26 entrepreneurs
Finding love online – and a £50 million success story
In June, Ross Williams was named Young Director of the Year by the Institute of Directors, just the latest in a long line of accolades for the CEO and co-founder of Windsor-based digital media company Global Personals. As one of the fastest growing privately-owned online dating and digital media companies in the world, it owns and operates sites such as
justsingles.com and
smooch.com, as well as offering a B2B service, White Label Dating, allowing brands and individuals to power their own dating sites utilising Global Personals’ systems expertise, database and sophisticated customer service support teams. With a turnover of £50 million, the company employs nearly 200 people and was recently ranked 5th in The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 – not bad for a business which was started with nothing more than a good idea and a credit card. Alison Dewar found out how love really pays
As the youngest in the family – he has twin sisters a decade older – 36-year-old Williams was born in East London to parents who both worked hard running their own businesses. A family relocation to Ascot in the late 70s saw him attend Reading Blue Coat School, where he says he was “never academic”, preferring instead to become involved with the local RAF cadet group. By 14, he had flown a glider solo, moving on to aeroplanes at just 17 and winning an RAF flying scholarship along the way. On leaving school, he took a gap year break to Canada before returning to study psychology and French at university in Plymouth. Six months in, he realised a military life wasn’t for him and, recognising that instead of relying on his RAF bursary he needed to earn some money, set up his first business, web design company
Rawnet.com, in 1997. He finally graduated in 2001 with a 2.2 – having had to re-sit his first year – intent on pursuing his dream of becoming an airline pilot. The atrocity which was September 11 and the global downturn that followed put paid to those ideas and instead he moved back home with his parents and turned his attention to the web business. As is often the case, fate intervened and it was after expanding into serviced offices that he met Steve Pammenter (co-founder and COO) and the idea for Global Personals began to take shape. Today, it’s not only a business success but a personal one too – Pammenter met his wife on one of the company’s websites and Williams is currently dating his very own online love match.
launched our own dating websites, the first of which was
singles365.com. Of course, we needed to fund advertising to make sure it was in the google rankings, so that’s where our credit cards came in.
How quickly did the business take off? What drives your entrepreneurial spirit?
It’s all I’ve ever known. At school, I used to go to the local market and buy three magazines for £1 and then sell them for £1 each. My parents were good role models, I always had to do jobs to earn my pocket money, working hard was ingrained from an early age.
Why online dating?
It was 2003 and the concept of online dating was starting to develop. My idea was to offer a white label service so organisations could use our technology and expertise, but operate it under their own brand name. All they had to do was market it, we would do everything else.
You set up the business with your credit card, why was that?
As well as offering the white label option, we
www.businessmag.co.uk
Within four years Global Personals had an annual £3m turnover. I was still involved in the web design agency, but at that point I decided to focus on the dating business and we successfully grew it to £30m a year revenue by 2011. We had hundreds of entrepreneurs who recognised that they could make a nice living by investing in running an online dating business using our platform to specialise in specific areas, whether geographically or by sector, such as age, lifestyle or hobby. Operating on a shared revenue basis means it’s a winning formula for both parties, by 2012 we were at £40m and now it’s approaching £50m.
You must be very proud of your achievements?
I am, and most of all because of the nearly 200 staff we employ now across multiple offices – including two in the UK and one in San Francisco. It’s all been done without a penny of external investment, we took the risks and it’s paid off.
Were you surprised by its success?
No – you have to have confidence in yourself. If you truly believe in what you are doing, then that will inspire a belief in others and it becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy. If you believe strongly enough, you can create an energy to achieve amazing
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2014
things. I was naive and inexperienced in business but I knew enough to believe it was possible to be successful and no-one said I couldn’t.
How well do you and Steve Pammenter work together?
We’re very different, our skills complement each other and we’re a great partnership. I’ve met entrepreneurs who’ve tried to do it all but that’s not
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