UK Innovation Stories
Building should not depend on who you happen to know
Britain is producing founders. The next challenge is helping more of them find the talent, laboratories, universities, funding and experienced people that can help their businesses last.
- Founders
- National capability
What happened
Britain does not have a shortage of people willing to start businesses.
The latest NatWest and Beauhurst New Startup Index reports that 402,000 companies were incorporated in the first half of 2026. The UK now has a record 5.66 million active businesses.
Those are encouraging numbers. But after more than two decades of building companies, I am more interested in how many are still creating something useful five or ten years later.
Mark's reading
I learned the challenges of building the hard way.
Finding the right supplier could depend on attending an annual trade show, receiving a trusted recommendation or noticing one useful approach among hundreds of irrelevant ones. I sometimes chose the wrong partners, looked overseas too quickly and missed opportunities to collaborate closer to home.
The same was true of talent and expertise. You do not always need another full time employee. Sometimes you need an experienced person who can challenge your thinking, introduce a different perspective or help you make one important decision.
For much of my career, the help available to me depended on the people inside the business and those I had personally managed to meet.
Why it matters to Britain's innovation capability
That is one reason I am building UKIZ.
It brings together Britain's talent, laboratories, universities, research, grants, funding, facilities, suppliers and experienced operators so founders can find the right resource when they need it.
A manufacturer does not need to be nearby to be useful. The value is being able to find and assess the right capability wherever it is in Britain. Proximity matters more when repeated collaboration, specialist equipment or knowledge exchange makes the work faster or better.
Founders should still have to make difficult decisions. They should not have to waste months discovering that the help they needed was already here.