"We are at real risk of becoming an incubator economy, where UK start-ups develop innovative products and services before selling out or moving abroad...too often it’s a case of UK begins, other countries cash-in." - Tina Stowell 'Becoming' is doing some heavy lifting here. 'Became' might be more accurate. https://lnkd.in/eNgGJx_h
Perhaps we should be asking why the UK often plays the prologue rather than the main act in its own innovation story. With a record-breaking exodus of tech talent, Ol' Blighty is nurturing ideas just to watch others reap the fruits. The ultimate lesson in exporting value.
Company success > geographic location. Take advantage (and give back when in a position to do so) of every advantage to get your company where it needs to be. Arbitrary delineations of where someone's sense of belonging begins and ends are constructs that belong in 1945 and before. If you truly believe that the company you are building will inherently benefit humanity, then you have to adopt a geography agnostic mindset.
Laura Towart
9mo
Absolutely agree. As an American founder who launched a company in the UK (USA tech) and then benefiting greatly from innovate uk grants the only incentive to retain the topco in the UK is to benefit EIS investors and loyalty to the uk for support provided. If further funding/ support isn't available we will go where it is
The VC mentality in the Uk 🇬🇧 has to change. Lack of venture risk spirit will always drive innovation out of the country. This is a whole European 🇪🇺 issue of course and the biggest beneficiary is the US 🇺🇸 and other finance/tech hubs such as Singapore 🇸🇬 and Dubai 🇦🇪
Founder and CEO at Veiovia Ltd. - a UoY spin-out company
9moI run a spinout from a prestigious, Russell Group university in the U.K. At the time, we were the Uni’s first in 6 years. I remeber my disbelief during the entrepreneurial training when most of the focus seemed to be on what I call “fundraising like a guy” (i.e., how to make a well polished pitch) and on EXITS (how to sell to established corporations - with IPO being THE ultimate goal). I knew that if I did fundraise like that, my project would be dead in 6 months. So I went for “qualified private investors”and it was the BEST decision ever! The sell-on bit did NOT sit well with me (to the point of butting heads with the commercialisation Director at the time), but I wanted to give HIM what he wanted, without placing the company in “the fad game”. Luckily for our project, I also went though a programme called Innovate UK ICURe (today at its 10-years anniversary), which takes you out of the lab and into the “real world”, where you get to speak with actual industry stakeholders. I had spoken then to no less than 30 founders who still managed their publicly traded companies and every single one of them hated their lives. The message was clear: stay private for the longest time, build fast, quietly and validate, iterate, scale.