In partnership with the
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship we held a Panel Debate
chaired by the Earl of Erroll: Crowd funding and how it can be leveraged to
support entrepreneurial Britain.
The excellent keynote
speakers were Darren Westlake, co-founder of Crowdcube and Julia Groves,
Chairman of the UK Crowdfunding Association. Julia started us off brilliantly by giving us an overview of crowdfunding and how working with
appropriate regulation makes this the next generation of business funding for a
diverse range of businesses.
We then heard from three crowdfunded businesses - Gem Misa of healthy
foods business Righteous, Andrew Wordsworth of E-car Club, and Barry Laden MBE
of East End Manufacturing. All three very different but with the wonderful
passion and enthusiasm of successful and growing entrepreneurs. Each had had
problems with traditional funding routes and been turned down by the banks so
it was great to hear of their ongoing success.
Andrew took quite a while to get funding as his sustainable business model of shared car ownership didn’t fit the mould, despite being profitable as well as green. E-car Club is now growing and he loves the crowdfunding route as ‘the crowd judges’ (the business).
Barry is passionate about bringing manufacturing back to the UK, specifically to the East End. Not only bringing jobs and quality of work, but also taking him back to his family roots in tailoring. He agreed that crowdfunding isn’t an easy option ‘you still need a good pitch and the financials need to stack up’ but he too loved the process!