Brent co-founded lastminute.com in April 1998, with Martha Lane Fox, in the living room of his London flat three years after having drafted the initial idea. Brent was 29 and Martha was just 25. Brent was CEO since the inception of the company. lastminute.com offers consumers airline tickets, car hire, hotel rooms, package holidays, entertainment tickets, restaurant reservations, home delivery, speciality services, gifts and auctions. Brent’s initial vision remains unchanged - ‘to delight customers with great value, inspiration and solutions when they are going away, going out or staying in.’
The company floated in March 2000 when the dotcom bubble was at its peak - the IPO was 40 times oversubscribed and the price increase during the process was a record for a UK company. lastminute.com acquired 14 businesses after the IPO to supplement the annual growth of the core brand which was over 100% from 1998 - 2004. Ten years on the company is the number one travel website in Europe and was acquired by Travelocity Europe for $1.1 billion, a division of Sabre Holdings Corporation on 20th July 2005.
Brent remained CEO of lastminute.com through 2005, until April 2006 when he handed over the CEO position to Ian McCaig and took the position of Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of lastminute.com. Brent’s entrepreneurial vision ensured the lastminute.com customer experience was continually enhanced by the latest innovations in technology.
Brent most recently founded another VC-backed internet startup, mydeco, which launched in February 2007 - the online interiors site that intends to revolutionise the way we shop and design for our homes, encouraging consumers to spend, socialise and play house all at the same time.
Brent is a Governor of the University of the Arts College, London and a Non-Executive Board Director of Guardian Media Group. From January 2007 he took on the role of Non-Executive Chairman of wayn.com - a travel and leisure social network with over 10 million members. He is also an angel investor in several internet companies including Viagogo, Wayn.com and moveme.com.
Brent, now 39, was born in South Africa, educated at Eton and holds a MA in French and German literature from Oxford. He lives in central London with his wife, Genevieve, two daughters and new born baby son.
mydeco - Who we are
mydeco is now 35 people strong, and we live in Victoria, London. We’ve got a passionate and talented founding team on board, with experience ranging from Community-building and 3D Design to Interior Designers and Architects. Here are a few more people you might like to meet:
David Kelly, Chief Executive Officer
David was previously Vice President of European Business Operations at eBay Inc, where he lead a cross-functional team of over 2,000 people. Prior to joining eBay, David was Chief Operating Officer at lastminute.com where he worked closely with Brent and Martha, and Operations Director at Amazon.co.uk. David is excited to be launching a start-up and now understands the value of the colour wheel.
Paul Chudleigh, Chief Technology Officer
Paul is responsible for the whizzy technology that makes mydeco special. Paul held a variety of technical positions at lastminute.com, including Head of Software Development and Head of Technical Architecture. Paul never thought his Computer Science degree would be applied to furniture and accessories.
Investors in mydeco
We’re very proud to have attracted a visionary group of investors, led by Tom Teichman of SPARK Ventures. In addition to Teichman, other investors include Lord Rothschild family interests, Marc Worth, founder of Worth Global Style Network, Edward Atkin, founder of Canon Avent and Yoo Design Ltd, the property development company led by John Hitchcox and Philippe Starck.