Martha Lane Fox

Entrepreneurism

Building an on-line business

Retailing

 

Martha Lane Fox co-founded Lastminute.com, where she and her business partner, Brent Hoberman, came to epitomise the new breed of internet entrepreneurs in London. In November 2003 Martha stood down as Managing Director of Lastminute.com to explore other opportunities. She remains a non-executive director of the company.

She is now a non-executive director at Marks & Spencer and Channel 4, and runs Lucky Voice, a private karaoke bar group. Lucky Voice is expanding from its current four locations to open in Brighton, with further expansion planned with partner Tiger Tiger. She is confident Lucky Voice can ‘clean up and dominate’ the ‘higgledy-piggledy space’ that currently characterises the karaoke market.

Many of the lessons learned whilst building Lastminute have been applied to her latest venture, in particular the blending of online and offline to create a business of substance. Lastminute, where she remains a non-executive director, has just opened a standalone store in Manchester with other openings planned. She points out the company employed a similar strategy several years ago, and says: “no one can afford to ignore online and see how it is translated off line.”

Martha remains a role model for entrepreneurs – not just in business, but also in her dealings in wider society. She is a trustee for Reprieve, a prison reform charity, patron of education pressure group CAMFED, and has set up her own charity, Antigone, a grant-making trust.