Worth Capital

During my career I’ve been fortunate to work with, learn from and help the leadership teams of some of the largest businesses in the world. I grew up in retail – including senior roles in Kingfisher and John Lewis Department Stores. Most recently I’ve been a Director of ?What If!, the global innovation consultancy, helping the leadership teams of some of the most recognisable companies across the globe including IKEA, Waitrose, AB Inbev and Tesco.

Insight gained from helping the worlds largest businesses has led to my belief that the commercial tide has shifted and it is start-ups that have the most potential to challenge the normal rules of business, create new consumer behaviours and to create brands that are truly loved.

My empathy with the world of entrepreneurs comes from establishing, and then selling, a retail business and from making several angel investments. I’ve had one very profitable large exit and am sitting on investments in a dozen growing businesses.

To be successful, an entrepreneur doesn’t always need a great idea, but they will always need a great (and detailed) plan. Success will mostly come from two things. Firstly, the relentless discipline of reviewing and measuring progress against the plan. Secondly, employing a team who can deliver the many small actions to fulfil the bigger plan. Stirring in the other magic ingredients of natural flair, creativity and passion, and the entrepreneur will likely taste success.

I’ve always enjoyed taking pretty big calculated risks, so co-founding iD (a leading experiential marketing agency) straight out of university felt like a natural thing to do. Over the last twenty years, the success of iD has enabled me to have many other adventures in business. These have included creating a disruptive media business called Brandspace, which we built from scratch and sold to private equity in the space of just 5 years. I am also an active startup investor and have backed over 30 businesses across the media, medical and FMCG sectors

Over the last 15 years my career has allowed me to work in various operational management & relationship development roles for numerous international brands & media partners.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Worth Capital founders for over 13 years and was asked to join the business in 2014 to develop the Facebook relationship, which led to the successful delivery of the Big App Fund. I am now responsible for the strategic delivery of the Start-Up Series competition, a process which unearths some of the most prosperous new start-ups in the UK.

It’s a delight to work with such talented entrepreneurs who become the lifeblood of our business after winning investment via our competitions. I look forward to working with many more over the coming years with anticipation and excitement.