Once bitten hasn’t made enough Americans shy. It’s looking possible, if not likely, that Donald Trump will be back in the White House. But even if Trump wins a majority, there will be a sizable number of entrepreneurial people who look at their homeland and wonder if it’s where they want to build a life. I can’t be alone in looking at the States and concluding that despite its weather and success it’s not the place I would like to live.
Hot off the press, my colleague Eamonn Ives writes for the i on why the UK should be ready to poach America’s entrepreneurial class. But we can’t sit back and wait for them to come to us. We will need proactive, laser focused policies. Here’s one of a couple that Eamonn mentions:
“We should grant eligible American citizens access to the long-standing Youth Mobility Visa. This visa entitles people aged between 18 and 35 to live in the UK for up to 24 months, gain employment, or set up a company of their own. Holders cannot access public funds, or use it to bring family members or dependents across with them. They have to pay an annual £470 healthcare surcharge when they apply, plus a £298 application fee, and prove they have enough personal savings to support themselves properly when they’re here. Already, we offer this visa to people from anglophone countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It’s time to open it up to our friends across the pond.”
I recommend reading his article in full.
Round Two
Alongside Startup Coalition, UKBAA, Alma, Extend Ventures, Enterprise Alumni, Angel Academe, Angel Investing School and EISA – and backed by thousands of entrepreneurs – we’ve sent a letter to the Chancellor to call for the reversal of the upcoming changes to the definition of High Net Worth Individual Investor.
You can read last week’s newsletter for more context, although friend of The Entrepreneurs Network and angel investor Hailey Eustace explains why this matters more broadly and succinctly in this LinkedIn post: “Since they were first mooted, the investment market has changed. The changes were first proposed in 2021 when angel investing and VC investment spiked. Since then, first-cheque investing figures have fallen off a cliff, with the number of first-round seed-stage deals in 2023 down 28% year on year and at a ten-year low at 1,025. This is down from 1,973 in 2021, when this measure was consulted on.”
And: “Female and underrepresented founders will be hit hardest. Underrepresented founders already have a harder time accessing capital. As female-led angel groups and others have warned, the changes will squeeze out more women and ethnic minority angels. We know these investors are more likely to back companies overlooked by others. This means female entrepreneurs, diverse founders and companies outside London will find it even harder to raise the funding they need.”
As Dom Hallas at the Startup Coalition updated today: “there is no legislative mechanism now available to the Government to change the rules ahead of their implementation at the end of the month. The changes are ‘affirmative’ secondary legislation - meaning they require a debate in Parliament in order to reverse. This isn’t going to be possible before next Wednesday.”
But this doesn’t mean the fight is over. As Dom writes, there are people in government who are trying to fix things. And you can still exert pressure by signing this letter.
Till You Make it
Technological innovation isn’t always and everywhere an unalloyed good. As techUK’s latest Policy Pulse argues, one of the big stories of this year will be the potential impact of synthetic media, particularly deepfake images, audio, and videos, on democratic elections.
The policy landscape has yet to catch up. As always, the key challenge here will be threading the needle between stopping the bad stuff (which is a lot wider than influencing elections) without limiting all the good stuff that comes with this technology. It’s hard for governments and regulators to do this because they aren’t at the coalface of innovation, which is where we and other organisations must step in.
But we rely on your expertise. So let me know if this is your area of business and I’ll let you know if and when we need to tap into your brains.
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