Sháá Wasmund says she's always seized entrepreneurial opportunities at the right times

• Far from being intimidated by promoting a fight for boxer Chris Eubank while she was still a student at the London School of Economics, Sháá Wasmund says she picked up valuable lessons from the experience: "I was writing my dissertation, travelling the world and working with all these alpha males, but it taught me at a very early age how to deal with challenging situations and how to hold your ground."
• Not content with having her ideas "put on the backburner with hundreds of others," Wasmund says she has always seized the opportunities that came her way. "The ability to take something from concept to reality depends on your attitude. We raised £5m in 24 hours for [internet magazine] mykindaplace.com [in 2000] which was pretty extraordinary. It's about your belief in yourself, your preparation, and then living up to your commitments."
• She says you learn more from what you do wrong than what you do right. "Things will always go wrong at some point, so be honest, contact people and tell them. It's better to make a cock-up with £20,000 than £20m. Lessons you learn early on, you tend not to repeat."
• She relies on her skill to build a rapport with people to her advantage, but is also generous with her time. "Your network is your most valuable resource. You should never go into something thinking, 'what can I get?' You should think, 'what can I give?' If someone needs something, and it's not going to damage your business, then offer. I think the entrepreneurial community is actually very good at that."
• She's using her knowledge of the technology industry to good effect as CEO of Bright Station Ventures, an investment firm dedicated to investing in internally generated ideas and seeding young companies. She says: "I think of all the people who've been instrumental in my career and to be able to do that for other people is hugely rewarding. I'm sat among the businesses we've invested in so they can call on me when they need me."
• She's attracted heavyweights such as Vodafone and Microsoft, as well as Enterprise Insight, to back a new online business support project—"A good idea is infectious," she says. The social enterprise, called Smarta.com, will launch this year. "It's what I call my legacy project. It will revolutionise the way business support is delivered in the UK and will fundamentally change business owners' lives for the better. That's something to be proud of."