepreneurs looking for money to start-up or scale their “brilliant” new business.
2. Guide to Raising Finance-  A list of links on available sources of finance for a growth focused business.
3. Free advice and support- Check out the members section of Capital Enterprise to find your local or specialist business support agency.
4. BootLaw – free events where you can get your legal questions answered (and be entertained, too!)
5. Microsoft BizSpark – startup community offering free Microsoft software. Or if you are one of the millions now using open source software to run their business why not check outUbuntu
6. Launch48 – meet potential co-founders and try to start a business in a weekend
7. Board of Invention- Check out 20111 10 best business models- The software is cool also.
8. Bootcamp Alumni Offer- Dream stake- the touch down space/club for creative entrepreneurs- is offering 20% discount for the first 6 months membership.
9. Quirky- Ok it is not free but it is a innovative way to get an idea to be developed into a product and
10. Minibar – see entrepreneurs pitch their startups while you drink free beer
11. Start-up Britain- a good place to navigate yourself around new services and activities on offer for new entrepreneur and a great one-stop shop
12. London Business School Entrepreneurial Leadership Lectures – hear experienced founders talk
13. Bootcamp Alumni offer- Free mentoring for High Tech start-ups from Rapid InnovationApply through Capital Enterprise.
14. Knowledge Peers – get nuts and bolts advice from owners of small businesses
15. SeedSummit Term Sheets – see how the investment terms you’ve been offered stack up against ‘standard’ one.
16. Pop-up shops- Fancy a temporary shop to launch your company or this seasons collection then check out Rosie Canns excellent website.
17. Don’t Make Me Think – learn how to make your website easier to use
18. Visual Website Optimizer – run A/B tests easily and get more from your website
19. Google Apps (free edition) – host up to 10 email accounts for free
20. Ajax Whois – quickly check whether domain names are available
21. MailChimp – send mass emails and track what happens to them.
22. Viral Marketing – a nice article on the Maths behind viral marketing
23. Super Conversion Button – create good call-to-action web buttons
24. Load Impact – easily run load tests on your website
25. Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords – learn how to run Adwords campaigns
26. Business Model Generation – The beloved canvas business model – You can download a free outline version or buy the whole thing.
27. Bootcamp Alumni offer – ½ price website for £199 with http://www.varihost.net/contact/  Quote Business Bootcamp Deal
28. Fiverr – get small tasks done for $5 (try this out for fun at the very least!)
29. Lean Startup – methodology to help figure out whether you’re starting the right business- There is a new bootcamp organized by Sal Virani that uses the lean method to help people bootstrap am ambitious new business.
30. Mixergy – learn from interviews with successful entrepreneurs
31. Shell Livewire- Under 30 and fancy a £1000 to start your business- if you do then shell livewire gives out 6 such grants to new businesses each month. The pitch is very simple so well worth a look.
32. Hacker News London – meet techie startup people in the flesh. Drink beer with them
33. Business Link – find official government information about business regulations
34. WordPress – build all sorts of websites quickly and cheaply (definitely not just for blogs) and also check out Wix.com if you want your site to be built in flash.
35. Woothemes – get a great-looking theme for your website
36. Clicky – get realtime analytics for your website
37. SurveyMonkey – run surveys easily
38. Amiando.com- We use it to take on-line fees for events etc but now recommend their arch rival Eventbrite.
39. SendGrid – make sure your emails get delivered
40. TechHub – work surrounded by fellow entrepreneurs at this startup-centric office space. Capital Enterprise gets offers of discounted space all the time so do e-mail us if you are looking.
41. Bootcamp Alumni offer- Get your business plan developed and partly written by experts from the Centre Engineering Management Excellence . Only available for tech businesses looking for funding- apply through Capital Enterprise
42. Innovation Warehouse- London’s version of Plug and Play where you can receive accommodation, support and investment. Bootcamp Alumni Offer- further 20% sign-up discount to those who join before the end of 2011.
43. Camden Collective- Subsidised incubator space in Camden for creative start-ups. An opportunity to be at the heart of London’s Creative sector. Just to show that London is not all about Tech, if your a fashion businesses then check out CFE, Jewelry  business -Hatton Garden, a new Bio Tech company LBIC and  a new High Tech ManufacturingCEME if you want incubator space specific to their sector.
44. OpenSoho – have drinks with startup and digital media folks
45. HUB Westminster- The new incubator / accelerator for the ethical business.
