Baroness Martha Lane Fox reflects on a challenging year for tech businesses, explains why we should be more concerned about a “profound shift in information flows” than destruction by robots, and unpacks why we shouldn’t be too pessimistic about startup funding. Elsewhere on the show, she looks ahead to a year of political uncertainty and explains why the first trillionaire in the world will “probably” come from the green transition.
Lane Fox is a British businesswoman, philanthropist and public servant. She co-founded Last Minute during the dotcom boom in 1998 with Brent Hoberman, taking it to a public listing two years later. She entered the House of Lords as a crossbencher in 2013, becoming Baroness Martha Lane-Fox of Soho and the youngest female life peer. That same year, Lane Fox was appointed CBE for "services to the digital economy and charity". And in 2014 she was appointed chancellor of the Open University, a role that she continues to hold. Since October 2022 the entrepreneur has been president of the British Chambers of Commerce, a business network spanning companies of different sizes across all sectors.
What is UKTN | The Podcast?
Each week, Jane Wakefield sits down with some of the key movers and shakers from the UK tech ecosystem for the UKTN Podcast. Learn growth strategies from both seasoned and up-and-coming founders, hear market sentiments from investors, and understand the tech policy affecting businesses across the country.
The UKTN Podcast provides insight into the most influential people in the UK’s innovation economy, exploring their personal and professional journeys and hearing their views on the hottest tech topics of the day.