Bottom Line: Slow and steady wins this race to market June 16, 2014 ONE NEEDS to look no further than the World Cup for a reminder of how people love to swing from one extreme to the other. An embarrassing 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands, for example, and suddenly Spain – the current World Cup holders and winners of the last two European Championships – are deemed to be [...]
Fighting forward: The Black Farmer’s Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones talks sausages, political incorrectness and willpower May 31, 2015 Being an entrepreneur is all about timing. You can have the best-laid plans in the world, a huge amount of skill, but it’s really about catching the zeitgeist.” This is Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones’s opening line to me. After a brief pause, he adds, “life is also all about timing”. This is something the founder of [...]
Don’t get burned by the buy-to-let boom: Funding retirement with rental income could turn into a disaster April 7, 2015 The new pensions freedoms are finally here and many savers will be considering taking a lump sum from their savings. Investing in a buy-to-let property to fund retirement may seem like a good idea, but pensions experts are warning of the risks. Eighteen years after the creation of the first buy-to-let mortgage, this form of [...]
Restaurant review: Second time lucky for Kensington’s Zaika? March 31, 2015 Zaika has a pleasingly convoluted history. Pay attention, now. It opened in 1999 under the auspices of chef Vineet Bhati and two years later won a Michelin star – the first time an Indian restaurant had received the accolade (two did that year). It held onto the star for four years, during which time it moved [...]
From flights to philanthropy: Ebookers founder Dinesh Dhamija talks luck, Romania and why Britain’s entrepreneurs shouldn’t be too bothered about the General Election April 12, 2015 We often hear that the startup landscape of today lacks funding opportunities: the banks still aren’t lending to small businesses, and despite pockets of cash existing, unless you’ve got the inside track, it’s difficult to know how to access them. But Dinesh Dhamija, the multi-millionaire son of an Indian diplomat who, in 1999, founded online [...]
George Osborne likes to think the unthinkable: Now he should abolish the Budget March 16, 2015 It’s a well-known saying that “turkeys don’t vote for Christmas”. So calling for George Osborne to take to the despatch box tomorrow and announce that he’s abolishing future Budgets – in turn, greatly diminishing the Treasury’s power – might seem a fanciful plea. In truth, it’s about as likely as Ed Miliband offering journalists the [...]
Forging ahead: Raidla Ellex founder Juri Raidla talks Baltic collaboration, grandchildren and the day the world changed June 14, 2015 At the back end of 1991, the Soviet Union began heaving itself out of Estonia – 60 years after it invaded and illegally occupied it, and shoved in a puppet government. For the former Estonian SSR, independence was a watershed moment – a brighter future for a country reclaimed. But this was a country [...]
Flying off the scale: Fever-Tree’s Tim Warrillow talks malaria, crane strikes and private equity May 25, 2015 We're seeing a renaissance; it’s incredibly exciting. People are better educated and the market is growing and growing – and quite right too, it’s a great English invention.” Tim Warrillow is talking about the gin and tonic – something the co-founder of maverick drinks company Fever-Tree knows a fair bit about. The gin and [...]
Saga nudges past issue price on its first day May 29, 2014 Over-50s insurance-to-holiday provider Saga yesterday joined a small band of newly floated firms trading above their issuance stock price, as it began trading in London. The group, which was listed on the stock market at 185p, rose to 188p during the day but ended up barely above its initial price, closing at 185.25p. Saga, which [...]
Taxi app Hailo scoops Europas award ahead of today’s bitter Uber strike June 10, 2014 HAILO may be embroiled in today’s anti-Uber taxi strike but there was no place for app-bashing at last night’s Europas Awards, the annual gong-giving bash for Europe’s tech start-ups. The taxi app, which has seen many of its black cab partners revolt against it, picked up the award for Best Transport app but aside from [...]