Prime Minister David Cameron helped launch the 'StartUp Britain' initiative this morning. StartUp Britain is a ground-breaking response from the private sector to the Government’s call for an “enterprise-led” recovery. The campaign aims to deliver the support and advice for startups and is led by entrepreneurs and is not being backed by government money.
StartUp Britain is the UK's response to surprise, surprise, Startup America. The American campaign however is funded by the government.
The initiative is essentially offering a package of discounts and free trial on business services like insurance, broadband, advertising, office space and more. The claim is that this amounts to over £1,500 in value for every startup company in Britain. The StartUp Britain site is a portal to all these offers and sources of advice.
David Cameron has always been pro-enterprise and earlier had this to say:
“We won’t build the future we want to see in this country if we go back to the bad old days of big government spending, big borrowing and big debt. The recovery we need is a private sector-led recovery, a recovery with ‘Made in Britain’ stamped all over it.
“We need to see a country where new businesses are starting up on every street, in every town; where entrepreneurs are everywhere.
In the UK we see 270,000 businesses startup every year and unfortunately a high number of these fail, many due to the lack of support. What I like about this campaign, is that although it is backed by the government (and has David Cameron's face plastered all over it; sigh) it is actually an initiative run by entrepreneurs. The fact that already over 50 businesses have signed up to offer help is a good sign and can hopefully spur others into helping startups in the UK; although at the moment it needs to progress beyond what looks like a bit like a coupon site.
It remains to be seen how this campaign will progress but it looks promising. Here is a list of the entrepreneurs that are backing this project:
- Jamie Murray Wells, Glasses Direct
- Rajeeb Dey, Enternships
- Duncan Cheatle, The Supper Club
- Oli Barrett, Co-Sponsorship Agency
- Emma Jones, Enterprise Nation
- Michael Hayman, Seven Hills
- Richard O'Connor, Chocolate & Love
- Lara Morgan, Pacific Direct
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