James Murray Wells

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James Murray Wells is a young English entrepreneur who owns and runs Glasses Direct, an online retailer of spectacles in the UK. Currently (2008) he is aged 24.

1 Early life
2 Business life: Glasses Direct
3 Political activity and business advocacy
4 Internet
5 Personality and quotations
6 Social life
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Early life

Murray Wells attended the well-known "public school" (which in British usage actually means a private school) of Harrow before attending the University of West Of England to read English, with the intention of studying Law subsequently. ^[1]

His father is an investment analyst and his maternal grandfather, Wendell Clough, was helped bring Ford and Chrysler to the UK. During his school and university career Murray Wells developed a reputation for arranging complex practical jokes. ^[2]

[edit] Business life: Glasses Direct

While studying for his final university examinations Murray Wells discovered that he needed to start wearing spectacles. Surprised by the price quoted by an optician, he contacted first manufacturers and then individual workers until a technician told him that a pair of glasses selling for £150 cost only £7 to make. Inspired by this, he created a website selling spectacles directly to the public, initially funding his business using the remains of his student loan, establishing the first online retailer of spectacles in the UK's traditionally highly controlled, arguably monopolistic spectacles market. ^[2]

However, several established chains of conventional bricks and mortar opticians attempted to close down Glasses Direct with legal and regulatory threats, leading to a particularly bitter feud between Murray Wells and the offshore based chain Specsavers. ^[3] ^[4] These attempts have to date failed, and now seem to be abandoned, with Specsavers itself now attempting to sell spectacles online.

Glasses Direct received on the order of $6 million of venture capital investment from Highland Capital Partners and Index Ventures in 2007, and expansion to become an international brand seems likely. In the UK, Glasses Direct currently claims to serve one customer every ten minutes.

Murray-Wells won the 2005 Shell Livewire award for entrepreneurship, the 2005 Startup Award, the 2005 Wales and West Country Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2005 Natwest Business of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the 2006 Isambard Kingdom Brunel Young Entrepreneur Award. ^[1]

[edit] Political activity and business advocacy

Political advisory roles

Murray Wells has served as an advisor on business and enterprise to both the UK's current Labour Party government and the Conservative Party opposition. He is currently an advisors for the Shadow Chancellor, George Osbourne. ^[5]

Taper relief

MW has taken part in the campaign by UK entrepreneurs against the changing of UK taxation laws to end Taper Relief, arguing that this change will damage the prospects of future entrepreneurs and start-ups. ^[6]

Promoting entrepreneurship

In addition to his involvement with the taper relief campaign, Murray Wells has been a keynote speaker at the Federation of Small Businesses annual conference ^[7] and has taken part in events aimed at promoting entrepreneurship to school children.^[6]

[edit] Internet

Murray Wells has expressed a strong interest in Web 2.0 and disruptive technologies and business models. ^[6] He took part in organizing a Flash Crowd event as part of the taper relief campaign discussed above^[8], and his website http://blog.ideavolcano.com/ is designed to promote collaborative "open source" problem solving between entrepreneurs.

Murray-Wells asked customers to write about Glasses Direct on Wikipedia, somewhat to the irritation of some Wikipedia editors - although no attempt seems to have been made to suggest what contributors should write. (See the history of the Discussions Page for the Glasses Direct article on Wikipedia.)

Murray-Wells seems to make a habit of searching for blogs that refer to Glasses Direct on the Internet, replying to them and occasionally adopting customer suggestions. ^[9]

[edit] Personality and quotations

In addition to his reputation as a creative practical joker and his repeated emphasis on innovation and "disruptive" technologies and new business models, the following quotations and incidents are possibly telling:

"I think it was a case of the more they kick and scream, the more that you know you're doing something right." ^[6]

"I don't think entrepreneurs are afraid of failing. I think they're afraid of being different." ^[6]

"Sheer hard work and determination by great people shapes a business much more than luck." ^[10]

"Recognise where your weaknesses are and surround yourself with great people that can do the things you can't." ^[6]

When starting Glasses Direct, Murray-Wells adopted a dog as an office mascot called Sapphie, who he loved for "her quiet discreet nature." He later named a pair of spectacles frames after her. ^[11]

When the major chain Specsavers tried to stop Glasses Direct from trading using legal action, Murray-Wells published their lawyers’ letters on his website, where they remained until the embarrassed lawyers used copyright to force their removal. Murray-Wells then replaced the letters with a note explaining why they were no longer there. ^[12]

"At school I used to behave terribly. Even at university I'd do things like make the campus Christmas tree disappear, watch the uproar and then mysteriously return it." ^[2]

Murray-Wells sent out men dressed as sheep to Newcastle city centre to hand leaflets explaining how much cheaper his products were than those of high street opticians, suggesting that spectacle wearers were being "fleeced". Once again Specsavers threatened and then abandoned legal action. ^[2]

"I remember once I was helping out with the careers convention [for kids] in Bristol… and I was on a desk that was labeled 'running your own business,' and I was talking to one of the children there. I asked him whether he'd actually set up and done anything in business and he was actually telling me about how he'd actually set up a small playground type business at school and the teacher had shut it down and said, no, you can't do this, whatever it was, selling stickers, which I thought was tragic." ^[6]

[edit] Social life

Murray Wells is a close friend of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and was involved in advising Middleton with her own potential fashion business. ^[13]