HARVEY JENKINSON CEO and Co-Founder of Gravity Harvey, thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Appreciate you’re pretty busy. Well, it was the opening night at the VIP party for the city and everybody at our latest location in Westfield Stratford last night, so it’s been a bit of a long evening and a late night. So that’s your very latest one? In Stratford? Yes, the latest Gravity MAX concept. Our new Urban Theme Park concept includes 11 immersive attractions 2 multi-level E-karts tracks, Coca-Cola Street Golf, The latest VR and arcade games, a Heineken Sports bar, food, corporate event space & The Voice Karaoke. Great. It sounds like you are busy. Let’s dig a little deeper into how you initially got into it from your previous career. I know from your LinkedIn profile that you were involved with super yachts. What were you doing there? I was a captain. I left the UK at 19 or 20, did some training, and then worked on yacht deliveries. I met my wife, who trained as a chef, and we decided to work together as a captain and chef team in the Caribbean for about 10 years. It’s an intense industry, and we wanted to go home, start a family, and do something else. We had met many successful people and had avenues for advice. Over the last part, I met Simon, one of our co-founders, who was exKPMG. He was retired and living in Cayman. I used him as a soundboard for advice on setting up a business because I had never done anything like this before. How did you decide on the trampoline park idea? Initially, we thought about self-storage, but we felt we missed the boat on that. My wife saw a Sky Zone franchise on a TV show, and it intrigued us. There were no trampoline parks in the UK at that time, so we saw an opportunity. We didn’t know much about leisure, but we decided to research and plan. I spoke to my best friend and co-founder, Michael, who had experience in leisure, and Simon provided business advice. Together, we decided to pursue the trampoline park idea. So, you bootstrapped the business to get it off the ground? Yes,100%; we put our money in and got some friends from the Caribbean to invest. They were willing to take a chance on our idea. Some of them still work in the business ENTERTAINMENT CEO OF THE YEAR CEO Today Global Awards 2024 - 61 - - UNITED KINGDOM -
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