My Work Today: NACUE (The National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs)

NACUE is a national organisation stimulating university enterprise by supporting university enterprise societies and student entrepreneurs across the UK. Launched in May 2009, NACUE already engages over 45 university enterprise societies, representing over 20,000 enterprising students.

View the NACUE 'In a Nutshell' PDF

NACUE aims to:

• support the sustainable development of university enterprise societies and student ventures
• inspire, educate and train university enterprise society leaders and student entrepreneurs
• connect university enterprise leaders and student entrepreneurs online and in person
• advocate for the increased support of student enterprise, both in individual universities and at a national level.

Programmes and services

NACUE are developing three programmes: NACUE Groups, NACUE Entrepreneurs and NACUE Ventures. The three programmes lines will work together to provide tangible online and offline support to young entrepreneurs across the UK through NACUE’s Regional Networks.

NACUE Groups

The objective of NACUE Groups is to provide enterprise societies and their leaders with the support, resources and network necessary to be more effective catalysts of entrepreneurship at their universities. Offerings include:

• Groups Online Portal connecting enterprise society leaders with their counterparts, equipping them with guidance documents and templates to lead their societies; mentoring and funding opportunities; management tools and resources; society profiles; a discussion forum; an e-newsletter, and an events calendar to aid university enterprise societies by enhancing knowledge sharing, collaboration and group management capacities.
• NACUE Development Fund & Resource Bank – NACUE intends to develop a fund and resource bank to support student enterprise societies across the UK.
• NACUE Mentorship Programme – NACUE student enterprise leaders will have the opportunity to be paired up with successful enterprise society leaders, local entrepreneurs and enterprise champions to provide personal and organisational mentorship.
• NACUE Enterprise Leaders Training Weekend - NACUE Members from across the UK convene annually for the weekend, where Presidents receive critical training and resources to help them to more effectively lead and manage their societies and meet and learn from their counterparts from across the country.
• NACUE Regional Events – NACUE will support university enterprise societies in running regional events to foster regional collaboration and inspire and inform enterprising young students within the region, including: Committee Training Day; Start-Up Bootcamp and Funding Panel.
• NACUE Varsity Enterprise Competition – Every year NACUE will run a national varsity enterprise competition, where the winners of university enterprise society competitions from across the UK will compete for the national title and seed funding for their ventures.
• Sponsorship of Enterprise Educators Award – The Student Enterprise Clubs & Societies Award sponsored by NACUE recognises the UK University Enterprise Society that most demonstrates excellence in promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship at their University and that has had the greatest impact in supporting and empowering student entrepreneurs and start-ups.
• Advocacy – In partnership with Make Your Mark, Entrepreneur Country and other partners, NACUE will undertake visual, audio and print advocacy campaigns for the increased support of student and university enterprise in the UK.

NACUE Entrepreneurs

A team of committed young entrepreneurs in Oxford are currently developing NACUE Entrepreneurs, which will bring together the confusing and fragmented enterprise support ecosystem to inform and make available opportunities, events and resources to young entrepreneurs.

• Entrepreneurs Portal – With the objective of providing young entrepreneurs across the UK with a one-stop shop for entrepreneurial inspiration, education and opportunities, we are developing a fun, informative and easy to use Entrepreneurs Portal, which will be a directory, resource bank and connecting point for enterprising students.
• E-Newsletter – Each week during the academic year NACUE will publish an e-newsletter to go out to the 20,000+ young entrepreneurs that are part of the NACUE network of groups to update them on the latest news, opportunities and events.

NACUE Ventures

In partnership with Cmypitch.com, NACUE is developing support for entrepreneurial ventures coming out of NACUE Groups to help them to get access to funds to support their ventures. An online directory will help student ventures to get funding through VC firms, business angel networks, mentoring organisations, etc. Every university enterprise society will have its own portal where it can showcase start-ups. Investors will be able to screen deal flow by university, amount sought, sector, video elevator pitches and our partners will target firms to support the ventures. High quality pitches will be invited to pitch to forums – e.g. Cmypitch.com Live and others. The university ventures will have the opportunity to compete in and exhibit their ventures at the regional and national NACUE Varsity Competitions.