Where are all the UK start-ups?
ByI find myself thinking of my country and my industry – and what I see confuses and confounds me. This is a tiny little country that remains a world power, one of the few trillion dollar economies in the world. It has 50% take-up of broadband, some huge telecommunications companies and thousands of people working on and around the internet. But still our industry seems dominated by a few moribund and clumsy giants leading a culture that’s inarticulate, unadventurous and profoundly constrained. There’s something very wrong here.
Some interesting thoughts from Tom Coates at Plasticbag.org about why Brits aren’t doing better.
I sometimes wonder a similar thing myself. How have I managed to start a freelance career in the United States from scratch? And why do I think it would have been so much harder in the UK despite the advantage that I have so many contacts there? Why is America full of rags to riches stories? And why do so many people in Britain still sneer at success?
8 Comments
July 26th, 2005 at 12:44 pm
See ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ by Orwell for a good stab at answering that question. Obviously.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
Did somebody mention Orwell?
July 26th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
Try this theory on ‘alterpreneurs’, a different take on the British start-up mentality..
July 26th, 2005 at 6:06 pm
I also think that by comparing your situation as an ex-pat making it work overseas you could be muddying the waters. People I have spoken to who have spent time living and working abroad often feel less constrained than they do at home, less judged by their family and peers. This encourages them to take risks and to try harder than they would in Britain. Is that due to a problem with the British entrepreneurial spirit or with the British fear of drawing a spotlight onto their own actions?
I can’t comment with any authority on the current economic climate, but with the property market at a standstill here, the general disillusionment with government over the war etc etc, the current mood seems less to lean towards the adventurous and risk taking and more towards holding on to what we know.
To really analyse why we may be less start-up oriented we would really need to take it from school days and family attitudes to the state of the currency market, economic policies and social trends. To compare us to Americans on these fronts is to often fight a losing battle. So why not do a little more research first and find out if what you are witnessing is simply your personal truths or a more widereaching reality. Maybe we’re just a little more low key…
July 27th, 2005 at 3:15 am
British Entrepreneurialism left the old company and started a new one, America Inc. We stole all the best employees.
July 27th, 2005 at 10:18 am
It may also have something to do with the crippling rents and taxes that small British businesses have to pay.My friend Danny, who owns a sound design company which has worked on Guy Richies film, Finding Neverland, The Descent, among many others, has to be based in central London but is currently paying £25,000 a year on his offices. Fr ths strnmcl sm h hs t pt p wth shtty lndlrds wh lk ll f th thvng bstrds f thr knd ds n mntnnc nd gvs hm grf ll th tim.
He has now decided to buy an office in Soho instead. A good tip for any budding entrepreneurs out there is that he’s can undertake a cunning financial rouse which allows him to rent the office to his own company,thus ensuring he isn’t that much out of pocket at all.
July 27th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Warning. Foul language will be disemvoweled!
July 27th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
More interesting debate on this here.