Photobox: Graham Hobson (Co-Founder) on how he built a £400m business
Graham Hobson is the Co Founder of Photobox, the digital printing powerhouse that employs 1,000+ people across Europe, and exited for a reported £400m+.But it wasn’t a simple journey - 16 years in the making, including 5 where they scaled back to 3 people, Graham shares the highs and lows of their tumultuous ride to eventual success. Before that - a life in the city, in banking’s glory years, where he saw every immoral act under the sun happen in the office before his eyes - he has lots of experience and insight to share through his career, and is well worth the listen!
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Show Notes
In this episode you will learn;
- Why he started Photobox, and what it was like running a startup over the dotcom boom and bust, within the first year of it’s inception.
- The complexity of their raising funds, from trying and failing; from growing fast to scaling all the way back, what that felt like for them at the time.
- The process of buying and selling companies as a means to grow
- How to manage culture when absorbing other companies
- What it’s like starting as CEO, then hiring someone to replace you, and becoming CTO.
And lots more of course...
Key Quotes
- I don’t see myself as an Entrepreneur because to me, they feel more like the types that do it repeatedly, and perhaps I just got lucky. I’m one startup away from feeling like I’ve earned that title
- You dont manage one football club and get called a ‘football manager’ so to me the same is true about an entrepreneur.
Top Advice:
- Sit back, assess a situation, and decide what to do next, instead of making a knee jerk reaction.
- Figure out why you want to be an entrepreneur - do you have a problem to solve, or do you want to be your own boss, if it’s the latter, don’t go sit in WeWork - get a normal job, build up your experience and contacts, and be patient until a real problem comes up that you need to solve.
Other Fun Facts:
- He was cautioned by US naval intelligence for hacking
- He worked next to Nick Leeson - the infamous Rogue Trader who brought down a whole bank
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