Peter Jones built an events business twice. Two years after launching his first show, his bank manager told him he'd built a skyscraper on a sandy beach and gave him 24 hours to liquidate. He lost the house, the car, everything - then scraped together £16,000, bought the IP back at auction, and started again.
Nineteen Group is now heading for 400 people and owns the Commercial Vehicle Show, Installer and International Security Expo. And last July, in front of 120 of his own staff, Peter couldn't force a smile. He told them he was done and sat down.
At Nineteen's Wimbledon HQ, Paul gets the unedited version: the hamster wheel, the storm Peter took a 45-foot boat into and had to be pulled out of by the RNLI, and the leadership rebuild that followed.
Plus the EV bit - where commercial vehicle electrification is heading, why charging still has "a lot of road to go," and what it takes to bring the big truck manufacturers back to the NEC.
Peter Jones (the real one, not the Dragon:)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-jones-0b501010/
Nineteen Group:
https://www.nineteengroup.com