Cameron Yuill: How I stayed afloat as the dotcom tide turned

Cameron Yuill's online advertising business hit hard times when the financial crisis hit. So he turned to social media and within a year his company was turning over £4m.

The thing Cameron Yuill enjoyed most about being a corporate lawyer "was the moment I quit".

After practising law for five years in Australia, the 44-year-old "was desperate to do something more exciting". Following a string of advertising ventures he became involved in Viator, a travel website. "The idea was to create a one-stop-shop handling bookings, reviews and everything else. Back in 1997 it was a novel concept." With US venture capital funding secured, Yuill moved to Silicon Valley. "It was a great place to be in the years leading up to 2000. There was so much enthusiasm for anything internet." And although the "dotcom tide went out", Viator managed to stay afloat. Yet by 2002 Yuill wanted to leave. "The company had grown and changed it didn't need an entrepreneur like me anymore." He quit and then spent time at a string of internet firms "like all entrepreneurs I get bored very quickly".

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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.