Solly Solomou, Founder & CEO @ LADbible Group: From Penniless Shop Offices to Public Company | E1259

LADbible CEO Solly Solomou built a 500M-follower media company from a £3-4k investment above a printer shop, and says starting in the US instead of the UK was his biggest mistake.

• LADbible was acquired as a Facebook page with 500k followers for low thousands of pounds in 2012, before Facebook had even listed publicly.
• LADbible now reaches two-thirds of UK 18-34 year-olds and over 500 million followers globally, generating 3,000 video views per second.
• Solomou calls waiting 8 years to invest in YouTube “criminal” and says starting in the US instead of the UK would have been the bigger bet.
• IPO on the London Stock Exchange raised ~£120 million; Solomou cites US expansion firepower and the Betches acquisition as the key rationale.
• TikTok Shop is expected to become a $1 trillion social commerce market; Solomou calls it the most interesting product in social today and wants it in LADbible’s ecosystem.
• A dubbing AI experiment turned a sports show with the Australian cricket captain into Hindi and hit 200k views in one day.
• Solomou believes wearables will make smartphones look like car phones within 10-15 years, fundamentally reshaping media consumption.
• Pandemic-era hiring spree without cultural-fit discipline is cited as a repeatable mistake; acquiring Unilad (200 people each) compounded the culture integration challenge.

2025-02-14 · Watch on YouTube