Croydon’s booming tech community needs to forge its own identity through innovation and flexibility not just copy the East London model if it is to succeed.
That was the message from leading technology entrepreneur Francois Mazoudier of Tech Leaders Capital, who are opening for business in Croydon.
Mr Mazoudier was taking part in the Innovate Croydon session at the Develop Croydon Conference, which posed the questions: ‘Can you plan for ground-up innovation?’ And ‘Do policies, visions and strategies help or hinder an entrepreneurial environment?’
Call for innovation: Francois Mazoudier
He told Croydon entrepreneurs in Fairfield Halls: “Do your own thing – do not try to do what Shoreditch has done.
“Do something greater… try things that have not been done. You never innovate or invent something successful by looking back.”
“A proponent of “removing doors, layers and hierarchy generally… because innovation generally comes from the street, it never comes from the top,” he added, saying the new tech firms need a more flexible business model, with short, flexible leases that allow young companies to grow and contract in the early years.
The Innovate Croydon panel at the Develop Croydon Conference
“We are seeing an acute shift in the way we live and work. I have been to ‘parties’ that actually were stand-up meetings with people with drinks in one hand and a mobile in the other, pitching each other and striking deals. So the way to rethink a tech city is to create a city that enjoys working.
He added: “The biggest wealth generation sector throughout the UK and Europe today is in technology. We are about building great companies and building our assets. And the very reason we have chosen Croydon is because it is the perfect space due to its infrastructure, its history and its revival, to create that weird new age fusion that you don’t find in the city, you don’t find in the suburbs, or even in Shoreditch.”
Mike Herd, executive director of the recently opened Sussex Innovation Centre, based at No 1 Croydon, said their approach was “slightly different”.
The centre works with people with ideas for a tech business from a variety of different backgrounds, not just the tech sector, and gives them the “confidence, support and information” to start, run and build a business. Using the resources of the University of Sussex, tech entrepreneurs are offered advice, mentoring and highly specified low cost office space.
Realising potential: Mike Herd of Sussex Innovation – Croydon
“Many entrepreneurs did not set out to run a business – they were driven by an idea” he explained.
“What we do is help them is take that idea and find out how to run a business in order to exploit and realise the potential of that idea.”
Mr Herd said he wanted to see “vertical science parks in Croydon” to provide the flexible work space that growing tech firms need.
“We need that flexibility from developers to find the right space – the next stage accommodation – to enable these tech companies to grow here,” he added. “Because if they don’t grow here they will grow somewhere else – they will move.”
Both Mr Mazoudier and Mr Herd agreed that getting corporates involved, to work with and fund innovation, often developing ideas for products that the new markets wanted and needed was an essential factor.
Growing business: Frank Mukahanana, founder of Quidcycle
Panellist Frank Mukahanana said the Innovation Centre offered invaluable help and flexible, low price office accommodation which will let Quidcycle, his fledgling ethical financial services company, grow from 15 staff to 30 in a year without having to move and take on a much bigger rent.
He had launched his business out of Croydon Business Venture’s premises at Weatherill House Business Centre and this year won the award for Tech Innovation at the Croydon Business Excellence Awards.
Juliette Morgan, the tech global lead for London, at Cushman and Wakefield commented: “The real estate industry isn’t really setup for growing companies so what we have seen is the rise of coworking spaces to fill that need.
“Where you get market fracture is when companies get stuck inside those highly serviced environments because they are actually paying more for them than for the cost of the rooms,” she said.
Environments for growth: Juliette Morgan
“It’s less about the physical environment and more about the leasing strategy.”
However she said that when it came to the physical environment developers need to consider: “Is there an independent retailer on the ground floor? Are there meeting spaces and use of the atrium as a public space to bring people out from behind their walls and their doors and have them meeting in these common areas? Is the building reformatible? Can you use it from 7am to 11pm? Is there a bar, is there an event space?
“All of these things will drive talent attraction and make it lettable to a tech company.”
Mr Mukahanana agreed that attracting the right kind of talent to the Croydon tech community was a “big issue.”
“One of the critical things for us is creating the environment to attract the right talent,” he added. “The office space at Sussex Innovation office space is ideal for us right now and they have done a great job there in a short period.”
Attracting talent: Visiting professor Simon Bridge
Professor Simon Bridge from Ulster University, who specialises in entrepreneurship, felt that making Croydon a place tech talent wanted to live in was key.
“People will start these sorts of businesses in the places they want to live,” he added.
“Also you need to allow people to explore ideas – you don’t have to fix on the final destination, that is what they will eventually discover. You also need central capital.”
Ms Morgan agreed, commenting: I think Jo Negrini’s presentation (click here) was really inspiring. Essentially what it is doing is telling talent there are people like you here.
“So more independent, creative, street level culture that is allowed to emerge will set that talent environment that we’re hearing about.
She added: “Informality – serious informality – is what you need. One of the things the successful tech hubs share is a very serious hybrid, high value things being done in an informal way. Bring that culture here and you have the currency to make it work.”
PHOTOS: IAN STRATTON – PHOTOGRAPHY365.COM
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