At the University of St Andrews Enterprise Week 2019 – Keynote Event, Dr Tanya Ewing, Owner of Glaze & Save, Daniel Malikzade-Afshar, Founder of Yes!Cab, Graeme Carling of Carling Property Group, PRS Group, United Capital, Infinitas Investments & CEO, McGill, Juno Lee, Co-Founder of CombiniCo & Sagar Kuma Sharma, Founder of the Angel Group, shared their entrepreneurial journeys, lessons learned and advice for anyone considering their own venture.
The evening began with a candid account from Dr Tanya, who shared the troubles she faced in her early life and how she overcame these challenges to develop her highly successful career with Ewgeco, the first smart real-time utility meter in the UK, and her new business Glaze & Save – insulating products for doors and windows, mainly focused on improving energy efficiency in listed and conservation properties.
Graeme Carling was just as candid about his business journey – admitted to making mistakes in early businesses before going on to build his large and successful portfolio of businesses. A key message was the need to adapt to changing markets – a very important lesson in today’s economic and political climate.
Journey
Juno Lee gave a very interesting and enlightening description of his journey to creating the iconic CombiniCo food brand and his future plans for the business. The audience enjoyed hearing his stories and challenges he faced.
Daniel Malikzade-Afshar gave a comic yet educational talk in a laidback style with insights into the challenges and surprises he came across when establishing the Yes!Cab taxi app. It was very interesting learning about his unique business model and his plans to grow the brand while diversifying against his major competitor, Uber.
The evening concluded with Sagar Kumar Sharma, a student entrepreneur with a colourful career already including investments, property and music. Sagar took a different approach to the others – taking of the importance of pursuing a career you enjoy, which develops you as a person and philanthropy.
Thanks to them, the Enterprise Week Committee and everyone who attended for making this such a great event at the Byre Theatre.
Student Club
Stanley Parker, one of the club’s marketing communications interns, took the opportunity of this event to announce the launch of the new student business club – St Andrews Business Club Students!
For more photos, go to the Album on our Facebook page.
NEXT EVENT: The Club’s next event is October 23: Structured Networking.
