Martha Lane Fox’s £577 million Lastminute.com empire

Martha Lane Fox is the founder of Lastminute.com. A period in her life which she describes as ‘total chaos’.

At 25 years old, with co-founder Brent Hoberman, she embarked on a very exciting journey creating one of the first European startups combining e-commerce and travel.

However, when you’re the first to do something, there’s always a lot of naysayers. People didn’t think Lastminute.com was going to be successful. Little did they know they were just getting started. In 2005, they sold the company for £577 million.

Martha took what she had built with Lastminute.com to create GDS (Government Digital Service). This is a section inside the Cabinet Office of the British government responsible for improving access to online public services.

Martha's other interests are explored in this episode, including how technology and the internet can be improved for everyone in the UK, women and venture capital, and Martha's future vision for Dot Everyone, her most recent venture.

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