CAMentrepreneurs Guest Interview with Joshua Lim, President Elect of CUE
Richard Lucas - CAMentrepreneurs Founder
This newsletter is one of a series of interviews with important figures in our pro- entrepreneurship eco system.
Interview with Joshua Lim, President of Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE)
Richard: Please introduce yourself, any businesses/projects you are involved in, how and why you became the President of CUE.
Joshua: I’m honoured to be writing on behalf of current Cambridge students and entrepreneurs! First off, huge thanks to Richard for putting in the work and effort to bridge current students and our established alumni. I truly believe there is a wealth of experience, knowledge, (and suffering) that you as alumni have that us as young aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from!
I became the President of CUE after first joining last year. The year 2023/24 year started out electric, with our Oxbridge AI Challenge which brought 80 startups from Oxford (ugh!) and Cambridge to battle for a £50,000 top prize. Our final was held in a beautiful auditorium along the Thames hosted by our sponsor JP Morgan. The room was filled with cutting edge use-cases of Artificial Intelligence, early-stage investors including VCs, researchers, and students. More importantly, each start-up entrepreneur there had made the conscious decision during their degrees to chart their own paths, become their own boss, and add value to the world in their own unique way. I was so amazed we had pulled this first event off. I was addicted.
Over the next months, we put in place an accelerator programme, multiple pitch competitions, co-founder matchmaking sessions bringing together best entrepreneurs from Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, LSE, and more.
My role is focused on building the right partnerships for CUE, connecting current or aspiring entrepreneurs through our platform, and provide resources to ramp-up students for a life of entrepreneurship! I believe in the unique value each human brings to the world and our goal at CUE is to bring the best out in our community and give them the tools to succeed.
A little bit about me though, I am 24, Singaporean, and approaching my final year reading HSPS. I am deeply curious about frontier tech (AI, blockchain, future tech) and believe in its ability to democratise information and capital. I co-run a liquid web3 directional trading fund which is currently set up in Dubai. I think there is so much power and potential in Generation Z, which we need guidance and mentorship to unlock.
Richard: Please introduce CUE for someone who doesn’t know about it, its purpose, scale, activities and governance.
Joshua: There are 3 core purposes to CUE:
1) Entrepreneurial Spirit - To instil a passion for entrepreneurship.
At the heart of all our programmes and initiatives is the desire to promote and empower Cambridge University students to pursue entrepreneurial careers.
We believe at the heart of every entrepreneur is the courage to break away from the mould.
We want to demystify the path to becoming a founder and provide the tools for them to succeed.
2) Community - To nurture a community of entrepreneurs and promote entrepreneurship as a next step after University. We provide a safe space for like-minded individuals to build, learn, and connect.
Our Co-Founder matching platform/database gives founders visibility and connects them to a potential co-founder. We host in-person events to facilitate this as well.
We provide a network of VCs, Angels, and sponsors to entrepreneurs that are seeking advisory or funding.
Frequent socials (pub trips, formals) to bring the community together.
3) Resource - To enable our community to excel.
We host pitch competitions that launchpad entrepreneurs through both funding and network.
We facilitate technical and business mentorship through our term-long accelerator as well as weekly “build stations” (starting October 2024).
Governance:
CUE boasts a fully student-run committee with backing from the University. Organisationally, we run on a flat structure in which all members, including its committee, are equally respected but given responsibilities and decision-making capabilities based on level of contribution.
The committee serves the community by organising a variety of events and initiatives, which are vehicles for us to deliver value to our community.
The committee is elected by the President and Vice-President to ensure alignment of vision and quality execution of objectives.
Richard: What is the vision for CUE ? What of its existing mission do you want to sustain/change, and what opportunities do you see for growth and development?
Joshua: The vision for CUE this year is to establish Cambridge University as an entrepreneurship hub. We do this by working closely with the University’s entrepreneurship network to create longevity. We also do so through collaborations with other UK universities.
What we can definitely improve on is to establish long-term partnerships and sponsors that we can add tangible value to, created over a sustained period. This provides us the runway to execute events and programmes in a “series” fashion, which would mean more face-time for relationships to be nurtured between students and partners.
The opportunity this year for us is discovering technical talent. I really think our build stop (same day/time every week, advisors or alumni present to provide guidance, snacks included) has huge potential in providing a conducive/productive environment for builders to build away. We can also use this chance to host distinguished alumni, investors, and speakers to engage our community. Pub trip after also sounds like a healthy way to end the evening!
Richard: There are many entrepreneurship related activities going on in Cambridge: What differentiates CUE ?
Joshua: Cambridge University Entrepreneurs is differentiated by its history and diversity. We encompass all forms of entrepreneurship - Health, tech, education, finance, legal, and more.
We believe strongly in collaborating with other societies to deliver our best to our ecosystem. In fact, over 80% of last year’s events were collaboration events with societies like CUTEC, Cambridge Blockchain Society, Oxford AI, and more. Each collaboration is grounded on our shared beliefs of promoting and empowering entrepreneurs!
Richard: What are the main challenges and how do you intend to address them ?
Joshua: There are 2 main challenges:
Longevity. There is a high churn rate for all societies and each societies’ performance may depend largely on the quality of committee, which differs each year.
Our founder nexus (database) which connects past CUE and current CUE
Partnership with the University to ensure flagship events and administrative processes are handed over efficiently.
I would love to hear any suggestions as well!
Sponsors for 24/25. We are kick-starting our sponsorship outreach mid-August!
We want to establish long-term partnerships so that we can:
Provide sustained value-add to partners
Students can develop their network or pursue careers with our trusted partners
Richard: Can you share a bit about CUE finances? What are your main revenue sources? Are there any prominent entrepreneurs or sponsors you want to thank?
Joshua: Absolutely! CUE’s finances are managed by our senior treasurer, Florian, who’s a faculty member. These funds are used primarily for running of socials, all other events (hackathons, competitions, founder matchings) have been made possible through the generosity of our sponsors!
Warm thank you to a few of our key sponsors:
Microsoft
JP Morgan
Keltie
Digital Realty
Marcho Partners
Stability.AI
The Alan Turing Institute
Richard: CUE is known for hosting competitions. What are the main benefits of this focus?
Joshua: We are known mainly for hosting competitions but there is honestly so much more that we do. At the heart of all our events is truly community building and provision of resources and tools. Competitions like the Oxbridge AI Challenge 2024 are vehicles which we use to deliver value to our community.
Over the past year, we have delivered talks with leading AI companies, all-expenses paid trips to conferences, founder matching programmes, accelerators, and more!
Richard: Moving onto marketing, how do you make sure that students know about CUE, and the benefits of engaging?
Joshua: Instagram is a huge platform for us! As the adage goes: Go where the customer is. However, this has drawbacks for us in terms of connecting with alumni and partners, so we also utilise LinkedIn to do outreach!
Richard: How do CUE manage quality control over events?
Joshua: An event for us has to do either or all of 3 things
1) Facilitate organic connections
2) Help someone learn something new
3) Be lots of fun.
I am proud to say that our events have always delivered on these 3 fronts and will strive to do so! The alumni is always welcome to join us and we will be sending invitations through CamEntrepreneurs in the near future.
Richard: You have been active as an entrepreneur as well as working for other people. Please tell us more and what attracts you to this entrepreneurship in general ?
Joshua: Entrepreneurship for me is about believing in something and taking the steps to build it in hopes that it brings value to others. I also jumped into entrepreneurship because I wanted to take the risk in my first 2-3 years of my career (hey, a good portfolio carries 2-3% of risk-on products as well).
Richard: What does your Singaporean experience bring in terms of international perspectives to your role at CUE. What can we learn from the Singaporean experience ?
Joshua: God Bless Singapore!
Singapore is a country that came from nothing and could not afford to fail. Singapore is an entrepreneur that built a great product, built an amazing network, and works really hard to make it all work out. With its small population (like having a really lean startup team haha), it had to be resourceful. However, this also meant agility and being able to reimagine what a city-state of the future would look like.
Richard: How do you assess the Cambridge business and startup “ecosystem”. What’s going well and what still needs improvement.
Cambridge was recently named the number 1 location in the UK for AI and business. We have the infrastructure and organisations in place, I believe what we need now is to nurture our top talent.
Over the past year, we have united more than 500 members and 80 startups. We have also provided job opportunities for students in startups or related fields. We want to continue building on this in a more structured manner, managed by distinct guilds.
What needs to be improved is definitely reaching out to students that might be tucked away building and to value-add to their journey. We do so with hackathons to attract technical talent.
Richard: What advice would you give someone who has recently arrived in Cambridge, is interested in entrepreneurship and doesn’t know who to talk to or what to do?
Joshua: Cambridge is one of the most exciting places to be in and its rich history means rich network too. If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, I would love to connect on LinkedIn (Joshua Lim Yao Hong), our instagram @cambridgentrepreneurs or through our open WhatsApp chat!
Richard Many thanks, I hope we can do at least one event together during your time as leader.
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