My Influences: Alex Buttle

Entrepreneur you admire

Right now, it has to be Larry Page at Google. He’s driving Google to buy new companies, launch incredible new products and change the game at every step. And everything Google does right now seems to pay off.

Favourite Film

Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope. My childhood started here.

Music/Band

The Stone Roses, Radiohead, The Smiths. All have enriched my life in equal measure.

Favourite TV Show

I have too much work to do and too many children to spend time with, so I don’t get a chance to watch much TV, but I’ll choose Celebrity Juice for a mindless blast of crude humour any day.

Theatre

Um, I go to the pantomime in Richmond every year. Does that count?

Book

The Hobbit. The first proper book I ever read, and still one of the best.

One Piece of advice to a new Start Up

Go your own way. In a hyper competitive business environment, it’s the only way that will work. Here’s an example of bad decision making: near where I live in West London, an expensive wine shop closed down because it wasn’t making any money due to being surrounded by more competitively-priced supermarkets. A few months later, someone bought the lease and opened up…. another expensive wine shop. I felt like knocking on the door and telling them to stop! You have to find or invent a gap in the market and run with it, if you’re not doing that, you’re not doing anything that’s likely to succeed. You need to create your own magic.