My business life has four main strands; consultancy, public speaking, start ups, and publication/media. Each strand feeds the others and allows me to stay in touch with the leading edge, latest developments and current problems.  It also gives me a broad perspective that supports my engagements in education and other activities.  

Rules of Engagement

In order to minimise risk and maximise my resources I employ 4 simple rules when starting any new business:

1. I never enter a sector where there is active competition

2. I never start anything unless I can get it to market in < 9 months

3. I never start anything unless it has the potential to become, or become part of, something really big

4. I only work with friends & people you can really trust

5. And implicit in all this - it has to be fun

When I engage with any existing business or group I always look for uniqueness - I never engage with any 'me too' operations.

  Business Matrix

Before and after leaving BT I invested my own time, money and effort in building a broad range of new companies, and advising and supporting others. The grid below gives an overview of my current portfolio including my home company - ConceptLabs - which has a further 7 start-ups on 4 continents.

For an outline history of this build go to Start Up Experience

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