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BRENT HOBERMAN may not be a name everybody instantly puts a face alongside, but it once was. Brent is one half of the couple who invented lastminute.com. They started their business with virtually no capital in a premises so small that cat-swinging was never an option for them.

A couple of years later, they were able to float the venture and make a fortune. Brent was suddenly worth about £80 million. Not long afterwards, the dotcom bubble burst and his value dropped to a tiddly £30 million, although, give him his due, he doesn’t yield to self-pity about it.

“I am very lucky to have made more than I could ever need,” he says.