He sold top business minds on a TV show that promised to save the world – and make them famous. They handed over thousands. Then reality set in….
Failed business magnate Peter Grant’s career was over when his show, The Boss, hit UK screens in 1995. It was cancelled after just a few months, and the cast and crew were left in financial chaos.
But they managed a surprising resurrection thanks to a little-known business venture Grant had launched with a few of his most valuable employees.
Now Grant, a serial entrepreneur who left his corporate life behind him years ago, is back in business, with The Boss Network, a new online comedy show set to be broadcast from a studio he has built near the town of Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
“It started as a joke,” says Grant.
“One day, when I was talking to a friend, I said: ‘What will I do when I retire?’
“He said, ‘You won’t retire, you’ll be a millionaire.'”
Peter Grant and his wife Anne with their two children, James, aged seven, and Victoria, aged three, on the set of their new TV show
Grant’s plan was to start a TV show that would make people rich. He spent years searching for and financing a UK production company, only to find that his idea had little chance.
“I started thinking, ‘My God, what have I just done? This was my best idea ever, and I’ve squandered it. I need to start from scratch now,'” he says.
But the idea wasn’t simply a waste of time. Grant had made a serious investment: He had made a fortune from selling a company he founded, GVC Holdings, which he sold for £22.5m in 2004.
The company had sold more than 5,000 products in its 30 years of trading, generating £2.3m in revenue. But that wasn’t enough for the TV producer and Grant was determined to keep going.
“I was so confident in my own idea that I didn’t think I needed other people’s money.”
Grant and Anne, his wife, had raised £10,000 from friends for the idea and they had raised another £18,
