Thursday 04 June 2026 3:20 pm
| Updated:
Thursday 04 June 2026 3:21 pm
At SCALE SUMMIT on 23 April, HomeServe founder Sir Richard Harpin joined SCALE Chairman Andrew B Morris for a Chairman’s Chat on the decisions, mistakes and principles behind one of Britain’s most remarkable entrepreneurial journeys.Richard Harpin built HomeServe from nothing into a £4.1 billion business sold to Brookfield in 2023. Over 30 years, he navigated three different types of backer, expanded into seven countries, hired and fired his own replacements, and eventually chaired the company through new ownership before stepping back.He’s now distilled what he learned into a book, ‘How to Make a Billion in Nine Steps’, and a community for founders called Business Leader.On stage at London’s Business Design Centre, Richard shared the lessons that shaped both in a fireside chat with Andrew B Morris, Chairman of SCALE.Choose your backer as carefully as you’d choose a co-founderRichard Harpin has worked with three types of investor across his career: a trade backer, public institutional shareholders, and private equity. Each brought different advantages, but what matters most is timing.“Don’t go and raise when you’re desperate and you’ve run out of money,” he said, “because that’s not the best time to do it and the investor will know that you’re desperate.” In HomeServe’s early days, that desperation led him to sell half the company for half a million pounds. For Richard, it worked out (the backer brought credibility, software, and a call centre operation that helped the model take shape) but it could have gone very differently, and the lesson stayed with him.His advice for founders who have more time on their side: try to retain control, take your time on due diligence, and look beyond the money itself. “Finding the right partner is more than just getting the money into the business.”Once you have investors, you have to manage them, particularly in a public company. Richard’s rules for this are simple:
