To conclude our three part series digging into our recent report on Britain’s foreign-born founders, our Research Director Eamonn Ives makes the case for increasing global youth mobility, and how to go about it.
Three Big Ideas #3
Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.
In this week, Eamonn Ives writes about Sichuan peppercorns and how regulations can shape our economic possibilities in quite unexpected ways, Anastasia Bektimirova discusses the UN’s approach to AI safety, and Philip Salter examines the essay on economic growth that everyone’s talking about.
Three Big Ideas #03
🥡 Eamonn Ives, Research Director
If you’re a fan of spicy food, the New York Times served up a treat last week. In a fascinating article on ‘The Life-Affirming Properties of Sichuan Pepper’ (paywalled), one extract in particular piqued my curiosity. In 1968, the American government banned imports of Sichuan peppercorns, over fears they posed a biological threat to domestic citrus crops. Some of the numbing spice surreptitiously continued to make its way into the US, but it was generally low-quality and often only sold to Chinese-speaking customers under the counter to minimise detection from inspectors. In 2005, the import rules were relaxed, but the peppercorns still had to be heated to 140°F for ten minutes to kill any potentially harmful bacteria – which dulled its potency. Only years later, when this requirement too was dropped, could the unique ingredient properly showcase its magical qualities.
New businesses sprang up, now able to freely sell unmeddled Sichuan peppercorns, while existing corporations – including the likes of McDonald’s and Panda Express – got in on the action too. Americans’ appetite for the distinctive properties of Sichuan peppercorns no doubt partly explains why Sichuan restaurants are increasingly muscling in on Cantonese restaurants’ monopoly on the broader ‘Chinese’ food scene in the US.
What this all very tangibly brings home is how regulations can shape our economic possibilities in quite unexpected ways. It can only make one wonder about what other pleasures existing rules may be preventing us from experiencing. In a recent interview with The Telegraph (paywall), Science Secretary Peter Kyle gestures towards one contender – lab-grown meat. Though British regulators have taken some progressive steps forward, startups in the sector remain highly regulated. As with the Sichuan peppercorn, who knows what culinary delights might be in store for us if we gave lab-grown meat more space to flourish?
🇺🇳 Anastasia Bektimirova, Researcher
Liverpool was not the only destination du jour last weekend. So too was New York, as foreign policy delegates descended on the United Nations (UN) headquarters for the Summit of the Future ahead of the General Assembly this week. The tech policy community had expected the long-anticipated announcement of the new UN AI Office, as recommended in the report from the High-level Advisory Body on AI. But that failed to materialise yet. The closest we get to it in the Global Digital Compact, which was supposed to lay down the plans, is “an international scientific panel on AI and a global AI policy dialogue.”
The game play change might be a reason. In a shift from the Advisory Body’s interim report, which attempted to craft a UN-led superstructure for global AI governance, the new report calls for a “light touch mechanism,” and says that “the case for an agency with reporting, monitoring, verification, and enforcement powers is not yet made.” The purpose of the proposed AI Office would be to “ensure information sharing across the UN system,” and fill any gaps in the flurry of national, multilateral and global initiatives so that the excluded parts of the Global South could have a say in AI governance. Instead of falling into the trap of directing resources at governing every shiny new thing, the report is a reality check. This course-correction, however, is a far cry from the initial power play.
So, what does the adopted Global Digital Compact leave us with? The international scientific panel on AI is expected to produce an annual report surveying AI opportunities and risks. But the AI Safety Institute (AISI) -led International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI is doing just that. The global AI policy dialogue, another adopted recommendation, is already what the AI Safety Summit, and its sequels, are tasked with. Rather than pooling resources as intended, the UN’s efforts risk adding more layers to an already complex AI governance landscape.
As several reports argued this year (e.g. Onward, The Tony Blair Institute), the international network of AISIs, which have already built impressive capacity, should take the lead in setting standards, including for safety evaluations, and collaborative research efforts on advancing scientific understanding of AI opportunities and risks. And as the first and best-funded one in this network, the UK’s AISI should lead the way in this work.
🧱 Philip Salter, Founder
What do Britain’s recent political leaders have in common with the elites of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Qing Dynasty China and the Polish Commonwealth? Answer – they all tinkered ineffectually while their metaphorical ‘Romes’ burned. That’s according to Foundations, a new essay from our Adviser Sam Bowman, and friends of the network Ben Southwood and Samuel Hughes, which is setting British policy discussions ablaze.
The thesis is easy to explain: our economy has stagnated because we have denied it the foundations on which to grow. Investment has been all but banned in housing, transport and energy, effectively prohibiting many of the most valuable investments that could be made in the UK. As such, instead of devising intricate schemes to try to stimulate and crowd in investment, we should focus on simply giving the private sector the platform and permission to build. It’s what we’ve done historically, and it’s what many other countries around the world are still doing.
While the diagnosis is simple, the solutions are less so. Whether it’s unpicking the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA), removing the second staircase requirement, reforming nutrient neutrality rules, or disincentivising lengthy judicial reviews, there is plenty to build on. And yet, while some of this won’t be easy, as the paper concludes, “the hardest things to create are ours already. No government can legislate into being a respect for the rule of law, appetite for scientific discovery and entrepreneurship, or tolerance of eccentricity and debate.”
Join us for a Female Angel Investor Roundtable in your city
Together with Barclays, we are currently undertaking research for our next Female Founders Forum report. In this year’s report, we are exploring the opportunities and challenges for female angel investors in the UK. The report and its policy recommendations will contribute to the Government-backed Invest in Women Taskforce.
This research will be informed by a series of roundtables across the UK. There will be opportunities for attendees to be quoted in the report and featured as a case study.
We’ll cover:
Regional challenges in angel investing
The impact of angel syndicates, groups, and co-investment funds in supporting female entrepreneurs and investors across different regions.
Strategies to increase women's participation in angel investing through improved support programs and policy changes
Bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and investors
The roundtables are open to both male and female angel investors, female entrepreneurs who have been backed by angels, and those actively interested in becoming angel investors.
You are invited to join us, and feel free to share with your network!
