Nelson Wootton

Nelson Wootton is a UK-based entrepreneur currently focused on developing new companies in the technology sector. He has a long track record in growing vibrant businesses from scratch or from small beginnings, and turning around declining organisations.

Nelson set up his first business aged 18 and sold it as a going concern three years later. He has since founded, developed and sold a variety of enterprises in the music industry as well as the retail and technology sectors.

Nelson has a particular interest in disruptive technologies that promise to transform existing ways of doing business. For example, he is a strong advocate of cloud computing, having begun work with the technology before the term was coined. He was an early adopter of cloud services offered by Amazon in the early 2000s — when they were known simply as web services — and has used them consistently since then to underpin scalable, on-demand applications.

Nelson enjoys a hands-on challenge and can still roll up his sleeves to write software in a variety of languages, although the vast majority of his work today is at a higher level, developing technology architecture and managing overall business activities.

Nelson is currently involved with a number of organisations where he provides business advice, technology insight or direct management oversight.

In April 2010, Nelson founded Lyfthelm, a London-based technology company that provides mobile e-commerce solutions for large businesses. Clients including the Royal Mail and National Counties Building Society use Lyfthelm software to provide fully featured online services to their customers. Lyfthelm develops platform-agnostic apps that can be deployed on a variety of systems, including iPad, iPhone and Android handsets. Nelson currently serves as Lyfthelm's Managing Director.

Since March 2011, Nelson has also served as the Managing Director of Bike Devil, an online broker offering cost-effective insurance and breakdown cover for motorcyclists. He is responsible for the company's strategic development both in the UK and internationally.

Bike Devil is unique in offering motorcycle insurance policies with zero excess, as well as free seven-day cover for motorcyclists buying a new bike. Policies are sold online through BikeDevil.net, as well as through partner websites including web classifieds leader Gumtree. In late 2011 the company expanded into the United States, offering policies through a new website, BikeFallenAngel.com.

In addition to his business management role, Nelson oversaw the design and deployment of Bike Devil's secure e-commerce delivery system, which has allowed more than 300,000 customers to buy policies online.

Prior to his current roles, Nelson served as Managing Director of Poptel Technology, an internet service provider that managed the online presences of a wide variety of organisations, from public sector and voluntary bodies to businesses and consumers.

While at Poptel Technology, Nelson led the creation of the internet's global top-level domain for co-operatives, .coop, under the auspices of internet governing body ICANN.

Poptel Technology was acquired by Telecomplete in 2007, forming a new company called Fused Group. As part of the merger, Nelson took on the role of Chief Technology Officer at Fused Group, before leaving to found Lyfthelm.