‘How I Lost $710 Million’ – Revealing Interview with Ebookers Founder, Dinesh Dhamija

Dinesh Dhamija - Founder of Ebookers - @dinesh_dhamija
Interview by Ninder Johal
 
I clicked the mouse, the laptop lit up into action and suddenly Dinesh appeared on the screen – armed with a beaming smile.
Whilst I would preferred us to have met in person, the lockdown had forced us to revert to the digital approach.
Dinesh is immediately engaging with a broad smile and you could tell that this was a ’people person’ – he was relaxed, self-assured and dressed smartly in a mustard colour shirt – as anybody would be, who had scaled a travel business, floated it on the American NASDAQ and exited with a hefty pay cheque.

 
With the niceties out of the way – I asked him how being the son of an ambassador, he ended up being an entrepreneur. He recalled the early days where in his words ‘his father was short on salary but high on perks.’ Early stints at IBM and other jobs whilst the Labour government was in power, had taught him, that if he was going to earn serious money, then sel...