Fittingly for a man who was named after a bank, Gavin Wheeldon has spent much of his life making money.
His parents still hadn’t chosen a middle name when they stopped off a branch of Lloyds Bank en route to his christening – and decided to call him Lloyd.
Wheeldon is the latest guest on the final episode of season one of the Northern Leaders podcast, sponsored by Sancus UK.
At the age of 11 he started buying window locks, chains and spy holes for 50p and selling them fitted for £5.50 – giving some of the proceeds to his Mum.
At the age of 14 he lied to his bosses to get a telesales job selling kitchens at night – and quickly became the star salesman.
The young Wheeldon attended 20 per cent of his last year at school – and it was only years later that his behaviour was explained when he was diagnosed with ADHD.
In 2003 he launched his business – Applied Language Solutions (ALS) – with the help of a second mortgage and ran up credit card debts of £54,000.
It was while at ALS that he appeared on Dragons’ Den in 2007 after unsuccessfully offering 3 per cent of his business for a £250,000 investment. At the time it was the highest amount ever asked for the lowest amount of equity.
“I figured if I go on and get the money that’s a good outcome,” he said. “And if I didn’t, which I fully expected, I’d get some good PR if I didn’t make a mess of it.”
He eventually sold ALS to Capita for £67.5m but quickly realised that doing nothing wasn’t for him and in 2012 he launched Purple because of his frustration at the quality of the WiFi he kept experiencing.
With some help from his daughter, he came up with the name Purple and today the company has evolved into a vital tool to allow businesses to turn their physical venues into intelligent spaces.
Despite having a happy knack of making money, he says that’s not his primary motivation.
“If money is ever the driving force you’re probably not going to do that well in life,” he said. “You need to love the journey and tech is what I love.
“The North is almost the underdog of the UK. It’s come out swinging, particularly in the tech scene. There’s more in London but Manchester and other parts of the North have got an incredibly thriving tech scene, which is fantastic.”
Purple raised £10.5m from BGF in 2023 and Wheeldon believes AI will change the world in more ways than people imagine.
“There’s so much potential for what it can do,” he said. “Whether it’s two or five years, coding won’t exist. There are so many jobs that will not exist in their current form.
“Right now people have got their heads in the sand. It will turn everything on its head. People who learn how to ride that wave will do very well.”
The episode was sponsored by Sancus UK and produced by What Media. You can listen here
The other guests on the Northern Leaders podcast have been William Lees-Jones; Jennifer Atkinson; James Whittaker; Lisa Morton; Andrew Turner; Sara Davies; Roisin Currie; Sophie Milliken; Matthew Scullion; Garry Partington; and Nazir Afzal.