Stuart Forrest

I have been self-employed for most of my working life having started numerous enterprises during my school years. My first proper venture being a parcel business at 18 and countless other ventures including a chain of 9 car insurance shops before I was 25. In 1995 I started being interested in the internet and combined with my love of technology and a limited skill in programming I started to look at starting a venture in the sector. In 1997 I combined with a friend, Mark Hallam to start VNETUK which we renamed BusinessServe the following year. In 1998 we also started The Search Engineers Ltd which was one of the early SEO companies in the UK. By 1999 with over 100 staff we were tempted into a merger and then a private equity deal which became BusinessServe PLC. In 2001 we decided that we wanted to go in a different direction and left to start another business. We combined with another friend, Angus MacSween and started Iomart Internet and the web directory Ufindus which we sold to BT plc in 2008 for £20 million. In 2009 we started contentys.com which nows employs around 40 people. We are really proud of the direction we are going in and are looking forward to substantially growing this business in 2011. In 2011 myself and Mark Hallam agreed to join forces with a small but fast-growing clothing business caled The Cuckoos Nest Ltd to help them build a technology platform and and expand throughout Europe and hopefully the world. The business has sold 50,000 t-shirts in the last six months and has distribution agreements for Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and of course the UK. I am married and have four children currently as of October 2012 aged, 8,11,12 and 16. My hobbies include flying planes and I own a Beech Bonanza A36 six seater. I use it occassionally for business but mostly for please with my family.