Mia Drennan: The temp who turned a £6K start-up into a £1BN business

Mia Drennan is the heroine of a Cinderella story for the 21st Century, when women don’t need princes or fairy godmothers, but create their own happy endings by founding billion-pound businesses.

Born to a Tunisian mother, Drennan was adopted at six weeks by a couple from Essex. She left school without a degree and started her working life strap-hanging on the Tube on her way to temp jobs in the City.

Now she is head of GLAS, a high-end loans administration business that she founded with £6,000, which was recently valued at £1billion.

After winning Entrepreneur of the Year UK run by accountant EY last year, she is representing Britain at the world finals – a glitzy event held in Monte Carlo later this month.

Extraordinarily, Drennan says she only began to feel ‘good enough’ in the face of self doubt when she scooped the UK prize. 

‘It wasn’t the £1billion valuation that gave me external proof of my worth,’ she says. ‘It was the award, as I never expected it, or the outpouring of support. The valuation was the icing on the cake.’

Having vanquished imposter syndrome, she says she wants to carry on growing the company until it is worth at least £5 billion, maybe even £10 billion.

Starting small: Mia Drennan founded GLAS with £6,000, and the company was recently valued at £1billion

GLAS has grow into a substantial global business and is now a ‘unicorn’

If she did win the world finals, she would be the first British woman to triumph in a contest that sounds like a cross between Eurovision and The Apprentice.

‘I hope it’s not nul points for Britain,’ she jokes. ‘I’m just going to go in and fly the flag for the UK and female entrepreneurs.’

Her billion-pound valuation came on New Year’s Day, when UK private equity firm Oakley Capital took a majority stake in GLAS, valuing it at that amount.

GLAS is a rare ‘unicorn’, the term for a start-up that has grown to a billion-pound (or dollar) firm. It is rarer to encounter one founded by a woman.

When we speak, Drennan is preparing for a Goldman Sachs event called, rather wonderfully, Unicorn School. It sounds Harry Potter-esque, but is in fact a programme of mentoring and networking for elite entrepreneurs.

‘There are a lot of women starting businesses in their 40s and 50s with no obvious place to go for community or advice,’ she says. 

‘Part of this is about how you build a team around you that gives you the confidence to try things, to be resilient, and to keep going.’

Does she think other female entrepreneurs share her feelings of not being ‘good enough’?

Drennan says: ‘I do think women are probably less confident in their abilities than they should be.’

I had my £1BN moment… but didn’t wake my husband

The deal with Oakley meant a team of ten working around the clock over Christmas.

‘On New Year’s Eve, around midday, it became clear we were not going to sign that day. We agreed to sleep for a few hours. On New Year’s Day the documents went round for everyone to sign,’ Drennan, who turns 56 this month, says. 

‘At 11 o’clock that night, my husband was asleep on the sofa and I was watching TV. A DocuSign notification came through saying: Congratulations, you’ve signed. I went downstairs, poured myself a glass of champagne, and just sat with it for about half an hour.

‘So that was my billion-pound moment. My husband Stuart said: ‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

‘It was because I just wanted a moment to take it all in.’

A touch of GLAS: Mia Drennan with her award

Stuart, who has retired from corporate life, has been a ‘huge mentor’ throughout her career. He and her grown-up daughter, Tia, are going with her to Monte Carlo, as is her best friend, who is flying over from Australia for the occasion.

Her adoptive parents will be following the ceremony from afar. They are ‘wonderful’, she says, adding: ‘I don’t know anything about my biological parents and have no connection with them. I am at peace with that.

‘My biological mother was Tunisian and came to the UK to have me. I can only imagine she must have spent a lifetime wondering what happened to me.

‘Being an only child creates a particular dynamic: it pushes you out into the world to find things. There’s a certain aloneness that exists, even if you have brilliant parents and grandparents.

‘My maternal grandfather was my mentor, and I know he would be so proud of where I’ve got to.

‘I think there’s always an element, when you’re adopted, of searching for something, of not quite knowing your roots. It makes you look for somewhere to belong. If I fast-forward to what I’ve built, I think I’ve found it and built it.’

Does she think she was driven to succeed to repay the love her adoptive parents gave her?

‘I don’t think that’s quite it,’ she says. ‘Until last year, I don’t think I ever truly felt I was good enough, in an emotional, general sense.’

How I went from temp to entrepreneur 

Unlike some tech entrepreneurs who make billions while young, success came to Drennan later in life. She first wanted to be a fighter pilot, an ambition thwarted by her gender. When she was a teenager, there were no female Top Guns.

Did she always think she was going to make it in business?

‘Not at all,’ she replies. ‘I just got on with things. I would turn up on a Monday morning as a temp, go from office to office, and just get on with whoever I was working with. I had a strong work ethic and I loved what I was doing.’

She came up with the idea for GLAS after the 2008 financial crisis, spotting an opportunity for an independent credit agent. GLAS is now the largest outside the US, handling the administration and oversight of complex loans involving several lenders.

‘We now have over 500 people in 11 countries with 15 offices on a single platform. We’re servicing over $850 billion (£650 billion) of assets under management and will probably reach a trillion dollars this year.’

Is she worried by the Bank of England’s warnings of risk building in the private credit sector? 

‘Every time there’s a downturn, we do well, because that’s exactly when complicated distressed situations arise,’ she says. 

‘Private credit grew up alongside us, and 50 per cent of the debt we service is private credit-originated.

‘I think there are legitimate questions about transparency in the alternative credit world. But we are very bullish on the market.

‘There will always be cycles and challenges in any industry where money is lent, but I think private credit is still pretty strong.’

GLAS recently made four acquisitions and is looking at others. But Drennan says: ‘Right now, though, my focus is on becoming a digital company.

‘We’re on a road to build something unique that doesn’t exist in the market. That will require significant investment in tech and artificial intelligence.’

Instead of focusing too much on deals, she says: ‘I’d rather spend my time on getting to a £5 billion, then a £10 billion company.’

For a woman who spent decades feeling not quite good enough, Monte Carlo awaits. So too, perhaps, does the next five billion pounds – or ten billion.