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THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPARK By Gary Chown ACIB MCIBS - Chartered Banker Director Commercial Banking NatWest Bank Gary.Chown@natwest.com
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he hunt is on to find Brighton and Hove’s most exciting new businesses as Entrepreneurial Spark, the world’s largest free business accelerator, powered by NatWest, rolls into Brighton this summer. With a vision to generate positive social change through the action of entrepreneuring, the pioneering Entrepreneurial Spark, is now open for applications for up to 80 entrepreneurs to join their Brighton accelerator, or ‘Hatchery’, which opens its doors in August in NatWest premises at 149 Preston Rd in Brighton. The completely free ‘enablement programme’ sees entrepreneurs, or ‘chiclets’, based in the Hatchery as they undergo six months of intensive support, as well as benefiting from essential start-up necessities such as superfast broadband, office space and telephones and potentially a further 12 months focus on the business itself. Entrepreneurial Spark, has been drawn to the story of Brighton and its incredibly vibrant culture, creative industry excellence and innovative thinking.
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Merging the city’s ethos and Entrepreneurial Spark’s ‘secret sauce’, CEO Jim Duffy is
“This is a superb opportunity for budding entrepreneurs and those who have just started on their journey in Brighton and the South East to access some first-class support” expecting big things: “Brighton is undoubtedly a very happening place with an excellent culture
and mindset. What marks out Entrepreneurial Spark is that we focus on the person, not just the business, and ensure their behaviours are complementary to achieving success, and we do this all for free. That is our secret sauce, which has seen us support over 350 businesses with a turnover of £41m in 2014. Bringing together that secret sauce and Brighton’s culture, we can’t wait to see what we can accomplish in Brighton.” The highly successful business accelerator, founded in 2012, has six other hubs across the UK to date. It has announced plans to set up a further four hubs across the UK after securing multi-million pound backing from RBS and NatWest. Tim Boag, Regional MD London and South East, commented: “This is a superb opportunity for budding entrepreneurs and those who have just started on their journey in Brighton and the South East to access some first-class support. The successful applicants will get to work in a collaborative atmosphere in our Preston Road offices and will