WW L L INTERVIEW
AN INTERVIEW WITH SIMON NIXON
Wirral Life talk to Moneysupermarket . com founder , Simon Nixon on life , his success and his new venture SimonEscapes . com
One of the UK ’ s richest entrepreneurs , Simon Nixon , founder of Moneysupermarket . com talks to Wirral life in an exclusive interview .
Simon went to school in Flint , Wales and lived in Chester until recently . At the age of 20 , he dropped out of his accountancy degree at Nottingham University , and in 1999 co-founded the website MoneySuperMarket . com . In 2016 , he sold his last shares in it making him a billionaire .
He now runs a travel website , SimonEscapes , which offers his personal collection of luxury holiday homes for private rental . The collection includes luxury homes located in his favourite places : Chipping Campden in the heart of The Cotswolds ; Cornwall ’ s Booby ’ s Bay ; the hillside town of Deia in Mallorca ; the shores of Lake Windermere ; the Platinum Coast of Barbados and Malibu West Coast USA .
You have achieved so much , what has been key to your success ? Drive and perseverance which I feel are essential qualities for any entrepreneur to be successful - as you will receive many setbacks ! Also , I was lucky to be an ‘ outlier ’. I was in the right time and the right place to take advantage of the internet boom in early 2000 .
Before coming up with the idea of Moneysupermarket , did you consider any other business ventures ? No , Moneysupermarket was the organic progression of a business I was already running . It was a mortgage sourcing software product which we had developed for mortgage brokers . When the internet took off in the early 2000 ( s ) I made our offering consumer friendly and provided consumers with the online tool to compare the prices of every mortgage in the market .
Why do you think Moneysupermarket was so successful ? It was definitely down to being at the right place at the right time - this provided us with first mover advantage . We recruited a high calibre executive team who were great at executing . We were very focused and kept pushing the boundaries by constant innovation . The internet moves at such a pace - if you don ’ t innovate you are dead .
In 2016 , you sold your last shares in Moneysupermarket , did you think you had gone as far as you could ? Personally I wanted a new challenge . I now head a team of business analysts that effectively help me run my own private hedge fund . We invest in businesses and property in varying sectors and geographies spread all over the world . Simonescapes . com ( www . simonescapes . com ) is my luxury holiday home rental business and is just a small cog in the overall portfolio . We offer luxury houses in some of the UK ’ s prime locations including Lake Windermere , Booby ’ s Bay in Cornwall and Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds . We also have a villa in Deia , Mallorca , two beach houses in Malibu and have just completed our latest project in Barbados opening a stunning five bedroom beach house on the island ’ s West Coast .
Having moved from financial services to the luxury leisure industry with stunning luxury homes in the UK and around the world , do you intend to extend your property portfolio and if so , where will your next acquisition be ? We have grown the portfolio rapidly over the last few years and are now pausing for breath . Our Barbados and Malibu properties have all opened in the last 12 months !
Have you had any famous or notable persons stay at your luxury homes ? Many premiership footballers , tennis players and TV celebrities have stayed in our properties . Celebrity chefs have filmed their shows from our kitchens to capture the sea or lake views ! They book with us as they like to retain their privacy , so we don ’ t like to mention names . wirrallife . com 19