The Startup Culture of Bristol

by Startacus Admin

Regular ‘Make Sunday Special’ events such as ‘A Park On Park Street’ are being run by young entrepreneurs in the city and being welcomed by the already successful traders on Park Street and local council people giving confidence to all that there is support out there, and a welcome attitude to change. Let’s experiment, do something different to everywhere else, and see how it works. So far it’s paying off and long may it continue to do so!

I often see Bristol as a mini-London, the ‘mini’ aspect of which gives it huge advantages. The fact that we are a smaller city, means that the degree of separation between people is lower making networks much more dynamic. The word ‘incestuous’ - in business terms - springs to mind when discovering more and more about how Bristol is intertwined. I don’t have the figures to back this wholly but from personal experience over 5 years of business, you never seem to be more than 2 people away from the person you’re trying to reach. I think it’s likely that the most struggling of entrepreneurs in the city has more potential to obtain a meeting with the most successful people, in Bristol, more than any other major city.

In running YENA, the social enterprise that I founded around a year ago that sees young entrepreneurial minded people attend events to grow their network, I have seen this happen for myself. the regularity of conversations that include the words “Oh yes I know him” and even “oh yeah, I’m working on a project with her at the moment” is so high that it seems that Bristol is almost one big business itself with multiple departments working to create success within it’s walls. !

Confidence built up over the past years thanks to the points aforementioned, have caused the young demographic to become desensitised to risk and so multiple ventures before seeing success are common. The ‘investor mindset’ has really taken ahold, even on myself, and is seeing people partner with multiple ventures, offering skills in return for shares, to see diversification in portfolios and delayed gratification but hopefully great return in the long term.

The future is bright for Bristol. The old money remains thanks to the internal love for the city, new money is arriving thanks to our reputation gaining more and more respect, young people are as enterprising as ever with the potential for the next ‘Brunel’s or even ‘Zuckerberg’s in our ranks. All of these factors plus many more really show that Bristol is the entrepreneurial heart of the South West and is rapidly becoming a contender for the UK’s version of San Francisco.

Written by Ash Phillips-  Why not pop over to Ash's social enterpise Young Entrepreneurs Networking Association to see what great things they are getting up to!

Its Bristol startup month here at Startacus.net- if you would like to give us your two pence worth email us iam@startacus.net.

If you like what you see here on Startacus, why not become a member of our growing community? It's free! And you'll get all this - exclusive access to our Business Toolkit, discounts and offers galore for your business via our member only business deals, the chance to network and connect with loads of fellow self-starters, and maybe even become our celebrated 'Self-Starter of the Week' and tell the world your startup tale! Join right here for free...

Subscribe to our newsletter

If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.

• #bristol startup
• #bristol
• #

Published on: 2nd June 2014