James Murray-Wells Glassesdirect.co.uk
Class of 2005
Richard Reed Innocent Drinks
Class of 2003
Al Gosling Extreme Group
Class of 2004
Pepita Diamond Wrapit
Class of 2006
Zef Eisenberg Maximuscle
Class of 2006
Michael Smith Firebox.com
Class of 2003
Nina Hampson Myla
Class of 2003
AlumniClass of 2007
It’s time to meet the Class of 2007. This year’s bright young things have truly surpassed our expectations. They ooze talent, they radiate success, and together they’re changing the face of UK entrepreneurship
Focus: Same day couriers
Fuelled by frustration when a courier lost 10 tickets, our inaugural Top Gun Allason soon discovered that the £1bn UK market was under-served and fragmented, with the largest player owning a single-digit share. Realising that having people assigning couriers to jobs was an inefficient model, Allason and business partner Jay Bregman hired a team to build “an ultra-smart computer”. AIBA (advanced information-based allocation) was born.
The system – which removes the need for human allocation of bookings – connects with couriers’ mobile GPS units, which feed back their exact locations every 15 seconds. It knows everything that could impact on delivery time, such as weather, traffic, and even customer-type, and picks the most suitable driver for the job. It then compares the actual delivery time with its estimation and gets smarter, giving a better and better service.
The business has raised £8m and acquisitive growth is just one aspect of its ambitious expansion strategy, which should vastly increase the firm’s £7.2m turnover. Others include its recent journey into new markets, such as food delivery, and international expansion.
Matthew Stevenson, 31 Company: Reef One
Web: www.reef-one.com
Focus: Aquatic products manufacturer
Product design and marketing graduate Matthew Stevenson set up Reef One with his father in 1999 after creating an ultra-stylish fishbowl with a unique filtration system. The company has since sold 500,000 of its flagship product, the Biorb, alongside a number of new offerings, many of which are world firsts. Completely self-funded, the £4.5m turnover firm has sales offices in Paris and LA, sells its products through distributors in 15 countries and is increasingly attracting larger retailers such as Argos and Pets at Home. Stevenson promises new products and further international expansion in the months to come.
Having established an impressive rental and development portfolio, Bertenshaw teamed up with entrepreneur Howard Bilton, founder of the American Golf Discount chain, after they met through a mutual friend. In 2006 they formed luxury property brand Qdos. They have since bid successfully in a number of competitive land auctions. As a result, their portfolio comprises eight prime sites in the North West, one of which will house a £4m chateau. With price tags ranging from £1.75m-£5m, turnover will hit £7m after 18 months, £15m by 2009. Two properties were recently sold to a premiership footballer.
Rob Small, 31 Company: Miniclip
Web: www.miniclip.com
Focus: Online gaming
After Facebook, Miniclip.com is the largest privately held website in the world, with 36 million users. Rob Small created the online gaming site six years ago, turning it into a worldwide smash hit with a Dancing Bush game depicting the US president. With around 400, mainly free, games to date and a user-base to drool over, advertisers have flocked. It also creates games for clients and licenses brand names and games to other sites. Since year two the company’s been in profit. Turnover was £12m last year and should double in 2007. Now watch it go truly global.
Scott Davies, 33 Company: Million-2-1
Web: www.million21.com
Focus: Mobile gaming
The spotlight falling on this industry since the competition phone-ins controversy is unlikely to affect Manchester-based Million-2-1, which has a lottery licence from the Gambling Commission. Its white-label technology for interactive lottery, competition and gaming promises a complete audit trail of entries, a guaranteed winner, and billing only for those who enter within the allotted time. The company raised £3m last year and its £4.5m projected turnover for 2007 could rocket, with legal changes creating a barrier to entry into the market. No wonder UTV, LBC, O2 and Barcrest have beaten a path to its door.
Rocket scientist to entrepreneur isn’t a leap many tend to make. But Aerospace Engineering graduate Haani Ul Hasnain has bucked the trend. Following a change in career plans, Hasnain joined his father’s cable manufacturing firm after leaving university, and spent six years working his way up while honing his leadership skills studying part-time for an MBA. Now in his third year as CEO, he has reinvented the company, streamlining processes, reinvesting £3.5m, doubling turnover and growing it from 40 to 130 staff. The Hartlepool-based firm now exports to 30 countries worldwide.
