Redbus on road to success

Cliff Stanford, founder and former managing director of Demon Internet, has unveiled his latest venture, Redbus, aimed at improving innovative British businesses.

Stanford has set aside #15 million from his #33 million cut of the #66 million sale of Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom (PC Dealer, 6 May) to finance his fledging London-based company.

Redbus will offer financial, operational and management support to a select band of innovative UK businesses.

'All I have is a brand, money and expertise. UK business is good at inventing things but not seeing them through. I want good, solid proposals, but it has got to be something that turns me on. Redbus will be a broad range of companies, so I'm open to all suggestions as long as they show innovation and are based in the UK. I'm afraid I'm going to get hit by a deluge of ideas next week,' he said.

Redbus will offer the companies that it brings under its wing joint marketing under the Redbus brand. Stanford refused to be drawn on what type of companies he wanted to be involved in the project.

However, he said the likelihood of another ISP being launched was unlikely as he claimed the days of the independent ISPs are numbered unless they team up with a telco.

He also stressed that Redbus would not focus purely on technology companies.

'Redbus will give consistent branding and it will be a stabilising force.

The motivation is to make money, have fun and give people jobs in the UK. It will also give consumers a brand name they can trust. I hope that in couple of months there will be the first Redbus company, and that by end of year at least one solid company.'

He revealed the reason behind the Redbus name: 'It's called Redbus because I was told I needed a vehicle in which to do this and I always wanted to drive a red bus.'