THEHUB O
ne of the key speakers at the forthcoming Chamber Expo is Simon Jenner, who describes himself as an ‘entrepreneur and innovator’.
And if you look at his CV, that’s certainly the picture that emerges –
he gets involved with fledgling businesses and ideas (either his own or other people’s), gets them off the ground – and then moves on to something else. At the moment, his chief business venture is a chain of coffee shops,
Urban Coffee Company, which has three shops in Birmingham and one in Coventry. He’s been running that with his business partner for about four
years, and the business now has a turnover of £1m. But he’s already looking at new ventures, and one of them is drones. “It’s a massive growth market – they will be used to deliver parcels, and will affect everything we do,” he said.
‘I HAVE LOTS OF EXPERIENCE SEEING LOTS OF PEOPLE’S SUCCESSES AND MISTAKES’
Simon describes himself as an honorary Brummie, as although he originates from Cambridgeshire he has been based in the Midlands since the turn of the century. That actually coincided with a change of career – it was at that time
that he left the employment of British Telecom, where he had worked in research and development, to do a tour of Bosnia with the Army (he was a reservist), after which he joined an American technology consultancy. It was at that point that he thought: “I could do that” – and left to
form his own technology company, at 26. “It was about network security, protecting banks and large
organisations from hacking, which hasn’t gone away but has got worse,” he said. “I sold that company to a larger IT business in 2008 – it was not a
massive business, but it did have a turnover of £1m. “After that, I branched out into other areas, including starting the
coffee branches – that was at the height of the recession, but I thought: ‘If we can survive now, we can survive anything’.” At the same time, he was also becoming interested in helping
develop start-up businesses, particularly those in the technology sector. He became involved both from an investment point of view, but also
as a mentor, and worked with many businesses during the next five years. Among the businesses he worked with was a fashion app, which
rated shoes as ‘hot’ or ‘not’, and another dealing with new ways of buying and selling houses, and a third involved online poetry. “I have lots of experience seeing lots of people’s successes and mistakes, and worked with a broad range of technology businesses and
Venture mentor: Entrepreneur Simon Jenner, one of the key speakers at Chamber Expo
YOUR FOUR-PAGE WHAT’S ON AT GREATER BIRMINGHAM CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
PULL-OUT GUIDE TO RECENT AND FORTHCOMING CHAMBER EVENTS
SIMON TO PUT THE FOCUS ON INNOVATION
provided support and help to them,” he said. “That’s why my talk at the Expo will be focused on ‘innovate or die’.” There will be other speakers taking part in the Expo’s free seminar
programme. These will include representatives from a business development
consultancy and a creative agency. The Expo takes place on 14 August at the National Motorcycle
Museum at Solihull. The event is open to all businesses though entry to the seminars will be restricted to Chamber members only.
BIRMINGHAM CHAMBER EVENTS PARTNERS
For information on how to become a Chamber Events partner, contact the Events Team by email at
events@birmingham-chamber.com or call 0121 607 1772.
JULY/AUGUST 2015 CHAMBERLINK 25
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