Interview: Mark Sanders, Accelerate Places – “Nottingham is a place where talent can thrive”

Nottingham will put itself on the same footing as London and Manchester – that’s according to the new owners of a dedicated hub for growing technology businesses which opens in September.

Accelerate Nottingham, in the city centre, will offer desk, office and meeting space for emerging tech companies.

It is run by a team responsible for one of the city’s most notable technology success stories, and builds on their success with a similar facility in the heart of London’s fashionable Hammersmith.

Accelerate Nottingham will be based in an office building on Wollaton Street which is currently undergoing a major refurbishment designed to transform its internal look and feel.

Accelerate Nottingham is the latest development by Accelerate Places, a specialist in creating environments suitable for growing tech companies. It is part of Blenheim Chalcot, the UK’s largest venture building company – which is run by the team which launched Nottingham’s TDX Group and later sold it for £200m.

Accelerate Places is led by Mark Sanders, the former chief executive of TDX Group, and he says the intention is to create a sense of community for technology businesses which are in their early stages and gaining momentum.

He explained: “Accelerate Nottingham is based on the success we’ve enjoyed with Accelerate London in Hammersmith and we’ve decided to do it here because our own experience tells us this is a place with the same ingredients. Nottingham has a heritage of large, technology-enabled corporates and a new generation of growing tech businesses powered by talented people developing disruptive ideas.

“We know from our own experience that ambitious, tech-enabled businesses have rhythms and requirements which are difficult to satisfy in more traditional working environments and Accelerate Nottingham is specifically designed to meet those needs.

“There are the spaces – not just desks, but places where you can meet informally and enjoy great coffee, great food and great internet – there is the sense of community from an environment where people can come together and maximize the synergy from being in the same place, and there is all the experience we can share from being part of Blenheim Chalcot, which has massive experience starting and growing tech businesses.”

The first floor at Accelerate Nottingham will have space for around 100 people, split between those paying an all-inclusive monthly charge of less than £300 for a desk and those occupying a range of dedicated offices.

“You don’t have to pay for the fit-out, the desk, the internet, the cleaner or anything like that,” said Mark. “So this is a new way of thinking about the working environment where you, as the owner or entrepreneur, can focus on running the business.”

The upper floors at Accelerate Nottingham will be occupied by three growing financial technology businesses owned by Blenheim Chalcot itself – consumer lending business Oakbrook, small business finance firm Liberis, and Bizfitech, a company that builds technology solutions for small businesses.

Sanders says Nottingham is a great city in which to build a technology business because of the presence of major corporates, new firms with new ideas, its Creative Quarter and two universities supplying a strong pool of talent. It now needs to build on that to create a higher profile.

“Raising Nottingham’s profile as a tech hub is a two-way street,” said Mark. “When you’re growing businesses your focus is on building commercial momentum, and when I look back on my experiences here we probably should have spent more time engaging with the City Council’s inward investment team about what we were trying to achieve and why it was a good story for Nottingham.

“But I think there is now a strong opportunity to promote Nottingham in a positive way for what it really is. I came here back in 1999 and didn’t think I’d put roots down in the way that I have, and when I look back it has improved significantly – the breadth of employment opportunities has changed for the better, and there is the emergence of a tech-enabled sector of business.

“We believe that Nottingham can make much more of the story about people and businesses with analytical and technical skills.”

He added: “All cities face competition for investment and my belief is that a collective story would be good for Nottingham. If you go back a few years, businesses were sometimes reluctant to collaborate in case someone took their staff. I think we’re over that now and the more we promote Nottingham as a place where talent can thrive the better.

“Marketing Nottingham and the City Council have a big role to play in making sure that growing businesses and potential inward investors know just how good this place is. The significant investment Blenheim Chalcot is making in Accelerate Nottingham is a powerful symbol of that.”