Welcome to The Entrepreneurs Network
When we launched The Entrepreneurs Network a decade ago, we identified that Britain needed an organisation to stand up for its entrepreneurs. That need remains – and so shall we.
Big businesses have the resources to influence the government directly or through powerful lobby groups. Small businesses, on the other hand, have collective power due to their sheer number – making up 99 per cent of all businesses – and also have effective trade and lobby groups to argue their case. But busy entrepreneurs and the businesses they start and scale lack this clout with policymakers.
We think there is something special about entrepreneurs and the companies they found. In fact, we know there is. Entrepreneurs push forward the boundaries of innovation, creating the jobs of the future.
If you’ll forgive me for taking a few steps back, it’s thanks, in large part, to the incremental and accumulated work of a few thousand entrepreneurs and innovators over the centuries, that we now enjoy the widespread availability of electricity, central heating, running water, toilets, cars, rail travel, literacy, television, restaurants, office jobs, and instantly effective treatments for many previously debilitating or life-threatening diseases – not to mention commonly available inventions that to previous generations would seem tantamount to magic, like human flight, impressively accurate weather forecasting, instantaneous communication with anyone in the world, and now machines that can talk and come close to reasoning.
We don’t want this progress to slow. We want more magic.
Over the last ten years we’ve built a network of thousands of entrepreneurs. We’ve produced numerous reports and hosted hundreds of events, all with the aim of influencing policy on areas as diverse as tax, immigration, spinouts, education, female founders, planning, regulation. We’ve even drawn up a blueprint for a new Great Exhibition and made the case for a new order of chivalry for entrepreneurs (complete with designs for the awards).
If you’re new to us though, the place to start is by reading our report Building Blocks – in which we set out our fundamental vision for how policymakers can truly get growth going again by focusing on the foundations of economic prosperity.
Another is our Operation Innovation essay collection, in which we asked authors to address a key way in which the UK can improve its growth prospects. Some discuss the barriers that prevent people from innovating in the UK, looking at housing, transport, and childcare costs, as well as immigration and taxation policy. Others examine the way we support and fund science and innovation, how we regulate them, how we build a culture that supports them, and how we integrate them into both private and public services. A few deep-dive into specific sectors, such as artificial intelligence, food production, and energy systems.
In fact, this collection is the inspiration for launching this Substack. As well as sharing our insights, we want this to be a place where we draw on the experiences and expertise of our network. We’ve built a popular Friday newsletter which is read by Britain’s leading entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers. But this is a one-way conversation. This Substack will feature interviews with experts, case studies of what’s holding entrepreneurs back in particular sectors, and joint articles with others across the UK and beyond.
Poliymakers still don’t know enough about what’s holding back entrepreneurs and how to fix it. It’s our mission to bridge this gap.