Jane Turner is on a mission to encourage startups and scaleups.
Source - Teesside University
Britain's digital entrepreneurs attracted £6.5bn in equity investment in 2016 – 50% more than any other European country.
That in itself is not surprising. According to figures published in the Tech Nation 2017 report, the UK's digital technology companies now generate a combined turnover of £170 billion and the sector supports something in the region of 1.64 million job. So that £6.5bn investment reflects the health and exuberance of a still-young industry.
Perhaps more surprising is the fact that the flow of cash to technology entrepreneurs is no longer primarily concentrated around London's Tech City district. As the Tech Nation report points out, 70% of 2016 total was directed to tech clusters in Britain's regions. These included the Cambridge area (dubbed Silicon Fen), Bristol and Bath, Edinburgh, Oxford, Manchester and Sheffield, which between them attracted around £700m.
A Digital Hotbed
You could argue that most of the above fall into the “usual suspects” category. For instance, you would certainly expect investors to be eyeing prospects in and around the Cambridge and Oxford areas. But as the report points out, digital entrepreneurship is refreshing parts of the UK that are traditionally thought of as bastions of old, traditional, heavy industries.
Middlesborough is a case in point. Situated on the River Tees in the North East of England, it's a city that's historically associated with coal and more recently, steel and chemicals. In fact Middlesborough is still an important center for heavy industry but as those industries in decline, a transformation is taking place.
This year's Tech Nation report cited Middlesborough for the first time, describing it as “hotbed for digital tech innovation.” And as the researchers point out, the city is now home to a number of well-recognized and successful tech companies, including Visualsoft, Double 11 and Big Bite.
Driving Digital Transformation
So how has a steel town become a hub for digital entrepreneurship, creating more than 6,000 jobs in the process?
Well it didn't happen by accident and one of the key ingredients was an initiative dubbed DigitalCity, established by Teesside University as part of a strategic plan for the region.
And as Pro Vice Chancellor for Enterprise, Jane Turner, explains, the university proactively promotes entrepreneurship. “The university has a reputation for its startup ecosystem,” she says, citing the Launchpad Fuel incubator, which offers an eight week program for recent graduates. The focus is on teams, and there a special effort is made to support female entrepreneurs and social enterprises.
First Generation Entrepreneurs
Meanwhile, the university has set about changing culture and attitudes to entrepreneurship in a region where the traditional path involves leaving school or university and finding a job. “A lot of our students represent the first generation of their families to go to University,” she says. “And there isn't a tradition of starting a business. So we talk about entrepreneurship to our students all the time. And each of our schools have a Dean of Enterprise. They each have a startup target.”
The university can point to real success stories, with the aforementioned Visualsoft Big Bite and Double 11 all coming out of its courses and programs. And as Turner stresses the aim of the Fuel incubator is to find teams that have a good chance of succeeding with their ideas. “We are going for quality over quantity,” she says. “We want sustainability.”
Scaling Up
And latterly, there is a bigger agenda, with the university seeking to play a role in identifying potential scale-ups in the region and helping them to grow. “We have identified 86 scale ups and we want to wrap a programme around that," says Turner.
This takes the university's program well beyond the tech sector. "Many of the scale ups are more than 20 years old and they come from all sectors, not just technology. As the program develops, the aim is to help businesses find the confidence and leadership skills to grow," says Turner.
By 2024, it's hoped that Teesside's digital companies will support 130,000 jobs. It's a necessary revolution. As traditional industries decline, the UK's economy will increasingly depend on entrepreneurs building technology led businesses. It's vital that this change in the industrial landscape is not confined to a few hubs.
