COVID-19 and Entrepreneurship in the North: Navigating Through Crisis
Entrepreneurship is one of the global economy’s greatest engines of growth. But, in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, some entrepreneurs have found themselves facing a new reality. For many, everyday reality has quickly become a desperate struggle for survival as the global economy reaches an unprecedented downturn.
However, whilst a large number of start-ups have suffered as a result of the pandemic, COVID-19 has also sparked an increase in entrepreneurial activity. Many companies and individuals have pivoted to meet new needs for goods or services borne out of the crisis or devised new ideas to respond to emerging needs that have been insufficiently addressed.
Located in the North of England, we at TwinklHive have been able to see first-hand some of these new-born entrepreneurs and organisations that have used the pandemic as an opportunity to address unsolved needs within society. It’s here that the importance of innovation is highlighted as imperative to adapting to this ‘new normal’.
A key area in which we’ve seen innovation soar is within virtual networking. With many entrepreneurs feeling isolated as a result of working from home, online networking groups and virtual events have boomed. Within the following article, we aim to highlight some of the key players within the North’s entrepreneurial landscape that are helping to re-connect entrepreneurs and aid them in successfully navigating the crisis
Fund Her North with NorthInvest and Growth Capital Angels:
First we have Fund Her North, an influential new collective formed by two investment organisations, aimed at funding female-led businesses across the North West of England and supporting them to succeed.
With only 13% of all VC funding awarded to women, the collective is designed to break down the barriers faced by female-led businesses when securing investment and drive the number of females securing funding in the North. Alongside investment, Fund Her North also offers a strong network of support for female entrepreneurs to realise their full potential.
Fund Her North refused to let COVID-19 get in the way of their mission and in October hosted a virtual event in aid of their official launch. The event offered essential pitch advice to start-ups and scale-ups from guest speakers, as well the opportunity for female entrepreneurs to get answers from the panel of successful founders.
On the 19th of January, Fund Her North ran a virtual pitch event with NorthInvest and Growth Capital Angels. The event involved six investor-ready start-ups founded by women entrepreneurs from across the North of England. The event also included networking sessions for startups and investors.
You can watch the recording of Fund Her North’s launch event here and keep an eye out for any upcoming events by following this link.
According to Fund Her North Website, “Fund Her North began as a collective of over 28 women in finance with combined investment power over £450m in the North of England with the aim to empower female founders. We’re united in tackling the many barriers facing women accessing investment.”
Bethnal Green Ventures and NorthInvest:
In reflection of the significant growth of tech for good start-ups emerging across the North of England, Bethnal Green Ventures and Leeds-based investment non-profit NorthInvest are partnering to increase the access to funding for early stage businesses in the sector and to help talented entrepreneurs in the North launch and scale their businesses.
The partnership will bring together the knowledge of BGV — Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC — with the northern connections and established network of NorthInvest to encourage more founders in the North to build successful tech for good businesses.
Both organisations began collaborating in December with an online Q&A webinar for tech for good founders based in the North. They will be continuing their partnership by running workshops for companies at the ideation stage this month and for companies near to investment readiness in April. They will also hold a final pitch event in early May.
RTC North
A trusted and long-established business support organisation, RTC North works to deliver a mix of innovation and business growth programmes, designed to help businesses innovate, compete and grow.
In the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, RTC collaborated with NorthInvest to host the fundraising event Pitchfest 2020 in a different format — virtually. They hosted the event via an online webinar, aimed at connecting six start-ups with over 25 investors. Despite the disruption caused to face-to-face events by the pandemic, the virtual event was a success and ensured they could continue to provide opportunities to both entrepreneurs and investors within their network.
Digital Festivals -
Sheffield Digital:
Sheffield Digital and their collaborators Field had planned the second Sheffield Digital Festival for May of 2020, but had to cancel it due to the pandemic. However, the team were able to repurpose the event into a virtual format which ran very successfully in November. It included virtual stages to showcase online talks and webinars on a range of different themes including innovation, creativity, start-ups and technology.
The week saw many different organisations and individuals create events to showcase their work and expertise. TwinklHive’s Resident Growth Manager, Em Scicluna, hosted a virtual talk on product idea validation for start-up companies. To read our blog based on the talk, click here.
In addition to the Festival, Sheffield Digital supports and promotes the city’s thriving tech meet-up scene. As soon as the first lockdown was announced, they set up a Zoom account that meet-up organisers could use to move their regular events online. Sheffield Digital’s community manager provided guidance and support to help meet-up organisers and the communications team made sure to keep the community informed and up to date. They also compiled information to help tech businesses cope with the impact of COVID-19 and connected local voluntary organisations with digital companies that could help them to shift their operations online.
Mel Kanarek, one of the co-founders and directors of Sheffield Digital, said, “The challenges of the past ten months have really shown the strength and collaborative nature of the digital community in the city. Companies and individuals have been really quick to step forward to help others out and we’ve been using Sheffield Digital’s extensive network to help keep everyone in touch and informed. It’s also been great to see start-ups taking their solutions into new areas, or pivoting and developing new products and services.”
Leeds Digital Festival:
Leeds Digital Festival were also ready to announce the line-up for their fifth annual festival in 2020 when government restrictions around COVID-19 were put in place, yet they quickly pivoted and made the decision to run the Festival virtually in May.
Throughout the duration of the festival , they saw an incredible 134 online events covering a vast array of topics. Not only this, but the Festival also attracted an international audience from over 50 countries and 5 continents globally. It was their quick decision to alter the format of the festival and go online that made such large-scale engagement possible.
Following on from this achievement, Leeds Digital Festival are already looking forward to the next Festival event in April 2021! If you missed out on any of their talks from this year, you can find the recordings on their YouTube playlist.
At TwinklHive, we’ve been inspired by the wonderful and innovative ways in which organisations in the North are helping entrepreneurs successfully navigate the pandemic.
So, soon we’re launching our own digital entrepreneur networking group to try and combat the isolation faced by many in these challenging times and provide a space for like-minded people to connect and share insights.
Interested in joining? Apply here
