From a Fijian Island to Turing Town
Ben Keene, Director of Entrepreneurship, Sherborne Schools Group on why a 1,300-year-old town is becoming a home for a new generation of change-makers, as published in The Sherborne Times.
In 2006, aged 25, I set up home on a small island in Fiji with strangers I'd met on the internet.
The idea was simple and, looking back, slightly mad. We invited people online to join a "tribe". Their membership fees would fund a sustainable eco-village, built alongside the local Fijian tribe who owned the land. We called it ‘Tribewanted’. The BBC made a documentary about it. Thousands of people took part, and what I learned on that island 20 years ago is shaping my approach to making Sherborne (even more) entrepreneurial.
The main lesson I learned was that big ideas are the easy bit. The hard part is trust. You must listen to people who see the world very differently from you, keep your promises when the money is tight, and remember that a venture only works if it's good for everyone. I also learned that setbacks and failures are the fastest way to learn and adapt: island fires, category five cyclones and national political coups all threatened to kill off our eco-island dream at various points.
Since then, I've spent 20 years building ventures and communities. In 2015 I co-founded Rebel Book Club, which sees 1000’s of members reading non-fiction and meeting, online or in person, every month in cities around the world. I ran startup accelerators at Escape the City (for those experiencing a quarter-life-crisis), advised founders at Virgin StartUp and worked with young footballers at Right to Dream in Ghana and Sierra Leone. More recently I co-founded Good with AI, which helps small teams use AI well and responsibly.
"All of these ventures are based on the same approach: when you give people the tools, the confidence and a community to back them, they can build extraordinary things.”
We moved to Sherborne in 2019 with our 3 children and although it may not look like a tropical paradise island (aside from the good vibes in the Hummingbird), almost immediately, it felt like ‘coming home’. I didn't expect to find so many creative change-makers. More and more local families are building businesses from their kitchen tables and our town’s many coffee shops. Some are founders, some have started over after corporate careers, and some are global experts in cyber-security, AI and tech - I’m lucky to now call them friends. No wonder people love living here - Sherborne has beauty, heritage, brilliant schools and a real sense of community.
In 2021, a few of us started meeting once a month at the Digby Tap to swap ideas, ask for help and share what we were working on. We called it Silicon Abbey, half as a joke. The conversations have continued, and have moved from "What are you working on?" to "How do we make sure our children grow up with this spirit too?"
It's fair to say that entrepreneurship wasn't what Sherborne was known for, back in the day. Our schools were famous for sending young people into the professions, the Forces and public life. That strong tradition remains. But the world our children are growing up in needs something extra.
AI is changing what work looks like faster than any of us predicted. Many of the jobs today's pupils will do don't exist yet, and some of the ones we'd have steered them towards may not last. In this new world, knowledge - ‘intelligence’ even - is abundant and cheap to access. What isn’t is the ability to spot a problem worth solving, gather a team, try something, fail quickly (and safely) and try again. Build trust. That's what an entrepreneurial mindset means to me.
This is also about more than business. The best entrepreneurs I know build things that serve people and the planet as well as the balance sheet. Sherborne is the perfect place to show that you don't have to choose between profit and purpose - we can do both. This includes partnering with ventures like Blue Earth Summit, founded by three Old Shirburnians; indeed last month ten sixth formers joined me at their summit in London to see impact businesses up close.
What happens next (and how you can join in)
I’ve joined Sherborne Schools Group because the team’s leadership and vision for this new world is clear and compelling. My role spans from Hanford and Sherborne Prep to the Boys' and Girls' senior schools and beyond. This first term is about me listening and learning, and about building on the good work that’s under way. Pupils are already pitching in our Shark Tank competitions, joining Entrepreneur Clubs and taking part in hackathons. Staff, parents and local entrepreneurs are volunteering their time and experience.
Over the coming years, we want every pupil, whatever path they choose, to leave Sherborne Schools knowing how to turn an idea into something tangible. That means more real-world challenges and more mentors from our brilliant community.
If you run a business in or around Sherborne and would like to share your story with a young person, or you're just curious, I'd love to hear from you.
The island taught me that the best things are built together, ideally with the stars in view. My sense is that, as our new school film says: ‘There’s ‘Something about Sherborne’ and I’d like us all to be part of that.
Ben Keene is Director of Entrepreneurship at Sherborne Schools Group. Ideas to change the world welcomed: ben.keene@sherborne.org
November 2026
