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The Deck

We are based at The Deck in the Innovation Centre on Streatham Campus. The Deck is a collaborative workspace for student entrepreneurs to work on their business ideas or to meet a member of our team for 1-2-1 appointments. The space is also used for weekly startup workshops and classes for  modules.

SETsquared Exeter

At SETsquared Exeter we help University of Exeter students become successful entrepreneurs through numerous activities and facilitating networking and collaboration opportunities. 
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Meet the team

Meet the team

Joe leads the SETsquared Exeter activity with responsibility in the Business Acceleration and Student Startup Teams, spending his time between the Deck and the Exeter Science Park Centre. He has been involved in supporting student entrepreneurs for many years and still tries to find time to work 1-2-1 with students on their businesses.

Joe works closely with academic colleagues in the Centre for Entrepreneurship in the Business School and others across the University to help embed and grow the culture of entrepreneurship at Exeter.

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Emily is the Head of Student Entrepreneurship, and leads the Student Startup team at the University of Exeter. Emily works closely with academic and professional services colleagues across colleges to foster an entrepreneurial culture across all campuses, broadening access to entrepreneurial education and skills development and nurturing and developing student and graduate startup businesses.

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Nick manages the Student Startup team at the University of Exeter, supporting entrepreneurial students through workshops, inspirational events and one-to-one coaching to develop their business ideas into start-ups that are innovative, impactful and resilient for the future.

Nick's background is in entrepreneurship, building businesses in the media and live event sectors. For the last eight years he has been working in business support and recruitment for SMEs in Cornwall alongside investing in early-stage businesses.

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Amber manages the Boyden Entrepreneurship Programme, supporting the entrepreneurial development of students across the department of Engineering and on the MEng Engineering and Entrepreneurship degree programme at the University of Exeter in a variety of ways, including competitions, international development opportunities and 1-2-1 support.

Amber re-joined the team in 2022, after creating the Intrapreneurial Knowledge Exchange Pathway (IKEEP) Programme led by the University of Exeter and developing student enterprise support programmes at the University of Plymouth. Amber is a Director of Organic Cider company Dorset Nectar LLP.

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Harry is focused on the development and delivery of the Student Startup programmes with the aim of fostering entrepreneurial skills in students and turning ideas into successful, creative and impactful ventures.

Harry has a wide range of professional experience including 5 years as a tax and business consultant, primarily working with owner-managed businesses on projects to diversify, expand or restructure, as well as supporting them with their compliance requirements.

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Julia supports the day-to-day running of the Student Startups programmes, providing administrative support and delivering communications to students. She also oversees Student Startups social media and the weekly newsletter, promoting upcoming events and workshops, and student achievements.

Julia joined the team in 2021 after completing a graduate role working as Marketing and Communications Coordinator in the Innovation, Impact and Business (IIB) department.

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Entrepreneurs in Residence 

Chris Howard is the CEO and founder of The Rattle – a global community supported by a network of facilities that aims to help makers of art and culture become founders of their own companies. Chris is a prolific builder of projects and companies that aim to push boundaries in entrepreneurship and the creative industries. Having tried and failed at half a dozen ‘traditional’ careers – being a chef, music producer, a ‘professional cyclist’ and even a spy – Chris cut his teeth in entrepreneurship at MIT in 2009. Chris’ researched focused n the effects if influence and motivation online and how advocacy works with communities of creative people. Using this insight, Chris co-founded and led the celebrated startup - Libboo – the worlds’ first crowd-sourced science novel. This was followed by several high-profile startups, one agency and a short tenure as the Head Teaching Fellow of Harvard University. Alongside being CEO of The Rattle, Chris also acts as the fundraising coach for MIT’s Global Startup Workshops, is an educator at UCL & Hult International Business School and a regular Entrepreneur in Residence at leading startup accelerators such as Techstars and MassChallenge.

Alex Light is a serial entrepreneur and has co-founded multiple startups across a range of sectors, as well as working in marketing, sales, branding and tech. He was the one of the first emploees at DuBizzle, going on to become Director of Advertising where he led a team with over $7million annual ad revenue. He co-founded Styck, an app that rewards users for being more physically active and that has 30,00 active users. Alex has a passion for building companies and events that make things better and has a natural ability to bring communities together, forge connections and shine light on champions. Alex now runs a business development and growth consultancy called AsOne.

Jeni supports some of our more established graduate startups, offering her expertise and advice through bookable 1:1 appointments. Jeni runs her own artisanal food business, Butter Bike Co, which she founded in 2017. 

Since graduating from Exeter in 2013, Jeni has worked predominantly in PR, branding and marketing, across a variety of industries including FMCG, tech and retail & leisure. Jeni previously worked in the Student Startups team as Student Startup Community Manager, supporting Exeter's alumni community and working closely with the department of Engineering. 

Connect with Jeni on LinkedIn >>