smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

After selling his last company for $135 million, Jerry Kennelly launched web-based design platform Tweak.com this month and expects a million customers in its first year of trading.

What’s your background and why did you start again?

The last company I ran, Stockdisc, was the first European company to market royalty-free stock photography, but I had been thinking how great it would be if businesses could take control of their own design processes. After selling the company I launched Tweak, which allows small business owners to customise and print a whole raft of marketing and branded materials from their desktop, giving a cost saving of 80 per cent compared to traditional suppliers.

How did you finance it?

I sold Stockdisc to Getty Images for $135 million in 2006, so there was no requirement for raising finance. The money I have put into the new venture amounts to over $10 million.

How did you spread the word?

We’ve got a fairly broad marketing strategy including PR, social media, and personalised mail. The launch was a success – we’ve already had 40,000 unique visits on the site. It’s early days but there’s a wide range of sectors using it.

What progress do you expect for your first year?

We’re looking to add a million customers in our first year of trading. It’s built as a global business from the get-go. We launched with 400,000 pieces of design, which as it stands is the largest collection of customisable design in the world, and we plan to continue to aggressively grow the breadth of our content.

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