
As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, I attended a number of events that left me feeling both inspired and passionate that now, more than ever, we need to step up.
Last Monday I was at The House of Lords celebrating The Enterprising Britain 2010 Awards, hosted by Lord Ahmed, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship. Mark Prisk, minister of state for business and enterprise, was also there. We heard about the achievements of the finalists and winners, all of whom demonstrated innovation, drive and commitment. On Thursday I attended an event at NESTA, Silicon Valley Comes to the UK. It was a fantastic opportunity for more than 100 UK entrepreneurs to meet with and learn from top business people from across the pond, including LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Mike Schroepfer, VP of engineering at Facebook and John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla. It was amazing to share challenges and questions, learn from each other and discuss themes such as recruitment, growth and financing.In the past five years, with one of the most challenging times in the global economy, we’ve grown our business, studentbeans.com, from two to 25 employees, signed up more than 500,000 registered users and established a brand. No easy feat – and the fact is that if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint hearted or for people that want to set up an idea on a whim – but the possibilities really are endless. Global Entrepreneurship Week is a phenomenal event, with more than ten million people participating in over 40,000 events, but the value and importance of entrepreneurship needs to go beyond just one week of the year.
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