Serial entrepreneur and technical whiz-kid Ben Way has set up a string of businesses, was on the Sunday Times Rich List at 19, has advised the White House on 3G technology, was crowned Entrepreneur of the Year by Gordon Brown, was the technical architect for social mentoring charity The Horsesmouth and sits on the $100m Brightstation Ventures fund for tech startups. His consulting and corporate venturing business, The Rainmakers, holds equity stakes worth around £10m, and Way is now gunning for a piece of the £4.5bn postal market with new venture ViaPost, an efficient and eco-friendly postal service. “It’s by far the biggest project I’ve ever worked on”, he says.
Serial entrepreneur, columnist, TV presenter and DJ Alexander Amosu sold his first business, £6m-turnover RnB Ringtones, in 2004. His latest offering, Amosu Luxury Phones, is rivalling Vertu in the luxury mobile phone market, with price tags for diamond-encrusted handsets ranging from £5,000 to £1m. Currently customising phones already in the market, it will soon launch its own brand and turnover looks set to rocket to £4-£5m next year. His charity project, Mind of an Entrepreneur, organises events to encourage entrepreneurship and has drawn a number of high profile speakers, such as Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria and Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe.
Walking into Daisy’s purpose-built 20,000 sq ft offices for the first time three years ago was Riley’s proudest moment. Now firmly established as a one-stop provider of communications to more than 22,000 small and growing businesses by undercutting BT, this six-year-old Lancs-based business recorded a £23.6m turnover to 2007. Expect that figure to be £39.2m to 2008, £48.7m in 2009 and £100m the year after if all goes to plan. And what’s more he wholly owns the 136-person business, having used bank debt to fund 14 acquisitions. Turning green yet? The serial entrepreneur is not taking his foot off the gas though, and talking of green, the company’s just started e-billing to reduce its carbon footprint. Unsurprisingly, Riley was crowned Ernst & Young’s northern Entrepreneur of the Year.
Jerome Touze, 27 Company: Where Are You Now (WAYN)
Web: www.wayn.com
Focus: Social network
Touze and Peter Ward launched travellers’ social network site WAYN with £10,000 from Friends Reunited founder Stephen Pankhurst. It now has $11m institutional backing and Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman is both an investor and company chairman. With nine million users, last year’s turnover was £1m, and revenue is growing by 20% a month.
Nichola Lawton, 28 Company: DNA Clinics
Web : www.thednaclinic.co.uk
Focus: Relationship testing
Biomolecular science graduate and former Shell Livewire winner Nichola Lawton set up the UK’s first DNA clinic in Liverpool in 2004. She now runs a network of 37 nationally, offering the full support and counselling services that online mailing tests lack. She estimates that the business performs around a third of the 20,000 paternity tests carried out in the UK each year.
Matt McNeill, 26 Company: Sign-up.to, eTickets.to
Web: www.sign-up.to,www.etickets.to Focus: Permission-based marketing, ticket service
McNeill was designing music websites while studying for ALevels. With a place at Oxford, he deferred to focus on business pursuits. His second venture, Sign-up.to, allows businesses to manage their own email and mobile marketing campaigns. Sister company eTickets.to allows consumers to buy tickets direct from event promoters. Combined turnovers will exceed £2m.
Starting in 2002 as www.totallyfitness.co.uk, Zissman has taken fitness equipment to the streets with six stores and plans for many more. Turnover for the London-based business looks set to hit £5.5m in 2007. Contracts include schools, hotel chains, BP and Harrods, and the business has rented to the likes of Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts and Andre Agassi.
Celebrities being snapped wearing your products is quite possibly the best PR a clothing range can ask for – particularly when the star is Jennifer Aniston and the magazine is Heat. A-list endorsement from the Friends star, Amy Winehouse and many others has catapulted turnover of online retro clothing firm Truffle Shuffle, which was started with £10 three years ago, to £2m. Around 100,000 people are now sporting its products. Co-founders Lewis and Pat Wood (pictured, left) now also co-own a brand, Famous Forever, which is cracking the high street, and have just launched a new music T-shirt site, sugarbullets.com. Children’s and accessories ranges are coming soon.
