"If you're bright and agile, you can always work out how things should be done." Simon Tesler, Entrepreneur, Director Parade House, Trowbridge.Simon Tesler, Entrepreneur and Director Parade House, Trowbridge. Trowbridge
Simon Tesler, Director of Parade House, Trowbridge came into the Radio Bath studio as my guest on The UnNoticed Entrepreneur LIVE.
Trowbridge resident Simon Tesler has experienced the highs and lows of entrepreneurship over his more than 40 year career. Tesler got his start as a young university student in 1980, co-founding the magazine Blitz with his wife Carey. The magazine was a huge success in the 1980s boom but unfortunately had to close during the 1990s recession due to reduced advertising spending.
Fortunately they had already started to transition to a business publishing and database venture. They later sold that company to Pearson in the late 1990s. Tesler worked for Pearson for a time but left when he found that being an intrapreneur wasn't the right path for him.
He then founded the advertising database company AdBrands, running it successfully for 24 years before selling it to focus on new ventures.*
Most recently, the dynamic duo purchased and renovated the historic Parade House building in Trowbridge. Parade House Trowbridge is a Grade I listed Georgian townhouse in the historic heart of the County Town of Wiltshire. Built in around 1720 for the wealthy cloth merchant Robert Houlton, it is one of the town's finest and most elegant buildings, the centrepiece of what Pevsner's Guide to Wiltshire described as a "stretch of palaces" along Fore Street.
They have transformed the Grade 1 listed building into a vibrant events venue, bar and restaurant, helping to revitalize the town.
This is a wide ranging conversation about business, life, and the impact that entrepreneurs can make for good.
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[*Amazingly he sold it to Greg Paull, founder of R3, and an old friend of mine from Singapore days!]
