Graham Wylie
When Graham Wylie was 14 in the early 1970s, he was offered the chance to spend his games periods on the computers at the local technical college instead of playing rugby: he jumped at the chance.
Working a summer job with an accountancy firm while in university, he created the accounting software that would later become Sage, with its name taken from a list of herbs on a pub poster.
Sage grew to a £9 billion company at the turn of the century, though its value had fallen by more than 75% by the time he left his role as UK managing director in 2003, selling most of his remaining shares later that year.
Since then, he has founded IT business Technology Services Group, while he also owned a number of racehorses before stepping back from the sport in 2020. Making up for lost time in games class, Wylie has also co-founded fitness business Speedflex with Alan Shearer and former Newcastle physio Paul Ferris.
Australian-born Johnny Boufarhat founded online events software Hopin in 2019, when an auto-immune disease meant he was stuck in his girlfriend’s King’s Cross flat.
Barely a year later, most of the world found themselves in a position similar to Boufarhat’s - the in-person events industry cratered, opening up a market for Hopin.
By March 2021, the business raised $400 million at a $5.65 billion valuation, with funders including Salesforce Ventures and VC fund Andreessen Horowitz.
Post-pandemic life has been tougher for the live events company, though, which underwent three rounds of layoffs in 2022.
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