Richard Harpin: The entrepreneur who sold his business for £4 billion - Small Business Sessions podcast (S8E1)
Posted: Wed 8th Jan 2025
The Small Business Sessions, Enterprise Nation's podcast, is back for a eighth exciting series of inspiring entrepreneurial stories and expert business tips!
The podcast is powered by the business.connected online training programme and our partners Vodafone Business, Constant Contact, JP Morgan and Dropbox.
Episode one: Richard Harpin, HomeServe
Joining freelance journalist Dan Martin for the first episode in the new series is entrepreneur and investor Richard Harpin.
Richard is best known as founder of home assistance company, HomeServe, but his entrepreneurial journey began at an early age. That included selling rabbits at age 6, and running a fishing fly-tie company, which earnt him enough for the deposit on his first house.
Richard grew HomeServe into a FTSE 100 listed business, with thousands of employees serving millions of customers around the world. In 2023 he sold it to Brookfield Asset Management for £4.1 billion.
Richard has stayed on as chair of HomeServe EMEA. He also invests in other entrepreneurs via Growth Partner and in 2023, he acquired Business Leader, a platform and membership community supporting mid-sized firms.
With Richard's huge entrepreneurial experience, this is a podcast you don't want to miss!
In the show, Dan and Richard discuss topics including:
Richard's experience becoming an entrepreneur at a young age
the inspiration behind HomeServe and how he launched the business
the importance of an omni-channel strategy
how to build a team
what he looks for when investing in a business
advice for pitching
the mission of Business Leader
how you can meet Richard!
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