Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Welcome to London Stock Exchange's Tech i p o podcast. We'll be speaking to some of the smartest thinkers in tech and business about their journeys to this point, discussing the tough decisions made along the way, all while getting a behind the scenes view of the London markets. And I'm your host, Stephen Kelly, chair of technician, and today we're diving in with Peter Hilton Moleman, the founder and chief executive of Trustpilot. Peter founded Trustpilot back in 2007 whilst he was a student and also running his own business, selling cables on eBay. And in just over a decade, the company has grown into a global platform, Trustpilot host reviews to help consumers shop with confidence and deliver data insights to help businesses improve their customer experience. The platform is free to use, open to everyone, and built on transparency. Today, Trustpilot has amassed over 120 million consumer reviews across 529,000 websites.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 In March, 2021, Peter and his team talked Trustpilot Public on the premium segment of London stock exchanges main market making Trustpilot the first Danish unicorn to list in London. The company's journey is a true success story, and it's encouraging to see yet another perspective and prosperous tech business list in London. The company's journey is a true success story, and it's encouraging to see yet another prosperous tech business list in London. This is truly an exciting time for the UK tech industry, and with a raft of new reforms to further reduce the barriers to listing due this year, it is without doubt the start of a golden decade for technology. So let's go straight away to one of our pioneers, Peter Hilton, Moleman, founder and chief executive of Trustpilot. Peter, an incredibly warm welcome to you today.
Speaker 2 00:02:25 Thank you so much, Steven. That's good to be here with you.
Speaker 1 00:02:28 That's really great to hear your story now. So just tell us maybe to start off with a little bit about yourself and, and how you came up with the idea for Trustpilot.
Speaker 2 00:02:37 Yeah, so my name is Peter. Um, I'm, uh, Danish. I live in Copenhagen. Uh, I'm, uh, 39 years old. Um, came up with the idea of Trustpilot, um, 15 years ago. And, uh, the idea was, um, partially I wanted to help my mom to get great experiences whenever she bought something online. So if mom buys a trip to France, I want her to get a great trip. If she gets getting a new kitchen, I want her to get a great kitchen or if she buys a digital camera. I really wanted to work the first time. And, uh, the other motivation I had was that I, I had my, uh, e-commerce business at the time, uh, and, and we were just starting out and e-commerce was very new, and people, a lot of people said, oh, I'll just buy it at the store, or from one of the more established players. And so I needed a way to signify that I had a great customer experience and needed a way to signify that I was a trusted business. And so I turned out I could help entrepreneurs and I could help the moms and then also the dads.
Speaker 1 00:03:48 That's brilliant, Peter. And, uh, you know, to, to launch the company the same year that the iPhone came to market is, um, incredible. And now, if we fast forward to today, I'm really interested to see sort of at what point did you start considering an I p o, an initial public offering, and maybe just talk us through the process of how you came up with that decision and also picking your team and advisors and the board for, for the next stage.
Speaker 2 00:04:15 Sure. So an I P O was almost always on the table. Um, of course not in the first, say, three or four years where it was just me and a bunch of friends from, from university, uh, sitting in my apartment. But when we started to raise serious, um, venture capital, it was always, um, thought of as a possible outcome. Uh, I think because our market is so big and, and, and that's attractive if your IPOing because then the shareholders can see how, how it keeps growing. And then I'd say three years ago, uh, we started to, to to really take it serious. And, and so we did a pre i p o fundraise where, where we engaged, uh, Morgan Stanley to, to help us do that. And, and they introduced us to a lot of the I p O investors, um, so that we could build a relationship.
Speaker 2 00:05:11 Usually it takes a lot of trust to ipo, so it helps that you've met people and you say what you're going to do and then you're going to do it, and then you do it. And, and we raise some money from, from, uh, from Sunley house. It's, um, under Advent International and, and, and they are one of these businesses that invest in companies just before an I P O, so they have experience with, with both sides. Then, um, in February, 2020, we decided to I p o and uh, two weeks later, uh, I had shut down all my offices and sent everybody to work from home, uh, and had, uh, all the IPO plans completely on the shelf again. And then it turned out that, um, whilst, I mean, the pandemic was obviously a terrible thing, uh, for Trustpilot isolated, um, it it, it turned out to be favorable for us because the entire world moved online and the need for trust really increased. Uh, so, so luckily we, we came out with the pandemic, uh, really, really well, uh, with, with, with lots more people using us than than ever before. Um, and we could also see that the economy really rebounded, I think, faster than anyone could have anticipated. And, and so then those plans were quickly taken out of the drawer again. And so I think it was six to nine months before the actual i p o we, we really started the work and, and then, yeah, here we are.
Speaker 1 00:06:36 Uh, Peter, it's a great story and just as you say, kind of it's a, a trip on the journey. It's so true. And I know obviously lots of companies are now looking at our ipo, and so your experiences are so relevant. Uh, I think there's twice the level of capital raised, uh, on the London market as there was only just 2, 2, 3 years ago in 2018. And companies like Wise and Moon Peak come into the public market. So it's a, a, a real sort of a, I guess a ben answer time for London. And, uh, your insights of coming to the public markets have been really helpful. And I just quizzing myself really here, um, because your Danish company from a beautiful city, Copenhagen, if anybody hasn't been there, some of the best restaurants in Europe are fantastic cycling, beautiful, and uh, just an amazing place and lovely people, but a Danish unicorn come into list in London. You know, it's obviously what we've got a hundred unicorns, uh, in the uk, which I think is more than Germany, France and Netherlands put together, but it probably, it really is interesting to think about why, why you chose London. What what's behind that, Peter?
Speaker 2 00:07:44 Yeah, so you can say we, we have started in Denmark and we also have more employees in Denmark than we have in our other offices, but I do see us more as an international business than I see us as a, as a Danish business. The, the, the majority of our employees are, um, let's say living not in Denmark. Uh, they're not Danes. Uh, the, the Danish revenue is a fraction of the company's overall revenue. Um, and so, so I was really looking for what's, what's the best, um, future home for a growing international business. And of course, we'll also always have that Danish heritage and, and, and, and, and some, some cultural roots here. And we'll always have a big presence in Denmark. Um, but say I almost look at it like i p o as a service, like I'm selling trust pile as a service, and then I need IPO as a service <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:08:47 Uh, so, so I was looking at, um, a couple of different things. Uh, there's, um, the country you're IPOing in. What what's the legislation like? Uh, there's various rules in various countries, um, that can be, you could say more or less beneficial for what you want to do. Um, and then there is, uh, access to capital. Uh, and with the access to capital, there's also an element of, um, are you a known entity? So typically when you're raising money, the the riskier your proposition is, or the more unknown your proposition is, the the riskier it is. And, and, and, and we all know there's such a thing as a risk premium. Um, and so since we, we, we, we have, um, a very, very strong market position in, in, in the uk and we've had, and, and, and I think for, for a very long time and, and still after Brexit, the, the, the UK is the, the financial center of, um, of, of, of, of Europe. Um, so the majority of all the investors are based in the uk. Uh, and so it does help when we are having those dialogues with the investors that they have heard about us already.
Speaker 2 00:10:06 Um, I wasn't nearly enough of an expert on all the accounting and, and, and, and the legal stuff, but it was the preferred destination for the C F O and, and, and for the legal team. And, and, and that helps <laugh>, but, but I, but from my perspective, it was really, um, it, it's one of our biggest markets, so it helps to be more known in that market. Uh, it's, it's, there's an enormous liquidity. Um, and, and, and, and the investors know who we are, uh, and, and everything equal, that's an advantage.
