Deep tech – Britain’s future in the diamond synchotron

Britain is good at innovation. From electric light to mobile telephony, from medical breakthroughs and the offside rule… as well as scifi fantasy like Blade Runner

I picked up yesterday on the Diamond Synchotron – Britain’s biggest scientific infrastructure investment for 40 years. Brilliantly futuristic name and major investment by some obviously brilliant British pioneers…

  

This fabulous looking facility can create light that’s 10 billion times brighter than the sun. It will keep us at the forefront of research in medicine, genetics, environment and materials.

Great for Britain; great for Oxford and environs; one of those slow-burn investments that will keep cropping up creating world class impact again and again. I am sure I’m not the only one applauding some real deep science and great British visionary investment in experimentation.

Call to arms – from Luke Johnson

Luke Johnson writes extremely well about the emotions of business, the entrepreneur’s mindset and the value of capitalism to society.

Check out his latest piece in today’s FT. 

Click here.

I like the sound of: ‘Next year, the British government will be rushed in an electoral landslide of epic proportions, partly because it absolutely does not understand how entrepreneurs think or what they do’.

Not sure the opposition really have their act together yet to give Gordon a good bloody nose.

Find Luke here:

Recession Graph 4 – Bathtub

Optimism required here. Previous posts have called the shape of this recession and economic activity as flat lines off an ‘L’ or wonky lightning. An analyst from UBS sees an uptick. In 2011 or 2012.

Meantime, we’re on the slope of a bath going down to the plug hole. We’re skirting the bumps of the plughole… flat, drop, swirl, clunk up, swirl, clunk up, crawl out, gradual ascent, Olympic climb up the back and out.

And, with reference to my previous post – amazing what you can find on Flickr… dead cat in the bath:

And, for those who want to start to explore Flickr’s photo library… this might tickle you… on a bathtub theme… here. (Which reminds me of a funny internet etiquette story, because some guys recently employed a German student as an intern and she thanked them, giving them a Flickr reference which put her demure nature in a whole new light. Do they ask her to return next summer? Where do they put their eyes)!

Cash, customers, confidence – EnterpriseNation.com forecasts

Enterprisenation.com has built a massive following by focusing on the Home Worker. They predict that 8 million people will, this year, do some kind of business from their home. That’s a big thing. 

But, I’m thinking… these businesses are all small, lifestyle businesses. 

At tonight’s EnterpriseNation launch of forecasts for 2009, I meet the founders of Balineum – a luxy bathroom furnishing specialist. Well, I’m thinking… that’s gotta be hit by the crunch. And, it’s gotta be tiny and lifestyle-y. And, surely, they’ve got to be thinking Bedrooms next, then Kitchens.

But, no.

And, here’s the punch. It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be (see book on subject). I know this from the book – but I’m knocked out by Sarah and Anneli who remind me that Zara was founded by a guy selling towels from his house 25 years ago and it’s now the biggest clothing retailer in the world. That’s me told to be small minded!

It’s chutzpah that grows businesses. Drive, energy, ambition.

They draw me in to the world of Turkish towels. Simple product. Not too expensive.I like this. But a splash of luxury amid the gloom of recession. For £45, I can buy an Anatolian sheet. Standard towels are 600 grams per metre, but Balineum’s are 820.

Wryly, I’m even told it’s the way to get laid: wife or girlfriend – if a boy buys an Anatolian sheet or two. 

So, I’ve got a feature and a benefit to take to bed with my wife for her birthday after a nice warm bath.

Here’s a pic I prepared earlier of my wife sporting her Anatolia mini… which convinces me that Balineum must be right:

(And… cash, customers, confidence – these are the key fundamentals to focus on for 2009)

Recession watch – things you can buy for £1

I was amused to see an article last week in Rupert Murdoch’s thelondonpaper entitled ‘Things you can buy for a pound’. Given the paper’s rivalry with Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail Group, owners of the Evening Standard, this may have been a dig.

Thelondonpaper points to edible g-strings, lottery tickets and Ryanair flights. It didn’t headline it, but it did point out that a Russian oligarch has bought the whole of the Evening Standard for £1.

