Investment entrepreneur Al Bentley

Al Bentley (Ship Science, 2009) is the co-founder of Simply Wall Street, a Sydney-based start-up that has created an app to guide investors through the investment process, turning complicated information on stocks into simple infographics. He shares the highs and lows of running his own business.

Why did you choose Southampton?

As a child I spent all my time on computers, programming them or making games. I thought I would get bored if I studied that at university. I chose ship science at Southampton because it was a good course and I would be able to windsurf. I was heavily involved in the windsurf and ski club. I was on the committee for both and competed a lot. Some of the guys I used to compete with are now on the world tour.

How did you hit on the idea of Simply Wall Street?

I moved to Perth, Australia after graduating, and started earning money that I wanted to invest in something. I taught myself how to invest in the stock market and was appalled at how hard it was and how difficult for someone with a technical background like myself. It took me six months to make my first transaction. I started building tools to help me invest, and a few friends saw them and thought they were cool. That got me thinking.

Have you always been entrepreneurial?

At school I sold sunglasses that I ordered from China and, at Southampton, I made money through building web sites for people. There were societies around entrepreneurship but I just wanted to do it, rather than talk about it. Also I was pretty distracted with windsurfing. It was in Perth that I started to have the itch to run my own business, and I knew I had these programming skills that I wasn’t using.