Richard Harpin created and sold a £4bn business – now he wants to help others do the same

Like Sophi Horne, I wanted to be running businesses even before I left school. You may not be familiar with Sophi’s name but, if you’re lucky, you might be enviously staring at one of her super-sleek yachts or speedboats from your sun-lounger this summer. The 32-year-old has been so successful that her company, Seabird Technologies, is one of this country’s fastest-growing, with revenues of £12.5m, an astonishing 620 per cent increase in the past three years.

Like most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve met, she didn’t wait to pass her exams before making her way in business and, instead, developed a side hustle in her teens. One of mine was making earrings from fishing tackle. Sophi’s was designing the boats from which people do the fishing! Now she’s one of the yachting industry’s most influential players.

That ambition, drive and determination is what marks out Sophi and hundreds of other inspirational entrepreneurs who have made it into the inaugural Business Leader Growth 500. The biggest list of its kind ever compiled and covering every sector using the accounts of companies across the UK to identify those which are growing at a phenomenal pace.

Last night saw us bring together these incredible entrepreneurs and their British-owned companies to celebrate this success at the Sky Garden in central London.

But, more importantly, I want us all to learn about how they’ve done it. Their secrets of success. Because at a time when everyone is talking about pursuing economic growth, these 500 dynamic businesses have actually achieved it. Perhaps we can build a blueprint for a stronger British economy by........

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