In partnership with Barclays, this year the Female Founders Forum focused on mentoring. This report is based on the insights of speed-mentoring events held across the country, which were attended by both experienced and novice female entrepreneurs. Also, following up the theme of last year's Untapped Unicorns report, we have updated updated the data on female founders' access to equity finance.
Parliamentary Snapshot 2017
This is the fourth Parliamentary Snapshot. It uncovers MPs’ views on policies impacting entrepreneurs, providing unique insights on the opinions and working knowledge of the House of Commons. Once again, this report is supported by Bircham Dyson Bell (BDB).
Key finding include:
66% of Conservative MPs think “leaving the EU through a hard Brexit” would be good for entrepreneurship, only 8% of Labour MPs think the same.
71% of Labour MPs think “remaining within the EU” would be positive for entrepreneurship in the UK, only 10% of Conservative MPs think the same.
Greatest divergence in four years of this survey between the two main parties on lowering personal taxes, with 91% of Conservative MPs thinking it would be good for entrepreneurship, compared to just 26% of Labour MPs.
Over four years of the survey, Parliament has shown growing cross-party support for a more liberal immigration policy for British businesses. “Making it easier for entrepreneurs to move to the UK” is the second most popular change for MPs (79% of MPs are positive and 4% just negative), and we have seen increasing support from both parties for “making it easier to hire skilled workers from abroad” (62% of MPs are positive and 14% negative).
Although MPs’ knowledge about initiatives to support entrepreneurs have risen against previous years, too many initiatives remain unknown. 54% of the MPs have never even heard of Venture Capital Trusts or don’t know enough about it to know whether it’s effective.
A Boost For British Businesses
Sixty-six entrepreneurs and experts have put their name to a letter calling on the next Government to put together a coherent plan to boost Britain’s businesses.
The letter supports this detailed policy report, which includes contributions from the Institute of Directors, Federation of Small Businesses, Nesta, Adam Smith Institute, Sage, IPSE, SQW, Coadec and Nesta.
The policy asks are at the vanguard of research in the UK; don’t rely on the vagaries of Brexit negotiations; could be adopted by all political parties; and wouldn’t put a significant strain on the exchequer. The project is sponsored by Sage.
Untapped Unicorns
Studies have shown that access to finance remains a persistent barrier to female entrepreneurs. We partnered with Barclays on the Female Founders Forum – a group of some of the UK’s most successful female entrepreneurs, who’ve joined heads to come up with tangible, actionable recommendations for tackling the funding issue. The project’s first report, Untapped Unicorns, outlines how Britain can scale up female entrepreneurship.
City of Entrepreneurs
In these pithy articles, the solutions to some of London’s biggest challenges are detailed and faced head-on by experts with the aim of ensuring Britain's capital continues to flourish.
Parliamentary Snapshot 2016
Once again, this Snapshot uncovers MPs' views on policies impacting entrepreneurs as well as providing useful insights on the opinions and working knowledge of the House of Commons. This report was supported by BDB.
Female Founders Forum: Briefing Papers
The Female Founders Forum is a group of some of the UK's most successful female entrepreneurs. These briefing paper cover the four roundtables we hosted at Barclays, Octopus Investments, Parliament and the London Stock Exchange. The ideas from these roundtables formed the basis of the Untapped Unicorns report. The Female Founders Forum is run in partnership with Barclays.
Regional Voices: Yorkshire
This briefing paper is based on the edited highlights of a roundtable discussion. It took place at the Leeds office of PwC with business leaders invested in promoting Yorkshire as a hub for entrepreneurship. Our principal guest was Iain Wright MP, chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee. The ideas presented were designed to feed into his work on the committee, the Northern Powerhouse initiative and wider debates on how to support entrepreneurship across the whole of the country.
Parliamentary Snapshot 2015
Parliamentary Snapshot 2015 follows up on the previous year's report, uncovering areas where MPs' views have changed towards how best to support entrepreneurship in the UK. This report was supported by BDB.
Made in the UK
Based on a ground-breaking survey of 1,599 graduate international students, this report reveals that the visa system is failing international graduate entrepreneurs who want to start a business in the UK.
Parliamentary Snapshot 2014
This is the first survey to uncover the views of MPs on policies impacting entrepreneurs, providing useful insights on the opinions and working knowledge of the House of Commons.
An Entrepreneurs' Manifesto
An Entrepreneurs’ Manifesto is a selection of seventeen ideas that the authors think would help support and promote high growth businesses in Britain.