Young Entrepreneurs Make Waves In UK Startup Hotspots

A record number of new companies registered last year in some of Britain’s biggest cities in an entrepreneurial wave that’s started everything from boutiques to digital agencies, research from Virgin StartUp reveals.

Interviews young entrepreneurs across the UK’s top startup hot-spots, the Virgin not-for-profit company hoped to promote entrepreneurship and demonstrate how the newest generation are overcoming obstacles and catching opportunities that their home towns have to offer and building a wide array of businesses in the process.

According to figures from StartUp Britain, 526,446 new businesses were registered last year, compared with 484, 224 in 2012. The top 7 hot-spots were Greater London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol, Brighton, and Edinburgh. And according to a survey by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 5 percent of those under the age of 30 were starting businesses in 2010, a figure which doubled by 2012.

Twenty-seven year old Nick Holzherr started Whisk in 2012 in Birmingham. Whisk is a shopping list app that helps you easily discover, organise, and enjoy food by creating smart shopping lists. You can explore 250,000 recipes from popular publishers, collect recipes, and add them to your shopping list easily. The app function allows you to take it with you everywhere, print, or email the shopping list to yourself.

With over three quarters of their funding local to Birmingham, Nick believes that Birmingham was a good choice as a startup city: “I settled on Birmingham for no other reason than that it made sense for the business.”

There were two big draws for Nick when it came to Birmingham: talent and cost. With universities by and a lower population than London, Nick feels that Birmingham as a strong talent pool without the same big predators: “Having a core business in Birmingham as opposed to London means we can attract lots of really great people without having to fight lots of other companies who are just as cool as you,” Nick added.

With the cost of living being half than that in London, Nick feels that ranks: “As a start-up, your burn rate is really important.” While there is a lot of support for entrepreneurs in all of the UK’s major start-up cities, start-ups mist take into consideration the pros and the cons of each place and what it has to add. While most of Whisk’s clients aren’t based in Birmingham, that’s not an obstacle that’s stopped Whisk from flourishing.

“It takes just an hour and a half to get to London. I find trains very productive to work on”, Nick added, emphasising that transportation wasn’t a problem, “you have to weigh up the pros and the cons of where you set up your business because cost and talent are both also important”.

While each city has its own network of support services and strengths to offer, there’s a lot of uncertainty for young entrepreneurs. Stories about startups like Whisk can help entrepreneurs find their way. And when it comes to setting up your own business, Nick believes that it’s all about the network.

“I would encourage any young entrepreneur to surround themselves with mentors and people who can give you their opinion and help you make decisions, because sometimes it can be quite lonely and you haven’t got a boss telling you what to do next,” Nick said.