UKpreneur catches up with - Ben Way
UKpreneur catches up with Ben Way to hear more about his latest project -the Horses Mouth.
If you don’t know who Ben Way is then let me give you some history, Ben was one of the first dot com millionaires after developing a search technology called Waysearch which later became a business-to-business product called Pulsar. He was reportedly worth £18.3m in the 2001 Sunday Times Rich List. He started his first business in 1995 on his 15th birthday making him at that time the youngest company director in the UK.
He won “New Business Millennium Young Entrepreneur Of The Year” in 2000 which was given to him by Gordon Brown. However, after a dispute with the investors in 2001 he was diluted out of the business and lost everything. The word ‘dispute’ and ‘investors’ go so well together!
In 2003 he started The Rainmakers with Oli Barrett which is an innovations and corporate venturing company which has assisted businesses such as Friends Abroad, Soflow, Curious Generation, Rentrino, the brilliant Sock Rush, Stem, Udate, 118118.com, StressServe and more.
In 2006, he appeared on the Channel 4 prime time TV show Secret Millionaire 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.
Ben’s latest project is the Horses Mouth - “horsesmouth is where social networking meets social enterprise; where personal contributions create public value; where human capital is unlocked to create social capital. It’s social networking with a purpose. It’s social networking for grown-ups. We call it the wisdomocracy”
In a nutshell you can give advice or gain advice on any subject, or both!
I fire some questions at Ben regarding the Horse’s Mouth and his future:
1. What’s your involvement with The Horse’s Mouth?
I am CIO responsible for turning concept into the product(we are just
going through our second iteration expect some big changes in
functionality and design) I have worked on the project for a long time
and helped take MT Rainey’s(the founder) vision that everybody has
something to give or gain and turn it into reality.
2. Why do you think HM has the potential to grow even bigger?
At the moment we have just launched a small beta site to test the
concept, it has worked really well and its amazing what people are
sharing with each other, I just hope we can get the exposure we need so
that everybody can understand the power of the concept. Potentially it
could be massive the concept is sound we just need the people!
3. What’s your favourite web 2.0 development to date?
I have to say the obvious one but its probably facebook - it has
actually allowed me to do change the way I interact with people and has
the chance of becoming the application layer for social networking on
the internet.
4. What are your latest ventures since finishing Ch4 Secret Millionaire?
Hush Hush I am developing a project in the de-regulated postal market -
I know sounds boring - but it’s the biggest project I have ever come up
with….
5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
I would like to be either running my own investment fund or heavily
involved in environmental technology - or both!
6. Any regrets in your business life so far?
So many, but seeing as I have learned from every single mistake I have
made; I can’t complain!
Thanks for your time Ben and good luck with the Horse’s Mouth and your new venture!Keep in touch!