If you’ve been trapped under a rock somewhere you may have missed the blog posts, tweets and Facebook messages detailing the launch of our new campaign, Control Shift: The Rise of Young Entrepreneurs.
So what’s Control Shift all about?
Control Shift will highlight the most pressing challenges facing aspiring entrepreneurs in the UK today and develop tangible calls to action – we want your ideas on what would really help! We are also tackling the challenges head on by matching members of the Pioneer community to inspirational Mentors who will help really make their businesses fly. We’ve already matched 3 Pioneers already and you can check out their stories below.
We’re also helping Pioneers bag an all star mentor for their business!
To find the first of three Pioneers who will win a unique all-star mentoring opportunity (similar to the ones below), we ran a competition. That competition closed on Tuesday 4th October at 10pm. But don’t fear – there are still two more Mentors up for grabs and we’ll be announcing how you can apply for those soon. Keep your eyes on the Control Shift page and on the blog for updates. All three winners will be announced at a special London event during Global Entrepreneurship Week in November 2011.
What did Pioneers need to do to enter?
Upload a video in response to Richard Branson’s question.
‘What one change by government, business or society, would make it more likely for young entrepreneurs to thrive and prosper?’
Find out more about the 3 Pioneers already matched with star mentors:
Abdul Khan from the West Midlands got the idea for ratethatcurry.com when he was away from home and couldn’t track down any curries that matched his mum’s cooking! At its heart, the business is about getting independent restaurants online and Abdul often builds first-time websites for individual restaurants with little or no digital experience. His own platform is in its early stages and aims to be a thriving search, review and order destination for independent curry houses. As part of the Control Shift campaign, Abdul has been paired with Joe Cohen, founder and CEO of Seatwave, who will use his digital expertise to help develop the business.
Ronke Ige from south east London runs a natural skin care business Emi & Ben and has been a Pioneer since the community launched in March 2010. She got the idea for the business when, whilst pregnant with her daughter, she received a block of Pure Unrefined Shea butter from her Grandmother in Nigeria and spotted a gap in the market. Ronke is passionate about helping and inspiring other young people to get involved in entrepreneurship. As part of the Control Shift campaign, she has been paired with Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, founder of The Black Farmer range, and hopes to draw on his retail and brand building experience.
Zoe Jackson from Hertfordshire has been running Living the Dream Performing Arts Company since she was 16 and now employs 15 people at the age of 21. The company is a social enterprise run by young people for young people and aims to provide opportunities and inspiration to people from all walks of life. In the face of funding cuts to the Arts, Zoe was keen to look for solutions and has been building her network and contacts through the Pioneers community. For the Control Shift campaign, Zoe has been matched with Priya Lakhani, founder of Masala Masala and CEO of the recently launched social enterprise SoCo Ltd.
Fellow pioneers! Opportunities like this don’t come every day…. Get your thinking caps on now! Upload load your video and get crossing your fingers and toes to be selected!!!
Good luck!
Ronke x
So true!
Please view my video response to Sir Richard’s question.
I would love to be considered to run an Introduction to the Enneagram (via Power-Point Presentation) to budding entrepreneurs.
No video necessary.
My answer is simply to point out that there have been 3 ‘revolutions’ that have changed the world:
* 12,000 years ago we had the agricultural revolution
* 350 years ago the industrial revolution
and finally, the most far reaching, yet still in its infancy,
*20 years ago the Internet revolution
To harness the knowledge and power of the Internet, and to answer Sir Richard’s question – give free to all children in schools, a mobile device to access the Internet.
And if you think globally about the lack of electrical infrastructure in places such as Africa, then this suggestion may be an imperative.
I think it’s wonderful that Virgin Media Pioneers is taking the initiative to “get the ball rolling” at the grassroots level! Thank you so much for beginning a conversation that involves us little guys too.
Here is my answer to Sir Richard Branson’s challenge, thank you!
I would have loved to enter this but I was too late to win a flip camera and haven’t the facility to make a video
I’ve had an amazing amount of support from the Pioneer programme already so I’m not too disappointed.
Hi Chamiane – sorry you missed the dealine but just to let you know that if you have a video record function on your phone that can work too – if you don’t… sorry – we’ll have more flip cam giveaways soon though! Thanks, E