Newcastle
Monday, 7 October 2024
1.30pm to 3.30pm
Maybrook House, Newcastle upon Tyne
Request a place
Edinburgh
Tuesday, 8 October 2024
1.30pm to 3.30pm
CodeBase, Edinburgh
Request a place
Birmingham
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
1.30pm to 3.30pm
6 Brindley Pl, Birmingham
Request a place
London
Tuesday, 22 October 2024
1.30pm to 3.30pm
1 Churchill Place, London
Request a place
Belfast
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
1.30pm to 3.30pm
Ormeau Baths, Belfast
Request a place
Up and Atom
Ensuring the UK has cheap, clean energy is critical for any entrepreneur looking to build – or power – anything. When energy prices soar, businesses suffer or go bust. That’s why, in Small Wonders, we argue that Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) – developers of which include a host of innovative startups – should play a role in meeting this challenge.
For those unfamiliar with SMRs, these reactors have capacities of around 300 megawatts or less and are modular by design, meaning they are manufactured off-site and then assembled at their intended location. “The potential of SMRs is huge,” explains Will Murray in CapX. “Their modular nature allows for iterative learning and improvement, which means less risk of cost overruns. There is also export potential for SMRs made in the UK.”
As I discussed on Substack, energy is the cornerstone of progress: “Artificial intelligence will demand vast amounts of energy. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2026, electricity consumption will exceed 1,000 TWh. Just this week it was announced that Oracle is scoping out using three small nuclear reactors to power a new 1 GW AI data centre. That’s why our report advocates for the co-location of data centres with SMRs, aligning with two of the new Government’s core missions: stimulating economic growth and positioning Britain as a clean energy leader.”
The report, kindly supported by Bradshaw Advisory, is written by our Research Director Eamonn Ives, an expert on energy and environment matters, and who was a Special Adviser to a Cabinet Minister on energy and climate policy prior to joining us. Among other things, we call for the Government to open up more sites for SMR development, allow local authorities approving new nuclear power stations to retain a greater share of the business rates developers would pay, and for Britain to recognise the work of nuclear regulators in allied countries. Eamonn has a cracking thread on X that explains this better than I can.
Some people reading this might have concerns about the mere mention of the word “nuclear.” I won’t waste your time busting every myth about it, but I will point you in the direction of the remarkable work of Dr Hannah Ritchie – specifically this article on Our World in Data, but also more broadly her Sustainability by Numbers Substack.
Mission Possible
This week, my colleague Anastasia Bektimirova interviewed former DSIT policy adviser Ben Johnson on how bridging government and innovation networks can enhance the UK’s competitive edge in science and technology. The interview has made waves across Westminster and is a must-read for anyone invested in these areas. You can read it here.
Reach for the Stars
With party conference season in full swing, if you’re in Liverpool for Labour’s, head to the Main ACC, Auditorium 1C at 9am on Tuesday to hear my thoughts on how Labour should think about aligning policies for work with its skills agenda.
I’ll be speaking alongside a stellar panel, including Seema Malhotra MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at Home Office, as well as representatives from British Future, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Federation of Builders, and the Social Market Foundation.
If you’re based in or near London and can’t wait until Tuesday, feel free to attend our event on Monday morning.
Time to Join
On 24 October Rathbones is hosting us for a private dinner for our Patrons and Advisers. This will be a valuable opportunity to learn about our policy initiatives and to share your thoughts on the issues entrepreneurs face in relation to government policy. If you’re interested in becoming an Adviser, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Three Big Ideas #2
Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.
In this week, Philip Salter digs into our latest report on nuclear reactors, Anastasia Bektimirova reports back on the need for bilingual science, and Eamonn Ives looks at new evidence on the sharing economy.
Three Big Ideas #02
⚛️ Philip Salter, Founder
Energy is the cornerstone of progress. A strong correlation exists between per capita energy consumption and economic output, but this growth has historically come at the cost of increased carbon emissions. Small Wonders, which we released this week, argues that Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) should be part of the solution. These reactors, with a capacity of 300 MW or less, are modular by design — manufactured off-site and assembled on location.
Artificial intelligence will demand vast amounts of energy. The International Energy Agency forecasts that by 2026, electricity consumption will exceed 1,000 TWh. Just this week it was announced that Oracle is scoping out using three small nuclear reactors to power a new 1 GW AI data centre. That’s why our report advocates for the co-location of data centres with SMRs, aligning with two of the new Government’s core missions: stimulating economic growth and positioning Britain as a clean energy leader.
Looking back, the true marvel of nuclear power isn’t its potential but the decades-long delay in realising that potential. In 1956, the UK made history at Calder Hall in Cumbria by launching the world’s first full-scale nuclear power station to supply electricity to a civilian grid. As the report highlights, 18 additional nuclear power stations followed, but the most recent one – Sizewell B in Suffolk – was connected to the grid nearly 30 years ago in 1995. Since then, eight Prime Ministers have come and gone, while South Korea has brought 18 new nuclear stations online.
The report also recommends that the UK recognise nuclear regulatory approvals from allied nations. Similar precedents exist in other sectors, such as pharmaceuticals between Australia and Switzerland, food and drug regulation between Canada and the European Union, and automotive standards between the EU and the US. This can even be done unilaterally – as seen in Singapore’s recognition of pharmaceuticals from the US, EU, and UK – and wouldn’t cost the government a penny. Something for the Chancellor to keep in mind with the Budget just around the corner.
👩🔬 Anastasia Bektimirova, Researcher
Last week, I got a spot for a fireside chat between Matt Clifford (Entrepreneur First co-founder and ARIA Chair) and Tom Kalil (Renaissance Philanthropy CEO and former Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office for Science and Technology under Presidents Clinton and Obama), organised by UKDayOne and TxP.
The dialogue ranged from institutional innovation and research funding to industrial strategy and technological diffusion. But if I were to highlight just one point, it would be Tom’s answer about a skill gap between the UK and the US:
“Many US universities are really significantly increasing the number of courses in AI, machine learning and data science. And not only people who would just focus on that, but people who are genuinely bilingual, that is, they have both deep domain expertise and this sort of computational skills as well. And it would be important for UK universities to benchmark how they are doing in this area vis-à-vis world-class peers.”
In a field like engineering biology, for example, this means that having the best biologists alone won’t cut it – we also need more people who know how to combine biology with engineering expertise (and there is evidence that the UK struggles here). Having already secured an early edge – built on a scientific pedigree and exciting companies spanning from new materials to novel foods – we can’t afford to let it slip.
