Reuben College Entrepreneurship Forum

14 September 10:00 to 15 September 16:00
St Catherine's College

The inaugural Reuben College Entrepreneurship Forum will take place in the Bernard Sunley Theatre at St Catherine’s College on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th September 2023.

The Forum is fully integrated with the University’s entrepreneurship activities through its Enterprise Hub. The highlight of Day 1 is a keynote speech from Mike Moore, who is the Director General of the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA). The full programme can be seen below.

Between 60 and 70 graduate students have been invited to attend the Forum, selected from across the whole University, including 8-10 teams for a pitching competition on Day 2, with a first prize of £40k and a second prize of £20k. These teams will have been pre-selected from the Business School’s Entrepreneurship Project and Venture Builder competitions and from the Oxford University Innovation (OUI) summer boot camp for student entrepreneurs.

The conference report for the event can now be read here.

 

Day 1

The first day of the Forum will start with opening talks about seed funding; then we will hear from CEOs who started their companies as Oxford students, and we will go further afield during the afternoon session.

09:00: Registration and coffee (Bernard Sunley Foyer)

09:45: Welcome and Introduction (Lionel Tarassenko) (Lecture Theatre)

10:00: Session 1 (Seed funding)

  1. Adam Workman: “Crossing the Artic Tundra” (Oxford University Innovation)
  2. Katya Smirnyagina (Oxford Sciences Enterprise)
  3. George Robinson (Oxford Technology and Innovations Fund)
  4. Brooks Newmark: “To seed or not to seed, that is the question” (Investor and former Minister)
  5. Panel 1 with Adam, Katya, George and Brooks chaired by Lionel Tarassenko

11.30: Tea/Coffee break (Bernard Sunley Foyer)

11:50: Session 2 (Companies started by Oxford students)

  1. Lily Elsner: “Jack Fertility’s better way” (CEO & Co-founder, Jack Fertility)
  2. Phelim Bradley: “The only unbreakable rule of start-ups” (CEO & Co-founder, Prolific)
  3. David Sherwood (CEO & Co-founder, BibliU)
  4. Panel 2 with Lily, Phelim and David, chaired by Stuart Wilkinson

12.55 Lunch (Dining Hall)

 

14:00 Session 3 (Beyond Oxford)

  1. James Dancer: “Building applied AI ventures at scale” (Executive Director, Helsing AI)
  2. Barbara Domayne-Hayman: “From biotech to data-driven health technologies” (KQ Labs Chair, Crick Institute)
  3. Vishal Gulati: “Deep technologies for health” (Healthtech VC)
  4. Andy Thompson: “Successful entrepreneurship, from the UK to Silicon Valley”
  5. Introduction to Panels 3 and 4, Charlie Curtis

15.30: Tea break (Bernard Sunley Foyer)

16:00: Session 4 (Reflections and Q&A)

  1. Panel 3 with one representative from each of the pitching teams, chaired by Charlie Curtis (What is the most important lesson you have learned in your journey as an ‘Oxford entrepreneur’ so far? What’s the most useful insight that you have gained from the Forum today?)
  2. Panel 4 with James, Barbara, Vishal and Andy, chaired by Charlie Curtis

17:00: Session 5 (Keynote Lecture)

  • Michael Moore, BVCA Director General

Dinner at Pitt Rivers Museum on Thursday evening for the pitching teams plus Day 1 speakers.

 

Day 2

9:30: Session 6

The second day will feature the pitching competition all morning, with each team of pre-selected students pitching their start-up ideas to the judging panel for 10 minutes. They are expected to cover the following topics: What is the product or service? Why is important? What is the beachhead market? Why should a fund invest now?

They will then have 10 minutes of questions from a Panel chaired by Pam Garside, Chair of Cambridge Angels. Other members of the Panel will be Vishal Gulati, Andy Thompson, Sanne de Jongh (OSE) and Barbara Domayne-Hayman.

14:00: Session 7 – Expert Clusters

Immediately after lunch, there will be a networking event in the Bernard Sunley Foyer, while the judging panel is deliberating elsewhere. This will have six thematic areas, targeted at those graduate students who were not involved in the pitching competition: Life Sciences (Sanne de Jongh), Fintech (Pinar Ozcan, SBS), climate tech (Charlie Curtis), sustainability in FMCG (Carrie Lomas), AI (James Dancer) and health tech (George Savage).

15:00: Session 8

Announcement of the winners of the pitching competition, concluding with drinks and canapes. The winners will receive a prize of £40k and the runners-up a prize of £20k.