1. Don’t Just Start Up - Scale Up
SILICON VALLEY COMES TO THE UK 2012
“First mover advantage doesn’t go to the company that starts up,
it goes to the company that scales up.” - Reid Hoffman/Linkedin Co-Founder
London & Cambridge, UK, 29 October 2012 – ‘Don’t Just Start Up - Scale Up’ is the theme of
this year’s Silicon Valley Comes to the UK 2012, taking place 14-16th November. Aimed at helping
to support the growth of the next multi-billion-pound companies in Europe, this year’s SVC2UK
programme seeks to tackle the challenges of creating the mindset and conditions required for
businesses to grow into global winners by focusing on a wide range of stake-holders in the UK
including secondary school students, university students, first-time CEOs, serial entrepreneurs,
academics, angels and VC investors.
SVC2UK 2012 brings leaders from companies such as Google, Linkedin, Facebook, Care.com, and
Edmodo to the UK with the singular goal of inspiring us to think big for ourselves and for the economy.
In the last six years, the top 6% of high-growth firms generated over half of the new jobs in the UK -
showing the huge impact scaled businesses have on the economy. In the past year, Cambridge’s top
companies grew their employees by 23% on average and their revenues by 17.6%.
SVC2UK 2012 includes 35 events that run concurrently in 12 cities across 6 countries to inspire more
than 6,500 attendees. The activities, which include mentoring, coaching, workshops, competitions,
masterclasses, lectures, dinners take place at venues such as The House of Commons, University of
Cambridge, Tech City and a variety of schools. In addition, there will be special sessions on scaling-up
two of the most promising sectors: MedTech and EdTech.
SVC2UK 2012 will also see the launch of a service to help the plethora of hypergrowth businesses in
Cambridge do business more easily with professionals around the world and to attract top talent. This
service reveals which companies are growing the fastest and have the most potential. It shows what
a powerhouse this 50 year-old cluster is for the economy with a critical mass of ‘scaling companies’.
The top 50 companies in Cambridge grew their revenue by £1.3 bn last year, (from £6.1 bn to £7.4
bn) an impressive hike of 17.6%. The same 50 companies also grew their employment by 4,164 (from
24,192 to 28, 356) by 14.7%. The 50 companies that hired the most took on 23.2% more staff on
average (grew from 19,536 to 25,437).

2. The UK’s scale-up rate per capita is estimated to be less than half that of the US according to last
year’s SVC2UK research that was prepared by Entrepreneur First and Mckinsey. Sherry Coutu,
SVC2UK co-chair, says: “This is a dismaying statistic, and one that SVC2UK hopes to work with
stakeholders to help the UK overcome. SVC2UK wants to help governments, universities, companies
and students recognise what it takes to create world-beating multi-billion pound companies. The UK
was featured in the world spotlight twice in 2012 ,inspiring a generation of sports people, and we hope
that SVC2UK 2012 will help put the UK in the spotlight again; this time for inspiring and supporting the
next generation of ambitious and capable entrepreneurs.” END
Media Enquiries
Cordelia Meacher, cordelia@fieldhouseassociates.com +44 (0) 7531364312