OS Entrepreneurship Forum

On Wednesday 7 December we welcomed four Old Sennockians back to the school to join the panel at our Forum on Entrepreneurship. Alice Driver (OS 1999), Inigo Weston (OS 2007), Victor Dillard (OS 2006) and Anthony Lunch (OS 1963) are all successful entrepreneurs who talked about the challenges and hurdles they had encountered and needed to overcome. We heard how Alice and Victor’s ideas were shunned and rejected at first, and how important perseverance and resilience were to get their ideas accepted. We heard how it is critical to find the people who will believe in you, and help you take your idea to fruition, and to realise that the people who don’t believe in the potential of your idea you can be very wrong.

Victor has proved that now he is targeting a $600 billion industry which he was told was not a commercial market. Victor and Alice talked about the importance and value of receiving support from those around you, be it from business partners, or your family and friends. Inigo talked about setting up Quiet Rebellion, an internet-based Sock Company whilst working another full-time job. He highlighted the need for passion, commitment and dedication.

It was fascinating to hear how he developed his concept for quirky socks as a response to the extremely conservative clothing (and plain boring socks) he is required to wear in the finance industry, and how this gave birth to a fantastic brand and marketing messages around freeing the ‘inner rebel’.

Anthony Lunch talked about his early entrepreneurial endeavours, and then his experience moving from corporate endeavours, to the non-profit sector, and the differences involved in setting up volunteer programmes in the developing world. There was a strong turnout from both students and parents, and a wealth of budding entrepreneurs who left feeling more knowledgeable about entrepreneurship, as well as inspired by the stories they had heard.

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