Culture is king. And like all things monarchical, it’s inherited from previous generations. So while we don’t get to pick how entrepreneurial the culture that we’re born into is, we do have the power to shape it for the future.

As academics like Deirdre McCloskey argue, the Industrial Revolution saw a shift in culture where the value of business, innovation, and entrepreneurship were recognised. But while we have a great legacy, I think we have room for improvement.

Take the media. It’s definitely not adhering to the Peter Parker principle, with their latest programme claiming to reveal what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. Unicorn Hunters, which incongruously features former Speaker John Bercow as a judge, sounds like the epitome of bad culture.

According to the Executive Producer: "Unicorn Hunters is a one-of-a-kind show, providing millions of people with transparent access to select pre-IPO investment opportunities." It sounds dreadful: “This new addictive global show creates a new genre, known as ‘enrichtainment’, seamlessly combining entertainment with the opportunity to build wealth.”

It will join The Apprentice, which, in the words of Matt Clifford “has skewed people’s perception of what starting a business is about” and Dragons’ Den. When surveyed by YouGov for the Center for Entrepreneurs, business leaders called out both for showing an unrealistic portrayal of the startup process, with words like “condescending”, “patronising”, “arrogant” and “rude” used to describe the behaviour of the Dragons in the Den.

Is it any wonder that we recently found that almost two-thirds (62%) of people from deprived backgrounds are doubtful they could start a business, despite having a strong business idea?

On the topic of an entrepreneurial culture, we have just arranged an event with Lord Young of Graffham. Few in government can claim to have had a bigger impact on UK entrepreneurship. See below for more details.

One Chance
What is the most impactful policy initiative or idea that the government could implement, either alone or in partnership with others, that would boost start-ups in the UK?

This isn’t a hypothetical question and it’s not my question. It’s from officials in BEIS who have asked me to ask you. I’ll share every response with them and a few startups will be invited to a roundtable they’re having on this topic next week (although you don’t need to be running a startup, or even be a business owner to respond).

Just drop me an email with your answer. I can’t promise that they will do what you ask, but I can promise that the right people will be reading it.

Cool for Evidence
The new format for the APPG for Entrepreneurship is proving successful. We’ve moved away from weighty tomes, replacing them with virtual events and pithy briefing papers. This is allowing it to cover a lot more ground.

Each theme includes a scoping webinar, Call for Evidence, briefing paper and launch webinar. We now have two calls for evidence open for entrepreneurs and experts to respond to on Levelling Up and the Sharing Economy, and we will soon have another on Space Startups and Scaleups (after this event).

You can respond to the Levelling Up questions here, and the Sharing Economy questions here. Please don’t be daunted by the number of questions. If you only have something to say about one or two of the parts that will be absolutely fine. The final briefing paper will be brief (hence the name briefing paper), so we are looking for quality over quantity.