It’s always nice to see people you know doing their bit for the country and my friend Eric Newnham (left), boss of go-go OOH agency Talon, is one such, which has now been recognised by the Great British Entrepreneur Awards which has shortlisted him for Serial Entrepreneur Of the Year.
The awards, sponsored by bizcrowd, have a huge number of categories with pretty long shortlists but the ‘Serial’ category is brief by comparison. Newnham has apparently started his very own venture fund, investing in 25 companies. Aoart from Talon, which has grown like topsy to bill around £150m in the UK, the best-known of the others is mobile media firm Blis Media.
Other names you might recognise dotted around the various shortlists include Robin Grant and Nathan McDonald of We Are Social and former Virgin man Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines. I haven’t heard of any of the other Serials although one describes himself as a ‘philanthropreneur,’ which I don’t recommend you attempt after a night in the pub.
Anyway it’s good to see Eric spending his Kinetic earn-out money in such a positive fashion (WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell may view things differently).
There’s a further and intriguing category in the awards called ‘Captivating Entrepreneur Of The Year.’ Is this for the entrepreneur who scrubs up best? Anyway, Eric wasn’t nominated for that one.
