“I founded Novus Leisure (Bars, restaurants and Nightclubs mainly in London west end and city but also Tiger Tiger brand regionally) with PE backing in 2005 and it was a regular ‘walk in’ retail/ hospitality business. The strategy was to turn it into a ‘pre – booked’ events business via two web sites (latenightlondon.com and TigerTiger.com) and experimentally using a sales force. The product was hiring out private rooms and ‘cool spaces’ (up to 2000+ capacity) for product launches, business events and functions (B2B) and also more regular ‘night out parties and functions’ (B2C). Contracts could be up to £100k but more normally £20 – £50k for conferences and big events). In year 2008 ‘pre-booked sales’ accounted for 10% of revenues by 2012 it had hit 60%. Rupert was central to the success of Novus and he built the team from scratch and ended up with 140 strong sales force. He came from food (Heinz) but was smart enough to translate his sales skills and management into leisure. He never once disappointed and with his skills we created a much-copied model in the sector. I sold the business to another set of PE funds in 2012 for £120m and the value creation all came from the growth in pre – booked sales.” – Steve Richards, CEO