"Mindsets" is a blog series featuring short posts that showcase interesting people, research, and innovation associated with the E-lab.
The name "Mindsets" reflects a key concept: entrepreneurship should be understood not just as a specific activity, but as a mindset. These mindsets shape how we perceive the world and approach challenges.
“Mindsets” aim to capture the energy and depth of the thrilling environment that E-lab is creating—one that brings together individuals from various fields and fosters collaboration between academia and industry.
To submit a blog for consideration, use this form!
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Banking Nigeria’s Invisible Women
On the 4th of March 2026, Mphil student Laurianne Lingbondo moderated the second session of the African Founders Webinar Series (AFWS) for the year which featured Olapeju Nwanganga, founder of Ploutos Page, a fintech company helping market traders grow with smart, simple, and human‑centered financial tools. In this week’s blog, read Laurianne’s reflection on the insights provided by Nwanganga on value, visibility and the power of combining purpose and profit.
Synthetic Voice, Real Catastrophe
On the 26th of February 2026, the E-Lab hosted a screening of Josh Appignanesi's latest documentary Colossal Wreck, an unflinching journey inside COP28 in Dubai, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker himself. In this week’s blog, read the thoughts of attendee Sue Trory as she reflects on what it means to watch a film about climate crisis narrated by an AI voice clone, and asks why the most urgent long-term threat to human civilisation has quietly disappeared from our news agenda and collective conscience.
Land, Power and Development: Rebuilding Nigeria’s Land Systems
On the 18 of February 2026, Mphil student Enita Okonkwo joined the first session of the African Founders Webinar Series (AFWS) for the year which featured Nnamdi Uba, founder of Sytemap, a satellite technology and blockchain-backed verification systems to digitise proof of allocation in a property market. In this week’s blog, read Enita’s reflection on why the discussion on PropTech provided an inspiring example of how we can redesign trust in one of Africa’s most foundational assets for future generations.
Redesigning for Impact: Perspectives from the King’s E-Lab Social Venture Residential
In today's interconnected world, impact transcends outcomes as it is about value perspectives, systems, and social responsibility. At the King’s E-Lab Social Venture Residential, MPhil student Enita Okonkwo was challenged to rethink how value is created, who benefits, and how leadership across sectors can reshape complex systems. In this week’s blog, read how this immersive experience reframed Enita’s understanding of social entrepreneurship and strengthened her commitment to designing ventures that reshape systems for long-term sustainable impact.
From Intelligent Toilets to NHS Frameworks
Healthcare start-ups often encounter an implicit message: to work with the NHS, you must implement full medical-grade compliance from the outset. This complexity creates friction, reduces the diversity of innovation, and disengages aspiring innovators. While the NHS must be cautious, the current system results not in safer innovation, but stalled innovation. In this week’s blog, read our very own James Beattie’s arguments for why institutional clarity in public healthcare is essential to widen participation, support innovators, and ultimately strengthen the NHS.
Cracking the Code, Digitising Real Estate in an Analogue Economy
In many parts of Africa, buying land is not just a transaction - it is a leap of faith. Paper documents change hands. Verbal assurances replace verified records. Ownership histories can be unclear. And too often, people lose money not because they lacked ambition, but because the system itself is broken. It was against this backdrop that we hosted Nnamdi Uba at the African Founders Webinar Series, a founder who chose not to work around the system, but to rebuild it. In this week’s blog, read about the role of innovation and integrity in the world of African PropTech.
Great Business Ideas Don’t Always Sound Brilliant at First
In 2025, the E-Lab ran the third edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of our winner, Georgio Alambritis from Tuxford Academy, which explores how it is the simplest rules for entrepreneurship - of relevance, scalability and alignment - that are often forgotten.
