Startup Britain

Founding Members

StartUp Britain was launched on 28 March 2011, founded by 8 successful entrepreneurs:

History

Start Up Britain campaign has international links and was welcomed by the White House. It has forged strong links with Start Up America and has inspired new initiatives around the world including Start Up Italia and Start Up Greece.

Since launch, Start Up Britain has successfully pioneered a range of initiatives that have not only helped raise national entrepreneurial spirits but also created many opportunities for small businesses all over the UK.

Start Up Tour

The annual Summer Bus Tour has visited more than 60 towns and cities. More than 25000 aspiring entrepreneurs boarded the bus each year and received expert advices and talks with PayPal, BT Business and Intuit, discovering what national initiatives are available to support their ideas and make useful connections to help start or grow their businesses.

Start Up Events

The annual Finance, Tech and Marketing Weeks are free events that attracted Britain’s top self-starters and experts in various fields and industries to share their early experiences. In addition, our one-day events such as StartUp Food, StartUp Fashion and StartUp Entertainment provide useful and specific information on how to succeed in each of these industries. Over three years, these events saw 3250 attendees.

Start Up Local

Start Up Britain has over 100 Start Up Local champions running local Start Up Campaigns across the country, supporting local self-starters.

Pitch Up

Start Up Britain encouraged corporates to open their doors to fledgling businesses via its Pitch Up initiative which gave start-ups the chance to pitch their products to high street brands such as John Lewis and Sainsbury’s. Four pitching events have resulted in seven new brands stocked in high street retailers, with more in the pipeline.

Pop Up

Pop Up Britain launched the high street careers of more than 350 of Britain’s future high street entrepreneurs via 12 empty shops and is set to continue that pioneering work separately with the Association of Town & City Management (ATCM) while still operating as a not-for-profit organisation to help new retailers.

Mentoring

Over 1600 hours of mentoring have been matched to young startups. The mentees estimate they will create a total of over 550 new jobs in one year as a result of their mentoring. 85% believed that the mentoring they received will help them grow their business faster.

Centre for Entrepreneurs

After 3 years, Start Up Britain was acquired in March 2014 by the Centre for Entrepreneurs founded by Luke Johnson. Start Up Britain continues to be run as an autonomous initiative and remains separate from the central CFE activity, but will partake in joint reports, activities and research to help shape and inform policy with the CFE.

Supporting companies

Full list of companies that have supported the campaign since its launch:

1. Alibaba
2. AXA
3. Barclays
4. Bitsy
5. BlackBerry
6. Brightword Publishing
7. Browser Creative
8. Co-Sponsorship Agency
9. Coutts
10. Deloitte
11. eBay
12. eConsultancy
13. Enterprise Nation
14. Enternships
15. EY
16. Euro RSCG
17. Experian
18. Fujitsu
19. GlassesDirect.com
20. Global Entrepreneurship Week
21. Gloople
22. Google
23. GoResponse
24. GoToMeeting
25. HP
26. HSBC
27. Intel
28. Instant Offices
29. Irwin Mitchell
30. King & Allen
31. KPMG
32. Lloyds TSB
33. MADE Festival
34. McKinsey
35. Microsoft
36. MOO.COM
37. Mother
38. MyKindaCrowd
39. O2
40. PayPal
41. PayPoint
42. Powa
43. Powwownow
44. PWC
45. Reed
46. Regus
47. RBS
48. Santander
49. Seko Synergy
50. Seven Hills
51. Sign Up To
52. Simply Business
53. Standard Chartered
54. Staples
55. The Supper Club
56. UnLtd
57. Virgin Media
58. Virgin Trains
59. Vistaprint
60. WorldFirst
61. Yell
62. Yo! Sushi