Innovate UK continues to provide grants to innovative companies, and several Genies are already in receipt of Innovate UK grant funding. See here an earlier post on this from Kiran Bhagotra . For those that would like to apply and improve their chances of getting through the grading and selection process, Ian Tracey and his colleagues may be able to help.

"Innovate UK supports technology companies develop their technology through grants, typically between £100K to £2 million. (https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/search) For many companies when they look at these grants, they find them bewildering and opaque. Anchored In, founded by Ian & Anke, who both used to advise Innovate UK on grant programmes) run free grant writing workshops where they explain what innovate UK is looking to see in the grant application and share the required templates to help you build a compelling answer. Many companies find their free workshop tools all they need to complete a fundable application. 

They also offer an enhanced service, a grant review service, where your grant is assessed by three Innovate UK grant assessors prior to application. This is charged at £1 500, fraction of the cost of using a full service grant writer. Anchored In believes all companies should be able to tell a compelling story to investors, staff, customers, and now Innovate UK."

Ian is an old friend and I'd be delighted to make introductions if you like - or you're very welcome to approach him directly.

Genie  Adam Grainger runs Accomplish which is currently expanding, and he's considering blending GenieShares into his search for his next team member.

This could entail looking for his next hire in the conventional ways and then gifting them the equity on successful completion of the interview process

So Adam is curious how (and if) the two can be mixed together. For example, are there any ESOP plans that fellow genies have used that could be suitable to include the gift of 1% equity Simon Halberstam Richard Blakesley ? Might this fit with the Slicing Pie model Charles Radclyffe ? 

Suggestions and shared experiences very welcome!

We've received this invitation to Genie companies - WeWork are offering subsidies facilities...

Opportunity: partially sponsored premium work- and meeting space for startups for EISA entrepreneurs at WeWork Growth Campus
We’ve seen that during COVID-19, many of you have been forced to work from home and ended space memberships to save costs. When the world returns to work, you may be looking for a more flexible option for you and your team. We are working with the Labs team at WeWork who have launched a new £15M pledge to help startups bounce back from the pandemic, translating in partial space sponsorship for startups across the UK and with a main startup hub called the WeWork Growth Campus in London Aldwych House. This startup hub will provide a home for all ecosystem players under one roof, and welcomes startups, scale-ups, VCs, accelerators, and forward-looking corporates. Members get complimentary access to all WeWork buildings for free until June, and you can lock the subsidy in for a future start date. If this is of interest, apply here and the team will get in touch. You can read full details about the programme here, or in the recent news (Startups Magazine).

TechCrunch Editor at Large and friend of GenieShares Mike Butcher has an interesting question about carbon neutrality. He contacted me last week to ask how carbon neutrality could be "baked in" to GenieShares.

Genies - what are your stances on carbon neutrality - or negativity? Do you think we should make or encourage any commitments to carbon neutrality among Genies or among beneficiaries? Is there a useful way for GenieShares to support SDGs 12 and 13 - or is this beyond our remit?

Suggestions very welcome! Mark Milton Kiran Bhagotra Charles Radclyffe Adam Grainger Sean The EQ Commando Ravinol Chambers Tim Hart Marquesa Finch Neil Davy Adrian Wong Tom McCallum Jos Henson Grič Adie Holt Nick Page Paula Woodman Louis Barson  

Thanks Tom McCallum for introducing the multi-talented Tracey Rob Perera CA PMP FCMI who joins us today as a GenieShares mentor.

Tracey was a Director at KPMG responsible for no-deal Brexit planning, and is now active in the TLA and the Tech Talent Charter, with a passion for equality, diversity and inclusion and a particular focus helping younger people develop the skills they will need for the jobs of tomorrow. You can find out more about Tracey's background at https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyrobperera-ca/ - welcome aboard Tracey!

First, do no harm. Second, bring some magic!

I'm grateful to Paula Woodman , Dan Shah , Becky Schutt and David Knox at the British Council for their support in setting GenieShares in a broader context in contributing to the role of business in society.

Paula has shared this excellent report which explores the broad role of social trust in personal and community wellbeing, and presents 6 ways in which private corporations can reduce public trust.

