CU Entrepreneurs - Make it Happen

Coventry University Entrepreneurs is a passionate student organization created to inspire and educate, and to facilitate the creation of real businesses from the university. This is mainly achieved through the organisation and running of various Business Plan Competitions (BPC).

Mission Statement:

• To help development an entrepreneurial culture
• To be the interface between the university and business communities
• To catalyse the exploitation of the knowledge base at Coventry University
• To facilitate and support the creation of world class firms
• To encourage knowledge exhange through international forums

Today:

Today, £100,000 of prize money is awarded in three streams of business plan competitions, £50K, £1K and 3P. This is the highest amount of prize money awarded from any single organization across the globe. This sets our organization in a unfsique position and as exemplary to universities interested in starting the BPC’s.

History:

The organization was established in boom time of IT (est. 1999) catering to the demand and creation of surge of entrepreneurial firms in the IT Sector. Starting with prize money of £30,000 at inception, the society has boosted interest in entrepreneurship, within both the student community and the corporate sector. So far, we have distributed over £200,000 in prize money and created many businesses, headed by students and members of the university. This makes the society one of the largest of its type in the world and we are globally recognised as one of the best.

It is still early days for CU Entrepreneurs but we have already seen 12 firms created and there are more on the way.

Progress:

Sep 2003: First quarterly newsletter “Make it Happen” is released.

Aug 2003: CU Entrepreneurs wins the bid for hosting Global Startup Workshop

Jul 2003: 3P (People, Planet and Productivity) go-ahead.

May 2003: Top prize of £30,000 given with two runners up of £10,000 and 6 cash(bold) prizes of £1,000 for £1K winners. (Web link)

Mar 2003: 55 £1K entries submitted, totalling the number of entries to 93 for the year 2002-2003

Jan 2003: Qualifiers dinner announces 10 finalists in £50K competition and finalists go through an intensive training weekend.

Dec 2002: 38 £50K business plan entries submitted.

Oct 2002: Duke of York Prince Andrew launches the £50K and £1K competition

Sep 2002: New sponsors and training now done by CEC

Jun 2002: Brand new committee and change of name: CU Entrepreneurs

May 2002: Prizes of £15K, £12.5K, £10K, £7.5K and 5 x £1K

Sep 2002: New events

Apr 2001: Founding team handed over for 2001/2002

Mar 2001: Prizes of £15K, £12.5K, £10K, £7.5k, £5K and 6 x £1K

Oct 2000: 52 50K Submissions / 50 1K Submissions

Jun 2000: £50K Competition Go-ahead

Mar 2000: Prizes of £15K, £10K, £5K and £1K awarded

Jan 2000: £1K Competition launched

Oct 1999: Recruitment and Launch - 600 recruited in 3 days Training commenced

Aug 1999: £30K Competition Go-ahead - Publicity commenced

Jun 1999: Team established to set up competition 8 blue-chip sponsors signed-up

CU Entrepreneurs Committee 2004/2005

President: Stewart McTavish (president at cue.org.uk)

Chairman: Jasdeep Singh (chairman at cue.org.uk)

£50K Lead: Yen Chua (50k at cue.org.uk)

3P Lead: Charles Delingpole (3P at cue.org.uk)

£1K Lead: Toby Austin (1K at cue.org.uk)

Marketing Team: (marketing at cue.org.uk)

Junior Treasurer: Natalia Masanova

CU Entrepreneurs Committee 2003/2004

President: Jasdeep Singh

Chairman: Seena Rejal

Vice President: Stewart McTavish

External Relations: Jeremy Sosabowski

50K Lead: Wu Ai Leong

3P Lead: Nicola Dee

1K Lead: Ehsan Abdi Jalebi

Alumni Lead: Carol Ng

Marketing Team:

Nii-Adotei Parker-Allotey

Yalan Wang

 

CU Entrepreneurs Committee 2002/2003

President: Seena Rejal

Vice President and 1K Lead: Jeremy Sosabowski

£50K Lead: Justin Barnes

Alumni Lead: Peter Eckley

Membership and Visits Secretary: Qian Carrie YUAN

Web Team Lead: Cathey Robbie

Web development officer: Tim Martin

Sponsorship and Treasurer: Jasdeep Singh

Marketing: Wenjun Hu