Seb Bishop: Espotting Media

Seb Bishop
Age: 30
Company: Espotting Media

Hardly a new face on the block, but it’s been an excellent year for Bishop’s Espotting. A 67% increase in turnover and the company’s first profitable quarter were followed by the merger with American NASDAQ-listed firm FindWhat.com on July 1. Now the largest independent paid-for listings provider, Espotting is valued at around $180m. It operates across three continents, has relationships with more than 100,000 online businesses and accounts for just under half of online marketing spend in the UK – £150m. As arguably the UK’s most successful young entrepreneur, Bishop continues to scoop endless accolades.

2016 update:

Bishop, alongside fellow founders and brothers David and Daniel Ishag, sold espotting for £97m back in 2003 when it merged with US advertising company FindWhat.com – becoming a multimillionaire overnight. The deal valued the company at $186m. In 2007, Bishop was one of eight British entrepreneurs to appear in a Channel 4 documentary Millionaires Mission, spending three weeks in Uganda bringing sustainable relief from poverty through entrepreneurship. He joined (RED), an organisation that raised money for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as international CEO in 2008. From 2011 to 2014, Bishop was the CEO of Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand GOOP. He has invested in Teads.tv, Orlebar brown and Nattr.