Jamie Murray Wells - The founder of online specs pioneer Glasses Direct
Name: Jamie Murray Wells Nationality: British Companies run: Glasses Direct While studying for his final university examinations Murray Wells discovered that he needed to start wearing spectacles. Surprised by the price quoted by an optician, he contacted first manufacturers and then individual workers until a technician told him that a pair of glasses selling for £150 cost only £7 to make. Inspired by this, he created a website selling spectacles directly to the public, initially funding his business using the remains of his student loan, establishing the first online retailer of spectacles in the UK's traditionally highly controlled, arguably monopolistic spectacles market. However, several established chains of conventional bricks and mortar opticians attempted to close down Glasses Direct with legal and regulatory threats, leading to a particularly bitter feud between Murray Wells and the offshore based chain Specsavers. Glasses Direct received around $6 million of venture capital investment from Highland Capital Partners and Index Ventures in 2007, and expansion to become an international brand seems likely. In the UK, Glasses Direct currently claims to serve one customer every 10 minutes. Murray-Wells won the 2005 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, the 2005 Daily Mail Business Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2005 Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2005 NatWest Business of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Startups Awards, and the 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Young Entrepreneur Award. Murray Wells was also a regional winner in the Entrepreneur of the Year category for the Orange National Business Awards and the HSBC Startups Stars. After effectively sweeping up in the awards stakes Murray Wells has turned judge for the Enterprising Britain Awards and has started to invest himself as an angel, including investment in Mybuilder.com.
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