The Entrepreneurs Network

An extract from our latest newsletter: “My Government will establish Skills England which will have a new partnership with employers at its heart, and my Ministers will reform the apprenticeship levy.” Businesses will be brought in to try to ensure that we have “the highly trained workforce that England needs.” The key challenge here will be ensuring that the employers promised to sit at the heart of the partnership are not limited to our current crop of large corporates. Of course they should be in the room, but sooner or later they will be the relics of our economy as they get displaced by innovation. To that end, we need to ensure that the entrepreneurs and innovators are involved. This isn’t the same as big tech – though they should be in the room too. On the second point, we’ve long argued for the replacement of the apprenticeship levy with a skills levy – most recently with Enterprise Nation in Access All Areas: People. It’s good to see things potentially moving in this direction. https://lnkd.in/eAnYbRG6

Protectionism, even if not explicitly badged as such, is one of those ideas that often sounds like common sense for many people. There’s a reason why, centuries after economists first exposed its folly, politicians of all stripes are attracted to it. But something making for a good sound bite doesn’t necessarily mean it makes for good policy. It’s heartening to see our leaders so focused on the pursuit of growth – but that focus can’t be a substitute for rational decision making. https://lnkd.in/erWM5sdr

In his first speech as Prime Minister, Keir Starmer acknowledged that now is the time for action: “Our work is urgent, and we begin it today.” So here are three action points aligned with Labour’s manifesto promises. https://lnkd.in/eebdXrDa

We’re advertising for three roles: a researcher; someone to run our events and head of our Female Founders Forum; and we’ve launched an internship programme. Please share far and wide. We obviously hope that people stay forever, but anyone joining will be following in some impressive footsteps. Our alumni have gone on to advise Prime Ministers, become a senior editor on a national newspaper, work within government, and much else besides. https://lnkd.in/e_fbgb4H

Last week we launched Empowering the Future: a punchy briefing paper setting out ten policies that the next government should adopt to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. https://lnkd.in/dggxBPR8

Whoever the next Prime Minister is, he needs to prioritise tearing down the ‘for sale’ signs that seem to be on so many of our Breakthrough Businesses. This small but mighty group of companies are critical employers and taxpayers, and ought to be targeting the future growth we need to revitalise the economy.  For the past few months, our Private Business Commission, chaired by Steve Rigby, has been investigating the most effective policies to support them. The conclusions of our research are published today, in Backing Breakthrough Businesses. You can read The Times’s write-up of our latest report via the link in the comments, including interviews with our Commissioners Steve Rigby, Sam Smith, and Chris Hulatt.

🚨📖 NEW: Today we launch our latest report – Backing Breakthrough Businesses. 🚨📖 Britain is a great place to start a business. However, our policies incentivise accelerating to sell, rather than building to last. That’s why we have been falling short when it comes to nurturing new national champions, or keeping promising companies within our shores. With the election just around the corner, now is the time to bolster the business environment for Britain’s Breakthrough Businesses. The Private Business Commission, chaired by Steve Rigby and supported by the Rigby Group plc, was convened to diagnose where Britain’s weaknesses lie, and what to do about them. Its first report, Backing Breakthrough Businesses, comprises months of rigorous research and engagement with our panel of Commissioners and other investors, policy experts and business leaders. We hope that it can be a guide for whoever forms the next government in backing our #BreakthroughBusinesses. You can read it now via the link in the comments. Thanks to all who responded to our Call for Evidence and our commissioners: Chris Hulatt, Sam Smith, Janine Hirt, Irene Graham OBE, Philip Salter, Sam Dumitriu, Valentina Kristensen, Toby Orr, Jan Zeber, Jonny Clark, James Ashton.

In last week's newsletter, I quoted extensively from Ali Mortazavi's X thread. I know some people who read this will be more bullish on AIM. But whatever your view, I would love to know what you think we can do to improve things. There are lots of things we can do. Taking a *big* step back, remember that most economists think stamp duties should be scrapped (with the tax raised more efficiently elsewhere). "Ali Mortazavi, CEO of e-therapeutics, set a small corner of X ablaze this week with a brutal thread on his intention to delist from London Stock Exchange’s AIM market. According to Mortazavi: “the UK markets are not just illiquid, they’re completely broken and closed. The situation is worse for small growth companies (in particular biotech) but even sizeable companies such as Shell and many others are saying the same thing.” I would recommend reading the whole thread. On the same day, City A.M. provocatively asked: Is the London Stock Exchange’s AIM in terminal decline? After all, the market’s total value has fallen by over 50% since its peak in 2021, while the number of firms listed on AIM has shrunk 30% since 2015. As reported, AIM doesn’t come cheap: “An IPO on AIM will cost about £500,000, and fees for RNS announcement, legal costs, and other expenses add around £200,000 a year to that. Given that about 400 companies listed on AIM have a market cap below £50m, that’s a high price to pay for the UK’s small businesses.”

According to Mortazavi: “the UK markets are not just illiquid, they’re completely broken and closed. The situation is worse for small growth companies (in particular biotech) but even sizeable companies such as Shell and many others are saying the same thing.” https://lnkd.in/eptrt9MU

🆕 We’ve opened a Call for Evidence as part of our Private Business Commission to better understand the challenges British businesses face when scaling up. Responses we receive will inform the writing of a major policy report – find out more below 👇 https://lnkd.in/djY48eUd