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Charles and me: Prince's Trust gives start-ups a chance
'Hoodie generation' proves a source of IT innovation

By Mark Kobayashi-Hillary

Published: Wednesday 19 July 2006

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary writes about his experience working as a business advisor for the Prince's Trust, helping young people with few hopes launch tech start-ups.

Castles, Corgis and guards dressed in bearskin. British royal heritage doesn't often grace the pages of silicon.com but there is a technology connection through the work of the Prince of Wales and the Prince's Trust, the charity he founded 30 years ago.

The Prince's Trust is creating an opportunity for innovation within the technology sector by offering funding for young people who would normally not even be allowed through the doors of a high street bank. These are often the kind of young entrepreneurs most of us might cross the street to avoid - the 'hoodie generation'.

The Trust is celebrating its 30th birthday this year and last Friday the Prince of Wales hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace to thank those of us who give up some time to offer free expertise - I attended in my role as a business mentor for the charity.

It's quite a privilege to be allowed to wander freely through the well-tended 42 acres of garden - a huge slice of land right in the centre of London and usually off-limits to visitors. Celebrity guests were out in force for the garden party - with Jools Holland, Rod Stewart, Brian May, Emma Bunton and Laurence Llewelyn Bowen all sharing tea and cucumber sandwiches with the Prince.

The celebrities are all ambassadors, helping the charity to gain press attention and raise funds, but there is a serious side to the work beyond asking Philip Schofield where he has hidden Gordon the Gopher. The charity focuses on practical support, offering training, mentoring and hard cash to 14- to 30-year-olds who have the potential to start a new business and therefore transform their life.

Because the Trust focuses on young people who struggled in school, were in care, have been in trouble with the law, or have been unemployed for a long time, you can see why most other lenders would not be interested. The Trust acts as a business angel to these young people when most banks or lenders would consider the risk of default to be far too high.

If a young person has a great business idea and the energy and commitment needed to get it moving, the Prince's Trust will consider funding the business. The Trust offers low-cost loans and grants but more importantly access to real people in business. Each start-up is assigned a business mentor with expertise in that area of business and access to a range of professional services such as accounting, legal and stationery printing, all at reduced rates.

Speaking at the garden party, the chief executive of the Prince's Trust, Martina Milburn, said more than half a million young people have been helped by the Prince's Trust programmes to date.

As a voluntary business mentor for the Trust, focusing on the technology and IT areas, I'm the person young people who are trying to create a new start-up in this sector can turn to for some frank advice and help on putting the business plan together. It's an interesting way to get involved because the businesses are small, creative start-ups with young people at the helm who rarely have experience of how to put a three-year funding plan together, let alone knowledge of how to generate PR or market a new technology product.

It means that you get a completely different view on the IT sector, from the perspective of a small company that is just starting out with not much more than a great idea and bags of enthusiasm. A good example is the company I am helping at present, Bespoke Skins. Founded by a couple of young guys who have been unemployed for far too long, the company aims to produce tailored 'skins' for iPods, PlayStations and all the other gadgets essential for 21st century living.

This type of ground-up innovation is often stifled in the regular business sector or over-analysed by MBA graduates seeking to reduce investment risk.

All of us in the IT industry have something more to offer organisations such as the Prince's Trust. And what the Trust needs is more expert advice and reciprocal help from professional companies to ensure the start-ups get as much hand-holding as they need before creating the next big thing.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary is a voluntary business mentor for the Prince's Trust and a board member of the National Outsourcing Association.