Speaker 1 00:10:39 And I guess, you know, just, uh, a little while in, but um, so far any kind of reflections on how it's gone and how you feel about the I P O,
Speaker 2 00:10:49 I think the I P O went really well. I'm, I'm, I'm happy with the execution we did, and, and I already, I see a number of benefits for the company, of course, um, employees are, are, are, I think, I think we're a very mission driven company, but also it helps that, uh, employees can see what their stocks are worth. Um, and, and I think, um, sometimes that could be a little bit opaque for the, for, for, for, for the average employee in a, in a venture owned world, cuz you have the cap table and you have all the liquidation preferences and, and so, and isn't your, your, your share isn't publicly traded, so, so what's really the value of your stock options? Of course, you can try to, to tell people, but here in this world, it's, it's extremely obvious what, what the value is.
Speaker 2 00:11:40 Um, and then I've really also been pleasantly surprised by the medium to long-term focus of the investors. I think before IPOing, I was, I was somewhat nervous that it would be this, uh, I mean, you, you, you, you live by the quarter and, and, and it creates this short-term, uh, thinking that some, and, and, and, and you're optimizing, say, say, you can say for short term profits or short term revenue, uh, so that you can constantly make the market happy. And certainly like I I, I mean I appreciate that, that we now have a bunch of very impatient investors that, that wants us to do good every quarter. But, but when we, when we iPod and when we positioned the company, we, we really anchored it on the long term opportunity and, and, and, um, and on the mission and what we wanted to do. Um, and I didn't at all meet these, you can say next month, obsessed people. I, I met some, some, some very, very long-term minded investors. Um, and, and, and so I was surprised by how aligned we are in terms of what I want to do with the business, um, that I want to build, you can say a category defining business that I want to build a, um, a company in the right way and, and, and how, how supportive the investors are of that.
Speaker 1 00:13:04 Oh, that's great, Peter. And, uh, you know, I just, it's refreshing to hear the long-term perspective and the alignment and, and obviously you're on a mission and, uh, sounds like you do a fantastic job. And I'm, I'm, I'm a big fan personally of Trustpilot, big user, uh, and followed you for years. So, um, got a huge respect for you. But one of the things I do talking to European founders, um, like yourself, I guess, um, they're looking at, uh, the I p O and, and London, and I'm just thinking, you know, if you're out in Berlin or Paris, what, what advice would you give those sort of folks in terms of, um, both the I P O process and the timing and also, um, the destination of London or other centers?
Speaker 2 00:13:48 I mean, I, I'd encourage everybody just to go through the motions. Like we, we created a big spreadsheet, uh, comparing all the possible, you can say i p o locations and, and, and scored them. And of course, at the end of day, that scoring is a bit arbitrary. Uh, but it actually made it very easy for us. Like we, we, we were having a couple of other alternatives we considered, but, but, but, but London was ahead with a pretty big margin for us. But I think, I think I'd, I'd encourage you to go through that, um, that exercise, uh, and, and look at it from a, there's a legal perspective. There's like, where are your shareholders? Where's your market? Uh, I, I think, I think that there's a big opportunity in, in IPOing in the place where your customers are, where your users are. So I think you should consider that.
Speaker 2 00:14:36 And then in terms of process, just I'd say realize that there's a couple of things in it. Uh, it's a multi-year process in my opinion. Uh, of course, technically you can I p o a business very fast, uh, but it just will be a lot better, uh, if you spent the time to build up the relationship with the, with your future investors. And then that the, the requirements for predictability of your business just increases quite a lot. Uh, the, the venture investors you have are more overbearing if you have a high variability, for example, in your revenue or you can say huge fluctuations, quarter to quarters, and, and, and then the legal teams and, and, and your financial teams needs to be quite a lot better. So yeah, those, those were the three elements I'd say.
Speaker 1 00:15:25 That's amazing, Peter. And, and just in terms of obviously transparent, it, it is a unique asset and you, you use the words of, uh, category defining and obviously a category leader. And, and as the, um, and I saw actually, I think it was on, uh, a review where Alexa says, you, you, your website is kind of one of the top 1% in the world, which is a magnet, um, in terms of independent review platforms. Uh, and therefore you would've caught the attraction, um, and the attention of lots of potential trade buyers. Um, and I just wonder why you chose kind of an I P O over a potential, uh, a trade sale?
