About Us

Assim Ishaque

The Founder

Mission and purpose

Being an entrepreneur is now more acceptable a career path than ever before. But it can be a tough road to take! We are encouraged to see the bigger picture and quietly get through the ‘challenging times’. I’ve had enough of that – the truth is that the ‘tough times’ are not talked about openly or properly addressed. If society wants brave startup and innovators to make a better future – then entrepreneurs need truth and high quality support !

The Entrepreneurs Trust mission is to share the reality of business with as many brave entrepreneurs as possible and teach them the tools and strategies to protect them from the pain and consequences of failure.

Our purpose is to help create a brighter future for entrepreneurs aiming for a better tomorrow.

Why me?

I have personally been involved with around $2bn of business projects that had a huge amount of challenges. So I have accumulated a huge amount of experience of businesses failures and realised that there is no appropriate education to teach real world strategies to protect them from failure – probably because the ‘ego’ get in the way of entrepreneurs being totally open about the ‘ups and downs’ of business.

I lost my ego a long time ago and am motivated to do some good with my experiences and so I believe I have something that can make difference, e.g.

I have the tools and strategies that week help protect businesses from failure – based on real life situations I have faced.

Corporate Career to award winning entrepreneur

My career started in the financial sector with a graduate executive traineeship with HSBC Bank , then moving into sales career within Energizer and telecoms networks with Virgin Media.

Being made redundant twice before the age of 30 gave me sufficient reason to set up my own company, Envirup Limited, an energy and sustainability consultancy. I gained professional qualifications as Associate by examination of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, later as a registered ‘Chartered’ Energy Manager and elected Member of the Energy Institute.

In Envirup, I led multimillion-pound energy and Carbon reduction projects for the British Government (HMRC) and London’s leading property investors. Some interesting projects include leading project fundraising, project evaluation and negotiation for developers of renewable power generation in Europe (wind, solar, biomass, waste to energy) with $2 billion in value.

(I’m an ‘award winning entrepreneur’ : People and Environment ‘energy award’ 2017)

This role allowed me to the gamut of the commercial processes. From contract drafting, negotiation, business development, strategy, sales, marketing, international business, recruitment, staff training, fundraising – and the list continues. Being in a courageous proactive company has given me huge first hand experience of entrepreneurship – not possible if I was in a corporate career.

This is the source of my material in my classes – I only talk about what I know about – from my own experience!

Through choice and necessity, I have become an inventor of two award-winning patented products (energy efficiency and craft toys). But my purpose in life is more than personal gain, as I have a passion for contributing to the community. I have hired over 120 undergraduates and postgraduates into my companies, helping them into their first career-defining roles. My aim is that my inventions are ‘best in class’ and contribute to happier, healthier lives to make a positive impact in the community along the way.

For a number of years, I supported the HRH Prince of Wales ‘Princes Trust’ as a business mentor, working with some fabulous start-up businesses. I served on the Regional Board for The Forestry Commission for 3 years and have been a school Governor for over 9 years, currently on the board of an ‘outstanding’ School in my city.

So the story continues as I support my wife and four children on their journey, to discover their passions and realise their ambitions in life.