Graham Norton had a gag in this vein about their office secret santa presents – the limit was £5 and he managed to buy a whole street in Bradford for his PA for £4.99. He was surprised and delighted that she returned the favour and bought him the whole of the Woolworths chain for £1!

I gather you can take your pick these days of regional newspapers, buy-to-let blocks, premiership football clubs, bust dot.coms, mid-market fashion chains, gift shops, car dealerships, Michelin star restaurants and anything that’s been in a sector that got a bit frothy over the Noughties.

But, wait, the government will soon be paying you to take businesses off their hands: car manufacturers, steel firms, coal mines… My prediction that 2009 would be the year for the vulture is coming true. But, vultures are naturally lazy. Don’t jump off your perch just yet because things have got a way to go. Double L

VC Balderton raises $430million for start-ups

The guys behind Betfair, Setanta, Bebo have raised fresh capital. What a great time to be in the funds – and a mark of quality that these guys can raise money in the teeth of the crunch.

See Techcrunch comments on the European ‘Big Five’ - Balderton, Accel, Atlas, Wellington and Index Ventures- and I picked up on Fred Destin’s blog thoughts too.

Venturesome Economy – the secret of innovation

Was recently reading an interesting book review in the FT of a book called The Venturesome Economy - How innovation sustains prosperity in a more connected World, by Amar Bhide.

The thesis is well worn – that innovation will keep developed economies like the US and UK ahead of the marching hoards of the BRIC economies.

I’ve been quaking that India and China are each spitting out a million MBAs per annum and thinking that my kids will not have any hope in the 2020s because our world will be overrun by the brainboxes of the emerging nations.

Good news for them! And, it chimes with intuitive thoughts I’ve had about our more developed marketplaces… it’s not necessarily the innovation that has kept our economies ahead, it’s the fact that our consumers are more willing to embrace new technology and this ‘venturesome consumption’ which drives the market, which drives the innovators, which drive the economy.

So, here’s to the early adopters of the bleedingly trendy. Here’s to Tweeters on Twitter… to flashmobs, to Huddle, to Six to Start, to Oil Productions, to Velo Agency… to nonsensical fashions in Hoxton, or crazy artists in the Tea Building… it all adds up to a vibrant marketplace that tests, filters, champions.

And, creates progress. And prosperity.

 

Another blog post picks up the topic here. Saying stuff that I’d pick up – on the public policy context for innovation… should government help start-ups at all? which ones – the big near-successes or the myriad of small/risky?:

The Venturesome Economy

Amar Bhide channels Austan Goolsbee when he writes:

[...] there is little evidence of an “undersupply” or a need for public policies to stimulate the production of more high-level know-how or to subsidize the training of more homegrown scientists and engineers. Rather, given the realities of modern innovation, there is a good argument for reversing policy biases against the development – and even more importantly – the effective use of mid- and ground-level innovations. Public policies should stop trying to rob mid- and ground-level Peters to pay high-level Pauls.

Next Big Thing – Reinvent yourself

Everyone’s got to do it. The Credit Crunch has changed all the rules. You need to reinvent yourself, because those old Pre-Crunch formulas just aren’t adding up.

Ask an Estate Agent. He got hit by the Tsunami first.

Tips from me below?

- Hold hands: As always in life, things seem alot rosier if you have someone who will hold your hand. This is a thread you can input to. I’ll feel less lonely if you can add your own comments. 

- Get a blog and all the cyber-tools (Delicious? LinkedIn? Feedburner? Twitter?). Don’t be slave to them, but realise that all the tools are gaining profile for a reason. Know your reason.

- Get out more: meet people you respect most, tell them your truths and ask them to recommend other people that you should speak to (cf Theory of the Strength of Weak Ties)

- Don’t worry about money, worry about being digital. Dubai, Russia, Brazil, India, China… the talk is that these markets (and what Martin Sorrell called ‘The Next Eleven’ on Radio 4 this morn)… they are emerging markets. But, the new big superpower is the digital continent. You don’t have to upsticks to stake your claim. (I’m blogging this wirelessly from The Diner

- Don’t get too clever. Stick to what you know. With the world’s foundations shaking, you need to get onto safe ground. There’s no better moment in a conversation, for me, than watching someone hit their sweet spot. The thing they feel passionate about. The topic where they lose their inhibitions and self-consciousness – and just spout their expertise. They don’t need your input and won’t be knocked off the track. Because they know they know best. Go there. And take it online. (or to Dubai – whichever you think is least extreme).