Bilingualism is likely to develop fairly naturally in many disciplines, where there is a strong computational precedent. Computing principles have already been part of biological workflows for decades. Chip design is also a computational playground. In the social sciences, a shift into advanced computational methods has made economists valuable hires for tech companies. But this won’t be the case for many other fields. Especially with AI tools lowering the skill barrier, there is no excuse for not being more intentional in preventing gaps from forming.
So, what could a game plan for a comprehensive computational shift involve? One part of it is a curriculum catch-up. This means degree programmes, starting from the undergraduate level, with training in applied computational methods and writing software for research, done in a way that is tailored to each field.
At a more advanced level, there is room for translational postdoc programmes, which, as Tom noted, some US universities are experimenting with. This, essentially, means that a PhD graduate enters a programme specifically designed to help them bring research from the lab to the marketplace. By extension, this could create a ripple effect back through the academic pipeline – for example, PhD programmes developed with this postdoc route in mind too.
Another part of it is physical social infrastructure: more cross-disciplinary research centres, institutes, and other spaces, such as co-working hubs envisioned as part of the EU’s AI Factories, which will allow startups, scientists and students “to meet and work on common ideas and projects,” creating “an environment that can attract the necessary talented human capital and build vibrant, attractive, and dynamic communities of practice.” The beauty of such spaces lies in their ability to blur traditional boundaries between the fields, with computational thinking as a common language.
💼 Eamonn Ives, Research Director
As well as providing us with cheaper takeaways and convenient rides home, one of the other key benefits that the sharing economy has given rise to is an extra way for people to earn a living. A new paper from Tucker Omberg from Jacksonville University, which analyses the impact of ridesharing on the labour market, caught my eye this week. His headline finding is that “Uber’s arrival to a city resulted in [a] decline in the unemployment rate by between a fifth and a half of a percentage point.” The good news doesn’t stop there either – Omberg also finds evidence that Uber has a positive effect on wages at the lower end of the wage distribution, which he suggests may be due to changes in how workers search for jobs or shifts in bargaining power.
Omberg’s research is one more datapoint proving the importance of the sharing economy, and the tangible consequences it has for consumers and workers alike. It gives us further reason to ensure that the rules that govern it – from worker’s rights to matters of taxation – are fit for purpose. And with the Labour Party about to descend on Liverpool for their annual conference, chatter about the future direction of travel on these issues is gearing up.
Prior to the election, Labour published their ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’. Among many other things, it contained a promise to end the three-tier system for employment status, which classifies people as either employees, self-employed or ‘workers.’ Removing the worker definition, however, could pose significant challenges – as platforms would then likely be on the hook for offering things like statutory sick pay or redundancy rights, while workers using them would be subject to National Insurance Contributions on their earnings. Indeed, according to the Financial Times (paywall), there are fears even from worker unions themselves that an unintended consequence of Labour’s plan could be businesses simply hiring staff as contractors or casual workers.
As was previously noted in research by the APPG for Entrepreneurship, the sharing economy is a unique segment of the overall economy and one deserving of bespoke policy attention. Though the Labour high command promised to table an Employment Bill within their first 100 days in office, it’s critical that enough time is taken to work out the specifics. Even the best intentioned legislation can end up causing trouble if it’s rushed through.
Interview: Mission Possible
For our first interview in a new series, Anastasia Bektimirova sat down with Ben Johnson, former Adviser to the Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, to chat about bridging government and innovation networks to seize the UK’s edge in science and technology.
They discussed:
What the new Government’s five missions mean for DSIT and its interaction with the sector
How to better deploy expertise and evidence into government
What needs to happen to make UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as effective a delivery partner as possible
Stakeholder engagement beyond public consultations and roundtables
How the science and technology community can get the Government excited and compelled to invest resources
Moving from being comparatively good to objectively good at research commercialisation
Strategic advantage in science and technology beyond economic growth
United We Stand
This week we launched our United Growth report in partnership with Sumer. Based on a survey of entrepreneurs across every region of the UK, we got into the nitty-gritty of the challenges they face, their expectations about the future and their views on different policies that could make their lives easier.
As many of you will be acutely aware, it’s tough out there. By a ratio of more than six to one, business owners agree that economic inequality between the regions of the UK is a problem. And more agree than disagree that they’ve come close to closing in the previous six months. Nearly two in five are currently considering closing up.
With the Budget just around the corner, the Government will no doubt be interested to know that entrepreneurs feel that the tax burden is the single biggest obstacle holding back growth. Things could get worse.
On this, we know that the thousands of entrepreneurs in our network are worried about mooted changes to Capital Gains Tax (CGT). As our Research Director Eamonn Ives argues for CapX: “Though there is a logic to bringing rates of CGT and income tax closer together, nobody doubts that this would have harmful economic consequences – not least lowering the expected return to investment or company growth. If CGT is to rise, we urge the Chancellor to accompany such a move with paring measures such as base reform and targeted carve outs to ensure that genuine entrepreneurship does not get overly penalised in the process.”
The report was launched in our home away from home: the Cholmondeley Room in the House of Lords. After last week’s Labour-led launch, with Jonathan Reynolds and Lord McNicol, this week we crossed the floor of the House to host the Business Secretary’s opposite number, Kevin Hollinrake MP, and the Liberal Democrat MP Victoria Collins, a new Member who, like Kevin, used to be an entrepreneur. As I wrote for Forbes, concern over tax changes were echoed by Kevin, while Victoria expressed particular support for the calls in the report around extending devolution, which called for the granting ‘London-style’ powers to all metro mayors.
Victoria also backed the report’s call for business rates reform – suggesting a commercial landowner levy as an alternative – which aligns with the report’s recommendation for the adoption to tax in proportion to the value of the underlying land that premises sit on. This is an idea inspired by Andrew Dixon, one of our Advisers, who in 2018 commissioned a team to draw up a land value tax to reform business rates and support the struggling high street.
I expect you’ll be hearing a lot more from Sumer as they scale in their efforts to support small businesses. Read City A.M. recent profile of its founder Warren Mead to find out more.
What the Big Idea?
If you’re not already doing so, do give us a follow on Substack. This week we published our first Three Big Ideas, a new series where Eamonn, Anastasia and I share our thoughts on ideas that have captured our attention. The first covers self-driving cars, AI art, and measuring immigrant entrepreneurship. On the topic of visas, Eamonn has written the second deepdive into our Job Creators 2024 report, which is also on our Substack.