Speaker 2 00:16:05 Yeah, I used to say that we were in the top 1%, and, and I thought, okay, that sounds cool. And then I did the math, and there are actually a couple of hundred million websites out there. Uh, and so if you are, uh, in the top 1%, that means that there are, let's say millions of websites that are ahead of you. Uh, and in our case, we're actually in the top 0, 0, 0, 0 something, uh, percent because we're in the top, I think, um, definitely in the top 500 globally and, and in the uk depending on the day, the top 30, the top 20. But, uh, but yes, uh, <laugh>, we, we, we did also have the, the conversations with the alternative, which was the non I p O market. And so the way I looked at that was that, um, it could either be really amazing or it could be really horrible.
Speaker 2 00:16:58 Um, and so if, if I could find a person that that was completely unaligned with me, uh, and, and, and, and that was, um, you can say an ethical person that would always treat me and the employees well and, and then who were aligned with our mission, then it could actually be a pretty good outcome because then you just have to speak with one person and then you move. But effectively it would be their company, and I would just, you can say, work for that person and, and, and then you can say, God saved me if, uh, <laugh> if things went wrong. Whereas with the I P O, um, even though I have the same ownership as I had before, and, and I have the same percent ownership as I would have in in, in the trade sale right now, morally, I know that you can say if, if you, if you look up in the contract, it, it's, it's not entirely my business. There are a lot of people who own Trustpilot now, but morally, it still feels like my business. And, and, and morally, it feels more like we are a management team and a and, and a company. And, and, and we are, uh, the people in the company. And, and when we, I said we call ourselves the trustees, we set a direction for the business, and then the market buys into that direction. And so somehow I feel more independent by having so many shareholders than I would feel if I had just one shareholder. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:18:18 That's really interesting. I love the concept of trustees and um, I, I think all the investors would, uh, certainly trust, you've used that word a lot, um, you to lead and grow the company, uh, in a much wiser and more prudent way, actually. So that's, um, very encouraging. And I just think on an ipo, you obviously get into this stage. You mentioned one of them, uh, when you look back at the three year journey, you, you raised multiple rounds of private capital and, and how was the I p O process similar or, or different to those private rounds?
Speaker 2 00:18:53 It's similar in the preparation in the sense that you build your financial model, you build your investor pitches. Where it's very different is that when you're taking money from, for example, venture capital, private equity, they typically invest in far fewer companies. And the venture guys can afford to make mistakes, and there's like one of 10 businesses that, that, that needs to be a hit. But the private equities can, they, they can't really afford to make a mistake. And so that means that there is an enormous due diligence in it. And, and you typically speak with a, with a few investors, and they go extremely deep when you then speak with the I p O investors. Um, they are, um, investing so large quantities of money that for them, it's just unrealistic to dedicate as much time as, as the private equity people to, to you.
Speaker 2 00:19:44 And so that means that your, your pitch, the way you tell the story, your investment case needs to be of an extreme quality. Like with the private equity people and the venture people, that's also important, but you can get to know them and maybe they'll give you a second chance and, and, and, and it's a three month, uh, relationship. You're building up with them where they'll say, interview you for and, and, and interview lots of people in your business. And so on. The, the I p o pitch is really 45 minutes probably. And, and then you meet them for a follow up with questions and then potentially last follow up with questions, and that's it. And, and then it's not like that they're only spending, you can say 180 minutes on, on the investment. They're doing a lot of work behind the scenes, but your, your time with them is very short.
