Individual capitalism is the force that will shape the 21st century.
This bold and, given the current global economic pessimism, rather sanguine statement came from the lips of Julie Meyer, serial entrepreneur and tech investor, at this week’s Entrepreneur Country event in London.
Julie’s investment and advisory firm Ariadne Capital has a history of backing highly successful and promising tech and internet companies. Its past and present portfolio includes the likes of Skype, Zopa, Monitise and Spinvox. Working so closely with such an impressive assortment of innovative, entrepreneurial companies it’s little wonder Julie’s optimism continues to stare the prospect of economic downturn in the face without blinking.
Here at Startups we’ve advocated many a time that recession breeds innovation, and out of the ashes of economic uncertainty come refreshing business propositions. Julie’s statement hammered that point home with a vengeance.
The Ariadne Capital event was used to launch the Entrepreneur Country manifesto, which consists of 15 core beliefs regarding the nature and significance of entrepreneurship.
Among other things, the Entrepreneur Country collective believes:
- That no real, sustainable wealth creation through entrepreneurship ever owed its success to government, and;
- That the triple play of the internet, entrepreneurship and individual capitalism is an unstoppable force around the world
To put it another way, whether Mervyn King and his chums drop or add a quarter percentage point on the first Thursday of every month is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Likewise, Darling’s subsidies or tax hikes are not enough to stop a good idea in its tracks.
The internet has allowed the micro-enterprise to reign supreme. While the conglomerates tighten their belts and ride out the storm by writing the redundancy cheques, the eBay entrepreneur rubs his hands together with glee.
In the future, everyone will be an entrepreneur for fifteen minutes. Discuss.
