Ben Way - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Benjamin Peter Bernard Way (born 28 September 1980) Ben Way is an English entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

best known for his appearance on Secret Millionaire
Secret Millionaire
The Secret Millionaire is a reality television show which originated in the UK, in which millionaires go incognito into impoverished communities and agree to give away tens of thousands of pounds . Members of the community are told the cameras are present to film a documentary...

, he started his first company at the age of 15. He went on to raise £25 million in his teens making him one of the first dot com

Dot-com company

A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...

millionaires.

Early life

While growing up in a village in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, his parents separated when he was young. He has a sister, Hermione, and was diagnosed with dyslexia

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...

at a young age.

Business History

Ben started his first company ‘Quad’, a computer consultancy, at age 15. At the age of 19 he raised £25 million from Jersey based venture capitalist to create an online shopping comparison technology called Pulsar. However, after a dispute with the investors in 2001 he was diluted out of the business and lost everything. It is reported that he was in the under thirties Sunday Times Rich List 2001 on the same day he could not buy a tube ticket.

He won "New Business Millennium Young Entrepreneur Of The Year" in 2000 which was given to him by Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

. After receiving this award he went on to advise both the White House and the UK government on technology as well as joining the internet incubator NetB2B2 PLC as a non-executive. After this he headed up technical and environmental investments and due-diligence for the Rotch Property Group. During this time he also lectured for Imperial College.

He currently runs The Rainmakers, which he started in 2004 an innovation and incubation company, through this he got involved with a number of start up companies, including the online mentoring company Horsesmouth, language learning company FriendsAbroad which was sold to Babbel. During this time he was also chief innovation officer for Brightstation Ventures a $100m technology VC fund started by Dan Wagner

Dan Wagner

Dan Wagner is an English entrepreneur and businessman. He was one of the first British-based Internet entrepreneurs, having founded M.A.I.D in 1984, a company which provided online information services...

and Shaa Wasmund.

Business Ventures

He is involved in a large number of start-up companies such as GoDine the restaurant booking service, FuelMyBlog http://www.fuelmyblog.com the blogging product review service, FuelMyApp http://www.fuelmyapp.com the iPhone apps store review service, an SME advice service called Smarta http://www.smarta.com as well as a graduate recruitment company called Brave New Talent http://www.bravenewtalent.com.

In March 2009, Ben used social networking site Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

to form a team to develop a new online delivery service, SendSocial http://www.sendsocial.com, which allows people to send parcels without revealing personal details.

He also has involvement in a number of green start-up companies including bio fuel producer LeafLog and a green plumbing Company called Go Green Plumbing he launched a renewable energy company Freetricity Free Solar Panels that takes advantage of the UK governments feed in tariff scheme to provide solar power for free.

He is the founder of Viapost http://www.viapost.com, an online postal company. The POIP service allows printing of documents over the internet which are then sent by Royal Mail

Royal Mail

Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...

. As part of an investment deal by Conduco PLC, the management put the company into administration (insolvency)

Administration (insolvency)

As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – an alternative to liquidation – is often known as going...

and created a Phoenix company

Phoenix company

A phoenix company is a commercial entity which has emerged from the collapse of another through insolvency.The new company is set up to trade in the same or similar trading activities as the former, and is able to present the appearance of "business as usual" to its customers.-Phoenix Companies in...

the company is still trading.

He is involved in his sister's production company Newspepper http://www.newspepper.com which covers a large number of UK tech sector events.

In 2009 the Rainmakers opened a USA branch through this they have got involved in a number of US start-ups including Traffic Spaces http://www.trafficspaces.com the ad management platform and BoostCTR http://www.boostctr.com the Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

adwords optimizer.

His current companies are listed on the Rainmakers website MakingRain.com.

Television, film, and media

In 1999, he was featured on Britain's Richest Kids on ITV. After this he appeared on a number of television shows including Big Breakfast, partly due to some unusual restrictions on his personal life.

In 2006, he appeared on the Channel 4 TV show Secret Millionaire
Secret Millionaire
The Secret Millionaire is a reality television show which originated in the UK, in which millionaires go incognito into impoverished communities and agree to give away tens of thousands of pounds . Members of the community are told the cameras are present to film a documentary...

where he gave away £40,000 in a philanthropic act after spending two weeks in Hackney as a volunteer. £20,000 was given to a youth organisation, £10,000 to a young entrepreneur, and another £10,000 as a thank you to one key member of the Hackney community. He subsequently appeared in the follow-up program Secret Millionaire Changed My Life.

In 2008 has appeared on a Channel Four, 3 Minute Wonder on Robotics

Robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

and as a "Web Guru" on Sky News

Sky News

Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

He has written for a number of publications including The Telegraph, City AM and a chapter in How to be a Teenage Millionaire.

Ben appeared on ITV's Take Me Out
Take Me Out (game show)
Take Me Out is a television dating game show, hosted by Paddy McGuinness, that started airing on ITV1 in the United Kingdom and TV3 Ireland on 2 January 2010. It is based on the Original Australian TV show Taken Out. In September 2010, Irish broadcaster TV3 started broadcating an Irish version of...

dating show on 20 February 2010, on which he declared his personal wealth as £10m, also taking Daisy Gigg out on a date who has been ditched 4 times on the show.

Supported charities and organisations

He has been involved with a number of charitable organisations, most notably his support of the Pedro Club and a youth club from Hackney which he gave money to through the Secret Millionaire

Secret Millionaire

The Secret Millionaire is a reality television show which originated in the UK, in which millionaires go incognito into impoverished communities and agree to give away tens of thousands of pounds . Members of the community are told the cameras are present to film a documentary...

. He is also the patron of Social Firms an organisation dedicated to getting employment for people with disabilities.

He has acted as a judge on behalf of a number of charities including Anne Frank Awards, Ice Edge Awards, Make Your Mark and Unlimited Awards as well as having been an advisor to the charities Edge and Nesta.

Politics

In 2006 he stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Bayswater

Bayswater

Bayswater is an area of west London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the west . It is a built-up district located 3 miles west-north-west of Charing Cross, bordering the north of Hyde Park over Kensington Gardens and having a population density of...

Ward in the City of Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.