Why did you choose to study Engineering?

My favourite subject at school from an early age was mathematics. I had an inclination towards numbers and disassembling my toys. I have always been very curious about how devices work, the physics behind the device and a detailed comprehension of the system. I undertook a National Diploma in Electronics Engineering at Lambeth Technical College in 1993 because of the practical content that OND’s and HND’s provided. I chose Engineering because I was really interested in studying logic, microprocessors, the physics behind the flow of currents, and applied and discrete mathematics. Most especially I loved to explore and to build and was inspired by the challenges. I was interviewed, tested and admitted on a BEng degree course by a Professor of Logic at Kings College London in 1996.

What did you choose your postgraduate field of study?

I worked in a consultancy for two years immediately after my first degree but did not feel challenged, I started to loose the buzz that motivated and inspired me. My work started to become a routine and I wanted to explore and learn more. I had interests in photography and I was fascinated by the field of computer vision and the research problems it faced. It was a great challenge and once again I became inspired. I chose to further my knowledge base and to secure more specialised expertise.

What has led you to make the decision to set up your own business?

Prior to choosing a postgraduate field of study, I freelanced for almost a year. I enjoyed the control, the salary, the freedom to make decisions, the speed of executing tasks and the flexibility that came along with a hit. My choice of a postgraduate field of study was the beginning of the journey. As part of my doctoral level engineering degree at University College London, I was encouraged to attend MBA level training at London Business School (LBS). This was an initiative by the Government through the Centre for Scientific Enterprise London (CSEL) to educate scientists and academics in the areas of business. I took pre-requisite courses in finance and accounting and similar to equip me with the knowledge to read a company’s financial report and be able to gauge and understand the operation and more. I attended a number of courses in Strategy, Economics, Operations and Entrepreneurship.  As part of the London Business School MBA courses entitled ‘New Venture Development’ and ‘New Technology Ventures’ introduced my research as a potential business case to LBS students. I took this opportunity and presented ‘Automatic Colour Correction’ and immediately I was approached by students from the business school who wanted to work on it.

I put together a team of two MBA’s and a PhD, and formed ‘PicsPlus’. The rest is history

What is your business idea?

I have developed the business concept, which I have called PicsPlus. It is an online photo management platform built on cutting edge and proprietary image enhancement technology. 

How have you been developing your idea?

During the last year I have taken part in the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship’s (NCGE) Fellows Programme, which is a scheme designed to help top students and postgraduate entrepreneurs from English universities that have excelled in engineering, science and technology advance their business ideas and further their enterprise skills.

The intense training scheme, supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a leading US organisation that advances entrepreneurship, combines both theoretical and practical learning to help develop the participants develop their entrepreneurial skills and as part of this I have been able to work on PicsPlus.

What did the Fellows programme entail?

The first six months took place in the UK. We had induction and preparation sessions covering enterprise and business skills such as Intellectual Property, Marketing and Finance. 

In January I went to the US with the other Fellows for coaching at the Ewing Marion Foundation from scholars and experts of entrepreneurship. After two months at the Foundation I attended Harvard and Stanford on study visits and covered business subjects including negotiations and networking skills, pitching techniques, business planning, intellectual property, government policies that support entrepreneurship, understanding aspects of venture development and the venture capital markets.

The last part of a programme was an internship at Google in its Labs as a Product’s Specialist engineer on Photo management systems such as Picasa and Picasa web album

What was the highlight of the programme?

Definitely the internship at Google, I was given the responsibility of a crucial role for the development and transformation of research into a product. I acquired invaluable web product design and user experience engineering skills during the placement through testing the usability of a product through user experience studies prior to an essential product launch. This shed light on the importance of key attributes of product development essential to keeping the competitive edge in an aggressive market segment. It was also an excellent learning environment to develop my business skills, in particular product development and business modelling. In return I was able to provide Google with added insight on the UK market place.

What is your essential advice to graduates thinking about setting up their own business?

It is important to be aware of the risks involved in setting up a business, aspiring entrepreneurs need to have the commitment and determination to face and overcome the many challenges which they will encounter in their journey to set up a business and it is essential to have the reserves to keep preserving.

What are essential skills for setting up your own business? Are these developed through engineering?

The importance of networking is undeniable, entrepreneurs are often thought to be ‘going it alone’ but in reality it is essential to keep making new contacts and maintaining those existing relationships as a strong network will greatly help your business develop, in this sense the Fellows programme has been fantastic.

Engineering equips graduates with a number of key skills which will help them as entrepreneurs. Engineering is a disciplined field of study, key skills acquired during the learning process show that to increasing the performance of a system or in problem shooting or solving scenario; a logical, analytical and systematic approach gives an added advantage that makes a huge difference.