To misquote Anton Ego, voiced by the late, great Peter O’Toole in Ratatouille: “Not everyone can become a great entrepreneur; but a great entrepreneur can come from anywhere.”
It’s one of the driving forces behind the work we do. Well, not so much the 2007 Pixar movie, but more like the brilliant research of John Van Reenen. His work on Lost Einsteins teaches us that there are large disparities in innovation rates by socioeconomic class, race and gender – children at the top of their third grade (ages 8-9) mathematics class are much more likely to become inventors if they come from high income families than if they come from poorer backgrounds, for instance.
Similarly, Georgetown University’s 2019 report, Born To Win, Schooled To Lose, argues that due to striking disparities “it’s better to be born rich than smart” in the US now and that “the most talented disadvantaged children have a lower chance of academic and early career success than the least talented affluent children.”
This is why we have been running the Female Founders Forum with Barclays for several years now, and more recently the Inclusive Innovation Forum with Morgan Stanley. We’ve built our research and campaigning on the expertise of those in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and over the coming weeks will be finalising our next steps. If you have any thoughts on what you think we should be doing, now is the time to get in touch.
For its part, this week the British Business Bank released its report Finding What Works on how to improve diversity in venture capital investment. The research suggests three pathways for enhancing diversity in venture capital firms.
First, by increasing diversity among key decision makers – particularly Investment Committees. Second, by increasing the pipeline of investment opportunities from underserved founders. Successful firms are already actively seeking out diverse founding teams by engaging scouts with their own diverse networks to source investment opportunities, and using incubators and accelerators for earlier stage firms. And third, by measuring and delivering on progress.
It’s a solid report. Of particular note is a ranking of the perceived effectiveness of 14 actions VCs could take. It could be interesting to ask founders, or smaller funds to rank the same actions, as well as considering if any 'actions' are missing from the list.
Young Turk
With support from the Association of Business Executives, we’re undertaking an ambitious project to sketch out what the world’s most pro-innovation visa system would look like.
Luckily, the ambition of the project is matched by that of its author. Derin Kocer was previously a journalist and remains the youngest-ever byline holder of Independent Turkish. He has a Substack on international politics you can subscribe to.
Get in touch with Derin with any insights on what would go into building a pro-innovation visa system – not just for the UK, but the whole world. We will be launching the report at 3.30pm in the House of Lords on 6th September. Patrons, Advisers and Supporters may want to save the date in their diaries before the invites hit your inboxes.
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The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has just launched a newsletter and it’s better than most of these sorts of things. Most impressively, it includes the names, job titles and email addresses of people you can reach out to, which addresses a common complaint from entrepreneurs. Next step, office hours?
On the topic of newsletters, if you’re not subscribed to Dr Eamonn Butler’s sardonic takes on the latest political machinations you’re missing out. To celebrate Adam Smith’s 300th birthday, the ASI has opened up an essay prize asking: what Adam Smith would write about today? They are looking for 1,500 words, and are offering prizes up to £3,000. You can find more on their website (scroll down).
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