Where Are They Now: Spencer Gore, founder of EMJ

The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme has celebrated more than 300 exceptional individuals since its launch in 2018. In this series, we reconnect with some of our alumni to find out what happened next in their growth journey, the impact of being part of the programme, and their ambitions now.

“I want to create a golden unicorn by 2030,” says Spencer Gore, founder of medical communications company EMJ. “We’ll get a £1bn valuation by then.” Gore set up his business from his spare room in 2012, launching the European Medical Journal to help medical professionals stay on top of industry trends and developments.

By the time he featured in The LDC Top 50 in 2022, EMJ had a global database of 1.2 million doctors, and published a mix of journals, podcasts, newsletters and webinars. Since then, he has launched the American Medical Journal, opened an office in Miami, a communications arm in Ireland, and created his own training academy. He says: “I’m relentless in my ambition to reach my goals.”

What’s been the highlight of the last two years?

I always wanted to open an office in the US and people laughed and said that will never happen. Now we have an office in Miami and 30pc of our revenues come from the States. Soon, that will be the bigger business. Next, I want to create a golden unicorn. People have told me I can’t do that too. But I like proving people wrong.

What’s your biggest challenge now?

It’s still recruitment – that’s been a challenge for the last 12 years. That’s why we have opened our own training academy. In March we took on 10 university graduates and paid them to attend a three-month course. Nine of those passed and got a job with us. We have a culture of internal promotion, so it’s vital to get the right people in at the start.

What do you do outside of EMJ these days?

I recently bought a 60pc stake in Chelmsford Football Club. This was a goal that I set myself in my first ever coaching session with a business mentor. I’ve never been a good enough player to go professional, but I love the game and wanted to own a club. I tried to buy it three years ago and it didn’t happen but earlier this year I was approached by the Chairman, and we did the deal in three months. Once you set yourself a goal, reverse engineering the path there becomes easy.