What is the new ambition for UK entrepreneurs?
That was the question asked at the launch of a new report from the private bank Coutts, which explored insights into the landscape entrepreneurs face today and offered insights from expert voices on what business leaders need to succeed.
The report combined perspectives from these experts with the views of entrepreneurs across the country, following a series of roundtables that Coutts hosted in 2024 alongside Seven Hills BPI and E2Exchange – the entrepreneur community – in London, Manchester and Bristol. Findings explored whether the UK is a great place to be an entrepreneur today and broadly fell under three key themes of Capital, Talent, and Innovation.
Headline Findings:
- A culture of risk-taking is essential for scale: Entrepreneurs feel that they are often encouraged to exit prematurely due to limited late-stage funding access in the UK, meaning that businesses who could scale instead get acquired too soon. This is the result of an investment landscape that is perceived as overly-cautious compared to markets such as the US. Entrepreneurs want to see increased incentives for risk-taking through tax and regulation changes.
- The world is changing, how we identify skills and talent must change too: The education system must shift towards enterprise education and soft skills development, ensuring that businesses recognise potential over outdated credentials-based hiring. Entrepreneurs are also concerned about the impact of future employment legislation on their hiring capabilities, and a widening mismatch between available skills and business needs.
- Ensuring technological progress benefits all businesses: Small businesses in non-digital sectors need access to tools that support technology adoption to ensure that innovation is not dominated by large corporations or digital native startups, and to ensure that AI investment particularly is targeted at the right business use case areas. Social impact is also still seen as a driver of difference, meaning innovation must be inclusive.
Experts supporting these findings from across the entrepreneurial ecosystem included:
- Debbie Wosskow OBE, Co-Chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce
- Stephen Welton CBE, Chair of the British Business Bank
- Baroness Sandip Verma, business leader and member of the House of Lords
- Ash Ramrachai, CEO and Co-founder of Academy
- Varun Bhanot, CEO and Co-founder, MAGIC AI
- Renée Elliott, Founder, Planet Organic
Debbie and Ash also joined us as speakers at the launch event, alongside Emma Heal, Managing Director of the UK’s leading alcohol-free beer brand, Lucky Saint, alongside Entrepreneur Propositions Lead at Coutts, Franklin Asante, and Seven Hills BPI co-founder and chair Michael Hayman MBE, who is also chairman of entrepreneurs at Coutts.
The report forms part of a wider launch of the Coutts Business Insights programme, which will offer guidance and an expert network to entrepreneurs at different stages of their journey. The programme will seek to go beyond a roadmap to exit and will enable founders to grow on their own terms through capital and connections.
A link to the report can be found here.