More Immigration?
There are few policy areas with as much chopping and changing as visa rules. Consultation after consultation, tweak after tweak, it’s beyond the wit of any business owner to keep on top of it.
I’m no expert, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given an overview of the visa routes open to perplexed entrepreneurs and their (wannabee) employees – before passing on to someone qualified to give legal advice. In a few weeks, we’ll be hosting an actual expert: Dr Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford and Member of the influential Migration Advisory Committee.
If you want to see things nudged in the right direction – come along to support us.
Young, scrappy and hungry
In the second post of our series on our recent research into Britain’s foreign-born founders, our Research Director Eamonn Ives explains how Britain can design a more startup-friendly immigration system.
Three Big Ideas #1
Three Big Ideas is our weekly roundup of ideas (and our takes on them) in entrepreneurship, innovation, science and technology, handpicked by the team.
In this week, Eamonn Ives looks at autonomous vehicles, Anastasia Bektimirova weighs in on AI art, and Philip Salter discusses our latest immigration research.
Three Big Ideas #01
🚗 Eamonn Ives, Research Director
Everything’s bigger in America, so the saying goes, and that certainly applies to their cars. An obvious problem with all that extra weight, as a recent article in The Economist explains, is that while supersized vehicles are safer for those inside them, they can pose lethal consequences for anyone else who isn’t. After analysing ten year’s worth of US crash data, they conclude that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, there are more than a dozen lost in other vehicles.
People don’t buy bulky cars to deliberately jeopardise their fellow motorists though. Bigger models are roomier and thus more pleasant to sit in. Part of the extra weight that modern cars have gained is due to modcons like climate control, electric windows and sunroofs. An inconvenient truth about electric vehicles is that they can often be heavier than their gasoline-powered equivalents because of their hefty battery packs. So calls to simply ‘mandate lightness’ would come at a cost to consumer welfare and possibly delay progress towards environmental objectives.
Fortunately, a technological solution is (safely) hurtling down the road – autonomous vehicles (AVs). Driverless cars promise to eliminate the vast majority of crashes – after all, just 2% of collisions in the UK are due to vehicle defects. The computers that control them don’t get aggressive, tired or drunk – but they are able to talk to each other remotely and have much faster reaction times than humans ever could. An enormous productivity boost could ensue if AVs enable more efficient transportation of both goods and workers. (Say goodbye to the commute as you know it.)
Earlier this year, the Autonomous Vehicles Act received Royal Assent, which means AVs could be driving on Britain’s roads by 2026. At the end of last month, British AV-startup Wayve announced a partnership with Uber, in which they will integrate their AI into vehicles using the ride-hailing firm’s platform.
Good news like this should encourage us that a safer, more prosperous future is possible – but let’s not take it for granted. Writing for the Greater London Project, Shakeel Hashim does a great job of sketching out some of the Cheems (for the uninitiated, read this) reasons why AVs might find themselves stuck at a metaphorical red light in Britain. He argues that, despite the AV Act being passed in May, there are still legislative hoops to be jumped through before we can expect driverless cars to be whisking us around. Given the gains that stand to be made, the responsible civil servants must have their feet firmly on the accelerator.
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🎨 Anastasia Bektimirova, Researcher
Sci-fi author Ted Chiang penned an essay for The New Yorker arguing that “AI isn’t going to make art”, really ever. He writes that “art is something that results from making a lot of choices” and that AI “is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning.” In response, the commentary on social media got so loud it bordered the HR territory for some.
Unlike the caricature that Chiang’s piece sketches, the reality of AI art is more nuanced than typing a prompt into a machine. Like cameras or brushes, AI tools are instruments shaped and put to use by humans to assist in the creative process. It still requires artistic direction and iteration–that is, a lot of choices–and the initial output is rarely the final product. Such works can take days, weeks or longer to refine. The creative core remains human: people shape the message and use AI to express their vision. We don’t think of photos taken with digital cameras, where computer interfaces unlock hundreds of sophisticated and increasingly automated manipulations, as lesser creations than film photos. The medium isn’t the message here, and its choice is neither a yardstick for a work’s artistic merit nor a boundary of what it means to be creative. So is the case with AI – it is simply an evolution of the artist’s toolkit.
AI introduces a new dimension to creativity. And this dimension is an innovative space for human-machine collaboration and hybrid work. Refik Anadol, whose AI-generated art was on display at London’s Serpentine North Gallery this February, described AI as “a thinking brush that doesn’t forget, that can remember anything and everything,” and said he would “invite that AI to my studio, and host and cocreate” with it. Over at the Sydney Opera House, AI-generated choreography instructions keep dancers on their toes, creating a unique performance each night. From Pollock's drip paintings and Arp’s gravity-led collages to Cage's chance operations, there is something about chance that has long fascinated artists, and AI offers a new way to embrace it.
Beyond the “what counts as art” debate lie hard policy questions. No one is under the illusion that permission from every single artist whose work feeds into an AI tool lands in developers’ inboxes. Policymakers will have to grapple with what to do about this. Judging by recent copyright infringement court cases, this won’t be an easy fix. AI-assisted output is usually sufficiently transformed, but using this as a basis for policy is unlikely to satisfy many. One way forward might be infrastructure for detecting content ownership and providing compensation. But this is likely to be hard to implement in practice, especially at scale. As O’Reilly founder and CEO puts it, we need “a virtuous circle of ongoing value creation, an ecosystem in which everyone benefits.” There is a possibility that, when the dust settles, norms might end up shifting. On aesthetic grounds, there is still a long way to go before most AI art is worthy of the name. But the excitement of a new medium in its early days is an opportunity space to be leveraged not binned.
For the road, I’m leaving you with this piece by Vera Molnár, who is considered to have paved the way for generative art. Back in the 1960s, she was one of the first artists to produce computer-assisted drawings.
Vera Molnár, (Dés)ordres ((Dis)orders), 1973. Plotter drawing, ink on paper. Photo: Galerie Oniris, Rennes. Courtesy of Vera Molnár/Galerie Oniris
🌎 Philip Salter, Founder
Our latest report, Job Creators 2024, reveals that 39% of Britain’s fastest-growing companies have at least one foreign-born founder, with 32% of all founders across these companies coming from overseas. Given the UK’s immigrant population is less than half of this, we can confidently conclude – and we do – that immigrant founders are a critical component of Britain’s flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Debates around immigration can become emotional. But facts matter, and they really don’t care about your feelings. That so many of the UK’s most innovative companies are started by immigrants reveals that we are reliant on them for innovation, jobs and economic growth. It also suggests a path to more growth, if we can attract and retain more immigrants like them. The report has eight policy recommendations aimed to target them.
