United We Stand
Published on July 16, 2019
David Hoghton-Carter
David Hoghton-Carter
Impact & innovation strategist, progressive thinker, purpose-driven founder, wri... See More
16 articles
Follow
What’s pre-occupying me at present is genuine equality of opportunity to build the new and next, and the need for more of it.
Those of us working in innovation at a grassroots level experience first-hand how difficult it can to be to gain support and funding for new ideas. Whether we’re taking a profit-focused approach, or a multi-line approach, or trying to do something charitable, we’re in a tough situation across the board.
Funding and support approaches focus on the conventional and well-established. Startup-loan schemes assume the potential to quickly develop a strong enough revenue stream to pay down the loan, usually with a minimal delay. The money that’s available isn’t enough to cover early-development costs in full, and the assumption is that founders have enough spare cash to plough into their new ventures to get them off to a flying start and qualify for match-funding. There’s also the implicit assumption of individual wealth; the assumption that founders can afford to pay the rent, keep the lights on and put food on the table until something new is washing its own face.
The focus is far too keenly zeroed in on minimising risk. Clear financials, obvious comparators and competitors, developed markets, readily-identifiable benchmarks for success.
Meanwhile, strategic funders keep on claiming that it’s tough to find fundable companies. I've been involved in impact startups (as a founder, co-author or advisor) for almost a decade, and I'm getting pretty weary of hearing the same old refrain. I've found it to be nightmarishly difficult to gain catalyst funding for the new and the next, to start something that's both big-picture innovation and mission-focused. With such a stunning level of risk-aversion, the bar to entry is set so high that it's next to impossible to meet it, and the institutional will to support the untested is simply non-existent.
Too often, the message from impact investors is that, to be fundable, you've got to be well-established, generating revenue, with the market potential of a unicorn, but the mission and impact profile of a mature NGO.
Quite how that's supposed to square with the need for innovative thinking and new solutions is beyond me.
Especially when so many good ideas for our shared future come from those who have genuine lived experience of the problems we need to solve, and who haven’t benefitted from a smooth ride or conventional success.
Those of us who aren’t wealthy, don’t have affluent friends and family to plough money into our ideas, have fought past long odds. We often have the best ideas, but get the least support. Even as the innovations which we identify are the most forward-thinking and therefore the riskiest.
And there’s an elephant in the room that we need to address: London.
Yes, it’s a pretty obvious elephant. It’s been standing there a while, and getting a bit ornery if and when anyone tries to ask it what it’s playing at in taking up so much space and munching down so much of the food from the buffet. Sure, it’s a healthy-looking elephant, and it’s drawing a lot of attention from outside the room, which means that the room as a whole is getting some good write-ups. But it’s still about the elephant, way too much. And everyone else in the room is starting to get quite disappointed and weary at the whole situation.
Enabling organisations and infrastructure support are stronger in London. There’s more of the former, concentrated within a networked geographic area with greater intrinsic critical mass. And there’s more willingness to get on board with new ideas, because there are more venues and institutions geared to doing just that within easy reach.
Yet this critical mass, and the reach that it has, doesn’t seem to extend out of the bubble that has emerged around London’s centre of gravity. The will to reach out seems weak. The expectation seems to be that the nation will come to London-based organisations and institutions, on their terms, even if the costs of doing so are high and the benefits look weak. There’s a negative perception of the risks involved in working nationally, and perhaps a bit of inertia too.
The default focus on London across so many of the UK’s strategic enabler organisations and institutions means that there are some serious issues to unpick, analyse, highlight and challenge if we wish to create innovative solutions and mutually supportive approaches that can work for everyone.
Those of out here in the boondocks (as some of us worry we’re perceived) grumble to ourselves about this. We know, and highlight, that the Northern Powerhouse approach has largely been a mirage so far. We pontificate a bit, but we try to avoid giving offence, because we know that the limited level of engagement we benefit from is fragile. But we ought to be speaking out, and seeking to find a new way forward; if we fail to do so, the status quo will continue, and the benefits we could all share, across the regions and in London, will be slow to accrue at best.
