Victor Malachard
Adfonic co-founder Victor Malachard on startup stresses, The Killers and HTML5.
Victor Malachard
Name: Victor Malachard
Age: 37
Company: Adfonic. We're a global mobile advertising display marketplace, running campaigns for big brands such as Tesco, Google, Groupon and Peugeot.
Turnover: We're on track to deliver circa $10m in sales this year. We plan to grow that to $30m in 2012 and to more than $100m in 2013.
First job: Working as a press officer for an international IT business called Bull.
Dream job: Professional golfer.
Car: Alfa Romeo GT.
Economy, business or first class: Premium economy.
Most extravagant purchase: My house.
Most played song on iPod: "Mr Brightside" by The Killers.
Best business book: The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.
Worst business moment: I can’t single out the toughest moment. The brutal truth is that running a startup is tough. And building it during a global recession makes it even tougher. You have to be totally committed to the cause and probably need a little luck on the way too.
Proudest business moment: When Adfonic first served one billion ad impressions in one month (early last year).
Business mentor: Gordon Shields, who founded telecoms and recycling business Shields Environmental. He grew his last venture Regenersis from a turnover of zero in 2000 to £100m and £6m profits before retiring as chairman in 2008. We approached Gordon as an adviser but he subsequently became an investor.
Next big thing: HTML5 programming language. This will revolutionise the mobile internet.