This week Westminster welcomed 140 new MPs. PoliticsHome has a nice run through of all of them.
There are quite a few former business owners among them, including Theo Clarke, MP for Stafford, who in 2011 set up an arts blog called Russian Art and Culture that evolved into curating exhibitions on contemporary art, which she sold in October 2016. And Stuart Anderson, MP for Wolverhampton South West, who founded eTravelSafety, which uses AI to assess the risk level of destinations around the world. A former soldier, he bounced back from losing his house after the security firm he managed went into administration.
Party like it's...
What a year! We kicked off 2019 with Management Matters, our report looking at practical reforms – including tax breaks for self-funded work-related training – to encourage greater investment in management capability to reduce the rate of unnecessary business failure. It was launched in the Lords by small business minister Kelly Tolhurst MP and supported by the Association of Business Executives (ABE), who we will be undertaking another project with in the new year.
February saw our Female Founders Forum project host a roundtable in Bristol. We also hosted our second film premiere (the first being The Founder in 2018), On the Basis of Sex, for our large and growing group of female founders. Now entering its fourth year, we will once again be partnering with Barclays to support female founders up and down the country. Watch this space (or, better yet, sign up to Annabel's email to be kept updated).
In April we helped launch a piece of research at an event with the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE) with the APPG for Entrepreneurship and Baroness Wolf. This is a format we would like the APPG to emulate. As such, just let us know if you're releasing any relevant research you think would be interesting to MPs and Peers and we will help coordinate the APPG to launch it. We also hosted a roundtable with competition supremo John Fingleton on how healthtech regulation can be reformed to support innovation in the sector.
Summer saw us release our Job Creators report, which was kindly supported by the inspirational entrepreneur Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia. Sukhpal arrived in the UK in 1972 as a refugee, fleeing the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda, but went on to found Euro Car Parts, employing more than 12,000 people. The report found that 49% of the UK’s fastest-growing startups have at least one immigrant co-founder. As with all our reports it received extensive press coverage, and has help to change the public debate on immigration.
During those warm(ish) months we also: hosted a Business Stay-Up roundtable with Gillian Keegan MP; partnered on the Festival of Technology and Innovation in Manchester; hosted a Female Founders Forum roundtable in Edinburgh; delved into reforms to support more flexible rail fares with Baroness Kramer and the Rail Delivery Group; got into the challenges of raising finance at Berenberg; as well as the challenges of running a high growth business in your twenties at the London Stock Exchange with Ivory Capital Group; considered how to support the next generation of entrepreneurs at Octopus Group; and helped launch Professor Mark Hart's Global Entrepreneurship Monitor UK Report with NatWest at its Accelerator. Phew!
In August we launched Future Founders, which found that over half of British young people have thought about starting (or already have started) a business – and much more besides. It was undertaken in partnership with Octopus Group, who we've been working with for a long time. In fact, they were our founding sponsor when we launched all the way back in 2014.
We also hosted Dr Nima Sanandaji to discuss his Brain Business Jobs research – that is, jobs that are crucial for income and productivity growth – and ran our first Kingsley Napley immigration roundtable (the next one is in January).
In September we were at the party conferences at Barclays Eagle Labs, hosting events with Seema Malhotra MP, Rupa Huq MP, Catherine West MP, Gillian Keegan MP, and Dr Caroline Johnson MP. BDB Pitmans also hosted a roundtable with the Freeports Advisory Panel to delve into whether this policy can support Britain's entrepreneurs.
October saw the launch of Here and Now the latest research as part of our Female Founders Forum project. Using Beauhurst data, it revealed that the share of funding to women-led firms has doubled in less than a decade, while follow-on funding data reveals that women are just as bankable an investment as male-only firms once they have received funding.
The Office Group also also hosted a book launch on the Secrets of Sand Hill Road with its author Scott Kupor, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz. We were also in Parliament with Dr Lisa Cameron MP for a roundtable on mental health and entrepreneurship, which was supported by our Adviser Guy Tolhurst, and hosted a private dinner for some of our Advisers with Chuka Umunna and Ed Davey MP. We are planning a lot more private dinners with Ministers, Shadow Ministers and noted MPs in 2020 – including as part of The Leap project, which we work on with Mishcon de Reya. Just drop me a message if you would be keen to find out more about how these work.
Last month we ran an event during Global Entrepreneurship Week at Drummonds on the next generation of entrepreneurs. We also hosted another roundtable on visa reform at Kingsley Napley with the founders of some high-growth businesses from our Job Founders report.
We partnered with some great small business organisations for our 2019 General Election Small Business Debate with front bench politicians, including Lis Truss MP and launched our Startup Manifesto with Coadec. The Manifesto features 21 policies across access to talent, access to investment, and regulation, and was backed by over 250 entrepreneurs in our network. Thanks to everyone who supported it! We are raising these and our other policy ideas with the new Government (in fact, I was in No 11 today doing exactly this).
2020
Next year will be even bigger and better!
Given what we do is free for most, I'm often asked how to help. Of course, getting support like Sukhpal, or Chris Hulatt, Simon Rogerson (and originally Guy Myles) from Octopus has been invaluable. And we wouldn't be here without all our corporate partnerships and those who support us both financially and with their time as Advisers and Supporters.
However, we appreciate this isn't for everyone. As such, if you believe in our mission it would be great if you could simply let other people know about the work we do. We have built a network of thousands of entrepreneurs and people who support them through word of mouth. If you know someone who you think should get involved, forward this email, direct them to our website, or suggest they sign up to this newsletter.
I'll update you with more of our plans in January. Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in the Roaring Twenties.