Ep.8 - Media entrepreneur Richard Bridgwood on building and selling a multi-million-pound TV company (Peppa Pig included!)

Bulletproof Entrepreneur

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Richard Bridgwood was the founder of Contender which was a media and film distribution company which he and his team built from scratch over 12 years and sold to one of the biggest entertainment and media companies in the world, Entertainment One.

If you’ve got kids, you’ll be familiar with one of his companies’ creations, Peppa Pig which nowadays is a global sensation worth hundreds of millions if not a billion dollars. There’s a lot of money in children’s entertainment!

So, part of Richard’s current business legacy is helping bring Peppa Pig to life and so many hours of joy to countless preschool kids - and their grateful parents!

Richard is a lovely guy, very down-to-earth and very honest as he reflects back on his entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he’s learned.

The key lessons I picked up include:

• Why the current tax regime favours building a business to sell from the outset.
• The importance of communicating with your team and keeping them informed of key business decisions - although it can still backfire in some instances.
• How Bill Gates forced Contender to change their business focus and quickly pivot in response to emerging new technology which threatened to blow up their core business model
• The vital importance of taking time out whilst you are running your business to plan for life after you exit - and his admission that he didn’t do this particularly well. This is an emerging theme in my podcast conversations, and I think it’s so important and so we’ll be coming back to this in future episodes
• Richard’s 3-part formula for experiencing True Wealth.

Show Note Links

Richard Bridgwood

Cranfield Business School Accelerator Programme

Angus Thirwell

Karan Bilimoria

James Corsellis

Entertainment One

Darren Throop

Book recommendations

What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School

Entertainment Industry Economics

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