Startup businesses back the Conservatives

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/29/startup-businesses-back-the-conservatives

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Between us we founded, funded or run some of Britain’s most successful startups. Through the internet we serve your food, find your destination, send your money, book a taxi, identify a song you are hearing – and many other things besides. Our success has been the product of sleepless nights and days of hard work. Thanks to colleagues and customers we have started and grown great British businesses. But our success has also been helped by the government’s support. Key have been schemes to boost investment in startups, such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed EIS, which have created the best environment for venture capital in Europe; and the R&D tax credits and the Patent Box, which have helped make innovation pay. We want to see these schemes continue after May’s general election.

Related: Letter from 90 tech entrepreneurs praises Conservatives' industry support

Related: Feedback on the Tory tech entrepreneurs | Letters

Just as important as individual schemes has been the government’s attitude. It has enthusiastically supported startups, job-makers and innovators and the need to build a British culture of entrepreneurialism to rival America’s. Elsewhere in the world people are envious at how much support startups get in the UK. This Conservative-led government has given us wholehearted support and we are confident that it would continue to do so. It would be bad for jobs, bad for growth, and bad for innovation to change course. (All in a personal capacity)Adarsh Radia TelenomicsAdnan Ebrahim CarThrottleAlain Falys Yoyo WalletAlastair Lukies MonitiseAlastair Paterson Digital ShadowsAlex Francis LoveHolidays.comAlex Hoye Runway EastAlex Chesterman ZooplaAlex Asseily JawboneAlex Stephany Just ParkAlex Trewby DivideAlexandra Chong LuluAlick Varma OsperAmbarish Mitra BlipparAndrew Fisher ShazamAndrew McLoughlin HuddleAndy Phillipps ReevooAnthony Eskinazi JustParkArnaud Bertrand HousetripAurore Hochard TaskhubBejay Melunga Supa AcademyBen Whitaker MasabiBernhard Niesner BusuuBrent Hoberman Founders Forum, Made.com, Lastminute.comBret Akker LoveSpaceCharlie Muirhead RighsterChristopher Le Breton RolePointDale Murray Omega LogicDamien Kimmelman DuedilDaniela Cecilio ASAP54Dave Buttress Just EatDebbie Wosskow LoveHomeSwapDemetrios Zoppos OnefinestayEd Bussey Quill ContentEfe Cakarel MUBIEileen Burbidge Passion CapitalEmily Brooke BlazeEmma Sinclair Enterprise JungleEric Van Der Klej Level39Graham Bosher Tails.comGraham Cooke QubitHenry Freeman CrowdshedHermann Hauser AmadeusHolly Tucker NotonthehighstreetHusayn Kassai OnfidoIan Whitting TitaniaJack Tang Urban MassageJamie True WorkAngelJoanna Shields TechCityJonathan Gan WhichitJos White Notion CapitalJose Marin IG ExpansionJose Neves FarfetchJoshua March ConversocialJudith Clegg TakeoutKate Unsworth Kovert DesignsKathryn Parsons DecodedLisa Rodwell Wool and the GangLopo Champalimaud WahandaLuke Taylor DigitasLBiLuke Johnson Risk CapitalMarc Worth StylusMark Sebba Net-a-porterMartin Varsavsky FONMatthew Riley Daisy GroupMichael Camilleri-Ferrante BizzbyMichael Comish BlinkboxMichael Acton Smith Mind CandyMichael Ross eCommeraMorten Lund pitchXONicholas Russell WerepopupNick Halstead DataSiftNick D’Aloisio SummlyNick Hungerford NutmegNing Li Made.comPeter Ward WAYNPeter Williams Jack WillsRajeeb Dey Enternships.comRalph Simon MobiliumRhydian Lewis RatesetterRichard Moross MooRishi Chowdhury IncubusRoland Lamb RoliRon Zeghibe HailoRoss Bailey AppearHereRytis Vitkauskas YPlanSam Amrani CrowditShane Lake HungryhouseSimon Daniel Moixa Energy HoldingsSonali De Rycker AccelTaavet Hinrikus TransferwiseTim Steiner OcadoTom Griffin Ripjar

• I run a small business and I have found nothing the Tories have done has made it any easier. Like many, I rely on Royal Mail to deliver my goods and while the service is excellent, I fear for the future as “profit margin” will be the only criteria that its managers will meet after the bungled and unnecessary privatisation. Red tape hasn’t been cut at all; in fact I’ve had more communications from this government about pensions, PAYE and tax than I can ever recall, almost all of it meaningless. In the meantime large businesses continue to pay little or no corporation tax, even though they undercut us as they are based in convenient European locations. The last five years have been hard for us and the notion that “we are all in together” is not true. Large businesses get richer, often using taxpayers money to subsidise low wages, while little firms really struggle.Simon GosdenFantastic Literature, Rayleigh, Essex

• When George Osborne stands in a factory, why is no one challenging him to spell out which side he wants to be in a referendum on Europe? He’s so eager to claim credit for the success of EPS, a major electrical engineering business. But this success cannot be understood and cannot have grown as much without recognising its dependencies on other major European businesses, such as Germany’s Siemens, France’s Schneider-Electric and Switzerland’s ABB.

I doubt a single engineering business wants to leave Europe. There are no facts on the side of exit. Engineering’s turnover is almost 25% of all business turnover, it employs 5.4 million people across 542,000 businesses and it produces 46% of exports. Behind this whole business is a vast intellectual imperative to value cooperative intelligence. We are already cooperating with Europe in a vast number of relationships which can only be damaged first, by the tedium of a referendum campaign, second by the high risk of losing a referendum, and third by an actual exit.

If we go through our country’s 50 main kinds of business, we find numberless examples of good and essential cooperation between us and Europe. The coalition government knows all this already, having got each of its 24 ministries to produce 200-plus pages of evidence about UK and Europe. The Tories have kept quiet about it all because the whole exercise confirms our place in Europe. Andrew WilksLondon

• At a time when we see one of the poorest countries desperate for any assistance, two of the wealthiest organisations in the UK prove that corporate greed is unabated. Grosvenor Group (£37.4m of tax paid on £681.8m of profits) whinge about the Tory policy of right to buy and Labour’s rent-rise limit; and Whitbread (£23.6m of tax paid on £347m of profit) demands more government assistance – neither organisation averse to maximising tax advantages. So much for corporate social responsibility. Perhaps these two organisations should be more interested in what they can do for society, rather than what they can gain?Mark BillLiverpool

• That Telegraph letter from business leaders does not give any respite to the 20,318 bankruptcies and the 3,740 company liquidations last year. Perhaps the unfortunate people who lost their businesses in 2014 will write a letter supporting Labour.Kevin WardLondon