Speaker 2 00:20:31 So you're giving the same pitch probably 200 times. So the day would be like, get up at 9 45 minute pitch, 15 minute break, 45 minute pitch, 15 minute break, and it would be like that for eight, nine days. Uh, and at the end of it, like I have to say, that pitch becomes really good <laugh>. Um, and, and then you have a, but, but also your, your, your mi you, you become a little bit crazy by it, uh, and, and, and you get really tired of your own jokes and even more tired of the jokes your CFO is making. Um, and then two, three months later, you do the same again, only this time you adjusted based on how it went last time and, and you're really doing a lot of back and forth with the banks in the meanwhile. And then again, a week to 10 days non-stop pitches, two, three month break, uh, you adjust, you come back, boom, you go for it again, and then that's it.
Speaker 1 00:21:23 That's amazing. Peter. So on those relentless kind of 45 minute sprints over and over and over again doing the pitch, um, what, what was, if there was one, any question any investor asked that kind of made you really, really, really think
Speaker 2 00:21:39 No, you are so over prepared and, and you have drilled it so many times with the banks and with your own investors, so, so, so it's more like rehearsed movie jiujitsu where you know exactly which questions you're going to get, uh, and you know exactly how you're going to answer them, and everything is just drilled into you mercilessly, uh, that that's what, uh, you can say JP Morgan and, and, and Morgan Stanley, uh, did for us. Like, why is your tam so big? Okay, boom, boom, boom. Like, what's your go-to-market strategy in America? Boom, boom, boom, <laugh>. And, and, and also that's, that's because of the nature of the meetings, because they're so short, the investors will typically go through the same 10, 15 things, uh, and and, and they tend to care about the same things also.
Speaker 1 00:22:26 That's amazing. And, um, you know, in terms of, it sounds like the preparation you did was exceptional and almost like military precision. But if there's kind of one thing from the whole process of, um, the I p o, the, you know, the one big takeaway you'd give to other founders considering IPO as part of their growth journey. What, what, what would that be, Peter?
Speaker 2 00:22:49 I think I was actually more scared of it than I should have been. I think I underestimated the actual I p o in that that was actually tougher than I, than I thought it was. And, and, and, and to anybody going through this process, like book a four week holiday the day you ipo, like, just go, like, the business will be fine, but you won't, uh, you're tired. Uh, you're game over, uh, you're done. Uh, so just get out, go somewhere nice. Uh, but, but, but if you have a strong, uh, cfo O if you have a strong, um, say chief legal, if, if, if your business has built up the processes, um, I'd be a lot less concerned about all these like, oh, there's so much bureaucracy. Oh, there's so many things you can't say, oh, you have so many short-term. And like, my life is more or less the same, uh, in, in, in the post i p o world. Uh, I I I thought, I thought those rumors were greatly, uh, you can say exaggerated.
Speaker 1 00:23:51 So if, if it's kind of more or less the same, then, um, apart from, uh, the access to capital, what, what's the I p O enabled Trustpilot to do?
Speaker 2 00:24:01 Yeah, so, so one is you instantly get a much bigger brand because people talk about you, and people have always talked about Trustpilot because people are asking, for example, should I buy from this company? Uh, and then people respond on, on, on Facebook, on Twitter, on a forum anywhere. Um, journalists are writing about Trustpilot, they're writing about the businesses on Trustpilot. So, so it's not like there was never a conversation about Trustpilot, but now there's, there's an additional conversation, which is that how's the stock going to perform? What's our market? And so on. And, and I think, I think in this day and age where you can say, you get a little bit of attention and then Justin Bieber gets arrested, and then you're back to nothing. Um, I think, I think all attention helps. Um, and then it adds a credibility to your brand, uh, because there is a ton of scrutiny and people know that, uh, and, and so, so the seriousness of, of a listed company and the requirements for you can say you running everything in a proper way are just so much bigger than, than, than, than for a non-listed company.
