Ex-footballer reveals how he went from homeless to a CEO of £1billion tech business

Ex-footballer reveals how he went from homeless to a CEO of £1billion tech business

Many business people are known for their "rags-to-riches" story, but very few have wanted to openly share how they achieved it. Dean Forbes was homeless twice as a teenager. By his late teens, he was carrying debt he had run up chasing a football career. Today he is chief executive of Forterro, a European software business that changed hands in a €1billion (£855million) transaction in 2022 and has since tripled in size, serving more than 25,000 customers from over 40 locations. Mr Forbes grew up in a single-parent family in Lewisham, south London. The family was rehoused twice during his teenage years, splitting up temporarily to speed up the process. However, he is keen to emphasise that it was not a hard luck story. Speaking exclusively with GB News, the entrepreneur shared: "I always smile when people describe my upbringing as difficult because that's never really how I experienced it. "My mum, despite being disabled, did an incredible job raising my two brothers and me. She taught us to stay positive, work hard, and take responsibility for our own future." The staggering amount of debt came much later, and Mr Forbes pulls no punches in taking aim at who was to blame for his financial dilemma. The debt came later, and he blames himself for the "self-inflicted" hurdle that had to be overcome. He was on the books at Crystal Palace and spent years pursuing a professional contract, while trying to keep pace with friends already earning football money. Then his agent sat him down and told him it was not going to happen. "At the time it was disappointing. Looking back, it was probably the best thing that could have happened. The debt focused me; it meant I had no choice but to go to work. Had I not had that debt, I would have likely spent more time chasing this dream." The same agent found him a telesales job at Motorola. As many readers can imagine, the adjustment was abrupt. "One day you're spending all your time on a football pitch and the next you're sitting