Nick Freer: Entrepreneurial ecosystem firing on all cylinders

Nick Freer is a founding director at the Freer Consultancy and Full Circle Partners. Picture: Stewart Attwood

Alas, my invitation was not related to my own entrepreneurial activity, more to do with the fact I write a regular column in this newspaper, one that usually ends up taking a look at the entrepreneurial ecosystem building in Scotland.

Not, I readily admit, because I am any kind of expert on entrepreneurial ecosystems. Now, the very affable Dr Ben Spigel at the University of Edinburgh Business School, there’s a guy who knows his apples when it comes to entrepreneurial ecosystems. I am not in Ben’s category, if truth be told I even have trouble pronouncing the word entrepreneurial. I guess, on the entrepreneurial apple count, I do spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs so I get to see and hear a lot when it comes to founders and CEOs. There are lots of good days, when we’re plotting and pushing positive stories – around growth, new products, acquisitions, hires or office openings. Then there are the tougher days, when the chips are down and it’s more about damage limitation or trying to keep things out of the press.

Over the last week, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a few more entrepreneurs. Each has made a big impression on me and slightly recalibrated my view of Scotland’s entrepreneurial scene.

At a Prince’s Trust Scotland dinner, hosted by hotelier James Thomson at Prestonfield House, Black Isle-born Siobhan Mackenzie talked about how she overcame major health issues to found an eponymous fashion business that combines innovative design with traditional craftsmanship to such good effect that her brand sells across the world, can be found on the rails of Bergdorf Goodman in New York and has been worn by Justin Bieber.

At the same dinner I sat next to a young, Prince’s Trust-supported founder who is just beginning as an entrepreneur. Freddie Spindler had some hard knocks growing up but dusted himself down to start Deadly Donuts and, in a clever but natural twist for a guy who has cooked in Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants, also offers more sophisticated non-doughnut tasting menus at the weekend. What’s different about the Prince’s Trust from other entrepreneurial support players is its mission to reach young people who face the biggest barriers to getting back into work. They also source mentors in the form of entrepreneurs who have been there and done it, which Freddie says can be as valuable as the financial support.

Scotland’s drinks industry goes from strength to strength this year – think of craft brewing giant BrewDog or its smaller social enterprise cousin Brewgooder – and it was great to hear Eden Mill co-founder Paul Miller speak at a St Aloysius College-run business networking event at the Glasgow Collective at the beginning of the week.

Paul Miller took something of a longer track to becoming an entrepreneur although it was, like his maturing whiskies at Eden Mill, time well spent. Stints at Molson Coors, then Glenmorangie, gestated this particular entrepreneur and with further international expansion in North America and China mapped out in 2018, the release of the first batches of malt whisky and a new distillery in the planning, Paul and Eden Mill’s stock are both on the rise. It was interesting to hear Paul talk about metrics other than volume of product shipped, including that average pay is higher for the female contingent at Eden Mill and that the average age of an Eden Mill staffer is 26.

At the very well attended Entrepreneurial Scotland Awards at SWG3 in Glasgow the set-up was refreshingly more Shoreditch fashion show than business awards dinner. Entrepreneurial Scotland chief executive Sandy Kennedy and team are striking up partnerships with some of Scotland’s most exciting companies and they are attracting members in their droves.

Nick Freer is founding director of the Freer Consultancy and Full Circle Partners