You can measure immigrant entrepreneurship in all sorts of ways. Before our work, the most common approach was to look at the percentage of those born outside the UK who are registered as directors of companies. The claim here was that the higher percentage proves immigrants are more entrepreneurial.
However, Governments understandably care about jobs and productivity and this measure doesn’t account for the economic impact of these businesses. Also, some of this could be ‘necessity entrepreneurship’, which might include immigrants who are excluded from employment due to discrimination. This certainly wouldn’t be something to celebrate.
The methodology we used was inspired by another report in which SyndicateRoom partnered with Beauhurst to track the 100 startups that have seen the greatest growth in valuation. In other words, a list of companies which private markets have taken the biggest bet on. Critically, unlike many lists of top companies that are put together with additional motives, e.g. PR,business development, it passed the smell test, including the likes of Darktrace, Deliveroo and Monzo.
Statistics can have a memetic quality – Rishi Sunak regularly quoted our finding that in 2019 that half of fastest-growing companies had an immigrant founder. That’s now dropped to 39%. Luckily, we know how to get it back up where it belongs and what that would mean for economic growth.
Jonny Be Good
Yesterday we hosted Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for the launch of our Backing Breakthrough Businesses report at the House of Lords. It was great to see many of you there, but I know for a fact most of you weren’t as the Cholmondeley Terrace would need to be the size of the Kop to fit you all in. As such, I wanted to share an overview of the speeches.
Lord McNicol of West Kilbride – or Iain, as he prefers – spoke first. He was General Secretary of Labour Party from 2011-2018, which must have been a challenging a leadership role. But as an experienced entrepreneur in his own right he had the skills to flourish.
Iain co-founded and is Chair of Rewired Earth – a Community Interest Company aiming to transform the way financial markets value sustainability. It lends in the subprime unsecured market, using Open Banking instead of credit reference agencies. Reflecting on our report, he echoed the challenge of scaling in the UK: “Two years ago, we wanted to scale the business. Nobody would touch us in the UK. Not the banks, not the VCs. We had to go to America, where we got the £40m to scale the business.”
He agreed with Valentina Kristensen in her video for the Commission where she said “we need to move away from dividend paying to growth capital.” He thinks we have a great opportunity with the Investment Summit on the 14th of October.
Jonathan Reynolds took the stage with a sobering reminder: while Britain boasts incredible entrepreneurs, something fundamental has shifted since the global financial crisis. He made the important point that while his constituents don’t tell him they’re specifically worried about growth being below the post-war trend, they are worried that their children won’t have the kind of opportunities that they had.
This point matters because previous governments struggled with the fundamentals – something we explain in more detail in our Building Blocks report.
Reynolds argued that Labour can offer stability: “It is not just about stability in terms of the Prime Minister staying the same and what happens between elections. It’s about policy stability as well as part of that. I do now have a vested interest in it, but I think the Business Secretary should last more than one year.”
Finally, Steve Rigby spoke in his role as Chair of the Private Business Commission. Steve is Co-CEO of Rigby Group, and a Patron of The Entrepreneurs Network. It was an uplifting speech: “We’re a £2.3 trillion economy. We’re the sixth largest in the world. We should be proud of what we are,” he said.
But there are headwinds, with recent surveys suggesting that business sentiment is slipping. Given the Budget is coming up, Steve made the case for a tax system that is both a carrot and stick: “if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re trying to grow your business, we also need an environment that allows us to do that.”
Hear, hear!
Misfits Matter
If you care about economic growth, stop what you’re doing and read (or listen) to this interview with James Phillips, who helped develop the UK’s rapid COVID testing and create the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA).
It covers a lot of ground, including letting ‘weirdos and misfits’ inside the government, the civil service efficiency and how we can end economic stagnation with a renewed approach to R&D. Here’s a taster:
“There’s a great quote from Colonel Boyd, ‘People, ideas, machines — in that order!’ Boyd was one of the reformers in the Pentagon in the 1970s, and he’s famous for the OODA loop concept of how fighter jets should engage in combat. That quote contrasts with how almost everything else in government is set up; it’s machines, ideas, and people, in that order. In the UK government, you’ve got your processes, or machines: consultations, reviews, and setting up a bureaucracy. Then once you have this set of tools, you say, ‘Okay, what's the idea?’ ’Well, we're going to look at net zero,’ or, ‘We’re going to look at some issue in tax.’ And then at the end of that, once you’ve got this relatively developed plan, you go out and find the person to run it.”
And something for those with an entrepreneurial mindset:
“Instead of saying, “Let’s do more stakeholder consultations, let's do more reviews,” the brilliant people say, “Actually, it’s pretty obvious what the answer is. Let’s just get on and do it.”
If this has piqued your interest, stay tuned for an interview coming soon on our Substack – sign up here.
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When Borders Aren't Barriers
This week we released Job Creators 2024 in partnership with Fragomen. The data, which Beauhurst provided and we analysed, is conclusive: 39% of the UK’s fastest-growing companies have at least one foreign-born founder.
The UK’s immigrant population is a lot less than this – under 15% at the last count (though it may well be a percent higher today), so we can be sure in stating that immigrants are integral for the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Nadine Goldfoot, managing partner of Fragomen’s UK practice, said to City A.M.: “As the analysis highlights, foreign-born start-up founders have been and are integral to the success of the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Reforms to ensure we continue to attract the world’s brightest minds to the UK, to collaborate alongside homegrown innovators, is a recipe for continued and dynamic economic growth.”
So what should those reforms look like?
I’ll focus on three of the eight we made today.
First, fees need to be lowered for high-skilled immigrants in line with international competitors. Visa costs have increased by over 129% since 2019, with total upfront costs more than other peer countries. It costs nearly seven times as much for a skilled worker to come to the UK for five years with their spouse and a dependant compared to Australia, over 12 times as much compared to Canada and over 86 times as much compared to Germany.
