Better Business In Birmingham

Birmingham has been crowned the UK’s regional startup capital for the seventh year running, defying challenges to business confidence posed by the Coronavirus pandemic. As x+why open to doors to their newest development, Foundry, located in the heart of this bustling, multi-cultural and vibrant city, we explore some of the reasons why Bindley Place is fast becoming the most innovative hub in the UK.

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Top Talent

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An annual study from think-tank Centre for Entrepreneurs, the UK’s leading entrepreneurship foundation, has found that 18,394 new enterprises started life in the Birmingham throughout 2020, marking the highest volume of startups outside London - overall, the city saw a 26.8% uplift in business births from 2019.

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Amid the testing economic uncertainties of the last year, these latest figures demonstrate the robustness of the West Midlands’s creative and innovative entrepreneurial landscape. Despite the prevailing challenges faced by businesses, this year’s Coventry City of Culture programme and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games are set to inspire even more ambitious entrepreneurs to explore how the West Midlands can elevate their ideas to the next level.

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Recent additions to the region’s start-up scene include emerging industry leaders such as x+why member Too Good To Go, an app that lets you buy and collect this food - at a great price - so it gets eaten instead of thrown out. Connecting with a range of restaurants and cafes in the local area, their ‘magic bags’ are impacting the issue of food waste in a big way.

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Community Culture

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Birmingham is a hub for sustainability and growth, running events such as the Birmingham Tech Week - a scaler programme in the midlands that has played a vital role in supporting businesses progress on their digital transformation journeys, by helping individuals adapt, innovate and stay connected.

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The Innovation Birmingham campus is one of over 40 accelerators and incubators in the region dedicated to stimulating business births and supporting aspiring entrepreneurs to grow and scale ideas at pace.  This support has seen the West Midlands also emerge as a top destination for Scale-ups, with data from the ScaleUp Institute, recording 1750 Scale-ups across the region’s Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) in 2020.

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Home to the largest tech and digital industry cluster outside the capital, in the last year the West Midlands has welcomed a series of exclusive programmes to boost growth across these sectors. This includes a £1.3m Creative Scale Up programme funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and led by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), and a new peer-to-peer initiative from the region’s not-for-profit community organisation Birmingham Tech, designed to help 10 local tech companies ‘level up’.

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More Meaning

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As one of only two B Corporation certified companies in the area, spaces such as x+why walk the walk when it comes to promoting responsible business that looks at its impact on the wider community, and not just the bottom line. On a day to day basis within the space, this translates to things like a greater focus on holistic wellbeing and mental health.

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Foundry community manager Rebecca Dobie is always on site to make sure that our spaces are open and accessible to those seeking to create change, that members have all the tools and supplies they need, and most importantly - to ensure that everyone has a good time.

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With an extensive background of experience, our site teams focus on the social side as much as the business side, and make it easy for meaningful relationships to be fostered, whether that’s through an event, a spontaneous water cooler moment, over a members breakfast, or through a community outreach programme.

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We make sure the companies here are able to focus on work when they need to, while also catering to greater human needs on a personal level. We always celebrate and share the stories and successes of our members. Through our events, Meet the Member series, Whys Words Podcast and extensive social networks.

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Locally we’ve also collaborated with Birmingham artist Lucy M who’s injected some life into the space with her artistic inspiration. Internationally, x+why are proud to host members such as Forgotten Women, who transform the lives of vulnerable women through aid, opportunity and voice. We share their vision for a world where every woman is given the opportunity to live a life free from humiliation, poverty and abuse, and are free to preserve their dignity, health, well-being and economic independence.

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When it comes to protecting the environment, all our spaces are designed and managed to be as sustainable and ‘green’ as possible – from the chair you sit on, to the living roofs, and energy efficient lighting, and as a community our members are proud to be working towards 13 of the 17 UN sustainability Development Goals. We’re also working towards the coveted SKA Gold rating. From waste management, encouraging use of up-cycled materials and supply chain diligence, to ensuring fixtures and fittings meet the highest of environmental standards, the SKA is a great way of making sure that any fit out is performed as well as possible.

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We know that when we feel better, we do better. With many of us spending most of our lives at work, all of our spaces have been deliberately designed to counteract the burnout epidemic, and transform it into the breakthrough epidemic. Take a tour of our newest openings and see how we could help you grow better and not just bigger, today.

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Find Your New Home

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