Varsity Pitch 2015 Grand Final Judges

The NACUE Varsity Pitch Competition is about more than just the £10,000 prize from Tata (although that is pretty important). It’s about the opportunity to practice your pitching, to expose your business to new audiences and to receive valuable feedback from an expert panel of judges.

We have an awesome line up of judges this year and we can’t wait to reveal them all to you. This Grand Final judge is an expert marketeer, bringing YPlan app to the masses. 

Ian is a digital and mobile marketing veteran having been at the forefront of developing digital industries such as mobile content, mobile entertainment, on-line gambling and financial services for over 13 years. Ian is currently the Marketing Director for multiple award winning start-up YPlan.

YPlan is the ultimate event discovery and ticket booking platform for impulsive city-dwellers in London, New York and San Francisco. YPlan inspires people to enjoy their city like never before. The free app (available on iOS, Android and Kindle Fire) allows users to browse upcoming gigs, food tastings, theatre shows and gallery exhibitions, meaning they can book tickets to some of their city’s best attractions in two taps.

YPlan Fact Sheet

  •  Launched in London (Nov ’12), New York (Sept ’13) and San Francisco (Feb ’14)
  •  Secured $37.7 million in funding to date
  • Seed: $1.7 million
  • Series A: $12 million (more than Twitter, Soundcloud and Dropbox achieved combined when they were at the same stage in their growth)
  • Series B: $24 million (more than either Skype, YouTube or LinkedIn achieved separately when they were at the same stage in their growth)
  • Investment from Octopus Investments, Wellington Partners, Nokia Growth Partners, A-Grade Investments and Shakil Khan
  • Over 1,500,000 downloads globally (around 35% of all iPhones in London)
  • Works with over 1,000 event partners in London including the Barbican, the South Bank Centre, the Royal Albert Hall, the Roundhouse and the Comedy Store
  • Support from the likes of Ashton Kutcher (investor), Pharrell Williams (advisor) and Stephen Fry
  • Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Kindle Fire and Android
  • YPlan is available on the web, iOS, Android and Kindle Fire.

YPlan Awards

·       Sunday Times Tech Track 100: Ones to Watch

·       WIRED: Europe’s 100 Hottest Start-ups 2014

·       Forbes: Hottest Global Start-up of 2013

·       Evening Standard: Power List Tech Stars (Rytis Vitkauskas)

·       Evening Standard: Silicon 60 (Rytis Vitkauskas)

·       Hospital Club 100 List: Gaming and Tech (Rytis Vitkauskas and Viktoras Jucikas)

·       Startups Awards: Business of the Year

·       Startups Awards: Mobile Business of the Year

·       Tech City News Elevator Pitch Awards: Fastest Growing Startup 2013

·       Appsters Awards: Best Entertainment App 2013

·       Annual Angel Investment Award: VC Deal of the Year

·       Digital Masters Awards: Excellence in Product

·       Tech City News: International Hall of Fame Winner

Before joining YPlan Ian headed up the marketing function for a new special projects division within Paddy Power. He was responsible for devising the brand identity and all acquisition and retention marketing activity for new mobile brands for Paddy Power. Ian was also part of the wider Mobile Excellence and Innovation strategy team that kept Paddy Power as the number 1 mobile gambling brand in the world. Previous to joining Paddy Power in April 2012, Ian spent 2 years as head of marketing & business development in the mobile strategy division of A&N Media, working on the app marketing and mobile direction for A&N Media brands such as Daily Mail, Metro, FindaProperty and Jobsite. Prior to this, Ian was the European marketing manager for one of mobile contents founding companies I-play, working on over 100 Java mobile game launches and 40+ iPhone & Android games. Ian has also spoken at many marketing conferences and events on various mobile and innovation subjects. Want to pitch your business to Ian? Apply today at varsitypitchcompetition.com NVPC 2015 - Twitter Cover

Add comment

Security code
Refresh

X

Stay updated!

Join our mailing list to receive inspiration, great offers, event recommendations and much more.


Subscribe
  1. Our Impact
  2. Our Mission
  3. Our model

We've achieved a great deal in a short number of years, though there's much more too do in supporting our mission of 'Powering the Enterprise Generation'.

32,000

Students

19,926

Event attendees

20,505

Followers

42,000

Reach

16,512

Businesses

43,439

Jobs

Powering the Enterprising Generation

Our mission is to support the development of education and student engagement throughout college and universities by championing student enterprise societies and peer-to-peer learning. NACUE started from an extraordinary movement in student entrepreneurship, providing young individuals with a platform to be experimental, creative and inspiring in their approach to enterprise and entrepreneurship, encouraging a bottom-up approach to inspiring the next generation.


Today, we see over 200 enterprise societies, powered by peer-to-peer groups, who are championing the success of young people throughout their interactive programmes by forging collaborative relationships with their institutions to provide greater experience and development opportunities for their peers. Establishing regional links with locals SME’s who are keen to open their doors to emerging talented, proactive and enthusiastic graduates perpetuates this.


Our work is dedicated to supporting the development and encouragement of entrepreneurship amongst young individuals and forms the sole purpose of NACUE. To learn more about NACUE and the services we produce, click here.

As a not-for-profit, we raise charitable donations that allow us to widen the opportunities available to young people in relation to enterprise and entrepreneurship, strengthening student engagement, the quality of education and connecting and representing student enterprise societies and student entrepreneurs worldwide.

NACUE is a charitable organisation that supports 32,000 students and young people every year. As funding becomes harder to obtain, we rely on the generous support of donors to ensure our programs can continue to change the lives and aspirations of the younger generation.


A donation of any size goes a long way to furthering our work and really is greatly appreciated. Every gift matters in aiding our mission of ‘Powering the Enterprising Generation' but we mainly rely upon the generosity of our members and alumni to do this. By making a single or regular donation you can make a big difference. To learn more about how you can donate, please follow the links below.



 

Large national network

NACUE are delighted to have supported a huge number of student-led societies over the years. You can see the number of established student-led societies on an interactive map below

 

College
University
Society

 

 

Who we work with

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are at the very core of NACUE, everything we do is to better the startup and self employment ecosystem. We believe that entrepreneurs will shape the future, and we bolster this through our events, our network and our advocacy.

Students

NACUE works with students in Colleges and Universities right across the UK, helping support them in their entrepreneurial goals and connect them with like minded peers.

Educators

NACUE works collaboratively with educators and academics in supporting the development of entrepreneurial mindsets in young people.

Our events

Our events offer the young people we work with the opportunity to connect with our wider network, the experts and seasoned entrepreneurs in our community and the chance to be inspired to take the leap of faith into entrepreneurship. These events are attended by students and graduates from universities and colleges up and down the UK, as well as students from across Europe. Student Societies take centre stage at our events, alongside innovators, game changers and trail blazers of the UK startup ecosystem.

The difference we make

CONNECT WITH NACUE

 

     

Support

Join our mailing list to receive inspiration, event recommendations, great offers and much more.
Please wait