Second, we should expand the High Potential Individual visa to more universities. It should be noted that this visa category was a groundbreaking success, with many around the world envying it, including the US. Its key feature is that unlike something like the H-1B visa, it’s not tied to an employer, which severely constrains the flexibility of beneficiaries, including to launch startups, UK HPI visa holders have the freedom to engage in entrepreneurship and costlessly change employment. We simply call for the expansion to the top 100 universities.
There are other ways it could be expanded (e.g. changing the methodology, expanding it to top business schools) but the key thing is expanding it in a way that ensures it targets more of the world’s best and brightest.
Third, and this is perhaps the most ambitious, we call for the introduction of the world’s first Global Talent Exam to actively recruit top talent. These should be open to anyone worldwide with the necessary language skills. Exams would assess applicants’ fundamental abilities like problem-solving, cognitive skills, and analytical thinking. High achievers on these exams would then be interviewed by designated ‘talent searchers,’ who would make the final decision on the candidates’ outcomes. This proactive approach would help identify and nurture talent, providing opportunities for them to succeed.
Politicians like to – perhaps even need to – “talk tough” on immigration, but we need to acknowledge that this comes at a cost. As our Research Director and co-author Eamonn Ives argues in CapX:
“We should be championing these wealth creators – doing all we can to attract more of them, and enable the next generation of trailblazers to build the future within Britain’s shores. The jobs, taxes and national prestige we’d accrue as a result are the prizes on offer, and we should be unstinting in designing an immigration architecture that provides people from abroad with pathways to make the UK their home.”
You can also read about the report in UKTN and Startups Magazine.
Substack
We’ve officially launched on Substack today with two articles. In the first, I share my thoughts on why The Entrepreneurs Network exists and how you can get involved in our Substack as a co-author or interviewee, while in the second we delve into why immigration must be a core part of Britain’s Industrial Strategy.
Give us a follow to receive our Substack posts straight into your inbox.
Strategy games
In the first post of a new series on our recent research into Britain’s foreign-born founders, our Research Director Eamonn Ives argues that immigration reform must form part of the Government’s focus on industrial strategy.
Whether Fronts
The Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) wants help understanding how they can support innovation in businesses. To that end, they’ve asked us to share a survey that aims to measure levels of technology diffusion across British business and understand what barriers they face in adopting and selling these technologies.
On the topic of innovation, our newest member of the team Anastasia Bektimirova has a paper out today with her former outfit Onward on how the UK can build strategic advantage in frontier technologies.
There’s some great stuff in there about how governments tend to spread investments too thinly across multiple projects, rather than focusing on specific areas of existing or potential leadership, as well as ideas for how to remove barriers to innovation. For example, last year the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) assessed just 26% of clinical trial applications in 30 days, against a target of 98%. Read Meri Beckwith’s ‘Errors in Trials’ essay in our Operation Innovation collection for thoughts on how to fix that deadly failure.
The Government also often falls short of recognising opportunities and investing in critical infrastructure and facilities, with due seriousness and ambition to match our potential to capitalise on them. The report says the intersection of AI and engineering biology presents one such opportunity: biology research publications involving AI have grown by 50% year-on-year since 2018.
However, our research institutes, though excellent, are still struggling to match overseas leaders like the US-based Broad Institute in ambition, core facilities and resources; while a single corner in Massachusetts, the report argues, is beating Britain in biotech. Most recently, the Government’s decision to shelve £1.3 billion investment in compute which was supposed to power AI-driven research is another case in point. (Air Street Capital’s Alex Chalmers has a useful thread for anyone looking to get behind the headlines of this decision.)
One particularly refreshing thing in Allan Nixon’s and Anastasia’s report is their call for the new Government to stop trying to lead in areas where our allies are already leading. For example, our chances of catching up with advanced chip manufacturing leaders are very slim. Even with less advanced facilities, the UK has eight times fewer than Japan, six times fewer than Taiwan and the US, and less than half of Germany’s. Catching up would likely require a frontier company to establish a plant in the UK. Considering how much others are investing, it would require billions in public funding. The report suggests that chip design would be a better bet.
Future Frontiers suggests the new Government drops ‘future telecoms’, which was one of the last Government’s five priority technologies. After all, UK business telecoms R&D investment over 12 years is half of Samsung’s annual R&D spend, with the US, China, South Korea, Japan and Germany already well ahead.
As Warren Buffet said of people, but which could equally apply to governments: “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say 'no' to almost everything.”
Breaking the US
Anastasia is now deep in the research stage of our forthcoming Special Relationship project report – looking at what’s stopping more UK businesses expanding into the US. Thanks to all the entrepreneurs and experts who have already talked to her. Drop her an email if you’re keen to share your insights.
A Thousand Flowers
On the back of my article in defence of Entrepreneurs’ Relief (well, Business Asset Disposal Relief), a journalist from a reputable publication has got in touch to see if any entrepreneurs in the network would like to talk with her about the tax breaks.
Perhaps you’ve benefited from Entrepreneurs’ Relief in the past and gone on to start and invest in more companies. Or maybe it helped convince you to start your business in the UK. If you’re happy to go on-the-record with your thoughts, drop me a message and I’ll make the intro.
Jitter Budget
Entrepreneurs, investors and others in our ecosystem are starting to get jittery about the upcoming Budget. It’s only natural. A new party is in power, and, while some assurances have been made, there are concerns that we will be blindsided by something unexpected.
You can have your say. You have until the 10th September to provide a written submission to HM Treasury ahead of the 30th October Budget. For our part, we’ll be drawing on our recent reports like Backing Breakthrough Businesses, Making Tax Simple, Funding to Flourish, and Access All Areas: Finance for our submission.
Enroly Polo
This week, Enroly, a web platform used by international students for managing enrolment, revealed (paywall) a 35% drop in deposits for places on UK university courses.
This is a massive deal for universities because – as we all know – international students' fees help to subsidise university operations, research, cover budget shortfalls, and have become essential for keeping them solvent. I’ll save the thorny issue of university funding for another day, but instead focus on what we’re missing out on.
British education exists in a competitive international market. Among other things, the drop in numbers is a result of the previous Government increasing the minimum earning threshold for the Skilled Worker visa, and making it harder for people to bring their families. This has put UK universities at a competitive disadvantage compared to our key competitors.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s Education Secretary, has refused to reverse these changes, but went on to talk a good rhetorical game, describing being open to international students as “a big part of our reach around the world, the impact that we can have as a country, the business links, the trading links, the opportunities and the bridges that we build between nations.”
