Opening up new opportunities

Building a network of connections, supporters and contacts is vital to an entrepreneur’s success. NEF+ runs an extensive and varied events schedule that brings together different members of our exceptional and diverse community. They are a great way to share experiences, make meaningful connections and build your personal network.

 

NEF+ Alumni Summer Party 2022

 

We hosted our annual alumni summer party event on 9th August. Almost a hundred members from our NEF+ alumni network joined us for our summer party at IDEA London.

We got to catch up with NEFers across all our cohorts (including our first in 2012!), reflecting on how far NEF+ has come and what’s in store for us.

With every new cohort, NEF+ can only get stronger as we continue putting new and experienced entrepreneurial leaders across all walks of life, industries and backgrounds in the same rooms – and this event was a great reminder of such.

 

NEF+’s Recruitment Mixer with Maud Millar (2019)

 

On 26th July 2022 we hosted a NEF+ recruitment mixer, gathering a mix iof NEF+ alumni, current participants, and incoming September cohort – as we tuned in to Maud Millar‘s story to building Adapt App.

Maud dropped many pearls of wisdom – from what to think about before giving away equity, to finding your first customers, to reaching out to c-suite leaders for market research.

 

CFE’s latest speaker event: In conversation with Brent Hoberman, serial entrepreneur and investor.

 

On 6th December, we had the pleasure of bringing Brent Hoberman, CBE together with our network for a special event hosted by Home Grown. Brent shared his learnings (“always aim to be a talent magnet”) from building lastminute.com, Founders Forum, and many more businesses, ending with a piece of advice for all the entrepreneurs in the room – “…stay foolishly ambitious. Be comfortable with failure and keep going.”

 

CFE’s NEF alumni donor event

Some of our NEF alumni with our Co-founder Dee Stirling (left) and our CEO Neeta Patel (front right)

 

In September 2021, we hosted a donor reception at the Portland Gallery in central London and were joined by a number of our alumni founders (founders from a range of NEF cohorts – from 2012 to 2020). It was great to see so many familiar faces in person again – and introducing them to many of our corporate donors and supporters.

 

NEF+ 2021 cohort’s summer graduation 

 

Coming out of a long year of restrictions, we celebrated our 2020 and 2021 cohorts at our NEF+ graduation party. Prize winners were announced and we congratulated Sofija Daceva who was awarded our chairman’s prize, Alexander Dobb who won our CEO’s award, Edward Ashton Johnson for the Fellows award, Cameron Kavanagh was presented the New Entrepreneur award and George TakTak who received the Entrepreneurial Spirit award. 

The graduation party was our first gathering since 2019 and it was great to see so many familiar faces in the same room again. We look forward celebrating the graduation of our future NEF+ cohorts!

 

 

recent speakers include:

  • George Bevis, Founder of Tide
  • Lu Li, Founder and CEO of Blooming Founders
  • Kike Oniwinde, CEO and Founder of BYP Network
  • Yang Liu, CEO and Co-Founder of Just Wears
  • Ry Morgan, Founder of Unmind
  • Hamish Grierson, Co-Founder of Thriva
  • Erik Fairbairn, Founder and Chief Executive of POD Point 
  • Will Read, Founder and CEO of Sideways 6