Entrepreneurs must spot the opportunities in the bumpy ride of Brexit

Originally published at The Times

Between 1973 and 1975, the US found itself mired in recession. For several years it suffered from stagflation, the economic sickness of persistent high inflation combined with weak demand.

Some might think that this would have been a bad time to start a business with an untested product. And yet this was exactly the moment a Harvard dropout chose to set up a new venture selling computer software in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That brave (or perhaps foolhardy) person was Bill Gates, and the company was, of course, Microsoft.

At the same time, the UK was holding a referendum on whether we should stay a member of the European Economic Community, with the voters choosing to remain by a large margin.The one group seemingly unperturbed by economic uncertainty now is entrepreneurs.

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