King’s College London fosters experiential learning through Entrepreneurship Institute

Universities as safe havens for students to explore entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurship is hard to teach. However, King’s College London’s Entrepreneurship Institute (Entrepreneurship@King’s), which will celebrate its one year anniversary this spring, strives to make entrepreneurship more accessible for students and the wider King’s Community.“The purpose of our programme is to introduce people to entrepreneurship, to develop entrepreneurial skills, to inspire, and to help start-ups within this ecosystem scale,” explains Anandana Bakshi, the Head of Entrepreneurship@King’s. “Our audience is from 26,000 King’s students to 7,000 King’s staff and recent alumni. The Institutes new Director, Julie Devonshire, has taken on the exciting challenge of growing and developing this ecosystem.”Entrepreneurship@King’s runs on four streams of service. The Engagement stream introduces the idea of entrepreneurship as a viable career option for students through initiatives like Enterprise Connect, which hosts keynote speakers from prominent companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and River Island. The unemployment agenda is never far from the minds of students who have grown up in the past decade. “We are here to provide the best quality role models to show students that you can achieve anything from nothing,” continues Bakshi.The Learn stream encourages learning by doing through its annual events such as the Lion’s Den Challenge Start-Up Competition and one off specials such as the King’s Mini Accelerator Weekend. Students can also attend workshops run by industry leaders to learn in an informal and welcoming environment. “Everyone’s path is not necessarily the same, but the opportunities are there for you,” says Bakshi. “There are so many ways that people can engage with entrepreneurship without even going on to become entrepreneurs”. Students have the choice of obtaining an Enterprise Award, which is included in their academic achievement record, through 25 hours of practical learning and 50 hours of reflection. Part of the practical learning experience may include getting involved in a student society or attending talks and other events. King’s start-ups are also helping to generate more interests amongst other students through hiring their peers as paid interns.The Support stream nurtures start-ups through the university’s Incubator (King’s Incubate) and future Accelerator programme. Once a start-up has been selected to work out of Incubate, it has access to a plethora of support services which includes an internal mentor, the Entrepreneur in Residence, and Masterclasses to help entrepreneurs develop specific skills. “These classes are taught by really reputable people within the industry.” Bakshi explains, “the sales [masterclass] is taught by someone from Microsoft, the media one is covered by a presenter from Sky News”. Incubate’s cohort also receives pitch training and trips to demo days at established accelerators. Although Entrepreneurship@King’s does not currently offer funding, the team is hoping to introduce funding options this September along with the opening of its new entrepreneurship space.The Build stream of Entrepreneurship@King’s supports current ventures to scale. There are already major success stories coming out of King’s ecosystem. Hackajob, an online platform that matches technical job seekers directly with employers, just secured half a million pounds worth of investments and are expanding. King’s PhD Alumnus Robin Knight from IN-PART, a start-up that connects academic research with industry decision makers, also secured £300,000 just a few days ago. The Alumni-run lingerie company Attollo, was featured in Vogue magazine last month and its founders are in talks with potential investors to help kickstart manufacturing.“The university allowed them to reduce costs, grow as much as they want, and pivot. It’s been a safe haven for them” continues Bakshi., “They have been great to offer peer-to-peer support to younger start-ups.”Timelens is one of the young start-ups accepted into the next cohort of King’s Incubate. Timelens is uniquely founded and run by undergraduate students. Jun Ming Yong, a first year Politics, Philosophy & Law student from Singapore is one of the founders and the Head of Innovation & Brand Strategy at Timelens. “I think Freshers Year is an opportune time for me to take risks to pursue my interest in entrepreneurship.” Yong’s co-founder Yu Kheng Pek, a Third Year Law student adds, the journey of entrepreneurship “teaches some very practical skills and develops and changes you as person. The way you approach problems and think about ideas is different.”One of the most challenging aspects of being a student entrepreneur is time management. The ability to juggle coursework and their business is a valuable skill that young founders can develop. Additionally, having courage and establishing legitimacy are also major challenges for these entrepreneurs, especially in the highly competitive and competent London start-up scene. Yong explains, “To embark on an entrepreneurial path is to take the road less taken; and that requires courage. Therefore the school really plays a big role by providing the right environment and support. If they don’t start programmes like Incubate, many entrepreneurs would find it extremely challenging because it’s the starting part, where there is much uncertainty, when you need someone to hold your hand.”For Yong, Pek, and many other student entrepreneurs coming to study from abroad, getting extra support from the university and tapping into its expansive network is key to their success. “One thing that was surprising about Entrepreneurship@King’s was just how forthcoming they were with their support…we asked [Entrepreneurship@King’s] for a letter of introduction which says that we have the university’s support when we approach other companies to convince them to give us a chance to talk to them, and they readily agreed” says Yong. Pek continues, “King’s grants us opportunities to expand our networks by allowing us to target relevant alumni with whom we can potentially collaborate on our projects with, which is helpful since our networks and channels in London are significantly smaller than that in our home country.”Timelens is expected to launch their mobile application this spring. “We have a lot of ideas about where we can take our business into the future. If we don’t succeed at first, then we can think about how to shift our strategy so we have a better chance at success. This is where the fun begins.”