Grace Burton

Head of Engagement, Future Worlds

Grace is an experienced enterprise educator and marketer, with her role at tech startup accelerator Future Worlds focused on developing a pipeline of talented researchers and students, many of whom will go on to launch spinouts and startups with the accelerator’s support.  

Future Worlds is based at the University of Southampton and has been supporting Southampton founders since 2015. Now working nationally with researchers who are launching AI and Silicon Photonics startups, Grace works to reach future founders in universities across the UK.  

Grace brings her own entrepreneurship experience, having spent two years as a freelance marketing consultant working with startups and universities. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AdvanceHE).

Why is the UK an attractive place to grow a business?

Speaking for founders launching startups and spinouts out of universities, it’s complicated! We are a highly research-intensive nation, with some of the strongest university clusters in the world, and yet it’s often incredibly difficult for talented researchers to take their technology out of the lab and grow a business that could have global impact.

With our long history of engineering innovation and venturing spirit, there is an opportunity for the UK to grow into a country that really supports ambitious tech founders to launch from our universities, and for these founders to not feel the need to move abroad for big investment and to scale - although we’d have to change our attitudes to risk, success and failure to begin getting there. 

What research should more people read?

Personally, the aspects of entrepreneurship research (such as The Entrepreneurs Network’s reports) I often find most valuable are the contributions and stories that come directly from founders and investors – those with the experience of launching and scaling businesses. 

It’s easy to get excited by the headlines and stats, but behind every piece of entrepreneurship research are the individual stories of brilliant people trying – often in very testing circumstances – to create something remarkable. 

Beyond research, we should just read. Read for pleasure – maybe even put down the productivity books (or stop playing them at 1.5x speed) and read fiction! If enjoyment alone isn’t enough of a reason to pick up a book, consider reading Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Novel on Connectivity in the Brain – and then pick up a book.