Every time I visit London, I’m captivated by the energy of this incredible city. It still gives me the same sense of excitement and opportunity I felt back in 1971 — standing on Oxford Street at the opening of the first Virgin record shop.
A national postal strike threatened to bankrupt our mail-order record business, so we headed to the high street. It was a make-or-break moment for us, as we raced to find a suitable space and get the shopready in just a few days. I sorted the window display myself.
Luckily, it worked out. The money we made was reinvested into other business ideas. We bought a country estate in Oxfordshire called The Manor and turned it into a recording studio. The rest, as they say, is history. Virgin Records became the biggest independent record label in the world, signing bands like The Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols. Fast-forward a few decades and we grew into a global brand, with nearly 50 businesses across lots of different industries, serving 45 million customers worldwide.
London has evolved and changed over the years and is still a great place to do business. It’s well-connected to global markets, it’s well-positioned between time zones and has a thriving start-up sector. The city has got busier, but its vibrant culture and diversity still spark creativity and collaboration.
This is a city where anything can happen and any opportunity is worth pursuing. It’s where I dreamt up Virgin Atlantic while living on a canal boat in Little Venice; juggling changing nappies with answering the phone and hosting meetings. It’s where Virgin Galactic began, fittingly on Half Moon Street. We went on to name the road which leads up to Spaceport America, Half Moon Street too.
London is also where I had my fair shareof business failures and learned that a business is much more likely to succeed if it solves a real problem or improves the customer experience. That’s the beauty of starting a business from scratch. You can always retreat if it doesn’t work out.
Virgin has never forgotten about its London roots, which is why we launched a new hotel in Shoreditch complete with a rooftop pool and a “Hidden Grooves” listening bar — a lovely tribute to Virgin’s musical roots.
A hub for entrepreneurship
Over the decades, I’ve watched London become a hub for entrepreneurship.
While no one used the term “entrepreneur” 50 years ago, entrepreneurship is now more popular than ever. There’s a new generation coming through full of fresh ideas and big ambitions. It takes me right back to the early days of running Student magazine, cold-calling advertisers from a phone box with nothing but optimism and determination in my pocket.
It was that entrepreneurial spirit that led me to turning a crypt at St John’s Church, off Bayswater Road, into an office where we sat round and came up with a name for our new mail-order business — “Virgin”. I’ve always believed that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the economy and nowhere is this more visible than in London.
Supporting innovation
Of course, starting a business in the capital is not without its pressures and I’m well aware that not everyone shares my optimism.
Virgin StartUp released its “Founder Barometer” results today showing that even though half of founders are optimistic about their financial outlook, many are still worried their businesses might not survive the year ahead — 62 per cent also want to see greater support to help them access capital.
Having been in business for five decades, I’ve certainly shared these feelings at times. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing and I’ve had to make a lot of tough decisions along the way, such as selling Virgin Records to help keep Virgin Atlantic afloat. But what’s crucial is that founders are given the support to succeed, whether that’s through better access to funding, smarter regulation, or a genuine recognition of the pressure they face.
There’s no one-size-fits-all, but as we continue to live through unsettling times of global uncertainty, London should do all it can to create a nurturing environment for emerging entrepreneurs. We also need to do more to ensure London’s start-up community truly reflects the diversity of the city. Everyone deserves a shot at turning their ideas into reality. That means closing the investment gap for women-led businesses and those founded by black, Asian and other ethnic minority entrepreneurs. It also means better support for disabled and neurodiverse founders.
That’s why we’ve been running a free investment readiness programme across Greater London, called Empower 100, to specifically help under-represented founders take their businesses to the next level.
London’s entrepreneurial spirit isn’t going to be extinguished any time soon but it does need to be protected from global headwinds. Only then will founders have the confidence to say “screw it, let’s do it” and take the risk to build the businesses of tomorrow.
Richard Branson is an entrpreneur — for more on Virgin’s new Shoreditch hotel, visit virginhotels.com
