LDC Top 50 2019

Serial entrepreneur Mark Roberts is a man on a mission: he wants to make good driving “cool and fun”. He has created Lightfoot, “the Fitbit for cars”, which listens to a car’s engine and feeds information back so drivers can become more efficient, saving 20pc on both fuel and emissions, on average.

“We are making a fundamental impact,” he says. “No one else in the world is doing what I’m doing.” Mark recently launched a lottery to “gamify” good driving by offering players cash prizes and this move is set to accelerate growth. His company now boasts 30,000 users, and is winning 2,000 more each month.

Q&A

What is your personal ambition?

My previous business sold raffle tickets to win supercars at airports. I was a selling a dream: a gas guzzler to drive like a hooligan. As the years went by, people started saying, “You shouldn’t be promoting that.” I started to see that doing the right thing was far more of a growth area. Now, I’m saving people money and saving the planet. That gets me out of bed in the morning.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Martin McCourt, the former CEO of Dyson, recently joined as a non executive. He took Dyson from one product in one country to a global megastar. He’s been really good at helping me taking a high-level view. We’re the first technology to do what we do, and it’s easy to get bogged down in thinking you’re awesome. Customers aren’t always ready for new things, so he has taught me to intrigue them first, and then give them all the detail. That’s why we’ve launched the lottery. People will think, ‘Hey! I can win cash for good driving”. It’s a means of explaining what we do.

Is money a motivator for you?

I’ve sold one business and done alright so that’s not the thing driving me any more. I love winning good contracts and keeping the business well funded so that we can do all the things we want to do. Money should never be your objective because that can lead to bad decisions.