46. Facebook Developer Garage – find out the latest goings-on in the world of Facebook
47. Mobile Monday London – find out the latest goings-on in the world of mobile
48. LRUG -meet smart Ruby developers and learn clever coding tips and techniques
49. TweetDeck – track lots of things at once on Twitter- Also do check out buffer if you really want to manage the sending of your tweets.
50. Magento – set up a powerful e-commerce website
51. Bit.ly – see how many times people click on the links you share
52. British Library Business & IP Centre – get free access to market research reports
53. Out-law.com – find legal information about IT and e-commerce
54. 99designs – get a logo designed
55. 2 Display.com- The cheapest place on the web to get display stands. I was going to recommend the cheapest place to get good quality business cards and stationary but it changes so often you are best place searching for yourself but you might want to start with Moo.com
56. London Business Angel Network- The first, the biggest and one of the best Angel Networks in the UK. Not far behind is Envestors and Oxford Innovations
57. SeedSummit – find seed investors
58. Indiegogo.com – A paste and wait investment site where creative with ideas paste up their projects to attract 100’s of small scale investors to fund their new ventures. Alternatives are Kick starter  and Crowd Cube
59. The E-myth Revisited – learn why you should create a system
60. Getting Real – read how to build web apps faster and more easily
61. The Ultimate Sales Machine – read ideas about how to sell more effectively
62. Passport for Export- Guides and support offered by the government funded UKTI to those in the UK looking to sell overseas.
63. Appsumo – save money on stuff for your startup
64. Enterprise Nation- Emma Jones is one of the best UK bloggers on all things connected to running your own business.
65. Google Alerts – find out whenever someone mentions your startup online
66. SEOMoz Search Ranking Factors – learn what’s important for appearing high up in search engine results
67. The Four Steps to the Epiphany – read the original bible of the Lean Startup movement
68. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development – read the cheat-sheet version of the Lean Startup bible
69. Ogilvy on Advertising – understand advertising better
70. Linkedin- Probably the best B2B contact list – join me and maybe I can get to 500+ and be officially a well networked person.
71. Twitter – it’s big already. Follow me if you’d like to hear about more resources like this- You might also want to check our Twitter page http://twitter.com/#!/capenterprise
72. Paul Graham’s Essays – pick up entrepreneurial wisdom from the guy behind Y-Combinator
73. Futuristic Play – learn more about online marketing
74. A Smart Bear – absorb entrepreneurial wisdom from an experienced founder
75. Adwords Keyword Tool – find out how many people are searching for something
76. Stack Overflow- Looking for a coder, want to talk to a programmer, want to go where programmers go then check out stack-overflow. There is also an version for start-ups looking to post questions and receive answers from the assembled crowd- check it out and if you put UK after your question I for one will be putting my suggested solution for you to consider.
77. PickyDomains – challenge people to find you a great domain name or slogan
78. Enternships – hire entrepreneurially-minded interns
79. HELO- Get a team of students from UCL and London Business School to carry out a research or development project for free. Great if you want a business plan developing, an idea beta-testing or your competitors checked out. Also check out UCL’s free mentor scheme for high growth companies- SMILE
80. Mentors- The BBA has set up a portal called Mentorsme for inexperienced entrepreneurs looking for a mentor willing to share their experience and insights. If you are in London then check Capital Enterprise who will try to find you a mentor from amongst our members.
81. Seedcamp – get money and coaching in return for a share in your business
82. UserTesting – find out whether anyone can use your website
83. PSD2HTML – convert that slick PSD your designer created into CSS and HTML
84. Technology Strategy Board- The TSB is offering to part fund the R&D cost of businesses with innovative new products and services. They run competitions that offer substantial grants to businesses who can offer technology solutions to a challenge facing UK industry as well as offering “Proof of Concept” grants to businesses with cutting edge ideas who need help with R&D.
85. VirtualBox – run a virtual Windows machine so you can test old and annoying versions of IE, even if you have a new and shiny Mac
86. Dropbox – share documents with your co-founders
87. Google Docs – share documents with your co-founders and edit them together
88. London Creative Labs- A great place to check out if you want to get involved in the Capital’s booming social enterprise networks. You should also check out Un ltd and our member Red Ochre if you want support to start a social enterprise
89. Social Innovation Camp – do something good with your talents

