Making Liverpool's growth ecosystem easier to see, enter and move through.

Navigate was designed as a coordinating and connecting layer, not another institution sitting above everyone else. It was co-developed by Liverpool Chamber and GoodShip* around the idea of creating a North Star for commercial growth — a shared direction rather than an instruction to the ecosystem.

The framing questions were practical: how do we help more businesses start and scale? How do we keep successful businesses headquartered locally? How do we retain more regional spend, connect talent with opportunity, improve access to investment, make the ecosystem more inclusive, and make Liverpool easier to understand from outside the region?

Navigate therefore sits between strategy + ecosystem development + community + practical activation.

Building the brand

A strategic proposition also needs a story people can understand. GoodShip* helped shape Navigate not only as a programme but as a brand — name, positioning, proposition, narrative, brand direction, visual identity, communications, digital assets and programme storytelling.

Navigate captured the core problem: there is plenty here, and the difficult part is knowing where to go next. The brand was designed to feel like an invitation into the ecosystem rather than another layer of bureaucracy.

The story is deliberately simple. Liverpool City Region has people, knowledge, capital, ideas, talent, organisations and opportunity. Navigate helps connect the routes between them — and creates a common language around growth in a landscape where every organisation has its own terminology, every programme its own name and every funding route its own process.

The first roundtable

One of the first major pieces of work was a cross-ecosystem roundtable bringing together people from tax and finance, investment, creative industries, marketing, technology, start-ups, education, workforce development, business support, public sector, community and social impact. The intention was not another discussion about the region''s potential, but to identify practical structural barriers. Several themes emerged repeatedly.

Funding. There was a clear gap in the funding ladder — between roughly £20k–£30k friends-and-family rounds or grants and £500k institutional seed, with a need for more accessible capital in the £100k–£250k range. The issue was not simply money: founders also needed stronger understanding of governance, investment readiness, valuation, investor expectations, board structures and the implications of external capital.

Procurement and local spend. Liverpool has strong creative, technology and professional-services businesses, but major contracts can still leave the region. Navigate explored local procurement, tender accessibility, consortium building, visibility of local capability and how SMEs can compete for larger opportunities. The aim is not protectionism — it is a fair chance to demonstrate capability.

Skills and talent. Businesses need future talent, specialist skills, work-ready graduates, leadership, commercial capability and AI and digital skills. Education providers need clearer routes into employers, and young people need more exposure to the careers that actually exist. This connects Navigate with our work around LSIP, AI Activator, Liverpool John Moores University and knowledge-sharing programmes.

Diversity and access. Ecosystems can appear open while still being difficult to enter. Navigate includes an explicit focus on inclusion, access, representation, different routes into entrepreneurship and removing unnecessary barriers.

Scale-up retention. Regions need to retain businesses as they grow — growth capital, leadership, talent, property, professional services, international expansion, customer acquisition and networks. A business should not need to leave Liverpool City Region simply because it reaches the next stage of growth.

12 practical priorities

The initial work produced 12 practical priorities across short, medium and longer-term activity: a creative and technology directory, regular cross-ecosystem networking, investment and governance education, local procurement activity, intermediate funding mechanisms, agency collaboration and consortium thinking, diversity and inclusion work, education-to-business pipelines, Liverpool success-story campaigns, scale-up support, international partnerships and ethical growth positioning.

The importance was not the number 12. It was converting a broad ecosystem conversation into specific things that could actually be worked on.

From strategy to activation

• Made Here — sessions showcasing businesses, expertise and capability already operating within Liverpool City Region. The underlying question: why do we sometimes look outside the region before understanding what already exists here?
• Knowledge Sessions — practical sessions where specialist organisations share useful knowledge around growth, investment, finance, intellectual property, business protection, leadership and technology.
• AI & Tech for Good — connecting Navigate into GoodShip* and Generative Minds'' wider work around practical AI, technology and innovation.
• Roundtables — smaller rooms where specific structural challenges can be explored honestly.
• Co-working and community — lower-friction opportunities for people to spend time together rather than relying exclusively on formal networking.
• Ecosystem mapping — a clearer view of organisations, support, knowledge, sectors, professional services and opportunities.

Community as infrastructure

Community is not an add-on to Navigate; it is part of the infrastructure. A strong ecosystem depends on trust, repeated interactions, introductions, shared knowledge, informal connections and people helping each other. You cannot create that through a directory, and you cannot create it through one annual conference. The value is often something that was never on the agenda: a founder meets an investor, a university meets an employer, a creative agency finds a technology partner, a student meets a future employer, a business discovers specialist support.

Storytelling, brand and digital assets

Liverpool City Region has extraordinary businesses, founders, organisations and innovations, but those stories are not always visible enough. GoodShip* works on success stories, founder stories, regional capability, investment stories, scale-up journeys and collaboration stories — helping create a more confident narrative around what is being built here rather than only what Liverpool could become. Alongside that sit brand direction, visual assets, presentation materials, event graphics, digital communications, social assets and content structures, so Navigate feels like one connected programme across venues, partners and subjects.

The Liverpool Chamber relationship

Navigate is co-developed with Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, which brings an established business network, institutional credibility, member relationships, regional reach, policy connections and convening power. GoodShip* brings ecosystem thinking, creative and technology networks, start-up and scale-up experience, programme design, community development, brand and storytelling, innovation and challenge-led thinking. Navigate sits between those worlds — and that is part of its value.

Strong ecosystems are difficult to build because nobody owns them. That is also their strength.

Universities matter. Investors matter. Founders matter. Professional services matter. Communities matter. Public organisations matter. Large employers matter. Start-ups matter. Creative businesses matter. Technology businesses matter.

But the real value often sits in the spaces between those organisations. Navigate is designed to work in those spaces.

It also connects closely to OneDock. Navigate asks how we make the ecosystem easier to navigate; OneDock explores how part of that answer can be delivered digitally. Navigate creates conversations, strategy, relationships, physical activation and shared direction. OneDock connects events, support, opportunities, community and knowledge. Navigate helps connect the ecosystem; OneDock helps make parts of it easier to see.

Ecosystems rarely fail because nobody cares. They struggle because knowledge is fragmented, opportunities are difficult to see, organisations work in silos, and the same people repeatedly occupy the same rooms.

The answer is not necessarily another organisation. Sometimes the answer is better navigation + stronger relationships + a clearer shared story.