Young & Ambitous
What’s it like to be a young and ambitious entrepreneur? Three Virgin Media Pioneers share their experiences and explain why they think the recession is the best time to start a business
Hermione Taylor The DoNation
Hermione is the founder of The DoNation, a charitable-giving website that replaces cash with action. On a gruelling cycle ride from London to Morocco, she came up with the idea. Instead of asking for sponsorship money, she asked friends and family to commit to carbon saving tasks, like going meat-free for a few days a week, or washing their clothes at 30°C. Her sponsors saved over 16 tonnes of CO2, and the feedback she received made her realise that she could take the idea further. The DoNation website lets people support their friends without parting with cash and Hermione hopes that through social networks, her site will promote positive, proactive environmental messages to millions of people.
What are the challenges of starting your own business? The main one was raising enough money to get it off the ground. But
the reason I came up with the idea of sponsorship with action was that I didn’t like asking people for money, and so it’s kind of a given that I’d struggle with that (very important) bit.
What are you looking forward to achieving with your business? Well, launching it, for starters! The real reason I’m setting up The DoNation is to encourage people to live more sustainable lives, to help make sure that our kids have a decent planet to live on. What am I looking forward to achieving? Seeing millions of people become inspired and educated to live more sustain- ably through using The DoNation.
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 is all about busting myths about entrepreneurs. In starting your business what key things have you discovered?
need an MBA to set up a business, that you just need a great idea, passion, and a hell of a lot of determination. And resilience. If you have those, the rest will follow.
What would you say to someone who has had a business idea, but hasn’t taken the steps to start it? While I’ve found getting financial support relatively tough, getting in-kind support has been amazing. There are some great people out there willing to lend a hand or an ear to young entrepreneurs who are bold enough to go out there and follow their dreams, and their support has been invaluable. The British Library Business and IP Centre, UnLtd, Business Link as well as my personal contacts were all amazing resources. Use them.
I discovered that you definitely don’t
What’s it like to be a Virgin Media Pioneer?
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