From a humble sewing machine in Ashington , Northumberland, to owning a global gaming studio, via the bombed out ruins of Baghdad. The journey of serial entrepreneur Len Findley has been long and rarely dull.
These days, from his base in Dubai, he is signing up thousands of gamers who want to compete for money online as part of his thriving Saltwater Ventures business.
Early days in the chip shops.
It is a million miles from his roots. He was born in Scotland, but raised in Ashington – the windswept home of England’s world cup winning Charlton brothers. This is where he cut his teeth as an entrepreneur at a very early age.
“I was helping chip shops, opening bars, or pizza places, around Ashington. My first tax paying job was working on a sewing machine in a factory. Dewhirst ladies’ wear, making clothes for Marks and Spencer,” he says.
Ambition on the factory floor.
Every Wednesday the factory shop was rammed full of customers in search of cheap quality clothes. Sadly, Dewhirst closed in 2018 – the fatal blow was a poor Christmas – putting an end to the remaining 12 jobs.
In Findlay’s day the factory floor was as full and active as his young mind. He was always driven by ambition.
Can I go to Morocco ?
At the end of the factory floor, there was a job board. The young Findlay put his name down for every single one in the hope it would get him off the factory floor.
“One of the jobs I went for was the chief buyer in Morocco. The sales director said to me you have been here four,or five times. Clearly, you want an opportunity, but you are not going to get the buyer’s job in Morocco. So I said: ‘What have you got?’
So, as I worked my way off the factory floor into trim stores and into the accounts department. I was the only one who had any interest in this black box under the desk in the corner of the room, basically, the server at that time,” he recalls.
Ambition leads to Manchester.
In short, he made it from shop floor stitcher to IT manager, in just 18 months.
This was just the beginning. Along the way Findlay had befriended a young entrepreneur Scott Fletcher setting up an IT business, called ANS, in Manchester. Dewhirst was one of his clients.
Fletcher, who is now worth as estimated £50 million, started the business in his back bedroom. He was a former child actor who turned his first penny selling cockles and whelks in the pubs of east Manchester.
“As soon as I got the IT job at Dewhirst I was on the phone to him saying: ‘Can I have a job?’”
“Why are we taking in strays?”
As Findlay passed his professional exams, he got a phone call from Fletcher in Manchester.
“I packed all my stuff into a couple of black bin bags and he put me up in his spare room for way too long – about two weeks. His missus Zoey was saying what are we doing here; why are we taking in strays?” he says.
“I helped him build up ANS to its first IPO, in 1999, then I started my own business.”
Bios the keyword.
The new business – specialising in network and security systems – was called Bios for a reason.
“I don’t know whether you remember, but when computers powered up on the screen they used to come up with the word Bios in the top corner…So, when we were phoning people on a cold call they thought they had heard of you,” he says.
“Our first contract was Sheffield Childrens’ Hospital – we went pretty early into the National Health Service and that is how we grew…As we grew, we started getting into the multi-million dollar contracts.”
A risky contract in Baghdad.
One of those big contacts was as risky as it was lucrative. It was a tricky job of setting up satellite systems, to service telephone centres, in the bombed out ruins of Baghdad.
It was dicey in post-war Iraq, at the time, and Findlay’s colleague told him to protect himself. It meant the first stop on the way to Baghdad was Bolton, Lancashire.
“I was told if you are going to go you will need some bullet proof vests,” he says.
Bullet proof vests in Baghdad.
“I found a guy, in the early days of the internet. I met him in Bolton Reebok Stadium car park and he sold me two of what were supposed to be inconspicuous bullet proof vests . It turns out they were shocking. They would only stop a Browning 9mm pistol and everyone has got AK47s.”
The promised rewards for this risk were vast. The US authorities had $3 billion, with which to rebuild post war Iraq.
“We flew into Jordan, because there were no flights into Baghdad, unless they were military. We grabbed a couple of cars and drove through.”
Entrepreneurs switched on in Baghdad.
Findlay and his colleague set up in house in the so-called Green Zone and were soon presenting their technology to the banks. As an entrepreneur, he found the people on the ground fascinating.
“In Baghdad you had a country of entrepreneurs all trying to get a slice of rebuilding their country. They were unbelievably well educated, you know: Oxford. We were able to help them train engineers, on a rooftop, in satellite systems…they knew more about spectrum wave analysis than anyone I’ve met,” he says.
Beating a hasty retreat from Baghdad.
But in the end, Findlay and his colleague had to beat a hasty retreat as the streets of Baghdad descended into chaos and beheading.
“ It was the most stupid thing we had ever done. We managed to get out just in time…I got to see the chaos and mayhem that we have inflicted on these countries -first hand. “
These days, a global gaming studio is a lot safer way to earn money, rather than driving into the ruins of Baghdad; of this, Findlay is sure.
“Would I do it again ? Probably not!”
