Fittingly for a man who was named after a bank, Gavin Wheeldon has spent much of his life making money.
His parents still hadn鈥檛 chosen a middle name when they stopped off at a branch of Lloyds Bank en route to his christening 鈥� and decided to call him Lloyd.
Wheeldon is the guest on the .
You can listen to the episode – which has been sponsored by sponsored by – on 辞谤听 or watch it on YouTube below.
At the听age of 11 he started buying window locks, chains and spy holes for 50p and selling them fitted for 拢5.50 – giving some of the proceeds to his Mum.
At the age of 14 he lied to his bosses to get a telesales job selling kitchens at night 鈥� and quickly became the star salesman.
The young Wheeldon attended 20 per cent of his last year at school 鈥� and it was only years later that his behaviour was explained when he was diagnosed with ADHD.
In 2003 he launched his business – Applied Language Solutions (ALS) – with the help of a second mortgage and ran up credit card debts of 拢54,000.
It was while at ALS that he appeared on听Dragons鈥� Den听in 2007 after unsuccessfully offering 3 per cent of his business for a 拢250,000 investment.听At the time it was the highest amount ever asked for the lowest amount of equity.
鈥淚 figured if I go on and get the money that鈥檚 a good outcome,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd if I didn鈥檛, which I fully expected, I鈥檇 get some good PR if I didn鈥檛 make a mess of it.”
He eventually sold ALS to Capita f辞谤听拢67.5m but quickly realised that doing nothing wasn鈥檛 for him and in 2012 he launched Purple听because of his frustration at the quality of the WiFi he kept experiencing.
With some help from his daughter, he came up with the name Purple and today the company has evolved into a vital tool to allow businesses to turn their physical venues into intelligent spaces.
Despite having a happy knack of making money, he says that鈥檚 not his primary motivation.
鈥淚f money is ever the driving force you鈥檙e probably not going to do that well in life,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou need to love the journey and tech is what I love.
鈥淭he North is almost the underdog of the UK. It鈥檚 come out swinging, particularly in the tech scene. There鈥檚 more in London but Manchester and other parts of the North have got an incredibly thriving tech scene, which is fantastic.鈥�
Purple raised 拢10.5m from BGF in 2023 and Wheeldon believes AI will change the world in more ways than people imagine.
鈥淭here鈥檚 so much potential for what it can do,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 two or five years, coding won鈥檛 exist. There are so many jobs that will not exist in their current form.
鈥淩ight now people have got their heads in the sand. It will turn everything on its head.听People who learn how to ride that wave will do very well.鈥�
This episode of the is sponsored by
It was produced by What Media. The interviewer was 老九品茶Cloud鈥檚 executive editor Chris Maguire.
You can listen to the 老九品茶 on ; on ; or on .
The other guests on the 老九品茶 have been William Lees-Jones; Jennifer Atkinson; James Whittaker; Lisa Morton; Andrew Turner; Sara Davies; Roisin Currie; Sophie Milliken; Matthew Scullion; Garry Partington; and Nazir Afzal.
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