2025 was a year of growth and change for CAMentrepreneurs. Many thanks to Chapter Leaders, the Board, our many partners and volunteers, without whom CAMentrepreneurs could not function. We look forward to planned launches in Istanbul, Lisbon, Singapore Tokyo and Warsaw in 2026, possibly Bath and Manchester too.
I look forward to the coming year with great confidence. New chapter leaders sign up to a better organised structure that which prevailed in the past.
Our core values and culture: participant friendly events, high standards, integrity, inclusivity, taking feedback seriously, the fact that we are Cambridge “and” not Cambridge “only” welcoming everyone, no matter where they are on their entrepreneurial journey, and last but by no means putting entrepreneurs first, put us in good stead for the future.
Many participants in our events will have met and been inspired by Peter Cowley our co-founder on different occasions over the decade of our existence. I'd like to end my introduction by drawing attention to a new section on our website where I pay tribute to his legacy and impact on CAMentrepreneurs.
Happy New Year
Richard Lucas, Founder, CAMentrepreneurs
2025 was the year CAMentrepreneurs proved what a volunteer-led, values-driven network can do when city leaders, speakers, sponsors, and attendees all pull in the same direction.
Community scales when leadership is shared. The launches and relaunches in Athens, Munich, Berlin, New York, and forthcoming chapters like Singapore showed that empowering local city leaders is the only sustainable way to grow, echoing the goal of making the organisation less dependent on a few individuals and “baking” Peter Cowley’s values into CAMentrepreneurs’ DNA.
Consistency beats one‑off events. A full calendar across cities such as London, Cambridge, Dubai, Oxford, Boston, Paris, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Taipei demonstrated that regular, well‑run events deepen trust and convert casual attendees into long‑term contributors.
Longevity requires structure. The handover of the newsletter to new editors, the upgrade of the website under Georgi Kolev, the speaker database, and clearer guidelines all underlined how processes and documentation are just as important as enthusiasm for long-term resilience.
Stories matter as much as sessions. Interviews with leaders such as Tom Nolan, Annur Ababil, Victoria Kimonides and Dash Dhakshinamoorthy showed that honest stories of failure, reinvention and purpose are powerful tools for learning and community-building.
New Chapter leaders stepped up around the world. In 2025, people like Victoria Kimonides (Athens), Ian Walker (Munich), Elika Karvandi and Nicola Filzmoser (Berlin), Dash Dhakshinamoorthy (Kuala Lumpur), Tasneem Khathib Cambridge and leaders returning such as Robert Howells (New York) became visible faces of the network in their cities.
Behind-the-scenes contributors made growth possible. Web and platform work by Georgi Kolev, editorial leadership from Giselle Cornejo, building on earlier contributions from Oleg Korolov and Tom Peach strengthened CAMentrepreneurs’ infrastructure, while volunteers and sponsors in Athens, Munich, London, Boston and elsewhere ensured events ran smoothly.
Peter Cowley’s legacy anchored the culture. The memorial event and the ongoing focus on transparency, respect, fair dealing and putting entrepreneurs first reminded everyone that CAMentrepreneurs is built on values as well as business.
Speakers and panelists. From investor-focused evenings in London, cross‑border panels in Hong Kong, and US‑expansion discussions with Cambridge Angels, to fireside chats at the Crick Institute and interviews highlighting programmes like Oxbridge Fellowship and Startup Malaysia, speakers generously shared their experience so others could learn faster.
Sponsors and partners. Institutional supporters such as Penningtons, TCF Law Group, university innovation centres, and venues like Roche HQ in Basel, the British Consulates, and partner schools and clubs (e.g. HEC Paris, Bayes Business School, Penn & Wharton alumni) enabled ambitious events that an entirely volunteer team could not deliver alone.
Attendees, founders and volunteers. Every person who participated, shared a story, volunteered on the door, pitched an idea, mentored a founder, or simply showed up with curiosity contributed to the sense of a living, growing community rather than a series of isolated meetings.
From calls for speakers to a global bench. The 2025 call to build a speaker and panelist database—starting with people with US experience and then widening to all who can help entrepreneurs—has laid the foundations for a curated, global pool of contributors that city leaders can draw on quickly.
From single events to ecosystems. Launches in Athens, Munich, Berlin and Kuala Lumpur and collaborations in London, Cambridge and Hong Kong showed that CAMentrepreneurs is moving from isolated meetups to plugged‑in local ecosystems that include universities, accelerators, investors and policy‑shapers.
From inspiration to impact. Stories like the Oxbridge Fellowship bringing global talent into the UK innovation corridor, PichaEats using entrepreneurship to rebuild lives, and the Effectual Method helping founders act under uncertainty, illustrated how entrepreneurial action can shift from theory to tangible social and economic value.
Deepen leadership and succession. 2025 showed that when more people step into leadership roles, the network thrives; 2026 can expand this with clearer onboarding for new city leaders, shared playbooks, and more peer‑to‑peer support across chapters.
Activate the speaker and mentor bench. With a growing list of speakers, mentors and investors, the next step is to match them more systematically to chapters and founders—especially students, first‑time entrepreneurs and under‑represented groups—using the upgraded website and newsletter channels.
Build more bridges East–West and North–South. Initiatives connecting the UK, Europe and Asia—as seen in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Taiwan and the Oxbridge Fellowship—can be extended to create recurring programmes, delegations and online sessions, helping founders navigate global markets rather than just local ones.
Treat entrepreneurship as a shared life skill. Insights from leaders like Dash underscore the opportunity to embed entrepreneurial thinking—experimenting, acting under uncertainty, co‑creating with others—across students, alumni and professionals, not only among those starting companies.
To everyone who led a chapter, spoke on a panel, opened a venue, sponsored an event, mentored a founder, or simply showed up: thank you for helping turn 2025 into a year of real momentum for CAMentrepreneurs—and for proving that when a community moves together, the future is something we create, not just predict.
Since soft-launching this initiative at the end of September, I have helped 14 startups with intros to investors. I am eager to help more. If you are a UK-domiciled startup and have a founder from the University of Cambridge, give me a shout on Linkedin and I will endeavour to search our database of investor friends to see if I can find a fit.
If you are an angel or VC investor, or represent a family office, do also feel free to reach out. We have startups from all sectors and at all stages in our society and I would love to facilitate connections where I can.
Wishing everyone the best for 2026
Andrew Shailer-Smith Linkedin
Andrew co-leads the London Chapter of CAMentrepreneurs, and serves on the board.
Rabia co-leads the London Chapter of CAMentrepreneurs, and serves on the board.
Friday January 16th Open Coffee Cambridge. CAMentrepreneurs and InnovateCambridge invite you to their next event with Pam Garside as a special guest. Register here
Wednesday, February 18 CAMentrepreneurs Berlin Register here
Thursday, February 26. CAMentrepreneurs Oxford: Keep Going When It’s Tough. Register here
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CAMentrepreneurs is a volunteer led official alumni group of Cambridge University. We support business and social entrepreneurship among alumni, current students and faculty, and others in many cities around the world.
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