Calling all entrepreneurs! Today, we’re asking for 10 minutes (or less) of your time to fill in our quarterly Entrepreneurs Survey. (For those who haven’t started a business, the ask is that you share it with your networks.)
Our inaugural survey was picked up by many media outlets and led to all the political parties chasing us for more insights. No wonder. Entrepreneurs play a disproportionately important role in our economy, but too often their voices go unheard by the politicians who are designing policies that impact their businesses.
This will be an important one, as it will inform our campaigning ahead of the Budget. This is your best chance to tell those in power what you really think.
Another Year Wiser
We’re beginning the research process for our annual Female Founders Forum report with Barclays. This time, we’re investigating how university spinouts happen today and how to make translating academic ideas into real world companies work better for everyone in the UK.
The 2023 Independent Review of University Spin-out Companies promised faster, fairer, more founder-friendly journeys. We want to see where that promise has landed: where progress is being felt on the ground, where challenges remain, and where further steps are needed. We also want to understand how much founder experiences differ by gender, region and sector.
We’re building on important work already done in this space, adding a UK-wide, gender-aware lens and combining survey data with in-depth interviews to produce practical policy recommendations.
If you’ve spun a company out of a British university (or are in the process of doing so), or if you work with those who do, please consider filling out our survey or drop Anastasia a line for a chat. LinkedIn aficionados may also want to tag close contacts into this post, which is proving a useful way of getting the word out.
And Spend
Another week, another mention of tax. I’ll keep it short though. I just want to direct you to our Adviser Derin Kocer’s Big Idea this week. Derin thinks I didn’t make a big enough decision in last week’s Perennial Gale about the need to cut spending.
Unlike him, I’ve never been an official political strategist, so I’ll leave it to others to decide on feasibility and extent of cuts, but, either way, it’s always worth reminding the Government about which taxes are the least damaging.
Up to Date
Our Policy Updates are well and truly back. This week, we informed subscribers about the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill with more than a little help from Spark Legal and Policy Consulting. These updates are intended to be timely, bitesize overviews on policies that will impact the thousands of ambitious entrepreneurs in our network. If you’re an expert on an area of policy get in touch to see how you can partner on future updates.
Ta-da, Tata
Our friends at the Centre for Entrepreneurs have just announced that they’re teaming up once again with Tata for their Varsity Pitch Competition. It is the longest-running inter-university business pitching competition in the UK, with a £25,000 prize pot, as well as mentoring opportunities and connections to Tata Group for category winners and alumni.
One reason I like to promote this competition is that you don’t need a fully-formed idea to enter – or, indeed, win. Find out more here.