Active Hotels, via Booking.com, to Angel Investing: A Discussion with Andy Phillipps (Part 2)

Following on from Andy Phillipps first podcast, we are pleased to bring you part two. In part one, Andy described how he co-founded Active Hotels, selling to Priceline and eventually helping form Booking.com. Part two follows his transition into Angel Investing. Andy's first venture into investing came with Toptable, investing not only capital but importantly for the companies success, he invested his time and expertise. Andy was chair for the company for five years, before helping them sell to OpenTable in 2010. He subsequently began as chair of Reevoo and continues to be a Non-Executive Director for Trainline. Andy has become a prominent figure in the UK, sitting on the board of the Cambridge Angels and forming Active Venture Fund. Most importantly, Andy has learnt that founders need backing, not just with finances, but with advice, mentoring and the expertise of investors. Enjoy part two! Andy Phillipps is a serial entrepreneur and an early stage investor in startups. He co-founded Active Hotels with Adrian Critchlow, which their team grew to be the largest online hotel booking company in Europe before sale to Priceline. Andy became CEO of priceline.com’s non US business where he initiated the purchase of Bookings BV and subsequent merger with Active to form Booking.com. He subsequently bought into, and was chairman of, Toptable.com. He has also co-founded Reevoo, which provides social content solutions to brands in approx 90 countries. In addition, he lectures in entrepreneurship at London Business School and INSEAD and makes seed investments in early stage tech or market place businesses. He is an Ashoka Support Network member, fellow of the Judge business school at Cambridge University, board member of Cambridge angels, proud father of three monstrous children and has a PhD from Cambridge in mixed mode interfacial fracture of biomimetic ceramic laminates. Produced by Mark Cotton, Twitter. Peter Cowley is a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and pr