Features

Your startup’s story isn’t just a pitch, it’s the playbook for how you attract customers, talent, and investors. Here’s how to tell a story that sells your vision as much as your product.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 posed unprecedented challenges to the nation’s startup ecosystem. Yet, against all odds, Ukrainian entrepreneurs have demonstrated remarkable resilience and innovation. From navigating funding shortages to adapting business models and entering international markets, Ukrainian startups have not only survived but thrived.

We’re living in a moment when technology cycles no longer stretch across decades, they compress into single-digit years. Cloud went mainstream in less than a generation, mobile rewrote consumer behaviour almost overnight, and generative AI stormed the enterprise in record time. But speed hasn’t equalled success. Scratch beneath the headlines and a sobering fact emerges: according to MIT, 95% of enterprise GenAI initiatives have yet to deliver measurable impact.

I spent eight years working for a small British manufacturer in Oxfordshire. The sort of outfit that, like so many brilliant UK manufacturers, makes astonishing kit in an unassuming shed tucked away in the beautiful countryside. I’ve lost count of the number of days I’ve watched vanish: chasing a work order hidden in someone’s desk, sitting in a meeting that should have been an email, or typing the same numbers into two systems that hate each other. So I started Mithryl with a goal to turn that chaos into usable knowledge and give teams their time back.

In just over a year, AI funding went from explosive to cautious optimism. After the staggering $108 billion poured into AI startups in 2024, 2025 has shown the emergence of a new pattern.

Enterprise AI is facing a severe reality check. Amidst a massive rush of investment, a recent MIT study has delivered a sobering finding: 95% of corporate generative AI pilots are failing to progress to scaled adoption and deliver measurable financial returns.

UK SMEs say specific Government initiatives designed to help them survive and grow don’t go far enough, according to new research from Bibby Financial Services (BFS).

America is the land of promise for many small British businesses. The population is generally fairly well off and there’s almost five times as many people as there are in this country. The potential to sell many more of your products and services there is enormous.

In Germany, physics curricula include almost no breadth requirements; students take only physics or closely related courses. In my cohort, entrepreneurship wasn’t presented as an option at all. Where university spin-outs do occur, they frequently address extremely narrow problems. These observations reflect a broader European issue: cultural and structural barriers discourage technical talent from founding companies and from working on actual problems that scale.

In a tough economic climate, we hear a lot about ‘productivity’, often reduced to a statistical measurement associated with the economic output of a country or region. Because of their relatively small size, mathematically, startups don’t contribute significantly to the macroeconomic productivity figures.

Any business in the startup phase is under immense pressure. Limited budgets, high expectations, and the relentless pace of early growth can put pressure on every function of the business – particularly marketing. So the recent explosion of AI, promising automation, scale, and cost reduction, has left many founders wondering whether AI can take the place of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) within their business?

With the Government’s new Growth and Skills Levy on the horizon, the way small businesses access training and upskilling is set to change. At a time when skills shortages are biting hard and business owners need straightforward, affordable ways to develop their people, this reform is a chance to get things right for SMEs, which make up 99% of the UK’s business community.

For most startups, the Cloud is not optional. It’s the backbone of rapid experimentation, product iteration, and go-to-market execution. Platforms like AWS make it possible to launch with minimal upfront investment and scale globally in a matter of weeks. But while the Cloud lowers barriers, it also introduces complexity.

Intangible assets, particularly intellectual property (IP), now constitute a significant portion – around 90% – of the S&P 500’s market value. This is a substantial increase from the 32% seen in 1985. Nevertheless, the importance of these assets is still often underestimated and overlooked by management and market participants.

Just a few days ago, a conversation with a seed-stage startup revealed how a CEO snapped during a call and let emotions take over. It wasn’t a discussion about downsizing, pivoting, or negotiating with investors, nothing that could justify an aggressive reaction. It was a routine meeting on quarterly goals that suddenly went wrong, leaving the team disbalanced, demotivated, and somewhat lost.

The AI talent war is here. The majority of executives (68%) report that the skills gap within their organisations is moderate to severe. The current AI tech job landscape is uneven and competitive, prompting firms to discover new tech hubs for sourcing AI expertise.

Burnout has become a silent epidemic in modern workplaces. Leaders across every sector are seeing rising absenteeism, falling engagement, and talented employees walking out the door, often without any warning signs.

As founders, our personal resilience is the foundation on which everything else is built. In the early stages of a startup, you are your brand. Your energy, attitude, and clarity directly influence the culture, direction, and ultimately the success of your business. That’s why taking care of your mental wellbeing isn’t just a personal priority – it’s a business strategy that requires an investment of your time.

Great businesses don’t begin with balance sheets, boardrooms, or venture capital. They start with an idea – often a small, simple spark of inspiration that grows into something significant through determination, discipline and persistence. The journey from idea to product is rarely glamorous or straightforward. It’s messy, relentless and sometimes unforgiving. Yet when tackled with clarity and courage, it becomes one of the most rewarding adventures an entrepreneur can undertake.