Jo Groves, 29 Company: Active Digital
Web: www.activedigital.co.uk Focus: Mobile communications
Groves and brother Richard created business mobile and data solutions provider Active Digital when she was just 16 and he was 20 – with him giving up his England Boys golf career to pursue it. Active works with all the major mobile providers, has grown organically for 12 years and now turns over £5.6m. Its tailored communications packages promise to boost productivity and cut clients’ costs. In addition, its 24/7 customer service just won the B2B team prize at the National Customer Services Awards. To remain on top of new technologies coming to the UK it has two business development managers placed strategically in the US.
Stewart Yates, 35 Company: TFM Networks
Web: www.tfmnetworks.com
Focus: Telecoms
Family-run business TFM Networks was born in January 2004. A virtual network operator, the company buys network services from a number of suppliers such as BT, and re-wraps for clients including H&M, Travelodge and Yotel, offering average cost savings of around 40%. One of the biggest challenges, Yates says, has been building corporate grade systems in a small business environment. The company must be getting it right, however. In 2005 it successfully re-signed all of its customers and maintains a retention rate of 100%. The business excels in areas that are often poorly implemented by its competitors, such as billing, Yates says. Turnover should exceed £3m this year, and Yates is now looking towards acquisitive growth, which could propel turnover to £12m in 24 months.
Set up in 2005, the company has pioneered predictive analytics in HR. Its software profiles job candidates, using factors such as personality and previous experience. In 2006 the firm beat 360 others to win a DTI / BT Technology Innovation Award. Client Legal & General has increased “good hires” from 43% to 84%, saving around £10m over three years. The firm has now raised £1m through debt financing from the Royal Bank of Scotland, investment from the East Midlands Regional VC Fund and private individuals, including Egg founder Paul Gratton.
Michael Welch, 28 Company: Black Circles
Web: www.blackcircles.com
Focus: Sells and fits tyres
Former tyre fitter Michael Welch set up his second business, Black Circles, in 2001 as a tyre reseller which was 40% cheaper than Kwik Fit. A franchise model was launched last year, giving independent garages access to Black Circles’ systems and stock, and 300 franchisees are already on board. The business will turn over £10m this year, and after raising £1m in angel finance for working capital, Shell Livewire winner Welch is now looking for final round funding to push the Black Circles brand. Expansion into Europe and the US is also on the cards.
Robert Leggett, 35 Company: Omni Resource Management Solutions
Web: www.omnirms.com
Focus: Outsourced recruitment
By providing a soup-to-nuts recruitment service for clients recruiting from 50 to 750 people a year, Leggett’s managed to grow carbon-neutral Cheshire company Omni from a £30,000 personal overdraft a decade ago to one which will this year turn over £16m. And he’s not stopping there – by 2010 he’s confident this will reach £40m with a public market flotation to boot. Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank (GB), Moneysupermarket.com and around 25 others form a super-strength client base who buy into Omni’s ability to save 30% on standard recruitment costs.
Funded by credit card, Claxson is the sole owner of his now £6m plus-turnover ICT solutions business. Specialising in enabling secure, converged IP communications, it provides consultancy, implementation and support services. The firm was recently made a Cisco premier partner, an accreditation awarded to just 50 resellers in the UK. Recognised in the Deloitte Fast 50 for its impressive growth, a pending acquisition (the third to date) will secure 54,000 sq ft of premises. Claxson is also looking to offer 24-hour tech support by establishing an office in Australia.
Nick Robinson, 33 Company: World First
Web: www.worldfirst.com
Focus: Foreign exchange
World First competes with banks on both service and rates and has transacted with over 10,000 private clients and 1,000 UK companies in its three-year history. Robinson and co-founder Jonathan Quin recently secured investment from Prudential chairman and former deputy governor of the Bank of England Sir David Clementi. They project £1m profit on a £3m turnover this year and will soon be expanding online services. Hedging tools for corporate clients and invoice discounting will follow.
