A dyslexic dad who left school and started a business in his bedroom turned it into a multimillion-pound company.
Mike Welch grew up in Aigburth and said he was not particularly academic in school. Mike got a job as a tyre fitter in Birkenhead at the age of 16 but was made redundant after 18 months.
Aged 17, Mike applied for a £500 grant from the Prince's Trust after submitting a business plan, he used the money to kickstart the business from his parent's home. Now he has swapped cloudy Liverpool for Miami and is the CEO of Tirebuyer.com - one of America's biggest online tyre retailers with an estimated turnover of more than $100m.
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Mike is now an ambassador for the Prince's Trust and hopes to provide the same opportunities to people, that helped him create several successful businesses. Before his latest venture Mike sold his business Black Circles to Michelin Plc for £50m in 2015.
The Prince's Trust was founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are unemployed or struggling at school and at risk of exclusion.
He told the ECHO: "I told my grandad I was going on the dole but he told me that wasn't going to happen so I ended up going to a meeting with The Prince's Trust. At the start, I thought I'd just sell tyres to my mates, and the Trust helped me to set it up.
"I went to meet with the Prince's Trust but had no idea what I was going to pitch to them so I came up with the idea while walking down Old Hall Street to the meeting.
"I needed the grant to buy a laptop, I built my own website and started from there. I don't know where I would have ended up and coming straight out of school and going on the dole would not have been the best option."
Mike later sold his company to Kwik Fit which reached out to him after seeing his website and invited him to a meeting. After buying his firm, Kwik Fit hired him as its first head of e-commerce in the lead-up to Ford's £1bn acquisition of the company.
Two years later Mike, aged 21, decided to leave Kwik Fit and set up his own tyre company, Blackcircles.com. It was at this point he reached out to the CEO of Tesco Sir Terry Leahy after seeing a story about him winning Fortune business person of the year in Fortune magazine.
Mike said: "I was not expecting to get anything back and then the following Tuesday I get the letter [that said] 'come down' and we had two hours [together] and then three, four months later he's invested, he's on my board and I've known him for ten years, we're pals so it just shows you."
Mike believes the pressures facing young people in the UK are worse the when he was growing up in Liverpool and wants to make sure people find the help they need. Along with his wife, Mike has also set up his own charity.
He said: "We can still do more to help and there are the same issues as when I was growing up, the Trust as a programme is a standout in terms of the work they do for people who do not have a leg up.
"Asking for help is the best place to begin and I think social media paints this picture of instant success. So don't believe everything you see and people need to focus on themselves on what they need."
Mike became the president and CEO of Tirebuyer.com in February 2021, which is one of America’s largest online tyre retailers. While he lives stateside Mike wants to start doing more work with the Princes' Trust in Liverpool.
He said: "There is so much talent in the city and I would love to help give people a chance, that would be full circle for me. There is so much untapped potential in Liverpool and it would be a crime not to try and nurture some of it. "
On what advice he would give to young people Mike said: "You can't be restricted by the 'what if' and you have to give it your best shot. You can't fear failure and you need to be willing to ask for help. When building my business there were times when I thought it would be over. However, if you try hard enough you will get there."
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