- Be a mongrel. Cross pollinate the things you are passionate about. Don’t start in anything that isn’t your comfort zone. Port in a storm. Better the devil you know. Cliches in a recession.

- Be happy. Downshift your expectations of yourself. Look for ways to pat yourself on the back. One pat and you can treat yourself to chocolates or downtime. Two pats and you take the rest of the afternoon off. Happiness is contagious. More contagious than money or love.

- Read history books. In good times, fortunes are made. In bad times, empires. Remember, the hard times are the making of people. Austerity measures are good for the soul. The journey is the reward. (And, there’s nothing new under the sun – so work out what history book to rip off for the ‘next phase’).

- Ignore as much as possible. Sit in your comfort zone and say ‘F*** it‘ to everyone’s silly alternative ideas or the host of bad news out there. In fact, there’s a book on the subject to go along with it. See here. Sent to me by my friend’s yoga teacher, the author. Now sitting on a hill in Italy with two fingers up at his old London adland life.

- Surf the web. In my first attempt to find ‘F*** it’, the book. I found FuckItAll.com. Opens your mind. A bit.

- Back winners. The cream will rise to the top. Because it takes a devil-may-care attitude to troubles. It doesn’t feel risky to be jumping into things that you know well. Go with your gut feel. Take that leap.

Castaway – First night storming success

My quest for the Next Big Thing followed a hunch that a blog isn’t the only modern outreach tool. Beer and peanuts are modern too – ‘cept we call it ‘networking’ and it doesn’t hurt to do more of it when it’s a really great crowd.

Thanks to Big Al’s Creative Emporium, I got a venue in Soho to host a salon for ad veterans, web gurus, PR maestros, media experts, private equity hacks, design gods and widget warriors. A feisty combination of some 30+ real UK industry seniors and a solid kernel for Castaway2, 3, 4…

The connections were really popping – but modesty, exclusivity and privacy forbid me from naming names without your permission. 

The conversation was wide ranging… the need for us all to have our very own Digital Personal Trainer to max the benefit of new online tools; the Google OpenAd model; stories of growth amidst the looming recession; Diigo vs Delicious; the perfect tweed for a 21st century cycling suit (I kid you not)…

Fellow castaways, can you scribble down in the ‘Comments’ section some of the other lines of conversation to share with the rest of the world? Pretty please – and not just Oli Barrett.

I’m now working on AllofUs to host Castaway2 (Sept 24?) and Fortune Cookie to host Castaway3 (Nov 19?). Mail me if you’re interested, especially you folks on the Digital Magic Roundabout in Widgetland EC2- moo.com, skimbit, techlightenment, techcrunch, dopplr, trampoline systems, redmonk, songkick… twould be nice to meet you.

BT acquires Ribbit platform to take on Skype?

I’ve watched everyone blog about Cuil this week – taking on Google from Ireland. Flash in the pan?

Bigger UK news of a BT $100m acquisition seems to have gone under the UK blog radar. The blog ReadWriteWeb has 229,000 RSS readers and covered the fascinating story of Ribbit, an open source app allowing users to put a ‘call me’ button on their website and get an instant call centre hook-up. Not a call to a phone, but to your computer skype-like. Cool or what?! (well, that’s how I’m understanding it at first glance… over ReadWriteWeb’s post on the deal.)

TechCrunch blogged it here… they claim that Ribbit has given a ten-fold return to the investors who put in £13m some two and a half years ago. Nice work for VCs Allegis Capital, KPG Ventures and Alsop Louie Ventures!

The interesting case study to explain Ribbit is that you could, for instance, put together a page with a list of hotels for your holiday plans, or your wedding… and instead of clicking thru hypertext to the website, you could click straight thru to make a call to reservations. Neat.

All part of that trend I referenced earlier (Greycroft VC etc) of big tech-media-telecom firms trying to buy the right widgets to leapfrog into the future.