Andrew Humphries

As Dealmaker, how can you help businesses considering setting up in the UK?

All my working life I’ve been involved in and passionate about the sharp end of sales and marketing. Working with the Global Entrepreneur Program allows me to bring my passion and experience to bear for companies who may be new to the UK, European or US market. My role is to help entrepreneurs and new businesses find the best and most profitable opportunities fast in new markets.

What kind of experience can you bring to technology organisations who want to grow their business, especially in these difficult economic times?

I’ve been in professional sales since I was 19, starting in telesales, then graduating to field sales. I joined the technology revolution in the mid-80s, first selling software and hardware in the City of London, then holding senior executive roles in Sales, Marketing and Product Management for some of the largest US and European IT manufacturers; building and leading large sales and marketing teams in the UK and Ireland, as well as France and Germany, growing market share even through the recession of the early 90’s.

At the end of 1999, at the age of 36, I joined a small UK internet start-up as Head of Sales and Marketing. By May 2000, the internet bubble had burst; nevertheless, in the face of highly adverse market conditions, I was part of the executive team that raised over $42M, which actually was the largest private investment in Europe that year. The company grew in the UK and I then spent a year in the United States, opening up the US market. That small internet start-up is now recognised as the world’s largest and most successful Alert and Messaging solutions provider, spearheading the growth of voice and text alerting solutions for the finance, travel and retail industries, with major blue-chip customers in the US, Europe and Asia.

What do you do besides help entrepreneurs build their businesses?

I’m very interested in the complex dynamics of what motivates people, and especially what makes us happy, and why we buy or not, and I’ve made a long term study both of generic human behaviour and cultural idiosyncrasies that influence us all. As well as 3 grown up step-children I have two teenage daughters and a compulsion for sailing classic wooden yachts. I indulge my passion for music and my fast fading hope of being a rock legend by developing and promoting new musical talent, particularly supporting my favourite charity the NSPCC.