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The Yorks

The Duke of York used the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ in forming Pitch@Palace

Earlier this year, The Duke of York launched Pitch@Palace 3.0, the third version of his entrepreneurial endeavour that focuses on Technology within the Creative Industries. His Royal Highness, who was in Cambridge to launch the new Entrepreneurship Centre of which he is patron, spoke to Cambridge News about Pitch@Palace in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

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“It’s dead simple,” he said. “I felt that venture capital was not investing in early stage activity. It comes out of mitigating risk rather than looking at the individual and the idea, and accepting that the idea may change. I called in a few people from the venture capital world – yes, quite a few from Cambridge – the idea was for a member of the Royal Family to be an accelerant.”

Pitch@Palace invites 42 budding entrepreneurs to take part in events that will help them build their ideas into start-ups that are strong enough to grow into large businesses in the UK.

When asked about the unusual number of competitors, Prince Andrew said: “It’s from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I just needed to come up with a number.”

Indeed, in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams’ science-fiction novel, the number 42 is said to be the answer to life, the universe and everything. However, in the case of Pitch@Palace, 42 is just the initial number of participants. The Duke of York personally gets involved in whittling them down to just 14 young entrepreneurs. Those chosen take part in a boot camp before giving three-minute presentations to 350 to 400 potential investors who are invited to St James’s Palace.

“Pitch@Palace is an enabling device to bring small businesses and entrepreneurs in contact with these people,” Andrew added. “I take no cut. And they don’t always ask for money, sometimes it’s access they want. I have asked that every one of the 400 people who come make one follow-up with an entrepreneur; and some of these follow-ups go on late into the night.”

The logic behind this effort is to keep new and innovative businesses in the UK, rather than outsourcing them to Shanghai or Silicon Valley. According to The Duke, “In the US they think work, sleep work, whereas our entrepreneurs go from work to the pub, go to bed at 3am and get up again at 7, and this eat, sleep, play routine means they are all playing off each other.”

This year, the Pitch@Palace Awards were held on 23th March, coinciding with the birthday of Prince Andrew’s younger daughter, Princess Eugenie.

Featured photo credit: The Duke of York 2015

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