Business

07 May 08

Cousins Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar setting up their first company boso.com in 2005

An idea that started as a free online service for students has made Oxford University graduates Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar millionaires, after they sold their company Auctomatic for £2.5m just months after its launch.

Cousins Kulveer, 24, and Harjeet, 22, cut their entrepreneurial teeth in Oxford University student society Oxford Entrepreneurs, which encourages students by providing inspiration, education and networking.

Supported by Oxford’s Saïd Business School, they set up their first company, internet auction site boso.com (Buy Or Sell Online), while undergraduates. The site was a big success and the pair went on to receive major financial backing to move to Silicon Valley.

They then built on their experience to launch Auctomatic, a service helping businesses manage selling on online sites like eBay, in October last year. Kulveer and Harjeet returned to Oxford for the ‘Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford’ event at the Saïd Business School in November 2007. Two days later they were approached by a buyer. As Auctomatic had only just launched, Kulveer and Harjeet were still in negotiations regarding funding and so were struggling to make ends meet. After the event, though, Auctomatic became part of a bidding war between three companies before it sold to Live Current Media.

Kulveer, former president of Oxford Entrepreneurs, said: ‘The approach came as a surprise. Any entrepreneur is inherently confident, but we never imagined to be so lucky that we'd sell our company within a year of launching.’ Harjeet is now a millionaire just a year and a half after graduating with a law degree, while Kulveer graduated with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics in 2005.

The cousins have always been interested in making money. In his first year at university, Kulveer designed a Freshers guide for LSE which funded a trip to Canada to start a property investment project. Kulveer now has property in the UK, Canada and India.

Kulveer said: ‘Oxford Entrepreneurs introduced me to successful entrepreneurs and gave me the confidence to think I could start my own company.’

Harjeet added: ‘The Saïd Business School has also been fantastic. Their annual “Silicon Valley comes to Oxford” event gave us the opportunity to meet some of the biggest names in the Internet industry and gave us the belief we could move to Silicon Valley and become a success.’

Live Current's Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Ehrlich said: ‘Their software is a set of tools and technologies to help us fulfil our potential. And the guys are amazing - incredibly bright and so hungry.’

Kulveer hopes to spend his hard-earned windfall on more property, a car and a watch for his mother, while Harjeet also plans to buy a car and treat his mum. Kulveer said: ‘My aim now is to realise the combined potential of LCM and Auctomatic. We have some great assets now and our plan is to grow them significantly.’