GaBoom is a user-to-user video game exchange where you can get the games you want using the games you own by swapping them with other users. It was founded by Management student Jess Ratcliffe in her first year at Royal Holloway. Jess featured on the hit BBC TV show Dragons' Den in September 2010 and faced tough questions from potential investors.
Watch Jess battle the Dragons in the Den.
Jess told the Dragons the support she had received at Royal Holloway, one of the UK’s top destinations for student entrepreneurs, had been a critical factor in helping her to build her business. As a committee member of Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs, the student enterprise society, she has also inspired other students to follow their dreams. She also accessed the Business Clinic service available via Enterprise Lab.
A passionate gamer and entrepreneur, Jess has been working tirelessly since January 2010, to develop and launch her dream game-trading platform, GaBoom.co.uk. “We have developed a safe, easy and unique way of trading games online; providing users, not only with our automatic user-matching system but two secure and insured postage options to take the hassle and risk out of trading their games online.” says Jess.
Despite the presence of practical science work on the National Curriculum, many schools do not have the financial nor physical resources to carry it out, lacking equipment, technicians and space. Often experiments are simply demonstrated to the students or the students plan a hypothetical experiment and analyze fictional results.
Using laboratory techniques to bring the curriculum to life, Dizzy Science brings genuine, exciting science to the classroom and a fresh understanding of real-world science to teens, cementing a passion for science in the scientists of tomorrow. Dizzy Science take all equipment, chemicals and worksheets into schools so there is no need for parents and teachers to spend time travelling with groups to Unversity open days or museums.
Dizzy Science are Safina Khan, a Research Technician, and Charis Cook, a Ph.D student in the Department of Biological Sciences. They have worked with Desborough School in Maidenhead, Little Echoes Day Nursery in Egham and Montem Infant School in Slough.
Dizzy Science won an Enterprise Minigrant competition at Royal Holloway, are tenants of Enterprise Lab and have received advice via Business Clinic.
For more information or to book Dizzy Science contact Safina Khan.
SkillSwop (formerly StudyBuddy) provides students with the opportunity to exchange a skill they want, such as the ability to speak a particular language, with a 'buddy' who is offering that skill. Students can sign up via their University and request a buddy or may use the SkillSwop website to create a personal profile, find a buddy online, send messages, mentor online, and participate in peer-led learning forums.
SkillSwop began life as an idea written on post-it note on the wall of Luka Blackman-Gibbs. The former classics student, who co-wrote The Fresher's Guide - a complete guide to starting university, subsequently became the President of Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs. So far, she has won several competitions including the national Startup Smart awards and an Enterprise Minigrant. Luka is now a tenant of Enterprise Lab and regularly uses the Business Clinic service offered by the Careers Serrvice..
Visit the SkillSwop website to find out more.
Jottify (formerly eNovella) is a social network for creative writers. It is a community for writers to share their work, experiences and feedback. Jotiffy understands that there are as many paths to publication as there are writers, and provide tools to make the journey easier for everyone. The site has featured in the Evening Standard and Daily Telegraph newspapers and was awarded five stars by Web User magazine.
Jottify was founded by Jack Lenox, a Classics student at Royal Holloway, following advice he received in a Business Clinic session. Jack subsequently became the President of Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs for the 2009-10 academic year.
In his first year at Royal Holloway, Jack started The Founder newspaper, and has maintained a keen interest in journalism and publishing since then, culminating in the launch of Jottify.
Visit the Jottify website to read others' work and to publish your own, or listen to a podcast in which Jack describes his entrepreneurial journey.