1st February 2026.
Opening Reflection
I was born in Jamaica, in a place called Frankfield, in the parish of Clarendon. I came to this country when I was four years old, part of a wave of immigrants who believed the UK was a land of hope and opportunity.
Like many immigrants, my family faced trials and tribulations — prejudice, struggle, uncertainty. But I won’t deny this country gave me opportunities. It allowed me to build a life, a career, and eventually a business.
And yet, if I’m being completely honest, there are moments when I wonder what my life might have looked like if my parents had chosen the United States instead.
The American Obsession With Possibility
I have no doubt I would have faced prejudice in America too. That’s not the point. What I’ve always admired about the US is its culture of entrepreneurship.
America celebrates the entrepreneur. It relishes stories of people who rise from society’s dust heap and build something against the odds. Failure isn’t a stigma — it’s a badge of honour. Proof that you tried.
That culture is why America leads the world in innovation. This latest leap forward in AI could not have happened anywhere else. Only a country that tolerates — even encourages — failure can produce that level of progress.
Britain’s Problem With New Ideas
In the UK, and Europe more broadly, we are far less forgiving of failure. We celebrate heritage more than innovation. New ideas are viewed with suspicion. Anyone who operates outside the pack is quickly labelled difficult, antisocial, or mad.
We struggle to tolerate the upstart.
That cultural discomfort with disruption makes true innovation incredibly hard. The system simply isn’t built to nurture it — and nowhere is that more evident than in funding.
The Gentleman’s Club of Capital
The funding culture in the UK remains deeply conservative. It is still, in many ways, a gentleman’s club. Decision-makers trust what they recognise. They back familiar faces, familiar accents, familiar backgrounds.
Newness makes them nervous.
Rather than backing genuinely entrepreneurial ideas, many funders choose the tried and tested. Safe formulas. Predictable founders. Cautious bets. But when funders are cautious, innovation dies.
I’ve had numerous conversations with funders over the years, and I can say honestly that my experiences haven’t been good. What I’ve learned is that raising money is often less about the idea and more about speaking the language they want to hear.
The Language Barrier of Funding
I’m constantly staggered by who gets funded — and how much money is raised on what, to my mind, is mostly fluff. I take my hat off to them, because raising those sums is extraordinary.
But there’s a pattern. Corporate boys from investment banking find it much easier to raise capital. They understand the language. They know how to package ideas in a way that feels “safe” to investors.
If you don’t speak that language, you’re already at a disadvantage.
I’ll be honest — I’ve never really understood that language. And because of that, I’ve had to build my business largely through debt.
Running a business is hard enough. Running a business while managing debt makes it harder still. But in my view, the funding route can be even more dangerous.
The Dark Side of “Success”
I’ve spoken to many entrepreneurs who’ve “made it” — in the sense that they raised funding and sold their business. I don’t think I’ve ever met one who described the experience as happy.
The stories are often brutal. Dreams diluted. Control lost. Founders reduced to employees in the very businesses they created. Years of work melting down to nothing more than a job title.
For me, that would be a fate worse than death.
Is There Another Way?
So I ask this question genuinely:
Are there any initiative funders out there who aren’t part of the old model?
Are there American-style investors in the UK who understand that the greatest returns come from backing people willing to operate outside the playbook?
Because greatness has never come from caution.
It comes from boldness.
From defying convention.
From trusting people who don’t quite fit.
Closing Reflection
I envy our American cousins for many reasons, but mostly because they understand something fundamental: progress doesn’t come from preserving the past — it comes from challenging it.
If Britain wants to lead in innovation rather than admire it from afar, we need to rethink how we treat entrepreneurs, how we fund risk, and how we respond to failure.
Until then, many founders like me will continue to build the hard way — against the grain, without a safety net, driven not by approval, but by belief.
And sometimes, that has to be enough.
Onwards.
