Seb Bishop - The online ads pioneer who sold Espotting for $186m

Name: Seb Bishop Nationality: British Companies run: eSpotting, (Red) You may recognise Seb Bishop from the Channel 4 documentary Millionaires’ Mission. He was one of eight entrepreneurs shipped off to Uganda to put their skills to the test in the global fight against third world poverty. Bishop has certainly earned his status as a leading entrepreneur. Back in 2000, at the age of 26, he co-founded Espotting - the company that pre-empted Google in the launch of ‘pay-per-click’ advertising in Europe, helping to link adverts to specific pieces of online content. Under Bishop and co-founder David Ishag’s lead, Espotting became one of the fastest growing technology companies of the time. In July 2004, Espotting was acquired by FindWhat.com, the American online advertising company for around $186 million, marking the resurgence of the ‘new media’ sector, following the dotcom tale of boom to bust at the turn of the Millennium. It also made him one of the youngest presidents of a NASDAQ-listed company. FindWhat.com was subsequently re-branded as MIVA and received the title of ‘Most Dynamic UK Media Company’ at the Media Momentum Awards, as well as the Fastest Growing IT Company at the Europe’s 500 Awards and being named among the top 50 creative businesses by the Financial Times. Before the Espotting ‘era’, Bishop worked as a senior art director at several leading advertising agencies including Rainey Kelly Campbell Rolfe and Publicis. Amongst his many accomplishments, he created the campaign that launched Coca-Cola in Russia. Described by some in the past as a ‘man-about-town’, it has not been unheard of for Bishop to grace the city’s gossip columns, seen with the likes of Lady Victoria Hervey and Alexandra Aitken, daughter of JCB heiress, Alice Bamford. However, Bishop is now happily married to American model, Heidi Wichlinski and has two children. In addition to retaining a seat on the board at MIVA following his resignation to pursue other opportunities, Bishop is now the CEO of (RED) International, the organisation set up by U2 frontman Bono and Bobby Shriver. Its aim is to get money from business to The Global Fund, which invests in programmes in Africa to combat AIDS. (RED) works with major blue-chips such as Apple, Microsoft, Armani, Dell and American Express, which all sell (RED) branded products and contribute profits to the cause. He is also the chairman of Steak, which was named Media Agency of the Year in 2007. Bishop also sits on the boards of Future Publishing, the special-interest media group and AdJug, an online ad exchange. Bishop talks to Entrepreneur TV about the highs and lows of setting up your own business, investment and on his involvement with Millionaires’ Mission. Profile by Jessica Pauley

You are seeing this content because you dont have flash player.To install Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Download Flash Player 9 now for free at Adobe.com