We produce a lot more than Perennial Gale — and if you don’t already follow our other Substacks, this is a good week to see what you’re missing.
Over on Network Effects, Mann Virdee sat down with Mollie Claypool, co-founder of AUAR, whose deployable robotic micro-factories aim to do what decades of housing policy have failed to do: make housebuilding faster and cheaper.
Also on Network Effects, our fortnightly Three Big Ideas covered why Europe’s most ambitious startups keep ending up in Delaware (and whether we should care), the state of Britain’s quantum bet and what happens when crime really doesn’t pay. We sometimes take ideas from outside, so drop us an email if you have a big idea you want to pitch.
And finally, if you care about what Parliament is actually doing on entrepreneurship policy, Eamonn Ives’ monthly APPG for Entrepreneurship newsletter is a must-read. It includes key quotes from ‘In Parliament’, so you don’t need to go digging through Hansard, plus a rundown of the Government’s current consultations and calls for evidence.
JVF Female Founder Ambition Series
As many of you will know, we have run our Female Founders Forum with Barclays for over a decade. It has been our most enduring project — watch this space to find out what’s next for us later in the year.
Today, we are announcing something separate to the Female Founders Forum — but which is testament to its ongoing impact: a partnership with the Jessica Vollman Foundation, a non-profit founded to honour the legacy of the late founder, CEO and advocate for women in entrepreneurship, Jessica Vollman.
Sarah Vollman and her father Mike Vollman — a technology executive who has founded and funded companies, taken them public, and now advises emerging AI companies and female founders — join The Entrepreneurs Network as Advisers as part of the partnership.
The series comprises three off-the-record virtual roundtables, each focused on a different stage of the scaling journey, and all chaired by Kajal Sanghrajka. Insights will feed into interviews for Network Effects and a briefing paper. We’re also planning a launch, so let me know if you’re keen to host it.
The first virtual roundtable is for founders in the earlier stages of growth — those with the drive, the idea and the question of how to scale still in front of them. The second is for founders already moving fast, navigating the capital, team and personal pressures that come with rapid expansion. The third is for founders operating — or seriously planning to operate — on both sides of the Atlantic.
Talkin’ bout GEN
Many of you will already know about the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN). Where it leads, many follow. And I’m delighted that its founder and president, Jonathan Ortmans, has joined us as an Adviser. Jonathan has been an inspiration and support to many ecosystem builders around the world, including me. For instance, GEN is supporting the JVF Female Founder Ambition Series.
I hope you’ll forgive me for putting my modesty to one side when I share his kind words about why he supports us, and our collective modesty to one side about why he is bullish about the UK:
“I support The Entrepreneurs Network mostly because it is authentic. At GEN, we are exposed to literally thousands of organisations around the globe promoting entrepreneurship, but Philip Salter’s writings and the community he convenes are precise, on point, and always worth the read.
I also remain bullish about entrepreneurship in the UK. There is a certain no-nonsense honesty to British risktakers. Beyond being a Britisher myself, GEN was born from the communities that celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, which was created in the UK as Enterprise Week so many years ago by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.”