A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential.
An optician, or dispensing optician, is a technical practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the necessary correction to a person's eyesight. Some registered or licensed opticians also design and fit special appliances to correct cosmetic, traumatic or anatomical defects. These devices are called shells or artificial eyes. Other registered or licensed opticians manufacture lenses to their own specifications and design and manufacture spectacle frames and other devices.
Specsavers Optical Group Ltd is a British multinational optical retail chain, which operates mainly in the UK, Ireland, Australasia and the Nordic countries. The chain offers optometry and optician services for eyesight testing and sells glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses. It also sells hearing aids. In the United Kingdom in 2012 it had the largest single market share of the four major opticians, with 42% of the market.
Günter Faltin is a German economist and entrepreneur.
Essilor International is a French-based international ophthalmic optics company that designs, manufactures and markets lenses to correct or protect eyesight. Its headquarters is in Charenton-le-Pont, France.
Dollond & Aitchison was one of the oldest chains of retail opticians in the United Kingdom, having been established in 1750. The business was absorbed into Boots Opticians in 2009 and stores have gradually been rebranded under the Boots Opticians name, completed in 2015.
Doug Richard is an American entrepreneur best known for his television appearances in the United Kingdom. He appeared as a "Dragon" on the first two series of Dragons' Den and was also a government adviser.
The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) is a non-profit membership organization founded in 2002 on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is an organization of educators, presidents, and entrepreneurs. The association represents technical and community colleges, including more than 2,500 faculty, staff, administrators, and presidents who serve nearly 4 million students.
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE PhD FRSA was born in Bangor, Gwynedd and brought up in Pwllheli on the Llyn Peninsula. He is currently Assistant Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise) and the chair in entrepreneurship at the University of South Wales. He is visiting professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Turku in Finland, newspaper columnist and the creator of the Wales Fast Growth 50, the annual barometer of entrepreneurial firms in Wales.
Steve Blank is an American entrepreneur, educator, author and speaker based in Pescadero, California.
James Caan is a British-Pakistani entrepreneur and television personality.
Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an international initiative that introduces entrepreneurship to young people in six continents. GEW emerged in 2008 as a result of Enterprise Week UK and Entrepreneurship Week USA 2007. Since its creation, more than 10 million people from roughly 170 countries have participated in entrepreneurship-related events, activities and competitions during GEW.
Shell LiveWIRE is a UK-wide enterprise scheme to help support young entrepreneurs into business.
The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion is one of the Queen's Awards for Enterprise, and is awarded annually to people who play an outstanding role in promoting the growth of business enterprise and/or entrepreneurial skills in other people. It is bestowed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Recipients receive an engraved crystal glass commemorative item, a Grant of Appointment and are invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace.
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Giuseppe Eskenazi has been described as the world’s most important dealer in Chinese works of art. His company, Eskenazi, has sold to more than eighty of the world’s major museums, as well as numerous private collectors. He opened a London office with his late father in 1960, originally buying for the family's antiques business in Milan. In 1972 he opened a gallery at Foxglove House, Piccadilly, with an inaugural exhibition of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art.
Paul John Lindley is a British entrepreneur and children's welfare campaigner. He founded organic baby and children's food brand Ella's Kitchen in 2006, naming it after his daughter, and later launched organic toddler toiletries brand Paddy's Bathroom, named after his son. He is an author of a best-selling book Little Wins: The Power of Thinking Like a Toddler and is a co-founder of a social enterprise called The Key is E with former child soldier and international hip-hop artist Emmanuel Jal. He was previously deputy managing director of Nickelodeon UK.
Mark Pearson is a London, United Kingdom-based entrepreneur and investor. He founded and served as CEO of Markco Media, a European discount network. Markco Media is the parent company of MyVoucherCodes.
TD Tom Davies is a British handmade eyewear brand, founded by Tom Davies in 2002. TD Tom Davies offers a bespoke service on all frames of their collections. Its headquarters is in West London.
Anthony Charles Robinson is a business speaker, author and micro-enterprise campaigner.
Revant Optics is an American online retailer that designs, develops, and sells replacement lenses for sunglasses and prescription glasses, based in Portland, Oregon.
