Sunday 05 June 2011 10:24 pm

A man on a mission to the Moonpig.com

MOONPIG was a nickname I had at school,” says Nick Jenkins. “I needed a two syllable domain name, something comic and unique on Google.” It took him four days of checking potential names on Network Solutions to stumble upon Moonpig. Now a household name, it is also one of the UK’s fastest growing and most profitable companies, according to the Sunday Times Profit Track and Fast Track league tables.

Jenkins came up with the idea after leaving life as a commodities trader at Glencore in Russia to do an MBA at Cranfield. “The purpose of going to business school was to spend some time thinking of a business idea and drawing up business plans,” says Jenkins. With five in total at the end of the year, he set his heart on Moonpig. “There were plenty of doubters. Just because people think your idea was rubbish, doesn’t mean it is rubbish.”

RAISING CAPITAL
He had spent eight years working as a trader and knew he wanted to start his own business, saving £750,000 while at Glencore. “I’m not the best example of an entrepreneur as I had this capital to start with.” Jenkins did raise a further £1.35m to kick-start the business, confessing that he “burnt through” it in the first five years.

It took Moonpig five years to become profitable. “It was a challenge,” confesses Jenkins. “We started from zero customers on a product that had not existed before.” But with its famous TV adverts, the concept established itself steadily. “We chipped away at our losses over five years until we broke even.”

“Building something and seeing it take on a life of its own is really satisfying. I mean, it was really challenging at times. If there had been a way to hand back the keys, I would have.” The logistics of printing was a concern for Jenkins. Printers claiming to churn out 2,000 cards an hour were in reality only capable of 200: “The complex digital images just took so long for the computer to generate back in those days.”

Boldly, Jenkins chose not to do any market research: “There’s no point asking people what they think about something that doesn’t exist yet. Not to mention the fact that a certain type of person answers questionnaires – namely people with time on their hands.”

INSURANCE POLICY
Jenkins moved to become chairman in 2005. “When you’re running a company, sometimes you don’t have time to stop and think about the direction because you’re so consumed by the nitty-gritty. I have time to do that now.”

Has he ever regretted the journey? Certainly not. “It’s a risk, but – if you’re successful – it’s the best insurance policy going – you’ve employed yourself.”

CV | NICK JENKINS
Company name: Moonpig

Company turnover: £40m

Number of staff: 100

Founded: 2000

Job title: Founder and Chairman

Age: 44

Born: Droitwich, Worcestershire

Lives: Battersea, London

Studied: Russian Literature at Birmingham and MBA at Cranfield

Drinking: Malbec

Idol: “Bill Gates – for giving it all away.”

Origin of the company name: “It was my nickname at school and a domain name that hadn’t already been taken.”