#13: "It’s just as important to not start a business that isn’t going to work" with Nick Jenkins
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In this episode I speak with a dragon... in the TV sense at least! I had the pleasure of chatting with Nick Jenkins; founder of Moonpig.com, Dragon on the BBC's Dragon's Den, Philanthropist, and Angel Investor.
Nick has an amazing backstory, starting with him reading Russian at university, before going on to live in the Soviet Union (as it then was) and surviving its downfall. Further to starting and successfully exiting a business in Russia, Nick went on to do an MBA in the UK during which time he came up with the idea for Moonpig.com.
After years of planning, hard work, and very impressive growth, Nick sold Moonpig for a cool ￡120,000,000 (<< I just wanted to write all the zeros!).
Nick then went on to appear as one of the Dragons on Dragon's Den where he invested in a number of companies. We get into how he found the process of the show, behind the scenes edits you don't get to see, and how some of his investments are progressing.
More recently, Nick has been focussing on philanthropy with a particular interest in access to education for those in less fortunate regions.
In this episode we discuss:
- Business planning and when not to start a company
- Spotting new markets
- Understanding your finances and the return on investments
- The usefulness of further education
- The importance of getting real world experience... and cash in your pocket
- What to consider when seeking investment
- Mobile technologies, AI, and machine learning
- Philanthropy
- And as always, so much more...
Links from this episode: