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Leo Abery and Harry Breeze Lamb, founders of Lofted

Harry Breeze-Lamb, a final-year Economics student studying BA Economics and International Development and Leo Abery, a final-year Strategy and Marketing student studying BSc Marketing and Management decided to embark on a Venture Creation Year (VCY) together. We caught up with Harry to see how their VCY experience has helped them launch their creative distribution platform Lofted.

What inspired you to apply for the Venture Creation Year?

Leo and I have known each other for years, having met in primary school. Over this time, we often discussed how talented the people around us at university were and, for fun, began brainstorming ideas to make the creative industries more accessible. Eventually, we realised we had stumbled upon an unaddressed gap in the market, and decided to pursue the idea more seriously.

It was during my second year that I shared my ambitions with the Careers team at the Business School, telling them I wanted to turn this concept into a business. That's when they introduced me to the Venture Creation Year, a new programme aimed at helping student entrepreneurs launch their businesses while still studying.

What was the application process like?

The application was easier than we thought. Instead of submitting a fully comprehensive business plan, the main initial requirement was a BMC (Business Model Canvas), a document that provides a rough overview of your idea. The Careers and Entrepreneurship department was excellent in supporting us, as neither of us had ever produced a document like this before. If you progress past this stage, the next step is a pitch. You are required to give a 10-minute presentation for your idea with a Q&A afterwards. It can be a little daunting, but the pitch is to a small panel of 4 judges who were all patient and helpful.

Tell us more about your business creation Lofted.

Lofted is a distribution platform that aims to solve the problem of the oversaturation of creative industries. Creative talent is abundant, yet it is almost impossible to get your voice heard on current platforms. At this stage our primary focus is on the music industry. With Lofted, musicians will be able to compete on a level playing field. Audiences will have an active involvement in pushing their favourite artists to recognition - rewarding those who are most talented - resulting in a truly democratic system for emerging talent to gain visibility and opportunities.

What made you come up with this idea?

Great ideas are born from personal observation and experience. The inspiration for Lofted came from the countless individuals I have met who are incredibly talented, yet receive no recognition for their work. My brother, for example, is one of the most naturally talented people I have ever met, he creates incredibly unique and artistic music, but he hasn’t been able to make a career from his talent because of the current system.

What have you learnt about the world of business from this experience?

Fundamentally, business is about dealing with different types of people. Learning how to deal with different characters in different scenarios is not only a massive personal asset but also extremely exciting. If you’re anything like myself who can’t deal with the mundane nature of a more conventional career path, VCY will certainly be a taste of a more intense lifestyle. If you commit to your venture 100%, it will take you into situations you’d never expect, meeting highly intelligent and ambitious people.

What is your advice to current students on generating ideas for a business?

To build something truly great, you must base your idea on a fundamental realisation that others haven't noticed. This can only be achieved by asking questions and being generally inquisitive. When you start to dissect and analyse the current ways of doing things, you may notice that many structures are quite outdated and could do with modernisation. If you can realise where this is occurring, you can build an idea that has real promise.

What high moments and challenges did you encounter throughout the year?

The biggest challenge came from being inexperienced. We have taken many wrong turns and made plenty of mistakes. Because of this, I have battled with feelings of self-doubt and changes in mood and mindset. The year has been mentally challenging, but when you reach a milestone, such as trying your product for the first time, the payoff is so worthwhile.

Having a vision, watching it materialise and being able to build it into a real business is a magical, empowering feeling.

Where do you see this experience taking you?

We are currently leading a team of developers on the incredibly ambitious and technically difficult task of creating an app that provides an innovative approach to distributing music. We are on track for a finalised product by the end of the year.

It is difficult to predict what the result of this year will be. What I can say for sure is that it has accelerated my personal development to a level which I couldn’t have predicted.

Tell us why students should apply for a Venture Creation Year?

This is one of the only times in your life where the personal risk is so small, allowing you to be playful with ideas whilst simultaneously holding a high level of ambition.

Even if you realise that entrepreneurship is not for you, it is still worth doing. If after graduating you enter a more conventional career, potential employers will respect someone who understands the entirety of how their business operates. Opportunities such as VCY will only appear in fleeting moments. If it doesn’t seem right for you now, it may appear perfect when it is no longer able to take.

Completing the VCY has awakened me to the meaning of entrepreneurship: creating value for others. Building products or services to enhance the lives of others, and solving problems. It has taught me that this is a worthy and meaningful career path to pursue, even if at times it is a little risky.

What advice would you give to a current student thinking about doing a Venture Creation Year?

Looking back, I can see that we started with a very idealistic mindset. We now understand that to get others excited about your idea you have to have a really strong commercial proposition. It is business, so this is understandable, but it was a sobering realisation for us at the time.

If you are a second-year Business School home student interested in learning more about the Venture Creation Year, please visit our Business School Venture Creation Year webpage. Applications are open from September to February each year.