James Ashton: Tech stars must access single digital market

Technology entrepreneurs are predisposed to optimism.

Solving intractable problems is their calling card. Brexit is an unfortunate development for an industry that relies on the free flow of people and ideas, but just because it cannot be cracked with a clever algorithm does not mean it will stand in the way of progress.

Few at the Founders Forum gathering just outside London last week paused to reflect on present political frustrations.

Theirs is a helicopter view or, for those trying to crack exploits in space, even higher.

Nor did past achievements dominate proceedings.

The iPhone and the Android operating system, both a decade old, transformed everything by putting power in consumers’ pockets but founders prefer to look to future successes.

In their sights are industries still dominated by companies more than 50 years old and therefore ripe for disruption: financial services, education and healthcare.

Next-generation firms have grabbed just a few percentage points of each. Anything seems possible when you spy an AI-powered, self-driving robocar parked on the back lawn at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire.

One thing that does hamper brilliant success is age. With the exception of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, it is hard to found a world-beating company before the age of 26.

If you haven’t done so by the age of 40, forget it, one entrepreneur told the room.

He had studied the numbers, of which there are many. More data was created in the last two days than between the beginning of mankind and 2003, another chief executive estimated. It gives a glimpse of where the power will lie.

Even while dreaming big, reality bites occasionally. Samir Desai, chief executive of peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle, admitted he had seen a reduction in skilled EU workers particularly in the tech industry coming to London since the Brexit vote.

His firm already has offices in Berlin and Amsterdam so can hire there. Some of the work of the past decade to make London the technology industry’s undisputed European hub is clearly being unpicked. Christopher North, the former head of Amazon UK who now runs Shutterfly, an American digital photo firm, was not the only one to preach openness. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley is appraising Paris afresh, especially as the go-ahead President Macron unveiled a fast-track technology visa to attract international talent.

At least the money men are confident. SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which has raised $93 billion (£73 billion) from backers including Apple, Qualcomm and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth arm, is basing itself in London as it works out how to spend its riches.