8/2/2019 Case Study Murray

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/case-study-murray 1/1

P. Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 3rd edn © Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

QUESTIONS1 In what ways is Sara different from most women? How might these characteristics contribute to her drive and

determination in setting up her own firms?

2 What challenges has Sara faced in setting up her businesses? How has she overcome them?

3 How much of what she has achieved has been down to luck?

Case with questionsj

 Sara Murray – Serial entrepreneur

Sara Murray is a serial entrepreneur, having set up three businesses so far. Born in 1968 to

professional parents (her father was a manager at Chloride and her mother was a teacher),

Sara graduated from Oxford University in 1990 with an MA in physiology, psychology and

philosophy. She started work as a management consultant with ZS Associates in the USA

and in 1991 moved to Hambros Bank in London to work in asset finance. In 1993 she startedher first business, called Ninah Consulting. It used technology to improve companies’

marketing effectiveness, working for blue-chip clients like Coca-Cola and SmithKline

Beecham. In 1999 she started her second business, inspop.com, an insurance comparison

website. She expanded the site to more than 250 000 customers within 18 months and

then sold it to Admiral Group who renamed it ‘Confused.com’. In 2002 Sara sold Ninah to

Publicis, the French media group.

Sara is married with one daughter and three step-children. She is a keen sportswoman

– a runner, skier and yachtswoman who helmed an America’s Cup boat across the Atlantic.

She claims that her mother encouraged her to set up her own business, telling her she

would be in ‘control’ and that it was ‘better for having a family’.

The idea for Sara’s latest business came when her daughter disappeared in a super-market and she wondered whether there was a technological solution to this problem. She

decided to find a satellite navigation tracking device that could be used in such situations

and eventually found a company in California that had already spent $180 million on devel-

oping one. However it was not yet on sale and, anyway, would only work in US metropolitan

areas. Having set up businesses before and with a range of contacts in finance through her

brief City career, Sara decided to investigate the opportunity herself. A friend introduced

her to two engineers.

‘I decided to make one myself … I knew the difficult thing would be building the hard-

ware, because I had never done it before … I was completely consumer-orientated.

I said – this is what I would like it to do for my child. They were completely technolo-gy-orientated. There was a gap … Most technology companies build technology and

look at where they can sell it.’

The Times, 3 January 2009

Sara spent £200 000 of her own money on building a working prototype. Relying heavily

on her network of finance contacts she then went on to obtain the first round of funding

from business angels in 2005. The first Buddi device went on sale in 2007.

A Buddi is about the size of a wrist watch and is hung around the neck. It sells for a small

fixed amount above the cost of manufacture plus a monthly charge for unlimited use. By

logging on to the Buddi website it is possible to find someone’s whereabouts on the relevant

page of Google Maps. Their movements can even be tracked in real time. The device alsocontains a panic button, which alerts one of two constantly monitored call centres and has

an audio feed to assess whether there is a real emergency. If there is an emergency, the

centres contact a nominated guardian. It can be used for any vulnerable people, not just

children, and operates anywhere in the world.

So far the venture has cost just over £1.3 million, funded by two rounds of calls on

business angels and further injections of cash will be necessary. Turnover in 2008 was

£3 million

Up-to-date information on Buddi can be found on their website: www.buddi.co.uk1