Gavin Littlejohn knows what it takes to succeed. He also appreciates how difficult it can be to get things moving, having built companies from concept in a variety of sectors.
You need to have a strong vision for the journey and you need to marry the vision to systematic and energetic business execution skills. When you start with a clean sheet of paper, you also start out as being responsible for every role in the Company and that is a tough phase. The execution skill is then to find the right people to take over each role and sell them the vision and the opportunity.
As a former boxer and rugby player, Gavin (36) is no stranger to a few hard knocks. After graduating from the University of Aberdeen, Gavin spent a long time backpacking during which he did a variety of jobs including working on a mine in the West Australian desert. In this role he learned to drive a truck and on his return to the UK founded a haulier and warehousing operation at the age of 25 and then an internet enabled document management and compliance company.
During this stage of his career, Gavin developed significant intellectual property, fund raising and market development knowhow and also learned about challenges facing both consumers and distributors in retail finance.
Gavin says, From experience, having the commitment to properly manage and record intellectual assets at an early stage can be very important.
Money Dashboard has created a number of inventions and innovations and has patents and trademarks now filed.
Money Dashboard has completed the build and is in Alpha testing. The whole User experience is a stunning piece of work and I am delighted that the team have managed to do justice to the vision and bring it to life.
The vision for Money Dashboard could not be clearer to me. We simply want to make it really easy for consumers to manage their money. Money Dashboard is a free service where you can bring together your financial relationships in one ‘Dashboard' that gives people the tools and knowledge to make decisions and identify saving money ideas, and yet not feel they are being constantly sold to.
When asked about the impact of the current economic crisis, Gavin remains upbeat, being an entrepreneur is about adapting to change and seizing opportunity. What better market conditions to build a User base for a service that helps people to manage their money than in the current crisis where the world's spotlight is on personal finance issues?
