There was a time when my end-of-year roundup would be a chronological overview of everything we’ve done and achieved. We’re quite a lot bigger now, so doing so would be tiring to write, and, more importantly, tiresome to read. I’ll try to keep it brief (and there is always this Twitter thread if you want to keep it even briefer).
What We Believe
Perhaps the biggest undertaking of 2023 was our April essay collection Operation Innovation, which had the unenviable task of living up to its unsubtle subtitle “How to Make Society Richer, Healthier and Happier.” Driven and edited by our Head of Research Eamonn Ives, it manages to both lift you up in showing the incredible future which entrepreneurs are building, but also wake you up to policy failure modes holding them back from realising their ambitions.
If you read nothing else, the opening essay (which I had little hand in writing) does a sterling job of explaining what we believe in fewer than 1,000 words.
In October, we released another wide-ranging report with Mishcon de Reya: our inaugural Risk Readiness Report 2023, which set out to better understand entrepreneurs’ broad attitudes to risk – as well as the ones keeping them up right now. Among other things, we revealed that entrepreneurs don’t think they are natural risk takers, but because risk-taking is important to business growth their risk tolerance increases as businesses grow older. (You’ll also need to click through if you haven’t yet read the juicy stats on what entrepreneurs think about the various risks associated with a Labour versus Conservative win next year.)
Culture Club
Our ambitions are big – we want to build an institution that impacts our very culture. That is why in May we released Blueprint for a New Great Exhibition, which pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin. This isn’t a theoretical paper – it’s a call to arms and description from our Head of Innovation Research Dr Anton Howes detailing how to hold a twenty-first-century Great Exhibition.
Anton’s long-term, practical vision also came through in January’s What Applied Learning Really Looks Like, kindly supported by Young Enterprise, and recently championed by the former secretary of state for education Justine Greening. We turned our attention to a very different part of the education system in Academic to Entrepreneur in July, making the specific case for Professor’s Privilege to ensure academic founders are able to more easily spin their companies out or universities, and broader recommendations that fed into the Government’s recent Spinouts Review.
Greatness From Anywhere
Immigration has always been a critical issue for the most ambitious founders in our network. Not least, because so many of them are themselves immigrants. August’s Job Creators 2023 landed big, with many asking the question: “Is the UK losing some of its pull for foreign founders?”
For anyone who really wants to understand the international dynamics driving the dearth and demand for talent, our new Researcher Derin Kocer wrote a cracking report in September with kind support from ABE: Passport to Progress. It highlights best practices from around the world – including from the UK. (Though this could be offset depending on how the Government’s 'evolving' immigration changes land.)
We also continued our long-running work with Barclays on our Female Founders Forum. In Accelerate to Excel, Margaret Mitchell took stock of the data – particularly the stubborn equity funding gap – and our many previous reports, concluding that there’s lots to be encouraged by, lots more to do; and every reason to work harder. A view echoed by The Times.
Taxing & Access
In March, through the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship, we released Funding to Flourish, alongside a letter to the Telegraph letter signed by many of you, which made the case for why the Enterprise Investment Schemes and Venture Capital Trusts have been integral to supporting UK entrepreneurship and innovation. The recommendation were adopted in the Spring Budget.
In October, in partnership with Enterprise Nation and Intuit we released Making Tax Simple, which looked at how digital technology from both the private and public sector could drive productivity gains. We also partnered with Enterprise Nation on three Access All Areas briefing papers, looking at access to markets in March, access to space in June and access to entrepreneurialism for older workers in September.
TEN More Years
Next year we’ll be celebrating our ten-year anniversary. I hope our commitment to the cause and successes are clear, but we’re only too aware that with better policies entrepreneurs would be able to make many more people in the UK richer, healthier and happier.
Now is the time to join us on our journey. As an individual, you can become an Adviser or Supporter online in a few minutes, while if you run or work for an organisation aligned to our goals, you can partner with us on research or events – book a time in my calendar here for a chat.
And a huge thanks to all our Patrons, Advisers, Supporters, and Partners. It's may be a truism, but it is still true: none of this is possible without your support.
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