Founder and CEO of Enternships
Rajeeb started his first venture aged 17, a social enterprise working to give school students a voice in their education. Initially this was known as the English Secondary Students’ Association (ESSA) and then became the Student Voice.
Further to this Rajeeb then set up his current business Enternships, a platform to connect startups and fast growing businesses to talent. This was never meant to be a business but was something he set up whilst running Oxford Entrepreneurs, a society for student entrepreneurs at Oxford University where he kept being approached by startups who wanted to advertise jobs to their members. Today they work with over 6000 employers and create talent solutions for corporate clients such as Havas, Telefonica and Santander.
Alongside running Enternships Rajeeb also Co-Founded StartUp Britain – the national campaign to promote entrepreneurship launched by the Prime Minister in 2011.
Rajeeb Dey: I actually didn’t see myself as “following a career in Marketing” however upon being accepted onto the Marketing Academy I reflected on my personal strengths and role as an entrepreneur. To me being an entrepreneur is about coming up with an idea and taking it to market – conveying what it’s about to potential employees, customers and stakeholders which effectively is ‘marketing.’ An entrepreneur needs to sell his/her vision just like a Marketer helps to sell a product/service.
I chose to be an entrepreneur because I like the ability to come up with a concept and see it come to life as well as the ability to make a positive difference in the lives of others through the ventures I set up.
Rajeeb Dey: Authenticity is the key in my mind for an entrepreneur as well as in marketing. So much of creating a business is telling the story both about yourself and your idea that it’s important to be true to yourself and for that to be conveyed in what you do in order for people to ‘buy into’ you and what you’re doing.
Rajeeb Dey: The entrepreneur who truly understands the value of marketing I’d say is Richard Branson. He has created an iconic brand around both his company Virgin as well as himself. I believe his personal branding is a huge part of the success of his businesses as he lives the Virgin brand values and is the ultimate brand ambassador. He has a keen eye for a marketing/PR opportunity and has done a great job in creating a strong umbrella brand under which hundreds of businesses have been launched.
Rajeeb Dey: The rise of social media and real-time feedback means that if a brand doesn’t live up to its promise it becomes very evident very soon. How you react to real-time feedback and ensure you constantly fulfil your brand promise becomes a key consideration for marketers.
Rajeeb Dey: As an entrepreneur working in the tech space we have lots of tech clients and always try and stay ahead of the curve in adopting new technologies in what we do. As bizarre as it sounds we even downloaded the “Yo” app when it first launched to test it out for Enternships as a potential engagement channel (albeit a short lived experiment!) We will however continue to watch it as it develops as well as other interesting innovations.
Rajeeb Dey: We recently engaged with Futureproof – an agency run by a fellow Marketing Academy Scholar – Matt Campbell to work with us on devising a new brand and identity for a new vocational learning tool we are launching in the coming months. We liked their approach and ability to understand the startup landscape. We also work with numerous agencies who are our clients and for whom we find great talent. One of our biggest clients is Havas and we run their Digital Internships Scheme in the UK.
Rajeeb Dey: We recently took a stand on the issue of unpaid internships and banned employers from posting unpaid internships which was covered by the Financial Times. We’re passionate about ensuring fair access to opportunities for all not just those who can afford to work unpaid and are hoping to encourage more employers to pay interns so that people are selected on merit alone rather than their financial situation.
Rajeeb Dey: As an entrepreneur you have to be a generalist and surround yourself with experts and people far more qualified and talented than you.
creativebrief partner the Marketing Academy is a non-profit organisation which provides a unique forum for industry leaders, marketing gurus, entrepreneurs and inspirational people volunteer their time to inspire, develop and coach the next generation of future leaders. The Marketing Academy gift a maximum of 30 ‘Scholarships’ each year to the fastest rising stars in the marketing, advertising and communications industries. A team of high profile mentors and coaches develop these stars through a process of mentoring, coaching, networking and personalised learning. 86 mentors, 30 Coaches, 20 Judges, 36 companies and an owl called Merlin all provide their time, resources and knowledge to assist in shaping the minds of our future leaders. Furthermore as a vital part of their curriculum all Scholars volunteer at least one day per year through our Donate28 initiative to work with charities who need bright young marketing minds. For a full list of the individuals involved, see the Sherilyn Shackell interview.
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