By: Harriet Green

I am City A.M.'s deputy business features editor. I look after the Entrepreneurs page, Alternative Finance and our Office Politics section. I also help out with the Forum, running our daily debate. I have a special interest in distributed ledger technology. Prior to working at City A.M., I ran a social enterprise.

DriveTribe co-founders Richard Hammond and Ernesto Schmitt talk dating, driverless cars and excluding Jeremy Clarkson from music ventures

February 13, 2017

How would you transition from celebrity to business magnate? If you’ve already done well in life, one option is to wind down. This is not, however, the option Richard Hammond and sidekicks James May and Jeremy Clarkson are going for. In case they didn’t have enough to do launching Amazon’s The Grand Tour, they’ve also [...]
Meet Julia Salasky, founder of CrowdJustice – the platform bringing the legal system to everyone

February 9, 2017

Debt, equity, rewards and donations – those are the categories of crowdfunding that have emerged over the past decade, creating an industry that has raised over $8bn worldwide. But despite the heady growth, the youth of crowdfunding means we’ve only just seen the start of what each of these categories can do in terms of [...]
As China’s central bank hauls in several bitcoin exchanges, could governments crush the cryptocurrency?

February 8, 2017

Harriet Green, deputy business features editor at City AM, says Yes: If governments like China’s perceive bitcoin to be a threat, they will seek to undermine it. While they couldn’t destroy existing bitcoins, they could destroy demand. Any cryptocurrency is at risk of being made illegal by any government. Granted, users can move underground, but [...]
Karma Group’s founder and chairman John Spence explains how and why he plans to double the size of his business

February 6, 2017

I cleaned toilets in Gatwick Airport for a bit, but that’s the only real job I’ve ever had,” says John Spence, founder and chairman of The Karma Group. A university drop-out, the hotelier and resort-owner originally became a tea boy for a music agency. Before long, he was representing bands like Culture Club, Bananarama and [...]
Exit the dragon: Moonpig founder Nick Jenkins rubbish tips, accurately exercising dogs and how to make a difference

February 1, 2017

"My mental maths has certainly got loads better. They take your phone away so we have to do all the calculations in our heads, on the spot," says Nick Jenkins, the Dragons’ Den dragon, founder of Moonpig and businessman whose personal wealth stands at around £150m. Jenkins, who is leaving the BBC show at the end of [...]
David Harrison, co-founder of Positive Solutions and True Potential, talks tin baths, skinny men with beards, Boris and why we need a Super Isa

January 23, 2017

An article was doing the rounds on Twitter last week: Don’t let Boris Wooster bugger up Brexit. This is how David Harrison, founder of two multi-million pound financial services firms and former builder, feels about our irrepressible foreign secretary. “He’s not helping Theresa, is he? A loose cannon who walks on sounding like he’s just [...]
The gateway to a new business order: Why crowdfunding is just the start of the next era of organisations

January 19, 2017

A new campaign appeared on crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder this week. Scottish energy firm Our Energy is raising £450,000 to set up an alternative gas and electricity provider. Fed up with Big Six high tariffs and just “lining shareholders’ pockets”, founders David Pike and Karen Snode decided to start a competitor, with plans to be operational [...]
Alternative lending’s leading founders and chief executives give their predictions for the sector in 2017

January 12, 2017

The road was slightly bumpy for alternative lenders last year. Authorisations for the Innovative Finance Isa were delayed, there was further Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) probing, disappointing results hounded a good handful of the UK’s largest platforms and Goldman Sachs made its foray into the market with in-house platform Marcus. But provided the regulator continues [...]
Laurence King, founder of the eponymous publisher, talks adult colouring books, soviets, Ezra Pound and anti-digital

January 9, 2017

"We caused a shortage of felt pens in Brazil,” says Laurence King, founder of Laurence King Publishing, the creator of the original adult colouring book that sparked the recent craze. In 2013, the firm published the Secret Garden, illustrated by Johanna Basford. In the first two years, it sold 250,000 copies. “It was then we became [...]
Equity crowdfunding’s leading founders predict what’s in store for the sector in 2017

January 5, 2017

Equity crowdfunding will look even more grown up by Christmas 2017. More regulation is coming to the sector: the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said it’ll consult this year on new rules, in a bid to improve protection for retail investors and increase transparency around financial promotions. Read more: The FCA is cracking down on [...]

Subscribe