Last night in London, we celebrated Global Entrepreneur Week with the launch of our new Dell UK Centre for Entrepreneurs, which has been developed as part of Dell’s global focus to support entrepreneurs all over the world.
At the launch, our own Entrepreneur in Residence, Ingrid Vanderveldt welcomed a group of key press, entrepreneurs and industry influencers to share the success of the programme in the U.S. and how we’re looking to mirror that here with the Dell UK Centre for Entrepreneurs.
It’s been well documented that entrepreneurs are a key engine for job creation and growth; the good news is that we already have a thriving entrepreneurial community across the UK with over 200,000 companies founded so far this year. However, with many facing issues including access to finance and business growth, support from the private sector has become even more crucial – which is why we’ve launched the Dell UK Centre for Entrepreneurs. This initiative is our commitment to bringing together Dell senior leaders and high growth entrepreneurs to provide access to funding, mentoring and Dell’s technical expertise and world class infrastructure to help developing businesses grow and scale quickly, and includes five key programmes:
- The Dell Innovators Credit Fund, with up to £10million pounds available for high-growth entrepreneurs providing access to finance that will help spread the cost of technology encouraging innovation, speeding up routes to market, and fuelling job creation.
- The Dell Centre for Entrepreneur Advisory Council, a team of serial entrepreneurs and business owners who will meet quarterly to create a direct dialogue between Dell and the entrepreneurial community in the UK. I’m thrilled that Ingrid will be joining me as chair and we’ll be working together to appoint a UK Chair in the coming weeks, with additional members to follow.
- On 2nd December we’re opening the door to UK startups and offering two early stage businesses a chance to become Dell’s resident start-ups. The Startup-in-Residence competition will run until 14th of February, offering the winners free office space for a year, full technology solutions mentorship, advice and access to Dell’s professional networks and events.
- The Dell Founders Club, an exclusive group for UK based entrepreneurs who view technology as a critical backbone to their business, and who have immediate IT needs in order to scale quickly. Members will be able to network with other Founders Club members around the world and receive unparalleled access to the team inside Dell.
- Our Centre for Entrepreneurs Microsite & Community which has been designed to create an entrepreneurial community where start-ups can hear stories from other entrepreneurs on how to get access to resources and expertise and technology best practices
The Dell UK Centre for Entrepreneurs is only the beginning of what we’re trying to achieve. From our work with Ingrid one thing is crystal clear – in order to support entrepreneurs, you need a deep understanding of the issues they face every day. In the UK, we really want to ensure that we have this outside/in insight to inform where Dell can best play a role in entrepreneurial success. We’re not going to pretend we have all the answers, but we’ll do whatever we can to help UK entrepreneurs get their innovative ideas to market faster with technology, industry knowledge, mentorship and financing.
Stay tuned to find out more! Follow the conversation online: @DellCFEUK #DellCFE