Building Blocks: Our vision for securing Britain's entrepreneurial future

Britain is a great place to be an entrepreneur – with many of the world’s most successful founders calling it home. The startups they have launched make a vital contribution to the economy, providing jobs, tax revenue, innovative goods and services and more. But there is a palpable sense that we could be doing so much better. Productivity has plateaued for far too long, causing living standards to stagnate, and evidence suggests the pace of innovation has slowed.

In Building Blocks, we set out our vision statement to secure Britain’s economic future – arguing that focusing on getting the basics right first is the best way policymakers can support entrepreneurs.

Neurodiverse founders

Neurodiverse individuals are found in all parts of the economy, and the entrepreneurial community is no exception. Though awareness of neurodiversity is steadily increasing, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s properly understood. 

In partnership with Barclays Eagle Labs, we surveyed neurodiverse founders to better understand various questions about being an entrepreneur with neurodiversity. We found that many neurodiverse founders think their neurodiversity gives them an advantage, and while challenges definitely exist, there’s reason to be optimistic that progress is slowly but surely being made.

Entrepreneurs Unwrapped

Understanding how Britain thinks about entrepreneurship is vital if we are to build a society which enables and encourages more people to launch a business. In Entrepreneurs Unwrapped, kindly supported by American Express, we sought to do exactly that.

By surveying both those who have never started a business and current founders, we painted a picture of what Britain really thinks about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, and revealed where similarities and contrasts can be drawn between the two groups.

Can the UK Become Competitive on Text-and-Data Mining for AI?

Data is the raw resource upon which AI is trained, and the regulations for how data can be used will have significant consequences for the roll out and quality of AI. There is currently a great deal of legal uncertainty about commercial text-and-data mining (TDM) in the UK, and other countries have moved faster than the UK at securing the legal foundations for training AI.

In this short paper, Dr Anton Howes explains what approaches are being taken with regards to TDM around the world, and what British policymakers could learn from them in order to ensure the UK is a competitive place for AI to be developed.

Accelerate to Excel

In this year’s annual Female Founders Forum report, we take stock of what progress women entrepreneurs have made over the past several years since we started researching and campaigning on policies to remove obstacles they face in starting and growing a business.

Written by Margaret Mitchell, and featuring stories from numerous leading women entrepreneurs, among other things, we show how the amount of equity funding for female-led startups remains stubbornly low.

Risk Readiness Report 2023

Risk is part and parcel of being an entrepreneur, and the best among Britain’s startup community are those who can successfully manage and exploit uncertainty.

In our inaugural annual Risk Readiness Report, published with the international law firm Mishcon de Reya, we set out to better understand entrepreneurs’ attitudes to various questions of risk.

Making Tax Simple

Taxation in the UK is overly complex, which has a negative impact on productivity. Despite the efforts of successive governments to streamline the tax landscape, business owners still spend too long preparing and filing their taxes, or feel obliged to pay specialists to handle them instead.

In Making Tax Simple, published in partnership with Enterprise Nation and Intuit, we take a closer look at the tax system business owners face – paying particular attention to how digital tools can pay dividends for both them and the government.

Access All Areas: Older workers

As well as being a health crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic also posed immense challenges for jobs and the wider economy. One area where this has had long-lasting consequences is in terms of the number of pre-retirement age older people who fell out of the labour market and still remain economically inactive.

In Access All Areas: Older workers, the latest in our series of reports with Enterprise Nation, we examine the causes, consequences and solutions to this stubborn problem — making recommendations to government and businesses alike on how they can get more older people into work and entrepreneurship.

Passport to Progress

Talent is evenly distributed but opportunities are not. For many gifted individuals and entrepreneurs, maximising their potential is contingent on the ability to move to where they can best deploy their skills.

In Passport to Progress: A Blueprint for the World’s Most Pro-Innovation Visa System, published in partnership with ABE, Derin Koçer explains how immigration can enhance entrepreneurship and innovation, analyses international visa frameworks, and makes a series of recommendations for improving migration systems worldwide.

Job Creators 2023

In 2019, we published research showing that half of the 100 fastest growing companies in the UK had a foreign-born founder. In Job Creators 2023, we have repeated our research — and find that the figure has shrunk to 39%.

While the headline statistic might have fallen, we believe the takeaway message remains the same — immigrants play a disproportionate role in setting up lucrative and innovative companies. As such, the UK should do more to welcome international talent to its shores, and we make a series of recommendations for how to do that.

Academic to Entrepreneur

British universities are a wellspring of innovative ideas, many of which go on to be commercialised via ‘spinout’ – companies based upon the intellectual property generated by academics. Recently, however, the UK’s approach to spinouts has come under question, and has prompted a government review into spinout policy.

