FT Start-Up Stories

Alex Klein tells Jonathan Moules about his ambition to transform attitudes to computing with his kit to help people of all ages make their own and write the programmes to go with them.

Geoff Watts and Julia Fowler co-founded EDITED, an innovative tech company that brings data analysis to the retail industry, nearly a decade ago. They tell Jonathan Moules that the toughest problem they've faced was when they hired someone who wasn't a team player.

Twenty years ago, Chetan Dube left the world of academia, at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, to pursue a career in business. He tells Jonathan Moules what inspired the move. 

Michelle You, co-founder of the music ticketing and concert discovery platform Songkick, tells Jonathan Moules about the fun of creating a business, and the sense of failure she felt after the company was acquired by Time Warner.

When Peter Mühlmann’s mum had some bad experiences making her first purchases online in 2007, he decided there must be a way to guide consumers to businesses they could trust. The result was Trustpilot.

Sarah Murray’s mobile alarm and tracking technology company faced an early setback when a government contract she’d been pinning her hopes on fell through. She tells Jonathan Moules how she dealt with the disappointment and bounced back.

Marcin Kleczynski’s interest in computer software was sparked at the age of 14 when a battle to remove a virus from his home computer brought him into contact with the world of cyber geeks. He teamed up with some of them to provide a free service, later turning their ‘freemium’ model into a lucrative global business, Malwarebytes.Picture credit: Alpana Aras

Julie Deane set up the Cambridge Satchel Company as a way of financing her children's education, but its rapid success attracted outside investors and the venture took a direction that made her feel uncomfortable. She tells Jonathan Moules how she regained her confidence and took back control.

If you are trying to fill a gap in the market and a very conservative industry tells you it can’t be done, then go for it because there is “massive opportunity and the sky’s the limit”, iZettle’s Jacob de Geer tells Jonathan Moules