1. Bootcamp Alumni offer- Poq Studio is offering a Free App for any fashion retailer- well is not exactly free and its only available for Alumni but do check it out.
2. Marketinvoice.com- A relatively new venture set by our friend Anil Stocker that has a host of funders looking to forward fund your working capital needs.
3. Toastmasters – become more confident talking in front of an audience
4. Soft Loans for Business Growth- Mainly for businesses with trading history but well worth checking out organisations such as ELSBC, GLE and HBV to see if you could be eligible for these £2000-£50000 loans.
5. Enterprise Finance Guarantee – get backing from the government to help you get a loan
6. The Gary Halbert Letter – improve your copywriting
7. PatternTap – web UI design patterns.
8. NESTA- the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts is an independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. It provides investment, guides and the attest insights to early stage businesses who are attempting to drive the UK into the 21^st Century.
9. R&D Tax Credits- If you have not worked out that you could be eligible to get back 200% of the money you are spending on R&D then what are you waiting for?- Check out Terry Toms guide and book for a free consultation and book on www.for a free Bootcamp Extra event on www.capitalenterprise.org/whats-on
10. The Equity Kicker – read views from Nic Brisbourne, a London VC

100. Looking for a grant?- Check out J4B- the best place to see if there is grant available in your sector or postcode. Alternative Capital Enterprise has access to the UK funders database. So if you want a bespoke funding search please arrange a 1-2-1 with Carly-cary@capitalenterprise.org

In their final post in a week of articles on e-commerce innovation, Business of Fashion are pleased to launch Elevator Pitch, a recurring feature on BoF that will showcase one exceptional fashion-technology start-up per month and provide valuable feedback from a panel of fashion, technology and investment experts, as well as the BoF community.

BoF has a track record for being the first to spot and support the most innovative start-ups making a mark in the fashion space.

BoF are currently witnessing a veritable surge of innovation and venture capital interest in the fashion-technology space. Amongst e-commerce start-ups alone, they have seen the emergence of new business models like curation, subscription retail, social merchandising, mass customisation, retail gaming and collaborative consumption.

What business models will be next to emerge? Who will be the next Net-a-Porter, Gilt Groupe or Pinterest? If you have a promising business idea in the fashion-technology space or are already working on a start-up and looking to raise your profile or attract funding, they are putting out a call for your Elevator Pitch: concise pitches that you might give to a potential investor, partner or key hire if you bumped into them in an elevator.

For entrepreneurs wishing to participate, please respond to the questions below for the opportunity to have your pitch featured here on BoF and receive valuable feedback from a panel of fashion, technology and investment experts.

THE QUESTIONS (maximum 500 words):

1. What is your business idea and what problem is it solving?
2. What market does it address and how big is this market?
3. Who is your competition and how are you different/better?
4. What is the revenue model?
5. Who are the team that will make your idea a reality?
6. How much funding are you seeking and why?

HOW IT WORKS:

1. They are accepting Elevator Pitches by email only and review the first 500 words you submit. Please send your submissions to elevatorpitch@businessoffashion.com. They cannot respond to every email and will only contact those pitches selected to be published.

2. Each month, the selected Elevator Pitch will be presented to members of our Expert Panel, who will provide their feedback on the business idea and its potential.

3. They will publish one Elevator Pitch per month, along with feedback from our Expert Panel, and invite the BoF community to join the discussion.

THE EXPERT PANEL:

Sonali De Rycker, Partner, Accel Partners, London
Sonali has been active in the European venture business for 12 years focusing on investments in the consumer internet and digital media sectors. Sonali is responsible for investments in KupiVIP, Lyst, StylistPick, Spotify, and Top10.

Kirsten Green, Founder, Forerunner Ventures, New York
Kirsten has been in the investment business since 1996, investing in both public and private companies and building a focus on the consumer sector. Representative investments include: Birchbox, Bonobos, Chloe & Isabel, Cleanwell, Serena & Lily, Skullcandy, StyleOwner, Warby Parker.

Ben Lerer, Founder, Thrillist, New York
Ben Lerer is a Manager of Lerer Ventures and the Co-Founder and CEO of Thrillist.com, a leading men’s multi-platform lifestyle publication with over 3 million daily subscriptions in 19 localized markets in the U.S. and the U.K.

Rachel Shechtman, Founder, Cube Ventures, New York
Rachel has been a marketing and merchandising consultant since 2003 working with clients including Gilt Groupe, TOMS, and the CFDA; and advising others such as Birchbox and Quirky. Recently she launched a new retail venture in Manhattan called STORY.

