OXFORD

WORKING FOR YOURSELF
Agne Milukaite
MSc in Migration Studies,
2013
WHAT: Agne is the founder of the peerto-peer
bicycle sharing platform, Cycle.
land.
As a social scientist by training and
an entrepreneur by profession, Agne
is passionate about the opportunities
that arise from the sharing economy for
business and to address poverty. Prior to
launching the business, Agne worked for
a Canadian home robotics company in
Berkeley, California.
ABOUT CYCLE.LAND: Cycle.land is
a vibrant social marketplace and a
community of bike sharers. We connect
people who are passionate about cycling
and traveling and share a love of bikes,
adventures, friendships, and the kindness
of strangers.
We match people who want a bike with
people willing to hire out their bike for
as little as £1 per day. We place every
available bike on a map and anyone
with a smartphone can access one at the
click of a button.
We make this sharing easy, enjoyable
and safe. We verify personal profiles and
listings and contact information remains
private on our platform. Paypal makes
payments safe and simple and bike
owners and users also build trust
by writing reviews after each bike
sharing experience.
Cycle.land has been incubated at
the University of Oxford and went
through the VIEW programme
at Said Business School. As a
student, Agne participated in The
Student Consultancy programme
run by the Careers Service gaining
experience working in a team on a
client project. Two years on she is
now a programme client creating
experience opportunities for other
students.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS: Entrepreneurship
is about seizing the day, looking
for opportunities and then going
for it! Our aim is to revolutionise
how people think about transport.
I always knew that Cycle.land was
going to solve people’s problems,
but it has been amazing to see it
happen!
The most important lesson I’ve
learned is to reach out to people:
make the most of the help at Oxford
and create a community around you.
WORKING FOR YOURSELF
Aditya Kasliwal
Founder, SpeakSet, Healthcare
Engineering Science, 2012
WHAT: We are making it easier for older
people to receive healthcare in their own
homes. We’re over 3 years old and work
with private and public health and social
care organisations around the country.
In startups you often just get stuck in with
whatever needs doing whether that’s
soldering up prototypes in a co-founders
flat because the manufacturer fell through
or building a ‘video calling platform’ or
- my focus for the last year - building a
team and sales process to get our tech
into patients’ hands.
Right now I’m looking at new opportunities
to grow SpeakSet faster.
WHY: You are ALWAYS learning and
learning fast. I’ve done everything from
coding to sales and marketing to working
with investors. There’s also some fun perks
like being invited by Google to speak in
Brussels, regular visits to House of Lords
or being selected in the Forbes 30 under
30 list!
A minor caveat though; it’s constantly
intense; hard work both physically and
emotionally and you have to make
do with what you’ve got. For
example, for the first year, I’d come
down to London and couch surf – I
wouldn’t recommend that!
EARLY CAREER: I joined Entrepreneur
First -EF - straight out of Uni. EF
brings exceptional talent together
and gives them the tools to start their
own company and has a fantastic
track record, their first 4 years of
companies are collectively valued at
over $300m.
What was great about EF was that
we had the space to try out different
ideas. Before SpeakSet, I built guitar
pedals and ran a food business for 4
months - I learned a lot that I could
use in building SpeakSet.
TOP TIP: Passion! You have to be
genuinely passionate about the job
and the company you’re applying
to. It makes a huge difference. Our
hiring decisions are made primarily
on passion, hunger and team fit.
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