The original upstart

I'm Christian Jakenfelds - the 21 year old founder of Student Upstarts. Changing the way students see their opportunities, first in London, then the world. Love London, technology and Chelsea FC. Follow @Jakenfelds on twitter !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

[jakenfelds]

Interview on Gradpreneur

Matthew and I were interviewed for the Gradpreneur website on our backgrounds and Student Upstarts.

You can read it here: http://gradpreneur.net/knowledge/interviews/fund-your-start-up-with-student-upstarts-132.html

Bigs thanks to Raspinder over at Gradpreneur.

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“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.”

Banksy

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Chalfont and Latimer Station Around March this year. 

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The power of competition

Recently my friend got me to download "Temple Run" to my iPhone. It is a game where there is no finish line nor are there levels. It just went to show me how apps and games can target our innate need to compete to get us to use them.

I get no enjoyment from the game, and it is prime example of the kind of app you use on the underground. No internet connection, so you do something that can fill the 5-10 minute journey. The thought of playing the game doesn't cross your mind until you are stuck somewhere staring at your now internet impotent phone.

However, Alex and I have created an ongoing competition on who can get the top score.We have no interest in actually doing well in the game, just in beating each other and the pleasure that brings. The bragging, the banter...and that's about it. Nothing good comes from winning, other than that feeling of beating the other person. 

This helped crystallise for me the power of competition engrained in humans. We often don't care about doing well at something, we care about beating others. Michael Shermer did a great job of explaining how this relates to jealousy in his Jan 08 article:

Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same.

Surprisingly — stunningly, in fact — research shows that the majority of people select the first option; they would rather make twice as much as others even if that meant earning half as much as they could otherwise have. How irrational is that?

I don't think it is irrational it all. We look to those around us to find our standing. James Altucher nailed it in his Jan 2011 article on 'What it feels like to be rich":

After all, I thought, if I could make 10 million dollars then it must be too easy. In fact, I honestly thought, everyone else had probably already made 11 million dollars. So then I felt poor again. I now needed 100 million dollars to be happy. I drove in a car with a friend of a mine and his wife. I said, "everyone has 10 million dollars now." She quickly said, "not everyone".

The reason we can be successful, and as a species have achieved so much is because of our ability to not be happy with what he have and to be able to see the long term achievements we are capable of. The issue is then, once we have achieved them, is we look around and realise that was just one step.

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Here is a copy of the article the Sunday Times ran on Sunday 8th April 2012 about Student Upstarts.

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Business Planning

Yesterday I spoke at Westminster Kingsway College on Business Plan Generation. You can find the presentation here.

The main takeaway point was that business plans are your business in isolation. They are for you to map out how you see your business going, but you have to realise, your business won't follow this perfect path!

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A sign of real quality and pride in your product. 

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So. I turned 21 yesterday, and in an obviously planned celebration, the Sunday Times has written a great article on Student Upstarts. The above is how my mom reacted.

The Times has a pay wall but I will throw up a pdf of the article in the coming weeks.

Thank you for everyone that has been involved in getting Student Upstarts this far. I can't wait to see what we can achieve next.

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4th April 2012

Champions League QF 2nd leg

Chelsea 2 - 1 Benfica

Chelsea were looking comfortable 2 nil up on aggregate until the 85th minute when Benfica scored a header from a corner. However, Meireles then stormed down the other end in the 90th minute to make it final, Chelsea are into the Champions League semi-finals.

Meireles showed he particularly enjoyed the goal, he used to play for Porto - the rivals of Benfica. 

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In the next week Student Upstarts will be written up in a pretty major newspaper.

Here are some of our Upstarts prepping for the photo shoot. It brings out the diva in everyone.

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Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.

- Bill Murray in Groundhog Day

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Our Upstarts pitched at DFJ Esprit today!

Thanks for Jonathan Freuchet Sibilia and Oli Ashness from DFJ for organising with us and giving the companies a real grilling.

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Upstarts were in the the Imperial student newspaper - Felix - this week.

A thanks from all us at upstarts to Paolo Strampelli of Imperial Entrepreneurs for interviewing us and writing a great article.

[jakenfelds]

March 14th 2012

Champions League Final 16 2nd Leg

Chelsea 4 - 1 Napoli

Chelsea went into the game 3-1 down on aggregate. They were able to have the 2nd leg be at 3-1 at full time to take us into ET. Cometh the hour, cometh the man - Branislav Ivanovic turns up in the penalty area to turn a Drogba cross into the roof of the net and cause the crowd at the Bridge to erupt in the 105th minute. Final score 4-1 (5-4 agg). Sending Chelsea to the QFs.

Possibly the best game I have ever seen at Stamford Bridge.

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The question isn't who's going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

- Ayn Rand

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I was at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress last week thanks to an invite from NACUE and Intuit.

Was able to see Sir. Richard Branson speak. Incredibly modest man considering what he has achieved.

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Saw Eric Ries speak at the LSE a few months back and realised in the queue to meet him that him just signing his book wouldn't really mean that much to me. So I asked for something that would make the book be something I could never dare to part with. Massive thanks to Eric for being a good sport and doing it.

How many of you guys have got a signed note from a Harvard entrepreneur-in-residence calling himself your biggest fan? I didn't think so!