Episode 5: Honey and money: Meet the beekeeper growing a unicorn

Graham Donoghue is the CEO of the holiday giant you probably haven’t heard of. Forge Holiday Group is on the cusp of achieving unicorn status but gets a fraction of the attention of its rivals Airbnb and Booking.com. Today the company manages 33,000 properties; handles 700,000 annual bookings; has 1,800 staff; and transacts more than £500m a year. Donoghue is a part-time beekeeper and became CEO of Sykes Cottages in 2016 – a year after the company raised £54m from Living Bridge. In 2019 Vitruvian Partners took a majority stake in the business for a reputed £400m and Forge Holiday Group’s valuation means it’s close to becoming a unicorn. Donoghue is a self-confessed ‘data junkie’ and describes Forge Holiday Group as a technology business masquerading as a holiday company. In a far-reaching interview, Donoghue talks about his near obsession with AI; his early career at MoneySuperMarket.com; and why he doesn’t share the media’s obsession with becoming a unicorn.