Start-Up Century: Why Everyone Is Becoming an Entrepreneur, and What Can Be Done to Help Them

A fresh look at the boom in entrepreneurship and start-ups - and how it’s changing the world of work.

Does it feel like everyone you know is thinking about starting a business? That’s because they are. In the last few years new businesses have been launched in record numbers, with more of us than ever deciding to go it alone or become entrepreneurs.

Fuelled by new technologies like artificial intelligence and automation, this trend is only just beginning, with traditional firms due to be automated in the same way that farms and factories were in the last few decades.

Start-Up Century explains why this shift is happening, and what it will mean to live in a world where most of us are self-employed, or work in small entrepreneurial endeavours. It details the entrepreneurial frontiers ahead of us, the opportunities to be seized, and products to be built in fields as diverse as robotics to healthcare, energy and construction. And it covers the many challenges that this new way of working presents, setting out ideas and policies to help us close the digital divide, make education relevant again, make our public services more innovative and inspire a new generation to build the solutions the world needs.

In the face of rapid changes to the way we work and the technologies available to us, Start-Up Century sets out an overwhelmingly positive view of how individuals and start-ups, not corporates, will solve the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Authored by James Wise, the venture capitalist and technology commentator, Start-Up Century is packed with personal tales and interviews with everyone from teenage side-hustlers to the CEOs of multi-billion-dollar successes. This is a book for every aspiring entrepreneur, and anyone interested in the policy changes needed to support them.

James Wise joined Balderton Capital in 2013. Since then, he has led Balderton’s investments in a number of sectors and geographies, with a specific focus on sustainability, productivity and healthtech. He sits as a board member and observer for multiple portfolio companies, including Sophia Genetics, Depop, Tibber and GoCardless, and has been involved in the sale of companies to Amazon, Epic Games and Elastic.