Positive rhetoric is all to the good – vibes really do matter – but it will only get us so far. These young people are net contributors. As reported in The Economist this week: “A forthcoming research paper for the Migration Observatory finds that migrants from outside Europe who started working in 2021 earned 97% of the median British wage in the second year and 104% in the third year.”
So, on net, international graduates are paying more in taxes than the median Brit. At the same time, the very smartest are changing the world – many through entrepreneurship. MacroPolo think-tank in Chicago has the numbers to prove it, (paywall): “The smartest people are highly mobile. Only 3.6% of the world’s population are migrants. But of the 1,000 people with the highest scores in the entrance exam for India’s elite institutes of technology, 36% migrate after graduation. Among the top 100, 62% do. Among the top 20% of AI researchers in the world, 42% work abroad.”
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No Credit Where It's Due
As the new Government is no doubt well aware, things can’t only get better. They can get worse. Labour didn’t even manage a minimoon let alone a honeymoon before the realities of governing became manifest.
For entrepreneurs, it’s not just the potential cuts to Entrepreneurs’ Relief (well, what’s left of it), or tax rises more broadly, but a whole plethora of hangovers from previous governments that still need fixing.
One of those, as reported in Sifted, is that the R&D tax credits regime is still a mess. They have spoken to five companies that are close to collapsing after being asked to repay tax rebates.
It’s worth reading in full, but one case stands out. The startup received a tax rebate for the 2022 financial year, but, a few months later, received a letter from HMRC saying the money had been sent in error and that it no longer qualified for the five-figure sum.
HMRC isn’t backing down, even though the company won an Innovate UK grant during the same period.
This is just the tip of a much larger iceberg.
Oli Kicks, investor at Concept Ventures, told Sifted that “no one knows what’s going on or what the process looks like. Our general view is do not factor [R&D tax credits] into the budget in its current format, as it’s a completely unreliable means to extend runway or de-risk cash flow. Some have decided that the current regime is simply too complex and costly to go through the process of making a claim.”
I’ve heard of many entrepreneurs running businesses that had previously claimed R&D tax credits deciding not to claim this year due to the increased risk and uncertainty. Their fear is that this could alert HMRC to previous years’ claims. Critically, they think their businesses should qualify for them, but they just don’t trust HMRC to make the right decision.
In addition, delays have created a market for loans. For 2020-21, we calculated this to be costing UK startups and small businesses in the order of £130 million.
This isn’t an easy nut to crack, but as we argued in Backing Breakthrough Businesses, it’s something that the new Government should prioritise.
Show Us The Money
Our friends at Tussell have crunched their procurement data, and there is plenty of room for improvement in the long-standing ambition to procure more from innovative small businesses.
Overall, public sector direct procurement spending with SMEs has grown each year over the last six, from £22.4bn in 2018 to £39.7bn in 2023. However, direct SME spending as a proportion of wider public sector procurement spending was only 20% in 2023, the same as the previous year (20%), and only slightly up on 2018 (18%).
Another question is how meaningful the government’s engagement with innovators actually is. Take defence procurement. Analysis of defence purchasing data from Air Street Capital shows that the largest awards to SMEs tend to be for routine activity, such as estate upgrades and equipment maintenance, rather than next-generation warfare capabilities.
To its credit, the previous Government recognised the need for change, with the new regime – following the passing of the Procurement Act 2023 – starting in October. But the new Government will need to make sure this is embedded across the public sector, which will be no mean feat.
Up Our Street
The Federation of Small Businesses has put out a chunky new report to help support and transform our high streets.
It’s impossible to write about high streets without mentioning the elephant on it: business rates. Among other things, the FSB recommends the government increases the frequency of business rates revaluations to take place annually, instead of the current three-year cycle. This would ensure that business rates more accurately reflect current market conditions and economic factors.
The FSB also recommends that the Valuation Office Agency and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government implement a national system which connects VOA and local government data to regularly and automatically contact high street businesses, proactively informing them of all business rate reliefs they may be entitled to.
Both would be significant steps forward.
In our paper with Enterprise Nation from last year we go a step further. We suggest scrapping and replacing the business rates system with a tax on the underlying land values. We also called for local authorities to have more responsibility over Business Rates reliefs and exemptions for small businesses, coworking spaces and charities, so that they could better respond to conditions on the ground.
Perhaps something for the Autumn Budget?
Message from our Partner
Beauhurst and Barclays recently partnered to publish Unlocking Investment – Insights into high-growth companies report, which was funded by the UK Government. This report provides an annual review of investment trends into UK based high-growth companies, and follows on from our previously published Unlocking Investment: Trends for high-growth companies, H1 2023 insight. Between January and May 2024, equity investment into high-growth UK companies amounted to £6.53bn via 2,423 deals. High-growth companies within the UK secured higher value deals in 2023, than those previously acquired in 2019 and 2020. Overall, equity investment into these organisations totalled £18.0bn across 2023.
If you would like to discuss how Beauhurst can use its proprietary data to help you develop research in order to understand and reach high-growth companies and sectors, contact their Managing Director of Research & Consultancy Henry Whorwood.
BADR Idea
A few years ago, after we’d released our first Job Creators report, we invited the foreign-born founders of the UK’s fastest growing companies for a series of roundtables to talk about their decision behind choosing the UK to start and scale their business.
While they were an eclectic bunch, they had a few things in common. Notably, every single one of them was acutely aware before picking Britain to grow their business about the personal tax benefits of doing so, and cited it as a major contributing factor. At the time, we still had Entrepreneurs’ Relief and it didn’t look to be going anywhere. They were just stating facts: incentives matter.
Then, in 2020, Entrepreneurs’ Relief got downgraded to Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR) with the lifetime limit reduced from £10 million to £1 million.
It’s Treasury orthodoxy that most people prior to starting their business don’t know about Entrepreneurs’ Relief. That might well be true on average, but what about extraordinary people? From those meetings I know for a fact that they know in detail what the UK’s offer is around personal taxation, and with the Chancellor on the lookout for £20 billion in cuts, there is a very real risk that even the diminished BADR could be under threat.
