Yesterday, we officially launched Tech Climbers in Yorkshire at Department Leeds Dock. The event was attended by over 80 individuals from around (and outside of) the county. Beginning and ending with founder-advisor networking, and including two insightful panels in between, the event brought together start-ups, scaled businesses, partners and key stakeholders to celebrate the fast-growing industry and begin to tell Yorkshire’s story on a regional level.
Yorkshire’s digital industry is the fastest growing in the UK – it’s set to create an extra 42,000 digital tech jobs and grow by at least £1.6bn by 2025. For this reason, we decided to expand upon our successful Leeds City Region campaign in 2022 year and over Tech Climbers up to the whole county.
The event was split into two panels – our advisory panel and the founder panel. Check out some key learnings and quotes from the morning.
The advisor panel
Our advisory panel was made up of key figures within the advisory space, including Gareth Lynton Jones from accountancy firm BDO, Connie Smith, an Investment Analyst at asset management company Mercia, and Johnathan Pollard from legal firm Ward Hadaway. Each spoke about the opportunity for collaboration and recognition ahead of the county’s tech industry. Johnathan praised the region specifically, saying “Yorkshire’s tech sector has grown over recent years and is an expanding presence. You can definitely see the ambitious businesses and entrepreneurial spirit that is out there.”
He continued, “The key thing for Yorkshire is the huge collaboration between businesses, entrepreneurs and organisations that are there to support businesses as they scale. This needs to continue to flourish to help the sector grow.”
The panel also offered funding advice and outlined how they’d be able to support entrants in the process.
A key piece of guidance from Connie Smith of Mercia was around honesty: “Be realistic and be open about problems. Trying to hide things will never go down well, so be upfront about any issues and someone will be able to help you.”, she said.
The rapid growth of Yorkshire is grabbing the attention of investors on a regional level, and Gareth brought this to the room’s attention: “London is looking at Yorkshire with great interest. They recognise the potential value here. Don’t be deterred if it is a London investor who comes knocking about your business, because potentially it’s a great opportunity.”
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The founder panel
Rev Murugesan, the founder of Antonym, Sam Nicholson, managing director of Equinox, Zandra Moore, CEO and co-founder of Panintelligence and Alex Craven, co-founder of The Data City, made up our panel of successful founders from within the region.
They each shared their growth experiences, offering some advice around subjects like IP. Alex Craven said: “The key to protecting our IP is to constantly innovate, so by the time anyone has worked out what we’re doing, we’re already 6 months in the future.”
The panel undoubtedly had a lot of love for the region. From collaboration to the surrounding universities, there are lots of reasons to build roots in Yorkshire. Zandra explained: “There are some brilliant leaders in the city (Leeds) that are working together very collaboratively to ensure we’re shouting about what we’re good at on a local and national scale. It’s really making a difference.”
Rev Murugesan explained how he based his business in Leeds rather than London or the West Coast of America because of the area’s links with universities: “Leeds provides access to STEM talent. We have 12 universities across Yorkshire. We’ve been blessed with a great talent pool.”
Plus, Sam Nicholson gave a shining example of how businesses can go global from the region, saying: “We currently supply Australia at the moment straight from our base in Leeds. The modern age, modern infrastructure and modern solutions make it realistic to have ambitious growth plans in the region.”
However, they didn’t shy away from highlighting areas for improvement either. From 0.1% of all capital raised going to female-founded enterprises in the North of England to Leeds being the biggest northern city in Europe without a mass transport system, there are still some fundamental challenges that the region needs to overcome. However, Zandra closed the session with some positivity: “Okay, there are problems in the region. Sometimes you can look at all the barriers in defeat, but if you are passionate about something, you just need to ignore them and just do it.”
What next for our campaign? Entries are open!
Are you a trailblazing, IP-led business within Yorkshire and do you want to make this year’s Tech Climber list? Entries and nominations are now open for Yorkshire businesses. Head to our entry page where you’ll find our criteria and submission form.
Enter today >
