I found an interesting article in the scotsman today it was praising the number of start ups produced by Edinburgh University spun out during 2009, but if you dig down some interesting statistics can be found, the investment raised across the 40 companies equates to £75k, this was raised across public bodies and financial institutes, if we looked at the funds under management in Scotland by the financial sectors this not a even a blip on the P&l, and that cash does not go far, at one of the hi-tech business incubators you can pay £250 /SqM a month for accommodation/lab space.....
The really interesting piece of information, but not from the Scotsman but one of the comments was that out of "111 companies employing, on average,3 people, at least 2 of those 3 will be the technical originators". I would agree with this comment, and it points to the need for these companies to be able to access, the commercial skills and resources to help them build there companies, but will not be able to as they do not have the financial resources to do so, if Scotland wants to generate jobs, and see us getting out of this hole we are in there needs to be a rethink in how these start ups are financed and supported.
What is the answer, I am not sure, (But I have a few ideas), but unless we get it fixed soon, there will be a large attrition rate for these start ups, yes it is good to see Scottish innovation, but it will be better to see lower unemployment and more international Scottish companies.
The really interesting piece of information, but not from the Scotsman but one of the comments was that out of "111 companies employing, on average,3 people, at least 2 of those 3 will be the technical originators". I would agree with this comment, and it points to the need for these companies to be able to access, the commercial skills and resources to help them build there companies, but will not be able to as they do not have the financial resources to do so, if Scotland wants to generate jobs, and see us getting out of this hole we are in there needs to be a rethink in how these start ups are financed and supported.
What is the answer, I am not sure, (But I have a few ideas), but unless we get it fixed soon, there will be a large attrition rate for these start ups, yes it is good to see Scottish innovation, but it will be better to see lower unemployment and more international Scottish companies.
GW
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