Imran Amed, Founder and Editor, The Business of Fashion, London
Imran is a fashion business advisor, writer, and digital entrepreneur, and is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Business of Fashion.

In February, NACUE will present its 3rd annual National Student Enterprise Conference (NSEC), book now at http://nsec2012.eventbrite.com/ on Feb 18th and 19th.

With this year’s theme Ctrl Alt Disrupt!, NACUE are declaring 2012 the year of disruptive business and innovation. In 2010 they said no to ‘Business As Usual’, in 2011 we ‘Re-Shaped Britain’. In 2012 they’re calling for all out disruption!

They’ve teamed up with Aston University in Birmingham to present you a weekend ideas, creativity and change. Join over 300 students, meet some of the UK’s biggest entrepreneurs and get what you need to launch into disruptive entrepreneurship.

NSEC 2012 gives you all you need to change your entrepreneurial career and be part of a disruptive side of business.

Conference highlights:

• Learn to compete with industry giants
• Access to top entrepreneur moguls from across the country
• Identifying global trends
• Prepare yourself and your business for disruption
• Build a networked business by creating killer social media content
• Start-up Crash Courses covering everything from financing your startup to building an all-star team
• Masterclasses will take those of you already in business a step further with lessons on securing an entrepreneurial career and creating social media thunderstorms

…and so much more!

Who’s this for?

• Students and graduates interested in starting a business
• Young entrepreneurs looking to take their business to the next level

Sales 4 Entrepreneurs from

This is a series of 28 videos developing sales skills for students and entrepreneurs from ESSA.  Each video is around 3 minutes. They have also created a downloadable booklet, which provides further information and worksheets for each video. This is a great resource for your those moving ahead or considering starting a business in 2012.

The videos are available at:
http://theessa.com/sales-4-enterprising-societies/

They can also be view via youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ESSAContest

The booklet is available at:
http://theessa.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Sales4Entrepreneurs.pdf

This business game is designed to both teach you how to tackle common problems that businesses face, but also to give you some practice with what you will face at an Assessment Centre, showing you how to demonstrate team work, developing your communication and presentation skills according to what employers want to see.

The event will be taking place on February 9th between 2-4pm in IN031
Places are limited, please email me at president@royalhollowayentrepreneurs.com if you would like to attend.  

The New Age of Business

• Want to accelerate the success of your business?
• Need a logo or website makeover?
• Unsure how to navigate the online marketplace?

The way that we think about, develop and promote business needs to adapt to the new age of technology. The marketplace has changed and will continue to change rapidly in the years to come. We need to learn how to navigate this new market and exploit it in order to succeed. We’ll be welcoming NeBWeb, a media consultancy that will teach you to how connect with the web in order to grow. We’ll also be hearing from the founder of UpBeatAgency, who will teach you how to create a compelling and uplifting website with a clear focused strategy.

It’s free. Bring your questions and business logos, website and ideas to show our experts. Join in later in the evening for networking over food and drink.

This Thursday 19th Jan, 6pm Cafe Rialto 

By holding networking events, workshops and international conferences, we aim to provide a platform for communication and exchange between both parties. Furthermore our goal is to present female students opportunities, to be inspired by LWiP and through networking, follow in their steps to become the Leading Women of tomorrow.

Joining the network through a prestigious awards ceremony places you in a circle of extraordinary individuals for the rest of your life. We are now looking to recruit the core team of LWiP, based in London HQ.The position is solely voluntary. However, joining us will provide you with the unique opportunity to be a founding contributor to the LWiP network.

Not only will this position enhance your CV but also provide you with “real- hands on” business experience. However, above all you would get the unrivalled chance the join the network and help us to realise our vision of LWiP’s global success. By joining us you will automatically receive the benefit of membership and therefore place yourself in a circle with unique individuals. You will network with LWiP all over the world, get to know the CEO’s of big companies and the woman behind today’s success. You will be inspired, you will learn and you will connect with students and LWIP all over the world, forming a sorority like network to strengthen the female position in our growing world.

We encourage you to apply for the advertised positions below. Please indicate in your application whether you are applying for a team member or team leader position.

Deadline for applications 30th December, midnight!
Please sent your CV, a cover letter and any additional questions you may have to lwip.hq@gmail.com

Cordial Regards,
Jamilah Issifou, Kathryn Larin
Founder LWiP

Positions available: