Success stories from Global Entrepreneurship Week

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) celebrates entrepreneurs at a local, national and global level.

Virgin Media Pioneers supported entrepreneurs during GEW 2016 by hosting five days of immersive masterclasses. The masterclasses focused on a range of skills, from perfect pitching to building a stand-out brand. Led by influential panel members from a range of businesses this was the perfect platform for small businesses to connect with potential collaborators and develop their skills.

We finished the week with a competition for attendees to show how they had put their learnings into action to make their businesses grow. We recently checked in with the entrepreneurs that had some of the most inspiring stories from this competition, to find out how we’d helped them to grow their business over the last 4 months.


Chuku’s

The founders of Chuku’s - the world’s first Nigerian tapas lounge - Emeka and Ifeyinwa Frederick, were the winners of our GEW competition. These Virgin Media Pioneers used the social media buzz our masterclasses created and their competition win to boost their brand’s presence online. Chuku’s social media activity caught the eye of London Live, London’s TV station.

The TV station invited Emeka and Ifeyinwa to do their first ever TV interview which gave a huge boost to the awareness of their brand and helped to put Nigerian dishes firmly on London’s foodie map.


Cocolem

Virgin Media Pioneer’s GEW masterclasses weren’t just about helping established entrepreneurs. The week was also designed to support and encourage entrepreneurs with an idea they had not yet built into a business. Up-and-coming entrepreneur, Roshanne Dorsett, founder of vegan lip balm brand Cocolem, was one such attendee who was chosen as our Pioneer of the Week after actively engaging with Virgin Media Pioneers on social media following GEW.

As our Pioneer of the Week, Roshanne asked Virgin Media Pioneers to help find her a mentor. Through the power of the Virgin Media Pioneers community and the prestige associated with being a member of the Virgin Media Pioneers Community, Samantha Park, a panellist from one of the GEW events connected with Roshanne and has been mentoring her ever since.


The week was a great success for the Virgin Media Pioneers community, both for experienced and new members. I personally really enjoyed hearing about the benefits the week gave our members and I’m looking forward to planning our 2017 GEW activity!  

Click here to find out more about GEW.