Alex Turner meets ALEX STONE, founder of price comparison website thebikeinsurer.co.uk

INTERNET entrepreneur Alex Stone is a big fan of choice. The founder of price comparison website thebikeinsurer.co.uk – which has spawned companion sites thevaninsurer.co.uk and the soon-to-be-launched thecaravaninsurer.co.uk – began providing customers with a choice when he was at school.

“Our tuck shop always had a huge queue, so I used to buy a box of 100 Mars bars and sell them,” he said.

“When I was at school, I always had a fixation with making money. That’s because we didn’t have much.

“When I got new trainers, I would sell my old trainers. I would sell football stickers rather than swap them; I said if you want it you can buy it with your tuck shop money.”

And although he left school at 15 without qualifications – he later went back to get his GCSEs – his early forays into entrepreneurial activity were the beginnings of his working life.

Stone said: “When I was 17, I had a business at home. I used to buy and sell used cars and make a few hundred quid here and there. I wanted to make money because I always want a choice – I wanted choice and experience. I have always worked stupid hours and always will.”

Although he has an illustrious family tree – his great-grandfather is Michael Foot and his grandfather, Mike Randall, edited the Daily Mail in the 1960s – he does not come from a business-oriented family. His father was a photocopier engineer, while his mother worked for a stationery company.

His early career took him into the insurance sector. Working for a motorcycle insurance broker in the Midlands, he formed alliances with brands including Yamaha, Honda and Virgin who wanted branded services.

After moving to a Bristol-based broker, he saw an opportunity to combine his flair for deals with the developing online price comparison sector.

He said: “I had the idea for The Bike Insurer. I worked for them during the day and worked on my concept during the evening.

“Motorcycling is my passion. I have ridden bikes since I was 16 and as a motorcyclist I knew I was getting ripped off.

“There was an uprising in comparison websites and I thought ‘wouldn’t it be good to have a niche product?’.

“That’s why I launched that business. I knew it could dominate a niche that I was interested in and do well.”

He launched The Bike Insurer in 2005, with the support of some external funding from a private individual, and initially Stone was imbued with the frantic, start-up fervour that demands.

“I did everything for the business, from writing copy, negotiating deals, getting links in and writing contracts,” he said.

“I was working 20 hours a day, seven days a week. There was nothing I didn’t do, it was physically very tiring. In the early days, I ended up in hospital for three weeks with a stress-related illness because I was working so much.”

That start-up mania subsided as the company built its foundations – eased by a key deal with the Autotrader Group to take over its insurance – but Stone’s long hours largely remained.

He said: “It was about 18 months ago when it calmed down. I’m a complete workaholic, but you can only work 20 hours a day for so long.

“I always had the view of why should I employ, say, a sales director, when I could pay myself and do a better job. But we were at the stage where the business was at risk because I was doing so much.

“Gradually I built the company up – now we only have 12 employees and most people work from home.

“The business now, with staff, is stable and secure.”

But for someone who so closely identifies himself with the business, he admits it was “hugely difficult” to take a step back and let other people take responsibility.

He said: “This business is my baby. I have seen it through from the concept stage. It was massively difficult to hand over control but you have to do it.

“But now it’s fun. I have got more of an overview of the business, more of a strategic role in the business. My job is to create the strategy and direction.

“The people in the business can put them into place, which they can do far better than me.

“The business can run day-to-day without me now, and it does.”

But while there is now operational stability, the pace of change that an online firm – even one with a £5m turnover – has to manage rules out complacency and long-term planning.

“As an internet business, we have to reinvent ourselves every three months,” said Stone.

“I have never done a strategy for any longer than one year and even then I looked at that all the time.

“And that’s what makes it fun and different from everyone else. We are just a small team of people and we can react quickly and make really quick changes.

“Because this is my business and I own it 100%, I have a feel for the business. I know where it is at and where the industry is at.

“However, if I got it wrong and mess up and lose it all, it doesn’t matter. This is just one business for me. I have made it once, I can make it again.”

His single-minded focus extends to a clear plan of what he will do in the next decade – and, despite his experience, he has no plans of being a serial entrepreneur for the rest of his life. That’s despite the walls at his Formby home being decorated with memorabilia about one of the 20th-century’s greatest entrepreneurs.

He said: “There’s one guy that motivates me – Howard Hughes. He was the world’s biggest and best entrepreneur.

“But this business, this is just part of my life, I want work to be one part of my life.

“I won’t work after I am 40. I then want to do a period of charity work, then at the same time I will be building up my flying time. Then I will be a pilot for three to five years. Then I don’t know what after that.”

Regardless, the key factor for Stone is that he has the choice to decide – and that is what continues to motivate him.

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