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The Disrupters

The Disrupters: Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, founders of lastminute.com

Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, founders of lastminute.com

BBC Radio 4 - The Disrupters, Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, founders of lastminute.com

‘We were on a machine of people who could see dollar signs’

Rohan and Kamal talk to Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, founders of lastminute.com.

Rohan Silva and Kamal Ahmed meet Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, founders of LastMinute.com, a company that became the poster child for the internet boom of the late 1990s.  

Lastminute.com was an online travel and leisure website, took unsold inventory – flights, hotels, theatre tickets – and sold it online.  Their personality, humour and guerrilla style marketing tactics disrupted the travel industry forever – and in the '90s/early 2000s, raised the profile of Martha and Brent to near-celebrity status.

However their rise was quickly and brutally followed by a fall as their share price, when they floated on the London Stock Market, crashed by 95%.  

They talk to Kamal and Rohan about learning so much so young, the dangers of scaling too fast, and how you need to be careful what you wish for.

Presenters:  Kamal Ahmed and Rohan Silva
Producer: Georgia Catt

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Kamal Ahmed and Rohan Silva lift the lid on the realities of starting your own business, as leading entrepreneurs reveal their stories of risk, ambition and failure.

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The Disrupters

Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, founders of lastminute.com

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