As The Economist argues (paywall), it was a mistake to rule out raising things like income tax and VAT, as these specific raids risk concentrating the pain: “The more levers Ms Reeves yanks, the higher the chance that she will experience what Lord Cameron faced with the Cornish pasty. Perhaps it will be farmers, dragged into inheritance tax for the first time. Maybe doctors, who now have a taste for striking, will not like their pensions being pilfered. Grumpy businessmen whacked by capital-gains tax may prove a formidable lobby group. Better to pick a larger tax – whether national insurance or vat – and make any outrage worth it. If a revolt is possible over a pasty, it is possible over a pension.”
Last time this was on the agenda, many entrepreneurs kicked off (paywall – The Times).
If I were the Chancellor I would do two things with BADR. First, I would change the rules so that it’s not available to those who are using it to disguise income tax. If you’re not a proper entrepreneur and taking proper risk, you shouldn’t be able to claim it.
Second, I would make BADR unlimited. Entrepreneurs who are building and selling companies for millions have an outsized impact on all our lives, and we should want as many of them in the UK as possible.
Finally, there are obviously ways of legitimately moving your company to a country with low or no Capital Gains Tax rates before sale. And while many entrepreneurs will prefer to exit in the UK and pay tax, don’t be surprised if more start to consider this option if we lose BADR. While I don’t think this negative argument is the one to lead on – the likely retort from the public is unlikely to be positive to people who are already rich – the Treasury should be alert to the fact that some entrepreneurs will feel justified with leaving given the risk that they’ve taken in choosing to be an entrepreneur.
Onward & Upwards
I’m delighted to share that Anastasia Bektimirova has joined us. She previously worked as a Senior Researcher in the Science and Technology team at Onward, focusing on emerging technologies, AI policy, and the UK’s R&D ecosystem. She was the lead researcher on a report exploring how the UK can build strategic advantage in the five priority technologies set out by the previous government: AI, engineering biology, quantum, semiconductors, and future telecoms.
Follow her on X or connect with her on LinkedIn. Her first project is focusing on how to bolster the special relationship between the UK and US. Drop her an email if you want to contribute to that or discuss any of the other areas she will be working on.
I’m also delighted to announce that Eamonn Ives has been promoted to Research Director. If you aren’t already doing so: follow him on X, connect with him on LinkedIn and drop him an email if you want to chat about our research agenda.
In addition, Cordelia Meacher, Founder of Fieldhouse Associates has become a Patron. As many of you will know, she is one of the most experienced and well-connected communications experts in the fast-growth tech ecosystem, with deep expertise in venture capital and investment. We’re going to be hosting some events together, so get in touch with me if you want to host us and our networks.
Finally, Anita Tiessen, CEO of Youth Business International (YBI) has joined us as an Adviser. Anita leads the only global network dedicated to youth entrepreneurship to develop and scale the most effective solutions to the critical challenges facing young entrepreneurs today. We’ve partnered with YBI on a number of reports, most recently Empowering the Future.
Tough enough
Are you an ambitious founder who can share your experience – potentially through a case study – on the mental toughness needed to build one or multiple companies? Or perhaps you’re an ecosystem influencer (for want of a better term) interested in contributing to a report on the topic? Or maybe you’re working in a corporate, VCs or accelerator with the power to act on the findings?
If so, we’re hosting Christina Richardson, Entrepreneurship Fellow at UCL, founder of entrepreneur-support community weare3Sixty, and Adviser to The Entrepreneurs Network to share preliminary insights from her latest research and give you the chance to get involved.
Unhidden Gems
This week, the UK’s annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor hit the press. The largest single study of entrepreneurial activity in the world has been running for 25 years, and for the first time 30% of working age individuals (well almost) either intend to start a business within the next three years, are actively trying to start a business, or already running their own business.
Driving this has been a remarkable threefold increase in the level of early-stage entrepreneurial activity by women in the UK since 2002 – from just over 3.5% to 10%. This is above France and Germany (both 8%), but lagging the US on 18%. More women now highlight the desire to build wealth as an important driver of their engagement in early-stage entrepreneurial activity. Well, to misquote Adam Smith, it is not from the benevolence of the female founder that we expect our innovation, but from their regard to their own interest. As the resort suggests, this may be attributable to shifts in society with old gender-based perspectives changing.
That said, as serial entrepreneur, Chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce and Member of our Female Founders Forum Debbie Wosskow notes in response: “these entrepreneurial efforts can only go so far if they don’t then receive the funding to scale. There is still significant gender disparity in accessing investment, with fully female founded teams receiving only 2% of total capital in the UK, and we need to break this decades-long cycle.”
The next generation is increasingly entrepreneurial too, with the entrepreneurial activity rate for 18-29 year olds, which was stable at around 5% for the decade until the global financial crisis, rising and more than doubling to just over 13%. And despite changes in the demographic composition of migration due to the post-Brexit overhaul of the immigration system, immigrant and non-white ethnic populations continue to be the most entrepreneurial groups in the UK. (Watch with space for an update to our influential Job Creators report for more on this.)
London increasingly dominates the entrepreneurial landscape. And while we shouldn’t do anything to dent our megacity – without which the country would be significantly poorer – the ecosystem is more than able to sustain other entrepreneurial hubs.
While the term levelling up is being unceremoniously dumped by the new Government, whatever rubric you put it under – rebalancing, regional development, bridging the North-South divide, industrial strategy, devolution – the challenge remains the same (as do the overarching solutions).
As luck would have it, we’ll have a new report out soon to offer fresh insights on what entrepreneurs across the UK say they need to succeed – including where they agree and where they diverge. We’ll be launching it in the House of Lords.
What’s Up?
We’re trialling out a public WhatsApp group to share updates on our reports and events. Anyone can join – sign up here.
In addition, Patrons, Advisers, Supporters, Partners, and long-term sponsors, partners and collaborators who want to join our “friends” Slack channel, drop me an email and I’ll send you an invite.
Coming to America
Are you the leader of a high-growth firm that exports to the US? Or are scaling fast but reticent about expanding to the US? Or perhaps you’re a leading investor or someone who provides professional services for businesses working across both jurisdictions? Or a past or present policymaker with expertise on international growth? Or are you a trade expert or in a leadership role facilitating UK-US relations?
If you’re any of the above – or something else relevant – we would love to interview you for an upcoming report delving into the special relationship. Your insights will form the backbone for the report, and with your agreement some interviews will be turned into case studies and shared with the media.
Drop Eamonn Ives an email to share your interest and we will be in touch.
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