What this all adds up to is that we need to help each-other switch things up.
Something needs to change, and someone needs to have the courage to be the first to build a new funding and support model that can work in the way that founders really need it to work.
So, I think there are two ways forward here.
We can either work together, fairly and equally, to build opportunities for everyone, locally, regionally and nationally. We can enable innovative businesses and social enterprises to create good solutions to the most pressing problems of our time, with the full involvement of everyone who can claim a reasonable stake in the issues at hand.
Or we can stay in bubbles and silos, rarely take risks, stick to well-worn paths and conventional approaches, and make sluggish progress at best.
One solution I’ve been considering is the potential to create a new kind of accelerator and network, focused on supporting grassroots entrepreneurs.
One where it’s the idea that matters, and the difference that it can make to our shared society.
One where personal wealth, geography, background, or a shining CV don’t need to matter.
One which can help those it supports to break down the roadblocks, show what they can achieve with strong collaborative support.
One which accepts that genuine innovation is risky, and that we can’t change our shared world for the better without giving the new and untested a fighting chance to get off the ground.
I’ve been thinking it through a bit with a Scottish colleague, @Kathryn Pierce, founder of a new start-up social enterprise, Somewhere. Kathryn’s research into minority LGBTQI entrepreneurs is the inspiration behind Scotland’s first LGBT+ MBA scholarship, and the subject of a forthcoming book, which will include recommendations for practice and policymakers to help support the complex social and business problems this particular minority community faces.
Over to Kathryn:
“I relocated to Edinburgh in 2017 and am impressed with the ecosystem of support for start-ups available in Scotland – it is certainly better and more comprehensive than I found in England, but there are still huge gaps. Edinburgh is a huge fintech hub, second only to the capital, and has increasing levels of investment for start-ups, especially data-driven projects. While that is encouraging, my particular area of interest is in social enterprise, a vital and growing sector in Scotland and elsewhere given the austerity cuts, and one which is a natural home for many minority entrepreneurs like myself. I/we still have a major first obstacle of having to prove impact to attract seed funding, and then ensuring there is a strong enough business model to support that social impact. Doing good isn’t generally something investors prioritise, and it certainly doesn’t line any shareholder pockets.”
Kathryn and I have put our heads together and discussed possible strategies, under the umbrella name The Bootstrap Network. This is designed to create a new platform for bootstrappers, arguably the most intrepid of all entrepreneurs, the ones who seek to will their enterprise into being through sheer brute force, dedication and finding the right supporters.
We want to connect grassroots entrepreneurs together, with a particular focus on supporting founders from diverse, intersectional and disadvantaged backgrounds to bootstrap unconventional ideas. The network will give those who have ‘made it’- successfully developed, built and grown great ideas – the chance to share their expertise and success with those who are at the start of the journey.
As the network develops, we’re aiming to build a peer-to-peer grant-making and lending platform to enable successful entrepreneurs to invest in great but risky ideas through a trust-based ecosystem.
And we’d love to partner with a challenger bank or similar to build a new generation of accelerator.
We’re going to be developing this in the coming months. We know how to make it work; now we need your help to get it into play.
This is our shout-out, our first call for support. Who’s with us?
Join our new LinkedIn Group, and let's get started on building better businesses and projects, together.
Report this
Published by
David Hoghton-Carter
David Hoghton-Carter
Impact & innovation strategist, progressive thinker, purpose-driven founder, writer. Looking for a new ethical project.
Published • 5mo
16 articles
Follow
#entrepreneurs #funding #socialimpact #socialentrenpreneurs #regionalisation #impact #purpose #charity #newbusiness #impactinvestment #investment
Published by David Hoghton-Carter
| The text being discussed is available at
and
| |
