Hive Oldham: Why Great Enterprise Happens in Places That Need It Most.
By the Upturn Enterprise Team · August 2024
There is a persistent myth in the UK startup ecosystem that great enterprise happens in cities with great universities, great transport links and great concentrations of venture capital. According to this myth, places like Oldham — post-industrial, deprived, underserved by infrastructure investment — are not places where great businesses are born.
Hive Oldham exists to disprove that myth. Every day.
What Is Hive Oldham?
Hive Oldham is a vibrant enterprise hub managed by Upturn — a co-working, incubation and collaboration space for startups, social enterprises and growing businesses. Located in the heart of Oldham, Hive provides flexible workspace, expert support, peer networking and access to investment opportunities for businesses that want to grow whilst staying connected to their community.
But Hive is more than a building with desks. It is a community — of entrepreneurs, innovators, mentors and changemakers who believe that business can be a force for good, and who are committed to proving it in one of England’s most challenging and most resilient towns.
Who Uses Hive?
Hive’s community is deliberately diverse — and deliberately local. You will find first-time founders from Oldham’s residential estates alongside established social enterprise leaders. You will find young people fresh from our Teen Entrepreneur programme alongside experienced businesspeople building their second or third venture. What they share is a commitment to building something that creates genuine value — for themselves, for their families and for their community.
What Upturn Brings
Hive is not a passive co-working space. Upturn brings to the hub over 20 years of enterprise support expertise, a network of mentors, investors and sector specialists, access to funding guidance through the Proper Good Social Investment Programme, and connections to OSEN and CROWN — our enterprise and leadership networks that reach across Greater Manchester and beyond.
For entrepreneurs from Oldham and the surrounding area, Hive offers something that was simply not available before: a local, accessible, peer-supported environment in which to build a business without having to leave the community that shaped you.
The Next Chapter
Hive is growing — in terms of the businesses it supports, the network it convenes, and the ambition it enables. We are committed to making Oldham a town where the next generation of purpose-driven entrepreneurs has everything it needs to thrive — and where the success of those entrepreneurs feeds back into the communities that gave them their start.
