George Windsor is a world-class researcher and consultant who has spent the last decade building running a huge amount of the UK tech (and other) ecosystems. He did his PhD on migration and entrepreneurship at Loughborough University, founded and led the research team at Tech Nation, and was the Director of Research at Notion Capital. He currently works independently across VC advisory, tech ecosystems, and international development — including writing a startup strategy for Ethiopia through Systemic Innovation's FCDO-funded work in East Africa. We get into: how George decides what to work on when every project is interesting, a European grant-giving foundation with 1,500 funds and how they might understand how their investments interact, the difference between taking a snapshot and seeing a system, what happens when you can collect more data than you know what to do with, trying to measure informal entrepreneurship in a country of 130 million people, the polite fiction of representative survey samples, why the middle of the analysis is the part AI is speeding up but the beginning and end still need a human, the case for getting something to 50% and sharing it with critical friends, a trader's game where we both wildly underestimate how many species are endangered, Polymarket as a sophisticated extension of our addiction to gambling, rematerialisation, the strange reality that defence tech is suddenly part of mainstream conversation, and the taking-versus-making dichotomy in value creation. "If you were not doing what you're doing now, and you couldn't do what you're doing now, what would you like to be doing?" — George Windsor Resources Find George: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/windsorgeorge/ People & Concepts Mentioned: Dealroom — world-leading startup and scaleup data platformSystemic Innovation / Scott Walker — systems change innovation practice, FCDO-funded work in AfricaNotion Capital — series A business software VC based in LondonTech Nation — UK tech ecosystem body (now acquired by Founders Forum Group)Nesta — UK innovation foundation; ran the Longitude Prize and Political Futures TrackerIsambard — high-value manufacturing near cities (Notion Capital portfolio)Cognor — AI for problem-solving in large utilities (Notion Capital portfolio, founded by Ben of Five AI)UK Tech Cluster Group / Sunderland Software City — regional tech ecosystem buildingReplanet — enabling corporates to invest in environmental restorationCure8 — climate tech marketplace (spelled C-U-R-8)Polymarket — prediction market platformThe Medici Effect — book about cross-industry innovation driving breakthroughsThe Longitude Prize — historical challenge prize for calculating longitude; modern Nesta iterationBehavioural Insights Team — applying behavioural science to policyIUCN Red List — 48,646 species threatened with extinction out of 172,620 assessedCreatech — emerging technology applied in the creative industries (DCMS/Royal Anniversary Trust mapping)RISA Fund (Research and Innovation Systems for Africa) — FCDO-funded, working in Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia
