Moonpig Founder: How I Built A $150 Million Business WITHOUT Sacrifice: Nick Jenkins | E97

So, you do something with greeting cards? Is that something you do from your spare room?

Nick Jenkins, former CEO and founder of Moonpig, a company now worth $1.6 billion.

My first proper business was Moonpig, which, although, um, it- it's been a success, of course, it went through various ups and downs. Like all overnight successes, it took 11 years. I- I got to confess, I probably slightly stumbled on it. I mean, I look at it now and think, "Wow, I- I- that accidentally was a really good business model." (laughs) Unfortunately, we, too often we measure the things that are easiest to measure, and the easiest thing to measure is how wealthy someone is. I'm reluctant to create this illusion that- that, you know, if you work incredibly hard, you can make a lot of money and that will make you successful. You have to be a successful human being. The most exciting times I ever had in my business were when my back was absolutely against the wall and think, "This is going down."

(laughs)

Bizarrely, I found that quite invigorating. I mean, at one point, my- my shareholders all said, "Look, Nick, this is never gonna work. It's never gonna make money." By the time I'd got to the end of it, I was pretty much down to zero.

(intro music) Nick Jenkins, former CEO and founder of Moonpig, a company now worth $1.6 billion. Nick's achievements are miraculous. He's incredibly inspiring, and he created a business that's touched many of our lives. But the thing that I found even more intriguing about Nick was he bucks most of the typical entrepreneurship and success narratives. I think we're all sold the belief and the story that in order to be successful in business or any discipline in life, you have to undergo tremendous sacrifice. You have to work yourself into the ground. Nick and his story and his philosophy disprove all of that. He's got another way of doing it. If listening to this episode does anything outside of just inspiring the hell out of you and giving you very practical business information, it will definitely prove, in my view, that there is no such thing as a born entrepreneur. And also, once you become an entrepreneur, the path to success isn't the same for everybody. A lot of what you've been told is a lie. Without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is the Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. Nick, super intrigued when I meet entrepreneurs, um, because there's a huge sort of narrative and I guess a debate that's happened in the entrepreneurial community about whether entrepreneurs are made, whether they're born, or whether it's something that can be taught. And, um, from listening to you describe your early years and your school years and your upbringing, um, I wondered what your opinion on that was, and also whether you think you were a born entrepreneur.