VISITING the smart headquarters of Moneysupermarket.com one could be forgiven for believing you are in Silicon Valley, not a quiet business park just outside Chester.

Leather couches, pristine white walls, clocks showing the time in four continents, plus a steady stream of bright young things, wearing jeans, chinos and open-necked shirts, moving from room to room, underline the dotcom credentials of the company.

Founded in 1999 by the multi-award winning entrepreneur Simon Nixon, Moneysupermarket has revolutionised the personal finance market place, and is set to do the same in hotels, travel and consumer electrical goods.

The man behind this ultra-successful phenomenon, which will soon float on the Stock Market with a value of around '500m, is lean, suntanned and slightly greying.

Wearing dark jeans, a blue shirt Simon Nixon looks older than his 36 years and exudes energy and intelligence.

Softly spoken, Simon is the son of an RAF designer and had something of an itinerant childhood.

Born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, his early school career gave no hint of great things to come. He says: "We moved around all the time, and I think I was a bit retarded by the age of 13.

"I had to work really hard to catch up and I managed to do OK in my GCSEs and then my A-levels."

Having got back on track and reached university, winning a place at Nottingham reading accountancy and finance, things went rapidly downhill.

He said: "I don't think I could have picked anything more boring. I did not enjoy it at all. After two years they gave me the option to take two years out, which I took and my parents were distraught."

Simon came home to Chester, where the family had moved. At this time came a tragedy, which Simon believes inspired him to follow his entrepreneurial instincts.

Successful

He explains: "My mother died when I was 19 and I believe it is one of the reasons that I have been pretty successful. When you lose your mother it makes you fiercely independent, there is no one to fall back on.

"If my mother was still here now I would probably be an accountant working in a firm and married with children."

Attracted by the earnings potential Simon found a job in his local newspaper as a financial consultant.

He was given two week's training and then given a telephone and a phone directory and told to generate appointments for pensions advice.

He found this a tough challenge, though, and asked if he could work on the mortgage side of the company.

"If you don't believe in the product, how can you sell it? I was 20 and had no interest in pensions. But I wanted to buy a house and was interested in mortgages."

Showing admirable creativity Simon went to the sales office on a local building site, and persuaded the manager to introduce prospective homebuyers to him for mortgage advice.

Persimmon, the builder saw sales rise as customers had a direct link to financial advice. Simon had a growing stream of clients.

Hungry to build on this success he then spotted opportunities within the market place to improve the information to mortgage brokers. "As an entrepreneur you are always looking for a gap in the market place and try to fill it.

"I saw there was no magazine for entrepreneurs with the best deals on it."

Such was his success on the mortgage front that his employers, at the life insurance company, granted him permission to research the mortgage market in work time.

He bought himself an Apple Mac computer and would spend his evenings compiling his fledgling publication.

Called Brokers Update, Simon soon built up a solid subscription base. It was so successful that he found that he was unable to keep doing his regular job.

"I left and set up an office in Chester. It went from strength to strength."

Soon though, it was time to innovate the service in response to demand from mortgage brokers clamouring for the latest information on mortgage rates and which provider was offering which deal.

"We found that the level of subscriptions were stagnating. I realised that often the information we were sending out was not up to date."

In 1993, Simon realised a computer- based format was needed. He persuaded an IT graduate friend, Duncan Cameron, to join him.

After a year of development, Mortgage 2000, a system that brokers could access from their PCs was launched. Today over half of the UK's brokers use the software to source the best deals for clients.

Market place

Moneysupermarket.com was launched in 1999, offering to the consumer a way of searching the market place. Today over 70,000 people visit the site every day. More than 7,000 personal loans and 6,000 credit cards are sold daily.

Simon says the technology driving the site is all-important. It is flexible too, which is allowing the company to expand into new markets such as motor insurance, flights, hotel rooms, car hire and white and grey goods, such as washing machines, TVs and DVDs.

"I am a consumer too and I want to find the best deals. Our technology finds it for you, saving time and money."

He calls the system his "Intelligent Robots", and says it is a unique system.

"Instead of you having to shop around tens of different websites, you put in your details and our robots find you the best deals. In motor insurance for instance there are 25 direct insurers, the banks, brokers and supermarket retailers.

Some people take whole days off to find the best deals. Our technology does all that.

"It's the same with flights. We trawl all these and come up with the best deal."

In his spare time Simon works out in his gym at his home in Chester. He plays squash regularly and golf when he can.

He attributes his success to innovation and hard work. He said: "No matter how wealthy you get, you want value for money, and we have been able help people get this." Tweet