Chris Flatt was a trainee fund manager on the graduate program at Mercury Asset Management (now Merrill) when he met Simon Rogerson and Guy Miles. At the turn of the millennium, the trio founded Octopus Group, the parent company of six financial and energy companies.
Looking back, it's hard to believe that three young men in their 20s created this hugely successful business on a whim. But that's exactly what happened. They had the help of what is now called the “terminator gene.”
“Everyone thought we were completely crazy,” said Mr. Flatt, who said he and his co-founders are managing Octopus Investments (the six divisions of Octopus Group, including British energy giant Octopus Energy). I recall the moment I dropped out of my graduate school program to start my first division.
They didn't have a grand business plan or attract investors.
“We thought, why not start our own fund management business? It's one of those reckless things that people sometimes do.”
Flatt was 23 years old and had only been working for two and a half years. But his brief experience in the corporate world convinced him that he would do everything in his power (both physically and with all of his $25,000 in savings) to make Octopus Investments a success. That was enough.
“We didn't want to go back to traditional jobs.”
Fratto didn't have to go back to a 9-to-5 job for another employer. He still co-manages his Octopus Group, which currently employs more than 2,500 people and serves 2.5 million customers.
Today, Octopus Investments, the company that started it all, manages more than $16.7 billion on behalf of clients, according to the company.
More than 70% of these funds target investments aimed at tackling climate change, improving people's quality of life and addressing inequality.
Pick up the phone and start dialing
Without a paycheck to fall back on, Mr. Flatt and his co-founders at Octopus will have to find investors for their business soon or go back to their old jobs.
They set up camp in the front room of Flat's London apartment, armed with their trusty copy of the Yellow Pages, a landline telephone between them, and “an old laptop about an inch thick.”
“We spent the better part of 2000 calling thousands of people and finding out about this startup fund we had never heard of, run by three very young people who didn't necessarily have long backgrounds in the financial industry. “I convinced the manager company to invest,” Flatt said. “It was extremely difficult.”
“One person held up his cell phone and said, 'Listen, this is the sound of my shredder shredding your business plan. Don't call me again.'”
“It would have been a lot easier if we had spent a month or two trying to convince people to invest and just give up and think we weren't going anywhere,” he added. did not do so.
As Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street would say, they picked up the phone and kept dialing.
“It took a very long time (the best part of 2000), but we really wanted to get the business up and running.”
After much opposition, by the end of the year, the young founders had convinced 85 people to inject about $2 million into Octopus Investments.
This is a lesson in the power of small victories. It wasn't a first-time idea, an impressive presentation that won over a major VC firm, or even a stroke of luck that got Octopus Investment off the ground. Success today.
“We just kept at it. We call it the 'terminator gene,' and that stubborn refusal to give in is so important to us,” said Flatt, a budding entrepreneur. Advice to families.
“Just be persistent, believe in yourself, and never give up.”
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com
