The myth of the lone entrepreneur

E.ON’s head of SME sales Tod Perry would have entrepreneurs uncouple themselves from the trope of the lone, brave founder.

He would know, he’s been through it as a founder of two businesses while still at university – one of which went on to be listed on the stock exchange. “Things have changed a lot since my day,” says Perry. “But for entrepreneurs now, many of those challenges still exist. For entrepreneurs at any stage of a company, it’s about how far you can get commercially before you need to bring on partners and what are the qualities of those partners?”

A good idea, Perry says, will carry you only so far. “You have to get your idea to market, and you need a deep bench of skills to do that. It starts and dies with a good team.”

We tackled this topic and much more when we sat down with Perry recently. In the interview, we walk about the dilemmas and challenges faced by modern startups, his role as a judge for The Pitch, what makes a great start-up and the role of energy efficiency in enterprise.