Your weekly summary of entrepreneurship news, comment, and features. Sent by the Centre for Entrepreneurs (home of StartUp Britain). Sign up here. Read the original newsletter here.
Is the first business the best? Take part in our research
How do entrepreneurs view doing it all again? What are the challenges the second time around? Is there less passion after the first business?
Coutts and the Centre for Entrepreneurs have partnered to examine serial entrepreneurship in the UK. We want to reflect the views of as many entrepreneurs as possible, including those who have exited and those who have not, and those who have started a second venture and those who have not.
The Maserati 100: Nominate someone today
Maserati and the Centre for Entrepreneurs have launched the second annual Maserati 100 index – a search to find 100 of Britain’s most successful philanthropists, investors, mentors and advisors, and ascending entrepreneurs who are supporting the next generation of founders.
Nominate someone today. Deadline Monday 14th December (11.59pm).
News
British shoppers spent £623m on Small Business Saturday
Telegraph: Consumers spent 24% more with small businesses on the dedicated shopping day this year than in 2014, according to research by the campaign. Read more.
Government to launch Crown Marketplace for small business procurement
Business Zone: The government is to launch a “Crown Marketplace” to build on the Digital Marketplace procurement process and make it easier for SMEs to supply the government with goods and services. Read more.
Sharing economy threatened as insurers unable to calculate level of risk
Telegraph: The sharing economy is under threat because the insurance industry has not kept pace with the growth of the nascent sector, some of the leading players have claimed, warning it’s “an accident waiting to happen”. Read more.
MarketInvoice lends £14,700 a minute
CityAM: Online peer-to-peer lender, MarketInvoice, had its busiest ever morning this week, lending £2.65m to SMEs, around £14,700 a minute. The company has lent over £570m to SMEs since its launch in 2011. Read more.
Topshop-Topman launches pop-up area for indie brands with Appear Here
RealBusiness: Fashion giant, Topshop-Topman has partnered with pop-up retail space provider Appear Here to welcome rising designers and independent brands with an opportunity to get in front of its 400,000 weekly customers at the flagship store on Oxford Street. Read more.
Opinion
Bottling airport decision is bad for UK business and casts doubt over new infrastructure committee
CityAM View: What exactly was the point of the Airport Commission? Read more.
Obituary for an entrepreneur
For a sense of how negatively capitalism is regarded in popular culture, consider the eulogising for Doug Tompkins (Founder of Esprit and The North Face), who died following a kayaking accident in Chile, writes Abby W Schachter (editor, CapX America).
“It is true that Tompkin’s efforts to preserve wilderness in Argentina and Chile are noteworthy…but before he was a spectacularly wealthy conservationist, Tompkins was a high school drop-out, who never made it to college and didn’t come from a wealthy family, who made it big in business. He was an American capitalist success story and should be remembered as such”. Read more.
My research helped build Growth Accelerator – axing it is a mistake
Academic Kevin Mole (head of innovation, Warwick Business School) was one of the people behind the now defunct business programme. Low Growth Hubs will not fill the gap, he writes. Read more.
The vulnerability of the sharing economy
The UK government must try to keep its deadening regulatory hands off this fascinating sector, writes Tim Knox (director, Centre for Policy Studies). Read more.
The UK must learn from unicorn obsession
The UK tech sector must learn from Silicon Valley’s mistakes and create sustainable companies not sub-prime unicorns, writes George Mathew (COO & President, Alteryx). Read more.
Features
12 days of start-ups
Startups.co.uk profile their favourite businesses launched in 2015 and set for stardom in 2016. Read more.
The Body Shop boss taking on Anita Roddick’s legacy
Standard: A return to campaigning is on the cards as the cosmetics company nears its 40th birthday. Read more.