For many British school leavers, today is a red-letter day; the day they find out their exam results which will determine which university, if any, they have gained entry to.

This day two years ago, James Gill, Geoff Wagstaff and James Taylor were waiting anxiously for their results. The three, friends at the Judd School, a selective boys school in southern England, expected to do well and were on course for the next step in their academic career: Mr. Gill at Exeter University, Mr. Wagstaff at Nottingham and Mr. Taylor at Cambridge.

It was what their school wanted them to do; the school website proudly declares: "There are around 960 students aged 11-18, of whom nearly all go on to University".

Two of them, at least, must be such a disappointment to the school. They got the right grades, were accepted on to their courses but rather than take up their places, they became entrepreneurs and are running their own start up, GoSquared, a web analytics company.

According to Mr. Wagstaff, entrepreneurship was not really a career path offered at school. For that matter computing wasn't a key part of the curriculum either.