The document summarizes the story of Surrey Entrepreneurs, a student-led enterprise started by three University of Surrey students. It details how they grew the initial entrepreneurship society into a larger organization that engaged hundreds of students and partnered with businesses. Their work was recognized with several awards. To further develop the organization, the three students formed a spin-off company called Surrey Enterprise where they will work full-time during their placement years. They hope to continue inspiring students and adding value to society through ethical business practices.

2. 2

3. A story of
entrepreneurship
why not :)
3
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results
of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have
the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything
else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs.

4. 01 NETWORKING FORMED THE IDEA
OF STUDENT LED ENTERPISE
4

5. A vision to develop world
changing people.
We sat down and highlighted that there was a real
need for the youth of today to become inspired and 5
make a positive impact in the world. Entrepreneurship
and using business as a force for good offered a
solution for creating jobs, wealth and addressing
global challenges. We then set about creating a
mechanism in which students at the University of
Surrey could develop critical skills, strong networks
and a proactive attitude. We wanted to add value to
the graduate producing university model, by structuring
an entrepreneur enabling scheme in “Entrepreneursity”.
Surrey Entrepreneurs was born.

6. 02 SALES PROJECTS EVENT PROJECTS
BEGINNINGS OF A
BRAND
EARLY AWARD
» Surrey Entrepreneurs » With no funding avai- » As a result of further » As a result of the
ran a number of lable students had micro projects the early stage activity
projects in order to to organise an event Surrey Entrepreneurs NACUE recognised
generate business project, capitalising were able to fund that the spirit shown
sales skills and ge- on Valentines day the development of by the members
nerate revenue. The during that month its first stage of bran- and committee was
students enjoyed students organised a ding and presence highly commenda-
the experience of speed dating event online. ble when compared
turning £100 into £200 where 40 students to other societies
through doghnut and attended paying a £5 nationally.
smoothie sales. entrance fee.
6
SURREY ENTREPRENEURS INITIAL STEPS.

7. 7

8. 8
03 RESEARCHING BRAND BUILDING

9. SUMMER SPENT IN THE DARK BUILDING A BRAND AND 9
RESEARCHING STUDENT ONLINE PRESENCE.
ENTERPRISE.
In order to progress the Surrey Entrepreneurs it was clear that we During that summer of planning we needed to construct a website
needed to highlight best practise from leading organisations across and brand that fitted our message. We spent over three months
the world. We looked at a number of non-profits, higher education getting the website to the stage that you have seen previously. The
institutions and student run societies collecting various information website has a variety of tools that can be utilised by the community
that was relevant to Surrey. A long period of time was spent before in order to progress ideas. Additionally we wanted to gauge the
the start of the 2010/2011 academic year to ensure planning was in interest of our entrepreneurial message and set up Twitter and
place to maximise impact. Further tools and methods were gathered Facebook accounts. As a result we now have over 16,000+ twitter
to make daily operations easier and more professional, something followers and 480+ Facebook fans.
that was crucial to our brand.

10. 04
STUDENT INTEREST
EVENTS
STUDENT
COMPETITIONS
10
ALL THE SUMMERS PREPERATION MEANT SURREY
ENTREPRENEURS GOT OFF TO A FLYING START.

11. STUDENT INTEREST.
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SURREY FRESHERS FAYRE THERE WAS AN OVERWHELMING INTEREST WITH
OVER 500 STUDENTS REGISTERING TO PARTICIPATE IN ENTERPRISE. THROUGHOUT THE YEAR WE
CONSISTENTLY SAW A VARIETY IN INTEREST ACROSS FACULTIES AND DEGREE STAGES, WITH AN
END OF YEAR MEMBERSHIP BASE OF OVER 850.
EVENTS.
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR THE SURREY ENTREPRENEURS HOSTED A NUMBER OF EVENTS. SIX
GUEST SPEAKERS ATTENDED THE UNIVERSITY WITH OVER 400 ATTENDEES IN TOTAL. ADDITIONAL-
11
LY 14 WORKSHOPS WERE CONDUCTED WITH AN AVERAGE ATTENDANCE OF 25 PER SESSION.TRIPS
TO THE PREMISES OF ORGANISATIONS WERE ALSO
CONDUCTED TO SHOW BUSINESS IN ACTION.
STUDENT COMPETITONS.
AT SURREY TWO COMPETITIONS WERE HOSTED THROUGHOUT 2010/2011. THE FIRST ONE WHICH
WAS THE SANATANDER SANDPIT, WHERE STUDENTS HAD TO FORM TEAMS OF AT LEAST FOUR
AND CREATE A THREE MINUTE VIDEO ON INCREASING COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN BUSINESS AND
UNIVERSITIES, THE WINNING TEAM RECEIVED £1000. THE SECOND WAS “PITCHING FOR PROJECTS”
WHERE TEN PROJECTS PITCHED TO A PANEL OF JUDGES IN SEARCH OF FUNDING. A TOTAL OF
£6000 WAS GIVEN TO THREE PROJECTS.

