Anthony Rushton: A £175m phoenix from the dotcom ashes

Anthony Rushton founded his online video business at the height of the dotcom boom. Then came the bust. But after living on subsistence wages, his firm gradually gained traction. Now it's valued at £175m.

In 2001, the bursting dotcom bubble left many investors empty handed. Nevertheless, three old school friends found themselves planning to start an online business. Despite "bad timing", the trio were convinced that internet video advertising was going to be "massive", recalls Telemetry co-founder Anthony Rushton, now 39. Rushton was so convinced that he quit his job at an advertising agency and joined up with Russell Irwin and Beau Chesluk software developers who had worked on the classic Nintendo hit, Golden Eye.

At the agency, Rushton had noticed how difficult it was to measure the success of online advertising. So the trio decided to develop a tool that could do this analysis. But they lacked money. The partners only had £10,000 each to invest, which was "nowhere near enough". To raise more they began making online games that companies could use to draw attention to their brands. The project combined "my advertising experience and their skill in making games". The firm, The JD Project, "acted like vultures, bidding for any job no matter how small" and eked out sales of £70,000 in the first year. Living on "subsistence wages", they pumped any spare money back into the business. "Technically the stuff we were doing was very good but it just wasn't making lots of money." But gradually the firm gained traction and raised its profile when it won a contract to build a 3D snowboard simulator for skin products firm Clearasil.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.