Speaker 2 00:25:14 Uh, and so we certainly see that, that, um, that we're now being considered, uh, a more serious, a more trusted, uh, entity. And again, in, in, in, in, I mean, I, I, I think, uh, a lack of trust and in particular lack of trust in, in, in, in the online world and, and, and the, a lack of trust in the entities in that online world is one of the most defining, say, issues of our time. Uh, so I mean, who cannot benefit from, from more trust? That's, you can say also in, in, in a nutshell, shell, the value we're providing to the market, but an IPO o helps there. Um, and then there's the, um, because of that brand halo, because of the thing I mentioned earlier where the, um, the value of your stock becomes so much more, um, clear, uh, because you're now seen as a serious entity and, and then people can say, oh, what can this become? Um, I find it's easier to attract the kind of people who are good at, at building and scaling large businesses.
Speaker 1 00:26:28 Yeah, that's amazing. And, um, I, I think you really speak so eloquently around trust as I guess the new gold of, uh, the internet and, uh, Trustpilot stand very tall on that. So looking forwards, um, Peter, you know, um, what's, what's the next big thing for trust pilot?
Speaker 2 00:26:47 Ooh, yeah. So that's, uh, one of the things where actually being a list of companies is, and now we're entering some tricky waters because what should I say here that I haven't already said to the market and, and, uh, and, and, and so on. Uh, so, so I cannot reveal, you can say any, you can say next big thing, but what I can say is that what we want to be is the most trusted. Uh, and so we're, we, we're constantly trying to invest into getting ever better at, say, detecting fake reviews, ensuring the integrity of the content, uh, ensuring that it's the businesses that really care about their customers, uh, and that that is the businesses that are really engaging with their customers, um, that, um, that, that we can really show that to, uh, to their potential customers. And then it's about, um, they really keep growing and the markets we're in, uh, and, and keep adding new services, um, and then eventually, uh, over time expand into new markets. Also, I find this is a very human problem in the sense that people in you can say one side of the world will care as much about this as people on the other side of the world, and so will businesses. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:28:16 Just, um, sort of one final question. You've talked about, um, trust, and that's the essence, I guess, of the whole business model and the integrity. And you talked about a mission-driven business, which I absolutely applaud. So how, how, from a employee point of view, um, someone who works in your team, how would they describe the culture at, um, Trustpilot?
Speaker 2 00:28:41 Oh, we have a funny culture because it's, it's such a, you can say a mix, like if, if we were a dog, we'd have dots and stripes and a long tail and a short nose and, and, and so on. So, but, but so, so we have elements of Scandinavian startup culture, so that's very meritocratic and, um, extremely egalitarian, and in some sense you can say consensus driven. And then we have elements of the, the more UK and us, Hey, uh, yeah, let, let, let's take over the world, um, uh, let's move, uh, you do this, you do that. And, and, and sometimes they clash a little bit. Like, like the, the candies will, will sit and like say, uh, oh, but, uh, did we really decide that and I wasn't heard? And we need to discuss that. And, uh, the say the Americans will say like, oh, but like, like we decided that a long time ago, like, like, uh, we need to move.
Speaker 2 00:29:40 Uh, but I find somewhere in the middle, uh, the outcome is really good. Uh, you can say decisions that there's a reasonable amount of buy-in for. And then, um, if there's one thing we've done well is, is we, we, we have, we've hired very nice people, uh, that care about being at the business and that care about each other. And I think ultimately that's actually one of the more lasting values. And also something that, that really equates to my happiness is that, of course, I care about the stock price, but the stock price will go up and down and, and, and, and of course I care about the performance of the business, and that'll go up and down. Also, my real happiness has much more to do with how do we work together as a team? Do we like each other? Do I care about what we do and why we do it? Because if that works, all kinds of bad things can happen, and you're still fine. And, and, and that's something I think we do really well. We care.
Speaker 1 00:30:37 Theo, is fascinating, your story and the trust pilot story, but just have a bit of personality about yourself, um, with a, a quick far round of just kind of questions to, to give, uh, people and the audience, uh, of you. So what do you like doing the first one when you're not running a public company?
Speaker 2 00:30:58 Yeah, it was funny. I was thinking I was like, pancakes. I love making pancakes. Uh, I, I, I like cooking, I like having people over for dinner, and that's probably what I miss the most in the pandemic actually is, um, seeing good friends and, and, and, and eating good food with them.
