Finally some good news! A vaccine that’s 90% effective – or perhaps even 97% – is certainly a reason to celebrate. While this sort of timeframe was predicted by many – including me last month – the Government and media have been mostly silent about the prospect of a vaccine up until now, so it's come as a big surprise to many.
It was especially good news for those who believe in the power of entrepreneurship. As detailed in the Guardian, alongside Pfizer the vaccine was developed by BioNTech, a small biotechnology company. And it's fantastic news for those of us who believe in the power of immigration. BioNTech was founded by two scientists, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who were both born to Turkish immigrant parents, and the Austrian oncologist Christopher Huber.
If the parents of Şahin and Türeci were still in Turkey, they wouldn’t be in an environment conducive to unlocking their talents. This is because equally talented people are more productive in wealthier countries. And as shown with the creation of this vaccine, the value isn’t restricted to one country but will benefit humanity at large. This is because innovators are only able to capture a tiny percentage of their new product or service, and only for a limited time.
We’ve been thinking about how the UK can attract the best and brightest for a while. Some of our ideas were captured in our influential Job Creators report, which revealed that 49% of the UK’s fastest growing companies had at least one immigrant founder. But this week we built on those ideas in a briefing on How the UK can Attract the Best and Brightest. It argues that we should attract scientists to the UK by replicating low-bureaucracy grant funding systems such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; reform the under-utilised Startup and Innovator Visas; expand the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme; and better promote the UK abroad as a place to start and grow a business.
On this theme, we have a webinar with Kevin Foster, Minister for Future Borders and Immigration on 24th November, which you would be welcome to attend. It’s only 45 minutes long, so should be an efficient use of your time. Sign up here.
Play it again
This week, Research Director Sam Dumitru has written two articles you should add to your reading list. On our blog, he makes a considered case for allowing dual-class share structures and removing the 25% minimum free float requirement for premium listings. This is in response to Rishi Sunak announcing that a taskforce will look into reforms to make the UK’s listing regime more attractive to tech. Sam would be keen to hear any thoughts you have about this, as it’s an area where we might undertake more research.
A strategist in the Thematic Research division at Deutsche Bank temporarily grabbed the headlines when he suggested a 5% tax on remote workers. Sam asks: is this the worst policy idea of the pandemic? His answer is an unequivocal yes. In fact, based on our recent report, Sam can think of a few reasons why remote working should be accelerated. I would recommend reading it in full.
Life’s a pitch
Next week is Global Entrepreneurship Week. There are too many events to tell you about all of them, but two worth checking out are Reset for Growth, featuring Russell Dalgleish, Lord Leigh of Hurley, Sam Dumitriu and Dr Christopher Haley of Nesta. Our friends at Nesta also have an event on boosting startup-third sector collaboration. But this is just the tip of the iceberg – head over to the GEW hub to find out more (you have to scroll down and sign up at the bottom to see all the events).
To coincide with Global Entrepreneurship Week NatWest has launched Life’s a Pitch. The bank is running hundreds of free virtual pitching workshops to help participants structure, write and deliver a 60-second pitch. Sign up here and submit your final pitch via YouTube by 30 November 2020 for a chance to pitch at the live Grand Final Event in early 2021 and win the grand prize of £10,000.
Next week is also the European Startup Festival, with speakers such as Roger Dooley, Mitch Joel and Tim Urban. Find out more here.
Take the slack
If Entrepreneurs’ Drinks with George Freeman MP, Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Chi Onwurah MP and Nadhim Zahawi MP aren’t enough to tempt you to get further involved in our work, next week we’re opening up a Slack Channel to our Advisers. It’s a bit of an experiment, but we hope it will be a useful way to connect with us and other Advisers in the network.
If anyone has any advice on running a more open Slack channel like this, I’m all ears. Also, if you want to find out more about becoming an Adviser, drop me an email so we can arrange a time to chat over Zoom.
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