We interviewed Andrew Humphries, a serial entrepreneur that has co-founded two successful technology companies, growing them across Europe and the US. Andrew is a Dealmaker for the UK Government?s Global Entrepreneur Programme,?Tech City Champion and recently co-founded the Attitude Academy.
Can you provide an overview of your background as an entrepreneur?
I came to entrepreneurship late. In my late 30s I was working in a large corporate, relatively safe, secure, comfortable and working the system. I took a risk, joined a start-up and my life changed, irrevocably, for the better! I liked the people I was working with, I could make a difference, it was a clear meritocracy, but there was absolutely no guarantee that the mortgage would get paid?when you have a big house and 5 children, that?s an interesting and focussing position! I was in a great team, we raised a hatful of investment and we learned a lot of lessons. I?m happy to say that as a result of those lessons, ?my second start-up, although arguably less overtly successful, was much more fruitful.
What is your motivation for founding the Attitude Academy and how would you define success?
As a business coach working in the corporate environment, I found that I was working with many people in their 30s, 40s and 50s who would say ?I wish I?d know this when I was 18!? I started asking myself why as a nation we don?t provide young people access to some of the most simple coaching methodologies and processes, and why people have to wait into their 40s until some enlightened employer decides to provide professional coaching. I decided that there must be a way to use new technology to provide cost effective corporate style coaching to young people in schools, and that the benefits to business could be measured, and if so, the private sector could be persuaded to provide a significant portion of the funding. The Attitude Academy was born. We currently have over 25,000 young people going through a process which helps them understand emotional intelligence and how it can help them achieve their potential faster. Success will be measured by the number of lives we improve and the Social Impact we can measure, including reduced truancy, increased academic results and improved employment rates amongst school leavers, as well as reduced training costs for employers.
What is involved with being a Dealmaker for the UKTI?s Global Entrepreneur Programme?
It?s by far the most exciting role I?ve ever had?seeking out the best international entrepreneurs with the most globally scalable business ideas; guiding them to the realisation that the UK is the best location for their incipient business and then helping them scale and grow. Simply being selected to be part of the GEP Dealmaker network is in itself a singular honour, working alongside some of the smartest, most connected and intuitive entrepreneurs in the UK, with the backing and resources of the whole of the UK Trade & Investment Department, helping overseas entrepreneurs who make the decision to live and work here in the UK and build British businesses and generate British jobs and wealth, is a unique and highly fulfilling opportunity.
What does London have to offer as a location for early stage technology companies?
You mean apart from free healthcare, free education, the most multicultural environment anywhere in the world, the history, the culture, the parks, the museums, the heritage, the tradition, the language, the size of the local market (over 90% of European HQs are located in London), stable government and strong currency, the unique international trading links and over a thousand years of free enterprise..?
Well, London also has access to the amazing skills that early stage technology companies need, not just from the UK universities such as Oxford and Cambridge (recently voted No 1 University in the World), and those in London itself, but from all the European universities whose alumni are free to come and live and work here. London has a time zone that can support the West Coast of the US and the Far East and Australasia from a single office location. London boasts the lowest company setup and operation costs of any of the G20 countries. London is a comparatively non-litigious society, lowering costs still further, and the tax regime is amongst the lowest in the G20. The recent announcements on elements such as the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme for early stage investors are the largest tax benefits ever announced by a British Government, the Entrepreneurs Visa, the Patent Box scheme, the relaxation of Capital Gains Tax for entrepreneurs and investors and R&D Tax Credits for companies developing new technologies show that the UK Government is totally committed to make the UK the natural choice for entrepreneurs to live, work and create their businesses.
And that is before we even start talking about London being the unique thriving, bubbling social and cultural environment that everyone wants to be a part of?where else would you choose?!
Can you describe your underlying vision for entrepreneurship in the UK and why this is important?
The Kaufman Foundation study in the US reveals that all net new job creation in the US comes from startups. In 2011 the White House stated that over 40% of US GDP comes from companies that didn?t exist in 1980. The reality is that the future of employment in both the US and the UK lies in the innovative startups re-defining massive industries like healthcare, energy, and technology. It?s high time that we in the UK stopped depending on traditional industries like manufacturing, construction, ?infrastructure, food production and mineral extraction, as well as the public sector, to provide all the jobs for ourselves and our children, and time we realised that the massive natural resource we have in our people, the free ideas and the boundless creativity that makes the UK unique, is what we can use to generate hundreds of thousands of opportunities, jobs and virtually un-restricted wealth. All we need to do is grasp the opportunity.
The UK can claim some incredible achievements, the invention of the world wide web, the design of the iPod, the first folding laptop computer, hawkeye, the cyclone vacuum cleaner, the Harrier Jump Jet, penicillin, television, the ejection seat, tarmac, the pneumatic tyre, the jet engine, supersonic airline travel, 72 Nobel prizes, punk rock?and today British companies like Ustwo, Holition, Songkick and others are once again leading the way in user interface, 3d technologies, cyber security, advertising, media, cleantech, healthcare, financial techonogies, film and post production and many more areas. Britons need to step up and take advantage of the wonderful environment we have; stop asking and start delivering, realise who and what we are, and what we are capable of. Instead of rioting in the streets in some kind of misplaced rebellion against the system, Britons, and in particular young Britons, need to start to create for themselves the future that they want, a future we can all be proud of, and I believe that creativity and entrepreneurialism is right at the heart of all we can be.
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Source: http://blog.unexus.org/andrew-humphries-entrepreneur-and-tech-city-champion/
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