Matt Clifford is the co-founder and chief executive of Entrepreneur First, the five-year-old UK accelerator program, which has produced 75 startups since launch. One of their companies, Magic Pony was sold to Twitter for $150m just last month.

It is just the kind of company you might think would suffer in the immediate aftermath of last month's vote by the UK to leave the European Union. But apparently not. In fact, he had closed three seed investment deals since the result was announced. 

Two weeks on from the referendum results, tech startups are swamped by uncertainty. The overwhelming majority – roughly 87pc according to a recent survey – were opposed to Brexit.

But European investors like Index Ventures and Local Globe insist they are remain bullish on London as a tech hub and will continue to actively invest there because of tax benefits, strong technical universities such as Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College, and the UK’s large English-speaking market – a combination that’s tough for other European cities to beat.

The persistent “We are open for business” refrain might seem hollow to some, particularly in light of the tech sector’s unequivocal Europhilia. But anecdotal evidence suggests that unexpected windows of opportunity are slowly opening up.

For instance, many agree that there could be unexpected opportunities for financial services disruption that fintech startups are best placed to grab. But first, let’s examine the major concerns being raised about the state of the UK tech sector.  

David Fuller's view

Here is a PDF of this article.

In an ideal world, the UK economy would have moved smoothly into the post-Brexit era.  However, ideal worlds have usually been pipe dreams.  Therefore, it is better to have started in chaos and panic, to which people are now responding with some sensible, promising ideas, than the other way around.   

Governance is everything has long been a mantra of this service.  I would not underestimate the sense of energy and opportunity that can now be inspired by good leadership, from the top down, backed by appropriate incentives.  The UK will have a rough third quarter, for understandable reasons.  Thereafter, it should be improving, regardless of what happens to the EU.