UCL recently caught up with School of Management MSc Entrepreneurship Alumnus Chitraj (Raj) Singh, a former risk specialist turned entrepreneur and founder of mental wellbeing start-up MindHug. When Chitraj left a successful career in financial services to pursue his passion and launch his start-up, he went against everything he had ever learnt as a risk specialist and he took a punt on himself and his innovative idea.
Why UCL School of Management
Chitraj was looking for a dynamic and innovative programme that could help him develop his idea and network. After researching a number of options, he decided on our MSc Entrepreneurship programme: “I immediately felt attracted to the programme at UCL. The focus on creating entrepreneurs through the structure of lean start-up and key entrepreneurial tools made me feel I could learn the ropes in a safe place.”
Our MSc Entrepreneurship programme is designed for students who intend to start and run high impact, innovative businesses. The programme is taught with a ‘learn by doing’ approach, with the main focus being to support students to develop the skills needed to succeed as CEO and/or co-founder.
The MSc Entrepreneurship teaching team is made up entirely of faculty with experience both of academia and of the world of industry and entrepreneurship, including several active venture capitalists and investors, and several who have created and very successfully exited from start-ups. The quality of teaching and the experience within the faculty was one of the main reasons Chitraj chose the programme:
“In doing an entrepreneurship degree, you get to be immersed in the world of innovation and are given the opportunity to explore a whole host of entrepreneurial ideas in a kind of sandbox environment. It was incredible to be taught by some seriously seasoned people within the start-up and innovation space.”
Why MindHug
Chitraj founded MindHug while on the programme at UCL School of Management, and in the current global pandemic, when many people are feeling isolated and overwhelmed, the support MindHug offers is more important than ever.
The organisation’s cause is something personal to Chitraj; “When people see me running a business, I think they are surprised to hear that I battled mental health issues for years. Mental illness will blindside you and change you! And it can happen to anyone without even a moment’s notice. But it does get better. And I am a better and stronger person for it today. It’s why I am so passionate about solving Mental Health challenges at MindHug!”