Rewriting the Future of Women’s Health
The month of March, marked by International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, offers an opportunity to not only celebrate women’s achievements but also to reflect on innovation in women’s health, an area emerging as one of the most important frontiers in modern healthcare. Here we find both significant challenges to address and exciting momentum to champion. In this week’s blog, read this first part of a two part series about why and how we must reshape the future of women’s health from Mphil student Anastasiya Rozenbaum and Founding Scientist at OvartiX Kyra Ungerleider.
We are Trained to Become Leaders. But is that Enough? A Reflection on “Ethical Leadership” in the Cambridge Context
This week we celebrated the selection of the 2026 Laidlaw Scholars, following the launch of the Laidlaw Leadership and Research Programme with the E-Lab last November. The programme offers first-year undergraduates the opportunity to conduct independent research while learning in practice about ethical leadership. In this week’s blog, read the reflections of one of the newest scholars, Leni Klöcker, on the potential of programmes like Laidlaw to reshape our education system - and on the gaps they may leave unaddressed.
How a Mindset Shift is Helping Me Balance Academia and Grassroots Conservation Work
A few months into his postdoc monitoring wildlife hunting in Nigeria, Charles Emogor and his team spent many hours travelling narrow tracks on motorcycles and stopping in remote forest communities to hold tense but hopeful meetings with hunting groups. By night, he scrambled to keep the pangolin conservation organisation he’d founded running. Physically and mentally drained, he began to wonder: was his vision of combining a career as a researcher with directing a grassroots non-profit unrealistic? In this week’s blog, read our Research Associate Charles’s reflections on balancing these pressures and on how to bring them together for the benefit of both.
How do Entrepreneurs Build a Strong Team, and Why is this Important for a Start-up’s Success?
In 2025, the E-Lab ran the third edition of our Entrepreneurship Essay Competition. The purpose of the competition is to encourage UK-based school students to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations and understand better how to launch an enterprise. The students choose between three essay questions which reflects the importance of entrepreneurism and the challenges that businesses face. This week, we share the essay of one of our runners up, Rahul Thotakura from King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, which explores the reasons teambuilding is essential to start up success.
Reflections from the 2026 Kings E-Lab Social Venture Residential: A Three-Day Journey That Shaped My Thinking
The King’s E-Lab Social Venture Residential reinforces a fundamental insight: meaningful progress in entrepreneurship, particularly social entrepreneurship, rarely occurs in isolation. Rather, it emerges through deliberate engagement, critical exchange, and exposure to diverse ways of thinking. In this week’s blog, read this and other learnings from Mendos Fidelis’s as he reflects on the critical tools of entrepreneurial thinking and the ethical responsibility of entrepreneurs.
Insights from the Digital Energy Grid Summit Building the Future of Energy
On the 28th of November 2025, the E-Lab hosted the Digital Energy Grid Summit in partnership with Beckn Labs, Networks for Humanity, and the Innovation Hub for Prosperity. Convening investors, builders, regulators, and energy communities, the summit was not just a conference but a catalyst for commercial collaboration, designed to turn shared vision into coordinated action. In this week’s blog, read reflections from the organising team on insights, outcomes and next steps.
From Pilots to Performance: Managing Innovation for Value in Complex Systems
On the 14th of January 2026, as a part of the Social Venture Residential, the E-Lab hosted Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, FSI, the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In this week’s blog, read moderator Benedetta Asher’s insights on creating sustainable and resilient innovation; including how we need to embed it deliberately, design complementary and capable support organisations, and champion leadership that invests in shared understanding and collective ownership.
How can I submit a piece?
Submissions for the "Mindsets" blog series can be made as follows:
Follow this form to submit your blogs
Content should relate to entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset, though the brief is flexible. The organizers especially welcome critical perspectives that raise questions and prompt responses, as well as thought-provoking reflections and innovative ideas.
When submitting, please specify a category that best fits your piece:
Entrepreneurship advice,
Reflections on E-lab events and activities,
Opinion pieces on entrepreneurship and its societal impact,
Research by E-lab community members.
Contact Sophie at seh220@cam.ac.uk for any questions!