Entrepreneurs Return
Warden Dr Sir Michael Jacobs welcoming Keble Alumni and friends to the Michaelmas Entrepreneurs Evening.
This October, alumni and friends gathered in London over drinks and nibbles for our highly anticipated Entrepreneurs Evening, the first to happen in person since the pandemic. We were kindly hosted by Adam Turtle (1998) at Rede Partners Offices in Mayfair, where we listened to three inspiring presentations given by Keble entrepreneurs Ishveen Jolly (2003 Economics and Management), John Vardakis (2009 Healthcare Innovation) and Nick Greenhalgh (2019 MBA).
The event began with Nick, co- founder and CEO of Luca, a mental health screening and prevention start-up for professional and elite university athletes, who gave a comprehensive overview of his app, how it works and why his work is so important. The app uses constant data collection from multiple sources, and evaluation using AI, resulting in early symptom identification, alerting the user. Nick gave some very useful advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, advocating for resilience, patience and teamwork.
Nick Greenhalgh (2019) introduced Luca, a mental health screening and prevention start-up for professional and elite university athletes
Our second speaker, Ishveen, founder and CEO of OpenSponsorship, the largest two-sided marketplace for sports sponsorship which helps connect brands to athletes, spoke about her experiences of building her business, and how she was motivated by a love of sports cultivated by her time at Keble. She gave interesting insight into the differences between growing her business in the UK compared to the US, as well as some very motivating words given to those contemplating starting their own business in the room.
John, the final speaker of the evening, and head of science and investment at Science Card, the UK’s first e-money current account dedicated to accelerating scientific research and innovation, gave a wide-ranging presentation on his experience of setting up a bank with specific aims. These missions are: achieving net zero, curing cancer and improving health care, ensuring healthy oceans and inland waters, building carbon-neutral smart cities, and improving soil health and food. Science Card invests in high-impact scientific research, and lends to sustainable businesses aligned with these missions. John told us about how the idea was born, as well as the structure of his team; a unique mix of scientists and bankers.
All our attendees thoroughly enjoyed the event: if you would like to attend our next Entrepreneurs Evening, it will be held in Keble at the end of Hilary Term (date tbc). Thank you so much to our excellent speakers this term. If you are an alumnus/a with entrepreneurial experience, and would like to present at one of our events, please get in touch at alumni.events@keble.ox.ac.uk. We would love to hear from you.
