Applied Social Science, 2011 - Plan ENVY Winner 2013

What is your Business Idea?

Oppo ice cream (www.oppoicecream.co.uk)is made with virgin coconut oil, stevia leaf and fresh milk in place of cream and cane sugar. This makes it naturally creamy and sweet without the calories and sugar of traditional luxury ice cream. Each flavour is enhanced by a delicious superfood.

The idea was born during an expedition my brother Charlie and I did in Brazil. We ran out of supplies so started eating coconuts and other wild fruits. This sparked a love for using naturally good ingredients and a mission to make the most indulgent foods healthy.

How has Careers helped you?

When I thought about setting up a business, one of the first things I did was contact Careers. I entered and won Plan ENVY, giving the business a boost at a crucial time. A pipe burst at the factory, spewing £8000 worth of ice cream all over the floor. The £2000 from Plan ENVY went towards starting a new batch, which was successful!

We were the fastest ever food or drink company to raise money through crowdfunding, and we’re now stocked in Waitrose, ocado.com, Whole Foods Market, and Holland & Barrett

Do you have any advice for other students thinking about setting up a business?

If you have a goal or something you want to create, you should be like a freight train; don’t let anything stop you!

Law, 2017 - Investment Readiness 2016

What is your Business Idea?

Clicteq is a PPC management agency that works with larger spend advertisers to help them maximise their return on their paid media spend. One of the key issues that Google advertisers face is that their sales are effected by external factors such as the weather but are unable to adapt their campings for this in real time. We help advertisers link external data like this to their paid media spend using software so that we can purchase more traffic when it is more likely to turn into a customer and less traffic when it is less likely to turn into customers.

How has undertaking the Investment Readiness helped you?

The investment ready course has not only helped us improve our business plan and helped us network with angel investors who are both looking to invest and are happy to provide advice to entrepreneurs. But it has helped us meet like minded business people in the same situation and a business coach that has provided valuable advice to help me grow my business.

Do you have any advice for other students thinking about setting up a business? 

One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to use the help that is afforded to you by both the university and the local government. There is a lot of help out there that will be invaluable when it comes to taking your business from a one man company to a small team and beyond. They can connect you with the best people to help you implement the systems you need, raise capital and lead your team to success.

Economics, 2012
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What is your Business Idea?

After graduating from York in 2012, I spent a few years working as a management and technology consultant with EY in their Enterprise Architecture team. Being in a situation where we mostly give advice, and not take overall responsibility for a project or feel that we’re responsible for a business outcome led me to think of ideas outside consulting.

While at EY, I’d done a little advisory work at my family business by moving our order processing system to a new integrated platform. Writing the software specification used the skills I’d gained from consulting and a year later, it had dramatically simplified the way that we do business.

The idea for our promotional merchandise supplier Printkick  came about while looking at the disjointed manual processes that happen in the print industry. We match customers with suppliers, advise on products and take responsibility for delivering the final order, but crucial product and pricing data is held in silos, primarily with the factory. Other branding companies in Europe are racing ahead with eCommerce but the UK is lagging – so we saw the opportunity and built an integrated platform to connect customers with thousands of instantly priced products, including printed travel mugs, business gifts and other promotional items from suppliers all over the UK and Europe.

Do you have any advice for other students thinking about setting up a business?

Most of the time, it’s worth getting some experience within a startup or larger corporation to build your skills before venturing into entrepreneurship. Startups are ideal as you’ll be taking on a number of different roles, and could potentially meet your co-founders while working too.

A huge variety of support and networking opportunities exist in major cities, especially London. Go out to network with the people building the technologies of the future – it’ll spark ideas, learning and give you a good foundation to launch your own business. Accelerator programmes from corporates like Shell, Virgin or Lloyds can provide a springboard for young companies to grow rapidly. Don’t be afraid of discussing ideas with others – execution is the only thing that matters.