anti-goldilocks

yeah so like we're we're not as small as a sweden and israel where we have to think global day one so when somebody creates a business idea and has a breakthrough they're not thinking right how do i reach global markets and we're not as big as the us and china where they factor if we get big in domestic market we are big enough to be international whereas traditionally investors and certainly in my journey in the startup ecosystem investors have always said oh you know make it in the uk first and then think about international So you're gearing your business up to try and hit profitability in the UK.

And by doing so in a middle-sized market, you are then going too slow.

And I think what then happens with the breakthrough ideas that we generate, a US equivalent sees, oh, okay, you've solved a problem.

That market exists.

I'll just do that, but faster.

So a prime example for me was, I knew one of the founders of Halo, which was around, you know, taxi cabs and they worked with all the black cabs and they worked, methodically through becoming friends with them and developing systems that would work for existing businesses and rolling out town by town and then to US.

So not just R&D, but commercialization as

Is it a good thing for the country to try and get some wind back in our sails? And what are you seeing in the current landscape?

Yeah, so I'm currently 15 months into post at Innovate UK.

And I've certainly myself been doing a big reset of the organisation to get ourselves focused on how we can get companies to start, stay and scale here in the UK, create pathways for breakthrough ideas to become industrial giants.

I think we're at a point now where we do need that sort of burst of energy and real focus on innovation.

on how we get growth into the UK.

I think we've been going through a bit of a lull period.

Burnham coming in, his positive sentiment, the way in which I think he's trying to grasp the nettle and pull together the strengths of the regions, I think could be genuinely a good thing.

and so in technology i feel i really feel the issue actually is getting behind a smaller number of arrows and really trying to grow those companies when i look in other sectors the same is not true so i'm doing a bit of work now for my for my region in advanced manufacturing and i know you've talked about you know about inputs rather than outputs so you know we're very focused on on inputs i see that in the catapults but How do we get more outputs from our research and development? How do we leverage those industries that don't have the very deep pools of capital? Because frankly, they're probably less sexy as industries.