He was €130,000 short of becoming a pilot. So Erik Jentetics decided to become a businessman.
He was 17.
He and two school friends started by Googling how to buy a domain. They put €6,000 between them into Grafton Digital, knocked on doors looking for customers and, in one early pitch, confidently told a prospective client that yes, of course they charged VAT. They walked out and had to find out what VAT actually was.
Then came the less funny bit. At 19, Covid hit a business heavily exposed to hospitality. Contracts disappeared. Erik had to help lay off more than eight people. Then a whiteboard session changed the company. Web development was producing the best revenue per employee. They dropped much of the rest, hired three students to cold-call businesses and, at their peak, were taking about 50 website orders a week.
Then they moved into apps.
Then software.
By late 2022/early 2023, Grafton Digital had passed €1 million in gross revenue.
At 25, Erik bought a 39-year-old Irish technology business.
Now 26, with more than 50 people across his businesses, he wants to buy more Irish technology companies. His particular target: smaller, family-owned businesses whose founders are looking for an exit.
There's New York too. Erik explains why Grafton's first American expansion actually damaged its Irish business, why Irish executives need to “cut the blarney” when selling in the US, how he finances acquisitions, and why he doesn't want to raise an enormous fund and lose control.
He also says some of New York's most influential and wealthy families invested in him last year — and reveals that Grafton Digital has just signed a two-year digital transformation deal with a US corporation with more than 3,000 retail outlets, with another major airline customer announcement to come.
And his Hire in a Heartbeat?
John D. Rockefeller.
At 26.
Of course it is.
That Great Business Show, Episode 311. Real Business. Real lessons.
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