Speaker 1 00:31:14 That's a great thing to do. We'll all, we'll all come around to Copenhagen for the pancakes. That sounds good. Um, uh, and what's, what's the best book that you've read during the pandemic?
Speaker 2 00:31:24 Uh, I've reread a book called Chanam, which is a bit of an old book about this Australian criminal that ends up in Mumbai and just starts all over there and, and finds love and wisdom and, and I think there's so much, uh, soul in that book that anybody who's curious about life should read it.
Speaker 1 00:31:46 That's a great recommendation. And, um, another question, apart from pancakes, what's your favorite food?
Speaker 2 00:31:53 Ooh, it's the type of food that your grandparents like, uh, so anything that can come in an oven for a long time or anything that can, uh, you can say just, uh, be on the stove for a couple of hours. Uh, I, I, I like the taste of that, typically slow food. I love slow food.
Speaker 1 00:32:11 And, um, you, you, the advice you gave, uh, any founders during the IPO is to take some holiday, which, uh, four weeks would be good. So if you did that for yourself, where would your favorite holiday destination be?
Speaker 2 00:32:24 Also, at the moment, there, there are two places I really miss. It's like the one is just the entire Southeast Asia region. I, I I, I really, you can say miss that feeling of, uh, you could say riding in a tuk tuk, uh, or, uh, or, or a scooter and flip flops and a helmet, and, and next to you there's a cart with some donkeys on it. Uh, and, and the colors are more vibrant than anywhere else, and the people are so nice and, and it's beautiful. Um, and then I miss northern Norway, uh, areas like low foton where the sun doesn't really set even if it's too, uh, at night. And, and, and there's something about the softness of the light when it passes through so much atmosphere and air that, that, cause they have fascinated painters for good reasons.
Speaker 1 00:33:12 Yeah. Sounds beautiful. And kind of final question, if, if you could have coffee with just one person, uh, alive or dead, who would that person be?
Speaker 2 00:33:22 I think it would be my, my my, um, my late grandfather. I really miss him. Um, and so, uh, if, if, if, if I could pick one person, I'd take him over. You can say Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Elon Musk and Barack Obama and so on. Like, I'm not sure what I would speak with them about in any end. Uh, so grandfather would be nice. And
Speaker 1 00:33:46 What's, what's your one abiding memory of your grandfather?
Speaker 2 00:33:50 Um, infinite trust and always talking to me as an adult, even if I'm five years old, but yet knowing when to treat me as a child when I was a child.
Speaker 1 00:34:02 That's a very beautiful way to end Peter. Um, what a joy to hear your story and the journey of trust pilot and just bring out the personality of all a brilliant company. You've built the culture and to really embody that trust and integrity in, uh, you know, strange times, particularly with the pandemic and the explosion of the online world. So thanks very much. Any, any sort of, um, closing comments for the listeners out there today?
Speaker 2 00:34:33 I've really enjoyed the conversation. As you say, we live in interesting times. Uh, I remember growing up in the nineties and just thinking, oh, we're just all going to be more democratic, richer. Uh, everything will just be better in particular with technology. Uh, now I think the future is going to be more interesting than any of us can imagine, both good and bad. And so it's, um, up to us to, uh, fix that.
Speaker 1 00:34:58 Brilliant. Peter, thank you so much for joining us today. I've, I've enjoyed the conversation. I'm a big fan. I'm sure everybody out there have Trustpilot and what you've built is a really special, magical company and we wish you all the best for the future of growth, success and kind of being, being the holder of the flame for integrity on the internet. Thank you.
Speaker 2 00:35:18 Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 00:35:24 I've really enjoyed listening to Peter's story today, and this is one of a number of London Stock Exchange podcasts from inspirational leaders to talk about their journey and their company's journey and how their initial public offering has really propelled them forward to the next stage. But most of all, I really want to thank you out there for joining us today, and please stay tuned for the next podcast.
