Jeoff and I started The Squared Group on my wife’s birthday. A memorable day for many reasons then. We’d started collecting our thoughts before then but Feb 18, 2002 was the official birthday of the business as a legal entity.
Jeoff and his family had moved into our street the summer before having moved to the UK from South Africa where work for management consultants was becoming harder to find. Bringing up a young family in an increasingly dangerous country was also a driving force to their move.
As with many so many friendships between families ours developed as a direct result of the kids being similar ages and going to the same school.
But how did starting a business together enter the equation?
Again like so many events it wasn’t planned – rather it was the result of pooling efforts to try and get an idea for a TV gameshow off the ground. The idea had been in my head for a long time but as with many of my ideas over the years that was where it had stayed.
Where On Earth? was the working title.
This was in late 2001/ early 2002 when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and You Are The Weakest Link were battling with each other for top-spot in the TV ratings and being successfully re-sold around the globe.
Gameshows were flavour of the month and we reasoned that my idea which had originally been conceived as a board game would translate well onto the small screen. A very visual game with the opportunity to win big money and other prizes as the contestant travelled the world. The board game would then be a natural spin-off.
Christmas 2001 was spent refining the idea and preparing presentation material although we had no idea what a production company would be looking for. Our first mistake – lack of research, which led to the second mistake – too much preparation.
Anyway, to cut this part of the story short. Jeoff is very good at opening doors. Very good at cold-calling and convincing the other person that they should be meeting with us. And so we met with one of the founders of a London based TV format company.
Ben liked the concept, said that we had over developed the idea ( that was his job!) but ultimately declined the concept. Too many quiz shows which companies like Celador (the makers of Millionaire) were getting fed up with – pigeon holing them as a one-trick pony.
And so we shelved Where on Earth for another time.
Maybe that was another mistake. Giving up too early and basing our decision on just one person’s viewpoint. But we had other fish to fry.
The process of developing the gameshow had shown Jeoff and myself though that we appeared to work together well and both wanted more than just a pay cheque at the end of the month. We both had different skills and backgrounds that would compliment each other.
We were confident the ideas would come after all I had a folder full of scribbles and if we networked we would come across others. But the decision to go into business together was based more on what we epexcted T2G would become rather than having specific product ideas or opportunities in mind at the outset.
And so The Squared Group was born. Or T2G as it more conveniently became known.
DoB: February 18, 2002