12. 05
ENTREPRENEURSITY Pitched to the University of Surrey.
12
AS ACTIVITY DEVELOPED THERE WAS REAL NEED FOR A LEGAL
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE.

13. Gaining University Support.
13
Within the university we were interested to identify if there would be interest in developing the enterprise community.
We rapidly discovered strong support from Director Keith Robson and his department Research and Enterprise
Support. As a result they provided resources for Surrey Entrepreneurs to facilitate workshops and competitions.
As activity began to expand there was real need for the creation of an independent legal entity. Directors of the
University in; RES, Alumni and Corporate Services expressed support for a team of students to operate Surrey
Entrepreneurs commercial activity in a spin out company across the term of a placement year. The team seized the
opportunity by widening initiatives to lay the foundations of a pioneering year.

14. ENGAGING WITH THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY.
14
06 MICROSOFT
TRANSFORMERS &
RECTIFIERS
BUILDING LINKS WITH
BUSINESS

15. HOSTED MICROSOFTS PDC10 TRANSFORMERS & RECTIFIERS
AT THE SURREY CAMPUS. DONATE £10,000 FOR A 15
STUDENT START UP FUND.
Surrey Entrepreneurs were awarded the project of delivering Transformers & Rectifiers have kindly donated £10,000 to the Surrey
Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in October 2010. Entrepreneurs for the purpose of a student business seed fund. This
Surrey was one of 6 Universities in the country that were selected fund is not designed to be a grant but rather a loan payment that
after NACUE coordinated the project, and as a result Surrey received does not have to be paid if the venture is unsuccessful, but will
£1000 for the operation. Out of a requested 150 attendees there were request a funding contribution from successfully supported projects,
220 registrations. ensuring the opportunity to fund future student businesses. As a
result of a government grant the fund has received an additional
£5,000 bringing the total funding pool to £15,000. Furhtermore as part
of our relationship with T&R and our annual hospitality we hosted 60
of our closest stakeholders at Ascot Racecourse for the day.

16. YOURSANCTUARY ROOM 11
16 CONSULTING. FOCUS GROUP.
At Surrey Entrepreneurs we recognised the need to develop our Offering focus groups for organisations became a very suitable
source of income. As entrepreneurs we did not feel that sponsorship product within the student market. With the access to large bodies
support was the direction we wanted to pursue in future. As a of students Surrey Entrepreneurs could guarantee high numbers
result we attempted various projects to highlight possible ventures of participation in sessions while allowing insights into the future
that students year on year could adopt. The first of which was generations. Room 11 contacted us to test their new business
consulting. Guided by a professional consultant we ran a project for concept and required twenty five students to complete their product
YourSanctuary which is a domestic abuse charity in the local area. feedback. “The evening proved an overwhelming success, with
The organisation wanted to take a proactive approach and Surrey some of the materials being heavily re-worked as a result.” - Jason
Entrepreneurs developed a number of ideas on how to do so. McEachran, Room 11 Managing Director.

17. 07 INTERNSHIPS PLACEMENTS
» The Surrey Entrepre- » Two placement
neurs presented a opportunities were
number of internship also highlighted
opportunities for for the Engineering
members. With two Department at Surry.
students contributing Sponsor, Transfor-
to two organisations. mers & Rectifiers
were open to taking
on students for a
year to monitor their
skills.
17

18. 08 BIS
MCKINSEY &
COMPANY
NACUE
UNIVERSITY OF
SURREY
» Surrey Entrepreneurs were » Mckinsey & Company » Surrey Entrepreneurs have » The University of Surrey
invited with NACUE to meet requested the advice of engaged with NACUE on have been very open to
Minister Mark Prisk and his the Surrey Entrepreneurs a number of levels. Sup- new ideas that encourage
advisors to discuss the President for their latest porting the development and promote enterpri-
state of student enterpri- project. Entrepreneur First of the South East region se within the university
se. BIS commented that will be a new scheme along side taking a seat at and beyond. Alongside
“Surrey is an exemplar of that is free for a number NACUE’s student advisory requesting the services of
the type of enterprising en- of graduates from UK board meetings. While student entrepreneurs on
vironment we are seeking universities. The initiative is participating in the majority projects.
to create”. backed by Number 10 to of NACUE events.
create the next generation
of large organisations.
18
ADVISING KEY
“Surrey is an exemplar of the type of enterprising environment we are
ORGANISATIONS
seeking to create” - Mark Prisk, Minister for Business and Enterprise.

