Business Age – Untold wealth

Jason Drummond made his first profit as a teenager by selling some Amstrad shares he owned. He sold at the peak when Alan Sugar’s star was at its brightest. With the proceeds he started his own company.

No. 16 JASON DRUMMOND 29
Founder – Virtual Internet
INNOVATION ee
WEALTH CREATION eee
CONTRIBUTION TO THE NET e
Overall rating 6/15

Jason of Drummond founded Micromax at the age of 15, distributing computer software through newsagents. Now 29, Drummond’s company Virtual Internet is worth £45 million and went public in January through a reverse takeover of quoted company Charriol.

Drummond began Virtual Internet in 1996. With four staff from a Fulham office he started a web domain name and hosting web-site registration company. First year turnover was £550,000. “In the first two-and-a-half years we had a lot of surplus cash, so we invested money in the technology and brought the freehold to our Fulham base.”

Virtual Internet’s most successful product- VI Merchant – can help anyone, from a web designer to a complete novice, set up his or her own web-site within minutes. Drummond says : “It is a complete wizard on-line solution. We have a templating engine in our servers. We then give access to that engine, which enables users to go through a wizard-based procedure which creates a complete, secure web-site on the Internet.” Clients pay £200 per annum for this service. Internet name registration – prices start at £29 (plus annual fee) – is another money making area.

Drummond has worked with Marks & Spencer’s, Burger King and Harrods over naming disputes. Virtual Internet now has offices in London, Frankfurt, San Francisco and Paris. Clients include Cable News Network Inc, Ernst & Young and Saatchi & Saatchi.

Drummond adds : “We have a new senior management team and a sensible amount of money to aggressively expand.”