Hatch Enterprise UK

Under PPN 026, the new model for central government procurement, Social Value can now account for up to 20% of your total evaluation score. So a well-constructed social value commitment directly affects whether your bid wins or loses. Hatch Enterprise supports disabled founders to launch and grow businesses that create lasting change - giving you Procurement Act-aligned social value with the evidence to back it up. Enter your details below to request our social value brochure, which includes everything you need to make Hatch Enterprise your partner - from framework mapping and outcome data, to ready-to-use bid text.

Are you looking to strengthen your social value offer to secure your next public sector bid? Hatch Enterprise supports underrepresented founders to launch and grow businesses that create lasting change - giving you Procurement Act-aligned social value with the evidence to back it up. Enter your details below to request our social value brochure, which includes everything you need to make Hatch Enterprise your partner - from framework mapping and outcome data, to ready-to-use bid text.

Last week Deryl Thatcher (Walsh) MCIOF and I had the pleasure of attending the Election Court Banquet hosted by The Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs - a room full of people who share a belief in the power of entrepreneurship, many of whom have themselves had the courage to turn an idea into action. That courage is something I see every day in the founders we support at Hatch Enterprise UK. But what they don’t have is the network, the funding, the doors that open to opportunities. That’s the gap Hatch exists to close. Because we know that talent is everywhere, whilst opportunity isn’t. It’s also why I’m thrilled that this will be the fourth year working in partnership with the Company. This year, their support will go towards a new series of tailored masterclasses for our alumni community, helping founders continue to build their entrepreneurial leadership beyond their programme. A great partnership, to me, looks like a relationship that deepens year on year. A partnership that is responsive to the support founders actually need during those developmental stages of their entrepreneurial journey (a stage often completely overlooked despite its necessity in enabling underrepresented people to lead businesses in the first place) Thank you to the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs for your continued belief in us, and in our founders, as well as to everyone I met last week who listened to what we do with open minds and open hearts. 📸 The Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs © Jonathan Cherry

What makes employee volunteering an opportunity that a) provides genuine value and b) offers something your team actually wants to be a part of? These questions came up at eBay’s Changemaker Summit this week, where I represented Hatch Enterprise UK alongside Changemakers from across Europe - digging into what makes corporate and community partnerships genuinely work for our panel discussion alongside TERN - The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network and Age UK. A few insights stood out that ring true to how we deliver partnerships at Hatch: 1. Trust is what multiplies impact The partnerships that deliver real impact, for both the charity and the corporate team, are those built on trusting relationships over transactional volunteering days. When volunteers come back and back again (like many of ours do), it’s because they feel a personal connection between what they’ve been able to offer and the difference that’s made. 2. Skills shared beat hours delivered I’ve only worked at Hatch Enterprise for a few months, but an invaluable lesson I’ve learned is that underrepresented founders need the knowledge volunteering teams have in digestible, actionable ways. What this means in practice is volunteering opportunities that fit around both founders and employee teams busy schedules without compromising on outcomes. We often call our volunteers ‘Friendly Dragons’: experts who can use their specialised knowledge that founders couldn’t otherwise access. For them, our volunteering opportunities are some of the most meaningful (and genuinely enjoyable) professional development they’ll do all year. 3. Visible impact The proof of our enterprise support was plain to see at the summit too! With eBay’s lunch courtesy of South London-based Senegalese restaurant Little Baobab, whose founder Khadim Mane joined a Hatch programme back in 2024 and has since successfully diversified his business. Thank you to the eBay team and Tiana Austel for inviting Deryl Thatcher (Walsh) MCIOF and I to represent Hatch’s impact and insights at such a meaningful event alongside our third sector peers. If you’re looking for a charity partnership that your team will be excited to participate in - one with stories and outcomes you can point to and be proud of - I’d love to talk! https://lnkd.in/eiy9nymt

‘Female representation is about more than a specific woman who does or doesn’t get a job’ It’s about the gender data gap. Last month I finished reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez . I couldn’t put it down. It taught me that we’re 17% more likely to not make it through a car crash. It taught me that many of the medicines we take don’t work properly, and in some cases, do more harm, because they weren’t tested on us to begin with. (Apparently, women are ‘too complex’ and 'too expensive' for participation in medical studies.) It taught me that phones are too big for our hands, causing us injury. In fact, most modern technology isn’t built for women, like smart watches that are entirely built around a standardised male body, that can only accurately track calorie burn in men. We need better data to close the gender data gap. But women everywhere are already doing this work whilst institutions and researchers catch up, by building businesses that create that data. And more than this simply being a rant about how we need to back women in business, this is also a rant about how we need to back entrepreneurs who are… Black women Young women Older women Disabled women Working-class women Women going through the menopause (i could go on) This book has given me a much deeper appreciation for the fabulous founders I’ve had the pleasure to speak with throughout my time at Hatch Enterprise UK so far. The intersectionality of their identities is the only ‘evidence’ we need to make our 'investment' in them, because they have ideas that are ingenious, brilliant, and solve genuine problems for people overlooked in UK society because they’ve experienced those problems first hand. I think this quote from Perez sums up what I’m trying to say quite nicely: ‘There will be certain female needs men won’t think to cater for because they relate to experiences that men simply don’t have.’ If you want to be part of the better-world-building we’re busy creating at Hatch, please do get in touch.

Neurodivergent people experience the world around them differently, and we need to start paying attention. Last Tuesday, I was so grateful to attend the launch of Small Business Britain and Xero’s new report, Neurodiversity In Entrepreneurship in the UK. The event really brought the report to life, and I was incredibly moved by how each founder speaking to the room addressed the tribulations they face as neurodivergent entrepreneurs. They spoke about the additional load they carry, not only the challenges that come with neurodiversity but also the stigma of constantly feeling the need to advocate for themselves. The burden left on them to defend their needs and back themselves - all the time. The truth is that as long as there are people, and businesses, interacting with neurodivergent entrepreneurs in a way that assumes reasonable adjustments and alternative methods of communication as ‘ less than’ the norm, we’re not going to see the real potential of neurodiversity on innovation, business development and the economy. Every time we imply that a neurodivergent founder's ways of pitching, communicating, and thinking are wrong by refusing to embed accessible options by default, we put hidden strain on their confidence, capacity, and potential. And those implications build. And the energy needed to overcome them grows bigger. We want to see a future at Hatch Enterprise UK where the systems that support entrepreneurs are designed to enable everyone to put all their energy where it’s needed - into their businesses. Learn more about how you can support our work here: https://lnkd.in/exEZcTBz