Sir Richard Branson has called on Britain to do more to support entrepreneurs, arguing that the country must create the conditions for the next generation of world-changing companies to be built by British founders.

Writing in response to a suggestion by Philip Salter that Britain needs another Richard Branson, the Virgin founder said he was flattered by the sentiment but stressed the broader need to champion anyone willing to start a business.

Branson reflected on his early days as an entrepreneur, noting that when he started out more than 50 years ago, hardly anyone used the word "entrepreneur" in Britain. He recalled that there were effectively only two entrepreneurs in the country at the time: Anita Roddick, who founded The Body Shop, and himself.

Today, despite a far larger and more visible entrepreneurial community, Branson said people still fundamentally misunderstand what an entrepreneur is. He defined entrepreneurs simply as creative people who come up with ideas to make people's lives better.

"It's my view that if they do this, they normally succeed. If they don't, they normally fail," Branson said. With luck and hard work, he added, entrepreneurs hope that more money comes in than goes out, setting them on the path to turning a bold idea into a successful business.

He acknowledged that entrepreneurship inherently involves risk and that not every idea will survive. Building a business from scratch is tough, and every entrepreneur faces growing pains — something Branson said he has experienced firsthand many times. This, he argued, is why it is so important to create an economic environment where innovators with imagination can be helped to survive and thrive.

London: A City Brimming with Possibility

Branson pointed to London as a city that has always been brimming with possibility, fuelled by its diversity, creativity, and willingness to embrace new ideas. That spirit, he said, inspired Virgin to open its first record shop on Oxford Street in the 1970s, and it remains one of the city's greatest strengths. However, he cautioned that it cannot be taken for granted.

London has grown into one of Europe's leading startup hubs, home to a dense concentration of early-stage technology and consumer companies. Yet a persistent challenge for the UK ecosystem has been scaling those startups into global giants of the size Branson references — companies on the order of Virgin, Microsoft, or Google — with many British founders historically turning to US markets for later-stage growth capital.

New research from Virgin StartUp, Branson's philanthropic organisation which supports thousands of UK founders, found that a majority of entrepreneurs are worried their projects may not survive the next 12 months. An even larger majority do not believe Westminster listens to their concerns.

Branson said this cannot be ignored. Entrepreneurs need as much support as possible to turn bold ideas into great businesses that can employ large numbers of people. The gap between those who fail and those who succeed must be widened, he argued, so that the majority of people starting businesses are successful.

Parental Support and the Next Generation

With thousands of students collecting exam results this week and thinking about their futures, Branson highlighted findings from Virgin StartUp's survey of 1,000 British parents. Encouragingly, 85 per cent said they would support their child in starting a business, and a majority reported already fostering an entrepreneurial spirit at home.

Branson credited his own entrepreneurial mindset to his parents, who encouraged his curiosity and supported his ambitions from a young age — whether that meant selling Christmas trees at age nine, breeding budgies at age 10, or launching a national student magazine to campaign against the Vietnam War at age 15.

"Societies benefit when entrepreneurs succeed," Branson concluded. "We must give every founder the best chance to flourish, so the future Virgins, Microsofts and Googles of the world are also built by British entrepreneurs."

Achieving that, he said, means fostering an environment that makes it easier to build and develop a business in Britain.

Richard Branson is an entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group.