19. 19

20. 09
AWARDS
20
THE ACTIVITY OF THE SURREY ENTREPRENEURS AND SOME OF
OUR MEMBERS WAS RECOGNISED AND REWARDED.

21. NACUE’S PRESIDENT OF
THE YEAR 2011.
CAMERON WILSON ACCEPTING HIS PRESIDENT OF THE YEAR AWARD 2011 AT NACUE’S LEADERSHIP
CONFERENCE. THERE WERE 150 ATTENDEES FROM ACROSS 90 UNIVERSITIES. IT WAS A GREAT MO-
MENT FOR SURREY AFTER RECEIVING THE HIGHLY COMMENDABLE AWARD IN THE FIRST YEAR TO
THEN GET THEIR PRESIDENT RECOGNISED FOR ALL THE HARD WORK THAT HAD BEEN PUT IN.
SETSQUARED ENTERPRISE
CHAMPION 2011.
CAMERON WILSON WAS AWARDED THE SETSQUARED ENTERPRISE CHAMPION AWARD FOR 2011.
THIS WAS DOWN TO THE WORK THAT HAD BEEN PUT INTO THE SURREY ENTREPRENEURS TO
21
BUILD THE ENTREPRENEURIAL COMMUNITY THAT ENGAGES STUDENTS AND BUSINESS TO CREATE
OPPORTUNITIES.
BEST UNDERGRADUATE AND
POSTGRADUATE START-UPS.
AS WELL AS OVERALL WINNER.
AARON AND GEORGE ARE TWO PHD STUDENTS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE WHO STARTED THOUGH-
TIFIED LTD. IT PRODUCES A WEB APPLICATION IN THE CLOUD THAT USES GEOLOCATION INFOR-
MATION (GPS) TO REMOTELY MANAGE PROJECTS FROM ANY DEVICE. THEY WERE AWARDED BEST
GRADUATE START UP AT THE SETSQUARD AWARDS FOR THEIR WORK.

22. GUILLAUME DEVINAT - GUITAR SURREY STUDENTS BEAT
22 LESSON LOUNGE. BUSINESS BUFFS AT “IDEA
INISIATIVE” BUSINESS
CHALLENGE.
Guillaume is a second year business Management Student at the Students from the University of Surrey took on a group of the
University of Surrey who founded guitarlessonlounge.com. In 2011 sharpest business brains in the county in a head to head challenge at
he was awarded Best Student Start-Up at the SetSquared enterprise the ‘Ideas Initiative’ in March. Organised by a group of leading Surrey
awards. Additionally the overall winner of the SetSquared showcase businesses working alongside the University of Surrey, the challenge
was chosen from the entries across all the winning categories which required the two teams to come up with a viable business solution
he also won (shown on page 19). Later in the month Guillaume to a mystery scenario in just a couple of hours. Unbeknownst to the
accepted his Santander Award for becoming a runner up in the business experts, who turned out to be great sports, the students
university undergraduate business challenge. from Surrey Entrepreneurs had a powerful creative thinking tool at
the ready. A week before the event, Andrew Tilling from Preseli
spent the afternoon training the team in ‘The STORM Process‘ to
enable them to find innovative solutions more effectively.

23. 10
EVOLUTION
23
SURREY ENTERPRISE BECAME A SPIN OUT COMPANY OF THE
UNIVERSITY IN SUMMER 2011 WITH THREE STUDENT PLACEMENT
POSITIONS OPERATING THE ACTIVITY.