In Academic to Entrepreneur Unlocking the Potential of UK Spinouts, Dr Anton Howes, Eamonn Ives and Sam Dumitriu explore the history of spinout policy, assess its current strengths and weaknesses, and set out their thoughts for a better system of commercialising academic ideas – arguing the case for a shift towards an approach known as Professor’s Privilege.

Access All Areas: Space

Despite changing consumer and working patterns, access to different ‘spaces’ are vital to entrepreneurs’ growth ambitions – whether they’re in retail, manufacturing, or are services-based.

In the fifth instalment of our Access All Areas series with Enterprise Nation, we look at what the Government can do to ensure small businesses have the types of spaces they need to sell and scale – from business rates reform to planning policy.

Blueprint for a New Great Exhibition

Exhibitions of industry have a long and successful history of being used by policymakers to showcase and inspire innovation. Recent attempts to replicate such exhibitions, however, have not always lived up to their goals – and have been far removed from the momentous success of events such as the Great Exhibition of 1851. 

In Blueprint for a New Great Exhibition, Dr Anton Howes explains the background of exhibitions of industry, and how we might feasibly and successfully organise a new one for the modern day, to display and encourage future innovation. 

Operation Innovation: How to make society richer, healthier and happier

The effect of accumulated innovations has transformed the world at a pace that would have been unimaginable to our not-so-distant ancestors. Thanks to the contributions of just a few thousand innovators, society is now far richer, and better equipped to tackle pressing problems – from climate change or pandemics.

This new essay collection outlines some of the fundamental building blocks to achieving an innovative economy – including how to effectively fund research, how to properly regulate emerging industries, how to make it easier to start and scale businesses, and how to raise the status of innovating.

Access All Areas: Markets

Businesses which engage in international trade are generally more productive and innovative. Yet evidence suggests Britain is not fulfilling its trade potential, and entrepreneurs tell us of barriers that prevent them from exporting.

In Access All Areas: Markets we examine the ways in which importing and exporting can help SMEs succeed, assess the recent trends in international trade, and provide a series of recommendations for what the government could do to ensure Britain’s small firms have the best conditions possible to flourish on the international stage.

APPG for Entrepreneurship: Funding to Flourish: The Case for Tax Relief on Early Stage Investment

The United Kingdom has become the primary destination in Europe for equity investment. This is in no small part because of a favourable set of tax reliefs, chief among which are the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).

Despite the government saying that it is keen to update and safeguard these schemes, none of the necessary legislation to do so has yet been passed, and uncertainty about their futures is already having a negative impact. In Funding to Flourish, Aria Babu makes the case for tax reliefs on growth investment, and explains how the government can ensure Britain continues to have a flourishing startup ecosystem as a result.

What Applied Learning Really Looks Like

Applied learning provides opportunities for young people to use their classroom learning in real-life, practical situations. This not only helps reinforce the learning but also enhances its relevance to young people, who can begin to appreciate how that learning can support future careers and life goals.

In What Applied Learning Really Looks Like, published in partnership with Young Enterprise, Anton Howes highlights several successful case studies to show teachers and policymakers what applied learning actually looks like in practice – particularly in cases where time and resources are limited. The report sets out concrete examples of applied learning in action to inspire teachers and help them articulate their vision to colleagues, managers, and parents, as well as how headteachers and senior leadership teams can support them.

APPG for Entrepreneurship: Supporting SMEs Successfully

There is a renewed focus to grow the economy at a faster rate. Achieving this will require many changes to be made, but returning productivity growth to historic trends will be essential. Within this puzzle, attention will need to be paid to small businesses in particular – which evidence suggests have dragged on overall productivity in recent years.

In Supporting SMEs Successfully, a new report published by the APPG for Entrepreneurship, we assess some of the current government support programmes for SMEs to boost their productivity. Our central finding is that while existing interventions are well intentioned, and in many cases working well for the businesses using them, more could still be done to ensure they are as effective as possible.

One In A Million

With just under a third of British entrepreneurs being women, the UK has an unusually low proportion of female entrepreneurs. This is a particularly important group, because their companies and vision will have a greater impact on the state of technology and the economy in the decades to come. Female founders are able to bring new insight, creating businesses for women, by women, that better serve their needs.

In One In A Million, we surveyed some of Britain’s most trailblazing female founders, to showcase their success, and shine a spotlight on the barriers that they continue to face as women.

Access All Areas: People

Job vacancies have spiked in the aftermath of Covid-19, and many small businesses struggle to recruit the skills they need. New technological trends, such as the advent of AI, will also disrupt the labour market, and employers and employees need to be prepared for this – so that it is an opportunity to grasp, rather than a threat to avoid.

In Access All Areas: People, we make a series of recommendations to boost the supply and quality of labour force, including reducing the cost of visas, reforming the Apprenticeship Levy, and widening the scope of tax breaks for training.