Corporations, Business and Social Trust

The recommendations of the report encourage corporations to avoid creating these harms, and propose instead that regulatory, legal, governance and practical considerations should guide corporations not to undermine social trust.

The report is well worth reading as a guide to doing no harm. We can add to this by bringing some playfulness and showing that - in addition to doing no harm (and not as a substitute) - corporations can bring the prospect of shared goods and even ownership.

What do you think  Charles Radclyffe ,  Amber Ghaddar ,  Adam Grainger ,  Richard Blakesley ? 

Thanks to Amber Ghaddar for introducing Bridget Greenwood to GenieShares! Bridget runs The Bigger Pie promoting and highlighting the role of women in emerging tech, especially DLT/blockchain and crypto, where currently only 10% of roles are held by women.

Bridget told me about several of the key needs of female entrepreneurs and challenged me on whether and how GenieShares can help #womeninblockchain and #womenintech. I believe that we already provide these benefits, and would love to ask community members to comment on how we can improve the value of being a Genie for women (and for men too, highlighting if there are areas of different need).

Facilitated networking
Entrepreneurship can be lonely. GenieShares collects a group of people who have one thing in common - that they've agreed to share some of their success beyond their existing network. This common commitment is a form of "pay it forward" which is a characteristic of all GenieShares Genies and mentors, so collaboration and help among members of the community is common and increasing.

Traditionally, according to research by Ronald S Burt, women have suffered networking disadvantages as their networks "shape" reveal a higher level of closure and a lower level of brokerage than men. GenieShares is explicitly designed to increase both brokerage and closure for participating entrepreneurs.

Personally, my greatest pleasure from the growth of GenieShares so far has been seeing so many people I admire finding that they can collaborate and help each other out along the way! Part of my role is to help entrepreneurs ensure they're getting the most from the networking opportunities that they can create through GenieShares (see below).

Access to elite mentors
Over the last few months we've expanded the GenieShares community to welcome aboard an increasingly varied group of mentors. Many have expertise in specialist fields like law and tech, and others are business development and strategy experts. We're incredibly fortunate to have this growing mentor group, and I find that mentors are especially motivated to help entrepreneurs who have taken the GenieShares pledge to help others gain from growth - so recruiting top level mentors is a big part of our plans going into 2021!

Investor days
Access to capital is skewed on grounds of gender with less than 5% of early stage equity investment going to women-led businesses. There are already some investors among the mentors of GenieShares and we will continue to invite more investors to join the community. We are also talking to various investors about the benefit to them and their portfolio of investing in companies that are actively engaged in their communities, pointing to the dramatic sales growth (10x) in the first year following Peter Kelly 's trailblazing pledge.

Mastermind groups with peers
As the GenieShares network grows we will be able to do more in this direction. We already have specialist mentors who can and do convene ad hoc groups, and I will be pleased to work with anyone who would like to create mastermind or special interest groups to address particular issues.

Introductory coaching with me
I'm always keen to engage directly with new Genies and to help them form a plan for how to gain the most from their pledge. I will happily pledge a one-to-one session with each Genie to talk through how to use the pledge in marketing and business development, investor relations and in network development with other stakeholders including regulators and policymakers.

Having studied effective networking for over 10 years and having build and sold a fintech business I'm delighted to share what help I can, and also to make suggestions and introductions to other members of the community to make new Genies, mentors, sponsors and friends welcome here!

Amber Ghaddar is the first Genie to spread her magic beyond the UK, and we need help to find the best way to find her next shareholder.

Please share your thoughts and creative suggestions about how Amber's search for her new co-owner can to the most to highlight the challenges of reconstruction in Beirut, and invite into this discussion anyone and everyone who you would like to be involved!

Following the GenieShares meetup call this afternoon, this space is for healthcare innovation discussions. Please join  Kiran Bhagotra   Amber Ghaddar and  Marquesa Finch if you are involved in healthcare innovation, procurement, regulation etc. May be of interest  Antony Thompson   David Mclean   Sean The EQ Commando   Asim Amin .