The environment is vital for sowing start-up seeds
Features Writer
City PM
IDEAS matter. H.G. Wells was onto something when he wrote: “Human history is, in essence, a history of ideas.” But they don’t happen in a vacuum – external factors to the individual entrepreneur establish what ideas and businesses are likely to arise.
Interviewing Saul Singer (see article left) – author of the New York Times bestseller Start-up Nation – it’s clear that the Israelis are churning out start-ups by the bucket-load. Singer exposes the role that its idiosyncratic culture plays in the process.
Technological revolutions also have a role to play in the interplay of people and ideas. Anyone visiting the numerous start-up hubs across London (see below for a selection), can be left in no doubt that this is an important phenomenon. The internet facilitates thousands of predominantly young people in running businesses out of what are effectively empty rooms with wireless connections. Facebook’s founders will become billionaires on the back of an idea about how people can connect virtually – entrepreneurial hubs benefit from human interaction in the physical world, hosting events and creating a community with the objective to support new ideas. It’s little wonder that Virgin Media is turning to the members of THECUBE to help with innovation.
But it’s no use having a great idea if you don’t have the tools to turn it into reality. Tomorrow and Wednesday of this week Doug Richard will lead free full-day bootcamps designed to help small business learn how to use the web to increase sales, save money and go global. Go to www.webfuelledbusiness.com to find out more.
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Twitter: @philip_salter