WHEN TECH entrepreneur Shimron Equiano was asked about the people who helped him build a multi-million pound recruitment company, his grandmother Effelia was top of his list. 

Like so many members of the Windrush Generation, she made the journey to Britain in the late 1950s in the hope of building a better life for herself and her family.  

Despite being welcomed by overt discrimination, a struggle to find work and somewhere to live, she decided to give life in the ‘Mother Country’ a chance. 

Effelia’s decision paid dividends for future generations of her family, and especially her grandson. 

Equiano says he has never forgotten the life lessons she taught him which went on to play an important role in his later career. 

“I remember my grandmother telling me stories about her struggle to find places to live when she first arrived in Britain,” he recalls. 

“If she wanted to move from one property to another, she had to find a white ally, someone to front the rent so that she and other family members could live together in the new place. 

“She also told me stories of wanting to set up small businesses, whether that be cooking or delivering food. But at the time it was difficult to get support from the banks. In fact, there was zero support, so some of those business ideas fell by the wayside. 

“However, like many from the Windrush Generation, my grandmother had the ability to be creative and make something out of the difficult circumstances she faced. 

“She became a nurse. And she helped provide us with a happy existence. There was always food and we were well looked after.”

Equiano continues: “Because of the challenges she faced her message to me was always about getting an education because it will open doors that may not necessarily be open to me. And with education comes confidence that can lead to other opportunities such as owning a business.’”

Effelia was a big influence in his decision to go to university to study law. He was on track for a career in law after graduating. However, it was the inspiration that came from her advice that led him to take his first steps in business. 

“She was always telling me about the importance of having goals and shooting for the stars. And I just felt that being cooped up in an office didn’t lend itself to utilising all of that creative, make-something-out-of-nothing environment I’d grown up in.”

After university, Equiano decided to flex his entrepreneurial muscles. His first venture was a recording studio which he launched to pursue a long-held dream of becoming a recording artist.

As well as running the studio he organised his own successful tours, performing in front of thousands of fans at high-profile events like Party in the Park, and eventually secured a record deal. 

However, the label lacked the resources and vision to support his ambitions. It was at this point that he fell into the recruitment industry. 

His grandmother’s advice to keep studying and gaining knowledge meant he quickly recognised an opportunity that could be useful in helping him achieve his entrepreneurial ambitions. 

After three years in the music industry, he decided to branch out on his own and launch his own recruitment company. 

“At the company’s peak we were turning over a million pounds a year” he says. “And it was that success that enabled me to think on a bigger scale. 

“When businesses started to shut down during the pandemic I saw how it affected a lot of my friends who were solopreneurs. And this provided the seed of the idea for my new company BlocSquared. It really started as me wanting to help other entrepreneurs on a bigger scale.”

Launched in September 2021 BlocSquared is a digital platform that connects entrepreneurs and companies providing early-stage ideas, products, and services. 

Users own and advertise their own ‘Blocs’ in which they can display or advertise anything from a brand new side-hustle, to a fully functional business. 

A percentage of the Bloc fees are donated to organisations working on achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals such as eradicating hunger, gender equality and the provision of clean water to areas desperately in need of it.

Again, Effelia’s inspiration provided a clear vision for his new business venture. 

“I didn’t realise that the development of BlocSquared would be a much longer slower burn than I’d originally anticipated. It was my grandmother, and her long-tail approach that gave me the motivation and conviction to move forward with it. 

“She isn’t an instant gratification person. And she has always explained to me that it’s important to think long-term about things. The quick wins are great but they are short-lived. 

“So with BlocSquared, I’m thinking in decades, as opposed to weeks and months. We have a very clear plan of where it will be 10 to 15 years from now.”

Many people of the Windrush Generation followed a similar path to Effelia in trying to embrace entrepreneurship as a way of improving their lives and supporting those around them.

But like Effelia, these aspiring entrepreneurs also struggled to find the financial resources needed to expand their businesses.

Limited access to capital and credit, coupled with a lack of understanding by banks about the potential of enterprises that served Black consumers posed significant challenges.

However the 1960s saw Windrush Generation entrepreneurs establish businesses such as travel agencies, hairdressing salons, takeaways, bakeries and record shops. 

Some businesses, most notably Dyke and Dryden, overcame barriers to achieve spectacular success. Their efforts laid the foundations for the Black British entrepreneurs of today. 

The pioneering role of those early  Windrush entrepreneurs will be recognised by a new partnership between the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Windrush Museum. 

The partnership is part of a plan to achieve the goal of establishing an independent museum dedicated to researching, exhibiting, and preserving the story of the Windrush journey and its impact on modern Britain for future generations.

Equiano is passionate about helping the new partnership to create greater recognition of the Windrush Generation entrepreneurs. 

“There’s definitely not enough of a light shone on the entrepreneurial spirit of the Windrush Generation” he says. 

“Just think about things like pardner where people would come together, pool their money and do something like buy a house or start a business. 

“Think about the Caribbean stores back in the day where people would get food items from ‘back home’. They were great entrepreneurs,  they just didn’t have the funds to do things on a scale that matched their white counterparts. 

“So I think there needs to be more acknowledgement not just of what they did in business but the words of encouragement and advice, the life stories that have been passed down from that generation. 

“Today, there are more young black entrepreneurs of my generation doing bigger and bigger and better things. 

“Maybe, two or three generations down the line, when we have bonafide 100 million pound, Black-owned businesses, then more people might start to look back at the Windrush Generation and say, ‘that’s where this success came from’. But I think we’re still on that journey.”