24. Why?
An Interview.
24 Cameron Wilson, Sarangan Vigneswaran and Jody Sayers joined forces in their first year at the University to run Surrey Entrepreneurs, a
society for would-be Richard Branson’s across campus. Such is the success of their venture that, with the help of philanthropic donations, the
trio have now formed a spin-off enterprise company and will be spending their professional placement years working directly for it. Cameron,
who along with Sarangan is studying Economics, said: “We thought that students should get together and start something which enabled
them to create their own opportunities rather than having to rely on others. “There used to be an entrepreneurs’ society which was dormant
and carried a bit of debt. We took that on and set about paying off the debt by bringing in speakers and running projects around campus
doing things like selling smoothies and doughnuts. “The company is the evolution of that. It will mean that if a student wants a placement in
entrepreneurship they can run Surrey Enterprise.” Taking on the responsibility of forming and running a start-up business would be challenge
enough for seasoned business executives, so the scale of the task facing the inexperienced Surrey students was sizeable. But rather than
seeing their lack of experience as a limiting factor, Sarangan said he and his colleagues actually gained a competitive edge through their
relative naivety. From consulting to idea generation and branding analysis, the group’s youthful approach to business has proven to be a big
draw to established companies. He said: “I think it has been a bit of a shock to some people to see students doing this, but we have found that
they want to use us and to give something back. In effect they are leaving their own legacy by supporting others.

25. “Some people see it as a negative, but I think our naivety allows us to come up with out-of-the-box ideas and develop interesting solutions
that can be easily executed.” Anyone familiar with BBC TV show The Apprentice may think that getting by in business relies as much on
ruthlessness and arrogance as it does raw entrepreneurial acumen. But the Surrey students insist that they will judge their success as much
on their ethical results as their financial figures. “Ethics are a fundamental part of what we want to do,” Sarangan explained. “Ultimately we
want to add value to society. “In the early stages we could easily have put on bar crawls. It has slowed us down not to have gone down
that route, but it didn’t fit in with how we wanted to develop. “We realised how business was viewed and what impact students could have on
that perception. The Apprentice is not how business really is. Most successful start-up companies are run by teams and we want to promote
that idea.” Cameron added: “There’s a great awareness about the effect that business has on the world we live in – people are more aware
than ever, and we need to act accordingly. We don’t want to facilitate things that take away from society.” With their placement running
the new business swiftly followed by the final stages of their undergraduate studies, Cameron, Sarangan and Jody face a busy time over
the coming years. The team admit to having to sacrifice weekends and holidays to spread their love of entrepreneurship to their peers, but
Sarangan views the workload as a labour of love. He said: “For us, this is a passion – it has had to be for us to be willing to get up at 4am to
go out and start selling something. “If it wasn’t for that passion, we wouldn’t have been able to push as hard as we have. There have been a 25
lot of late nights and busy weekends, but this is about more than a job.”

26. 26
GUILDFORD STUDENT OFFERS - A MARKETING VENTURE THAT USES
MULTIPLE CHANNELS FOR ORGANISATIONS TO ENGAGE WITH THE STUDENT
COMMUNITY.

27. 27
CONSULTING ENTREPRENEURS - A VENTURE THAT PROVIDES A NUMBER
OF SOLUTIONS FOR ALL SIZED FIRMS THROUGH DRAWING ON UNIVERSITY
LEVEL INSIGHTS AND SKILLS.

28. PERSONNEL
MANAGING DIRECTOR DIRECTOR OF RES BUSINESS CONSULTANT
Cameron Wilson Keith Robson John Bickell - University of Entrepreneurs, CEO
National Entrepreneur President of the year 2011, and M: +44 1483 682 685 Consulting on strategy & projects with advice/delivery
SetSquard Enterprise Champion Winner 2011. Delivering E: k.robson@surrey.ac.uk up to £1bn turnover. Specialises in business turnaround
activity as Managing Director. W: http://surrey.ac.uk/res and growth programmes, as well as group/corporate
strategic.
M: +44 7540430043
E: c.wilson@surrey.ac.uk M: +44 7801824115
W: SurreyEnterprise.com E: johnbbickell@gmail.com
DIRECTORS Enterprise Project Manager - RES CREATIVE CONSULTANT
28
Sarangan Vigneswaran Tracy Hampton Andrew Tilling - Preseli Partnerships, Partner
Organised project manager focused on delivering M: +44 1483 683 489 Specialises in designing training programs and problem
sustainable business activity, with strong financial E: t.hampton@surrey.ac.uk solving through creative thinking.
understanding.
M: +44 7724491331
M: +44 7742447768 E: andrew@preselipartnerships.com
E: s.vigneswaran@surrey.ac.uk W: http://preselipartnerships.com
Entrepreneur-In-Residence - RES
Jody Sayers
Nigel Biggs
Attention to in depth detail, combined with excellent
M: +44 7860873717
reporting skills that highlight key facts efficiently. Holds
E: n.biggs@surrey.ac.uk
a large student network.
M: +44 7551590506
E: j.sayers@surrey.ac.uk

29. SO IT BEGINS...
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