Who is Johnny Martin |

All About Johnny Martin

Johnny_Martin

Johnny Martin is an enthusiastic educator and communicator who loves demystifying and explaining business finance.

An experienced Director, he has turned around and sold 3 businesses on behalf of Baring Venture Partners, JO Hambro and Monument Trust. He has prepared business plans that have raised over £25m, and his wide-ranging sector experience means that he can bring his training to life with real stories.

He passionately promotes financial understanding and has helped thousands of people overcome the “fear of finance” and bridge the chasm that exists between them and the money men aka financiers, bankers & business angels. His highly acclaimed video “Talk Money” ensures you won’t get caught out by the Dragons… and he is a British Library partner where he runs a great value workshop: “Essential Business Finance”.

“I greatly value your clear thinking on the board.” Dick Onians, Managing Director, Baring Venture Partners.

The unofficial bio

My career has been a real adventure of one thing leading to another… After three years rowing at Durham University, breaking the ice with Richard Wood (founder of Wood.com), I qualified as an accountant with Ernst & Young knowing I wanted to be able to understand the financial gobledy gook but not be an “accountant” in practice – so as soon as I qualified I left to run a ski bar in Meribel! Le Tremplin might have been the least profitable bar in the alps (too many free drinks) but it was the busiest! However I trained my assistant well – Nick Robertson, founder of aim quoted ASOS.com.   On returning to London, I started working for the best MD I have ever met – Paul Smith, who invented the game show “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” – he was my mentor – detail, fun, persistence, and quality.   Then after a period of Venture Capital, with Rupert Hambro (wonderful patrician banker with penchant for lime green socks), I was asked to join the board of one of my investments as CFO (chief financial officer) – by the time the business was successfully sold to Abbey National 4 years later, I was the longest serving executive director…a brutal, tough but ultimately profitable turnaround and trade sale.  I was then asked to join a restaurant /retail group which at the time was losing £0.5m – after catching the GM with his hand in the till, the Chairman Colin West (founder of Micro Focus) asked me to be MD and sort the business and prepare it for sale – after rebranding/re-positioning with help from a great designer (Ian Logan) and building a terrific team, the business was successfully sold to AIM quoted Madisons.   I was now able to pursue other interests – including a long held ambition to do more mentoring and tutoring in business generally and of course finance in particular. I became a co-founder of Catalyst Venture Partners, which helps get companies investment ready, an advisor to one of the best documentary film makers Icon Films, where I helped them raise $2.5m of production finance. My involvement in the creative sector also includes e-learning and digital downloads.

Don’t think all my ventures have gone smoothly…if anyone likes cheese sauce, I have about 8 cases left over from a convenience food business, and a similar quantity of children’s magazines from a publishing venture. Oh yes and if you need any go-kart wheels I have some of them too..  So to the present where I am focused on removing the “fear of finance” and helping entrepreneurs from all sectors bridge the chasm that exists between the money men aka financiers, bankers, business angels etc and the entrepreneur, so my current role is “the start up numbers coach!” My coaching includes running seminars at the British Library, helping creative students at the University for the Arts, mentoring at the School for Communication Arts, 1:1 coaching and producing DVDs/online material.

My vision is to create affordable training that generates an outstanding ROI (return on investment) for your time and money. Everyone needs to understand the money bit – delegate but don’t abdicate!