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:
- Government guidance for employees, employers and businesses
- BEIS business support helpline and the HMRC Covid-19 helpline.
- 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, startups and businesses are responding:
- The UK tech industry has launched Code4COVID.org to fight the Coronavirus crisis.
- PUBLIC and NHSX have launched Techforce19 – a new challenge to combat the effects of social isolation. Companies can apply for up to £25k.
- An opensource spreadsheet is tracking the status of over 240 European investors and whether they are continuing to invest during the crisis
- Sifted is tracking a growing list of startups that are rallying to help those in need during the crisis. Brent Hoberman has also written on LinkedIn tracking some of the positive examples from startups.
- Google has announced an $800m commitment to help small businesses through grants, investment, Google Ads and Google Cloud credits,PPE production and increased employee gift match.
News
- Government unveiled the self-employment income support scheme to wide praise (a “historic lifeline” – IPSE; a “bold support package” – FSB) but as highlighted by the FT it won’t save everybody. There are now calls to extend the scheme to those submitting self assessment returns for the first time this April, to open the scheme to new entrepreneurs and freelancers.
- With major policies announced to support employees and (most but not all) self-employed, there are now growing calls for government to support lossmaking startups. This comes as more than half of London’s tech firms have admitted that “survival” is the only plan for the next three months, according to Tech London Advocates. Such a scheme could be modelled on the French government’s €4.3bn plan.
- UK government must act to help startups (Brent Hoberman, co-founder, Founders Factory)
- Why the UK’s startup sector is worth saving (Daniel Korski, co-founder, PUBLIC)
- Why the future of Britain’s startups hangs in the balance (Priya Lakhani, founder and chief executive, CENTURY Tech)
- More than 20,000 shops that closed their doors will never reopen (Daily Mail covers Centre for Retail Research analysis)
Opinion
- Rishi Sunak offers self-employed Covid-19 support but what more can be done by tech for tech? (Madhvi Mavadiya, contributor, Forbes)
- Will the banks play fair on emergency loans to SMEs? (David Prosser, contributor, Forbes)
- Cash is king! (Guy Rigby, chair – entrepreneurial services, Smith & Williamson)
- The government’s job retention scheme needs some tweaking (Andy Mayer, COO, IEA)
- Virus puts responsible capitalism to the test (The FT View)
- Why the government should keep making it up as they go along (Nick King, head of business, Centre for Policy Studies)
- Are you leading through the crisis … or managing the response? (Eric McNulty, associate director and Leonard Marcus, founding co-director, National Preparedness Initiative at Harvard)
Features