Aiming to be the ‘Expedia of luxury travel’, Destinology offers a unique proposition at the high end of the market. Foregoing flashy brochures, the business generates enquiries online which are then dealt with personally by its 45-strong call centre. All growth so far has been organic, the company was voted 14th in this year’s Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For list and its £20m turnover should increase to £30m next year.
Serial entrepreneur Raj Rana has proved himself to be an accomplished restaurateur. Itihaas boasts 20 of India’s finest chefs and service staff, and its traditional tikka masala-free menu has been extremely well received. Its fine-dining experience won it the prestigious restaurant of the year title at the Cobra Good Curry Awards in December, and the Birmingham-based business is now expanding rapidly, catering for top hotels.
Alastair Lukies, 33 Company: Monitise
Web: www.monitise.com
Focus: Mobile banking
Recognised as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum, Monitise can now count Google and eBay among its peers. Not bad for a 100-strong, AIM-listed, London-based firm. The technology, which enables customers to use mobile handsets to access their bank accounts, is used by major UK banks and the business is expanding globally through joint ventures and licensing. Lukies is also reaching out to the non-banking population of four billion, two-thirds of whom have access to a mobile network.
Steve Andrews co-owns finance and property company SimpliGroup with twins Rob and Chris Downham. What began as a financial services provider in the UK has now morphed into a diverse group of companies offering property development and financial and insurance services across Bulgaria and the UK. Its pièce de resistance is a 90,000 sq m environmentally aware “wellbeing village” in Bulgaria. The development of 150 properties, spa centres and organic restaurants has won a five-star award. The group should turn over around £9m this year and is looking to expand its international finance arm into Egypt and Turkey.
Ben Allan, 31 Company: The Insert & Leaflet Team (TILT)
Web: www.tilt.co.uk
Focus: Marketing & publishing
Big brands are literally queuing up to advertise in TILT’s as recommended consumer guides, which cover areas such as insurance, loans and mortgages, motoring and money. TILT is now partnering with experts such as celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson and money-management guru Alvin Hall, who provide tips on a sponsorship basis. Around 53 million guides will be distributed this year and TILT looks set to increase this figure to 67 million in 2008. The five-strong team will generate a turnover of £6.7m this year, with profits in excess of £1m. It runs campaigns via door drop, mailing, inserts and online and will introduce two new guides next year, in entertainment and health and fitness.
Savage was recently recognised as New Statesman Edge Upstarts Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2003 he and Alasdair Harris set up Blue Ventures, running marine conservation trips to Madagascar. It makes about £350,000 a year, has won two UN prizes, responsible travel awards and recently, an award worth £140,000. He has also set up a ‘wiki’ for submitting eco-friendly tips called Tip The Planet, launched Make Your Mark with a Tenner with Oli Barrett and sits on the board of Young Enterprise London. His latest venture, Bright Green Talent, founded with Paul Hannam, is a recruitment agency helping companies with a CSR or environmental agenda recruit and retain talented staff.
Serial entrepreneur Wasmund turned down the position of CEO at Bebo (and the sizeable equity stake that went with it) 18 months ago, after falling in “the business equivalent of love at first sight” with business partner Dan Wagner. They now manage the $100m Brightstation Ventures fund, along with fellow Young Gun Ben Way, have a 50% stake in Shiny Media, and have worked on a number of new ventures, including timeline history site Miomi. A shopping site for women, Osoyou, has just launched and her social enterprise project will be next.
Andrew Crawford, 35 Company: The Book Depository
Web: www.bookdepository.co.uk
Focus: Book publisher and distributor
Crawford started up with a mission – to make all books available to all. Three years later, the company is one of the UK’s 10 largest booksellers, has a turnover of £24m and can source and dispatch 1.7 million titles within 48 hours from its Gloucester distribution centre. A site allowing customers to self-publish books for £4.99 and a comprehensive book database are coming soon.
Founded last year, MOMA sells healthy oat-based breakfast products at five busy London railway stations. Amy and partner, Tom Mercer, have just taken out a loan through the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme, to ramp up production to meet the rapidly expanding wholesale division. MOMA products are on sale at Selfridges and are proving a huge hit in office cafés.
