Your weekly summary of entrepreneurship news, comment, and features. Sent by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (part of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation). Sign up here. Read the original newsletter here.
Covid-19
- Where to find guidance:
- The government guidance for employees, employers and businesses will remain the authoritative source of guidance for entrepreneurs. It is being constantly updated and expanded based on queries being submitted to government by business groups.
- Entrepreneurs can also call the BEIS business support helpline or the HMRC Covid-19 helpline.
- Enterprise Nation is collating private-sector support (eg the $100m Facebook small business grants programme), offering support via live chat and running a ‘Pay it Forward‘ fundraising campaign for small businesses with Crowdfunder.
- Former Number 10 business advisor Jimmy McLoughlin is publishing daily newsletters featuring the latest government guidance, as well as insight, resources and inspiration.
- How entrepreneurs and startups are responding:
- Eze Vidra has compiled an ever-expanding list of 100+ startups offering free products and services in response to coronavirus, including Ry Morgan of workplace mental health platform Unmind, which he’s offering free to all NHS workers.
- SeedLegals is allowing businesses to create a free Work From Home policy.
- Brewdog has repurposed the company’s distillery to create hand sanitiser that is being donated to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
- James Timpson has given the group’s office car park over to NHS workers.
- FindARace has launched ‘Plan B’, a virtual race to replace races and marathons cancelled due to coronavirus, with all proceeds going to the W.H.O. Solidarity Response Fund.
News
- Growing calls for government to support self-employed
- Articles in the Observer and BBC this weekend and a joint letter between IPSE, the Creative Industries Federation, CFE and many other groups led communities secretary Robert Jenrick to confirm that the government is looking at ways to overcome technical challenges to support self-employed (writeup in the FT and CityAM)
- Fronted, 11:FS and Credit Kudos are preparing to launch an income checker to demonstrate loss of income that could help the self-employed claim income relief. Read more here
- Government’s coronavirus business interruption loan scheme ‘not fit for purpose’ says consultancy (CityAM covers Fideres analysis that makes recommendations including tying loans to employment commitments and a ban on dividends)
- Investment and employment boom for UK tech sector (UK Tech News covers the annual Tech Nation report)
- British startups slam competition watchdog over ‘power grab’ (CityAM covers Coadec campaign)
- UK takes next step toward world of e-scooters, self-driving cars, and autonomous drones (TheNextWeb covers government announcement of four trial zones)
Opinion
- Let’s save London seed stage tech startups from Covid-19 (John Spindler, co-founder, AI Seed and CEO, Capital Enterprise)
- What’s Plan B? The lifeboat strategy for your startup (Steve Blank, author, ‘The Startup Owners Manual’)
- Six startup disciplines for challenging times (Tom Tunguz, partner, Redpoint)
- How the UK economy can survive the coronavirus (Sam Bowman, economist and Sam Dumitriu, research director, The Entrepreneurs Network)
- Tech and creativity will save us from disaster (Jim Artimage, Evening Standard)
- Achieving maturity – is UK tech catching up with competitors? (Trevor Clawson, contributor, Forbes analyses the Tech Nation report)
- Accelerators are making the funding gap worse for female founders (Allie Burns, CEO, Village Capital and Shruti Chandrasekhar, head of startup catalyst and SME ventures, International Finance Corporation)
- Female entrepreneurs are breaking down doors and lighting a path (Michelle Ovens, founder, Small Business Britain)
Features
- Sifted: Coronafiles: Who’s getting hired, who’s getting fired?
- TechCrunch: Startups rethink what it means to be high-touch during a pandemic
- Andreessen Horowitz: Reading list for leaders in uncertain times