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Expert advice offered to budding Bristol entrepreneurs and small business owners

SETsquared Business Acceleration has been asked to provide expert business mentoring support for the Bristol-leg of StartUp Britain’s summer bus tour of 14 UK’s entrepreneurial hot spots in a bid to celebrate, inspire and accelerate Britain’s start-up talent.

StartUp Britain is the major enterprise initiative for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs and throughout this August and September, the StartUp Britain bus tour’s aim is to encourage more people to start and grow their own business.

SETsquared is the enterprise collaboration between five universities: Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. It supports new businesses – both university spin-outs and from the wider community. Through its business incubation and acceleration centres, entrepreneurs can come and tap into services and accelerate the growth of their businesses. SETsquared has an excellent pedigree in providing support for high tech, high growth startups and step-up businesses. It currently supports over 250 early stage high-tech, high growth potential businesses, and 88% of its incubated companies are still in business three years on. At the Bristol centre alone, SETsquared have helped its members raise of over £53m investment funds in the last four years.

The bus will be visiting regional enterprise and innovation centres, as well as schools and universities. The tour kicks off in Bristol on Monday 22nd August 2011 at The PaintWorks Bristol, Bath Road, Bristol BS4 3EH, from 9am to 11.30am. Once budding Bristol entrepreneurs and small business owners are aboard the bus, SETsquared will be one of the selected business leaders, experts, entrepreneurs and small business authors offering business advice, speed mentoring and speed networking.

Nick Sturge, Centre Director, SETsquared, Bristol says: “It’s great that this tour kicks off in Bristol, one of the leading locations for technology companies in the UK. We are delighted to be offering expert mentoring support to Bristol’s up and coming talent.” 

Emma Jones, Co-founder and Interim Chief Executive of StartUp Britain, said: “We will be meeting with students and helping them turn ideas into ventures and we’ll be visiting employees moving from employment into self-employment. I look forward to welcoming hundreds of start-ups and small businesses on board!”

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Notes to editors:

About StartUp Britain

StartUp Britain aims to raise the profile of entrepreneurship and to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK. For further information on StartUp Britain please go to www.startupbritain.org

StartUp Britain
Lorna Bladen, [email protected]
Mobile: + 44 (0)7773 014995

About the SETsquared Partnership
localhost/setsquared-live
www.twitter.com/setsquared

The SETsquared Partnership is the enterprise collaboration of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey. Together, the universities employ 7,400 academic staff; earn nearly 10% of the UK’s higher education research budget; and produce 11% of all UK university patents.

The partnership has a 10-year track record of supporting companies through its business acceleration centres, which provide access to industry specialists, investors and experienced entrepreneurs. SETsquared currently supports over 250 early stage high-tech, high growth potential businesses, and 88% of its incubated companies are still in business three years on. In the past five years, nearly £0.75bn in investment funding has been raised by spin outs and incubated companies.

SETsquared supports student enterprise including an annual showcase and a global scholars program. It provides opportunities for industry to access academic ideas with commercial potential and seeks to promote the impact, economically and socially, of its institutions’ research and enterprise activities.

Further information:
Nick Daines, Lumen PR
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)115 8412109
Mobile: +44 (0)7958 534731

Bristol SETsquared Centre
Nick Sturge
[email protected]
Tel: +44 (0) 117 903 1100
Twitter: @SETsquared_Br