Ben Way

Ben Way
Ben Way with Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Born	(1980-09-28) September 28, 1980 Exeter, Devon, England
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Spouse	None

Ben Way (born 28th of September 1980, Exeter, Devon, England) 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.

Life and career

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. It is reported that he was in the Sunday Times Rich List under Robbie Williams the same day he could not buy a tube ticket.

He went on to advise both the UK and US governments in technology, before heading up technical and environmental investments and due-diligence for the Rotch Property Group who have over £1 Billion in asset management.

In 2003 he started [1] The Rainmakers, which is an innovations and corporate venturing company. He also has involvement in a number of other companies.

In 2006, he appeared on the Channel 4 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.

Has been quoted as describing the Semantic Web as "the most powerful development of information management since the creation of the database"

Launched in 2007 the social website HorsesMouth which made it into the top 25 UK web 2.0 start ups more about the project here.

In early 2007 he was invited to join Brightstation Ventures an $100m technology VC fund as the CIO (Chief Innovations Officer) where he has worked with projects such as miomi and Shiny Media.

In September 2007 he launched the world first POIP service, ViaPost which allows printing of documents over the internet which are then sent by Royal Mail

Publications

• Telegraph Business Blogger
• How to be a Teenage Millionaire
• City AM Columnist 2005-2006

Supported Charities and Organisations

• Social Firms(Patron)
• Edge(Advisor)
• Anne Frank(Judge)
• Edge Ice(Judge)
• Make Your Mark(Judge)
• Unlimited(Judge)
• Pedro Club(Significant Donation)
• Nesta(Advisor)

Awards and Achievements

New Business Millennium Young Entrepreneur Of The Year

Young Gun 2007

Television, film, and print

He has been in a number of documentaries including Britons Richest Kids(1997, Channel 4) and the Secret Millionaire. "3 Minute Wonder on Robotics" Channel 4 Telegraph Business Blogger How to be a Teenage Millionaire

Politics

In 2006 he stood as a candidate in Bayswater Ward in the City of Westminster.

References

• Telegraph piece on Go Green Plumbing
• Piece in the sun about Eco-preneurs
• Financial Times Comment On Commercial Mortgages
• Financial Times about ViaPost
• Entrepreneur Ben Way on a meeting of minds with telecoms boss Chris Moss
• THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE: Channel 4
• One day, we'll take over the world...
• Trials of a whiz-kid on Murder Mile
• It pays to be the nice guy
• Liz Taylor adored it. Now a reality show is rescuing the Pedro Club
• Link in IMDB
• After wife swapping and celebrity sex, new reality TV phenomenon is ... philanthropy
• BBC Midweek
• Secret Millionair Blog
• No teenage kicks
• Telegraph article on Dyslexia
• The Guardian Article
• The Telegraph article
• Observer piece on Secret Millionaire
• Sunday Times Biog Piece
• Channel 4 News Piece
• Spectator Article
• Ben Way commenting on the innovation environment in the UK
• An education in the life of Ben Way, internet millionaire
• ukPreneur Blog
• Viapost service to challenge postal operators

Links

• The Rainmakers Ben Way's Main Company
• Go Dine A Restaurant booking service Ben Way is involved with
• Go Green Plumbing a London based green plumber company that Ben Way started
• Edge working with Ben Way
• Ben Way on incubation acceleration and the value of failure
• Greendora - Ben Way's Green Products Company