Richard Harpin

Best-known as the founder of HomeServe, an international home assistance company, Richard built HomeServe with £50,000 startup capital to a global company spanning 10 countries with over 9 million customers and 9,000 employees.

In 2023, Richard sold HomeServe for £4.1bn to Brookfield Asset Management and now focuses on helping other entrepreneurs to accelerate growth in their companies and build the next billion-pound business.

In the same year, Richard also became the Sunday Times Business columnist and acquired Business Leader magazine. Included in the acquisition were the Business Leader Awards, Scale-Up UK Summit, and Scale-Up awards, with Richard’s aim to support growth in the UK’s 110,000 medium-sized businesses, helping them to become highly productive large companies.

Richard recently transitioned from CEO to Chairman of HomeServe and expanded his own investment fund, Growth Partner, to channel his experience, knowledge, and own money to support fast-growing consumer businesses to achieve success.

As the owner of Business Leader Magazine and Podcast, helping medium-sized enterprises scale-up, he believes there is huge potential to unlock growth in the economy and boost prosperity across the UK.

Leading on from Richard Winning the EY UK Entrepreneur of the Year, he then proceeded to create his own charity, The Enterprise Trust, to encourage more young people to become the entrepreneurs of the future.

Richard is all about inspiring business breakthroughs by sharing the lessons he’s learned. In his talks, Richard discusses the secrets to building a billion pound business:

• Your character
• Copy and pivot
• Get an investor
• Get some CoachMent
• Bricks and clicks and paper
• Hire your replacement
• Go global with locals
• Evolution not revolution
• Follow a NOT to do list

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