We chat with Rob Starr

Rob last year you celebrated 30 years in business with your company Seico Group, can you tell us a bit about your journey and the background of the company?

Yes, we hit 30 years on 26th November 2021.  Astonishing for me to even think about it as, for me, it’s only ever been one day at a time.  I always find it odd when people use the “entrepreneur” word or when people say things like “at school I brought sweets and sold them on and then I set up a betting ring and then and then and then….”  For me, it was none of that.  

I do not consider myself an entrepreneur as I think the word is applied too much these days.  And, certainly, I never was a child desperate to have a business.  I simply went to school, made hardly any effort and left with an O Level in Home Economics and a handful of CSE grade Ds. I am not proud of that at all, by the way, but looking back I think I was just not at a school where I felt inspired.  So having left school with nothing, my Dad told me I’d better get a job.  In fact I think his words were along the lines of come home with a job or don’t come home.  Of course, he was the most wonderful man in the world and I was always welcome at home, but he was making a point – it was time to grow up and take responsibility.  So I walked from home into Brighton and the first office I walked into, which was a traditional insurance brokerage, I talked the owner into letting me make tea.  When I told Dad I had a job he was thrilled.  He was less thrilled when I told him I was making tea for a bunch of people in a small office.  

What transpired though was that the uninterested child I was suddenly became interested in working and, over a few weeks, I talked the owner into teaching me the job of insurance and I worked my socks off – first at the door in the morning and very last one out at night, with no lunch breaks, no toilet breaks and no weekends off.  I loved it!  I stayed with him for about eighteen months, before I thought I knew it all and then moved to another insurance broker, but who were commercial and not private clients.  A year later I left and joined a scheme broker.  Six months later I was with a mortgage broker.  Then a pension broker.  Then an investment broker!  You can see that I was desperate to learn.

By the time I was twenty years old I had realised that not only was I restless, but totally unemployable.  I also thought I knew way more than I did, which at twenty is probably where one should be.  So I left my job and went back to my first ever boss and told him I was setting up on my own and if I promised not to attack any of his clients could I pay him a percentage of anything I earn and use his insurance agencies to run my business as I was too young and unknown to get any agencies of my own.  He agreed on the spot (God bless him) and Starry Eyes Insurance Company – SEICO – was born.  I put a phone in my bedroom, picked up the yellow pages (the internet didn’t exist back then!) and I made hundreds of cold calls until I got a bite. Within a few years, after talking my Dad into joining me, and trying to teach him the insurance business, and taking on a couple of people, I found that I was actually doing more business than my old boss. So we parted ways again and I was able to talk insurance companies into giving me my own agencies at last.

Over the next twenty years I built up the insurance business to a staff of nearly 100 and then sold the book to a top 50 broker. I kept the company name and permissions and switched focus to mortgages and started again. This was a really successful switch for me as I love the mortgage industry a lot.

So here we are 30 years on and we have offices in Hove, in London and randomly in Johannesburg, South Africa. Of course, it’s been a struggle and over 30 years I have had more sleepless nights than most people, have taken levels of stress than should have floored me a hundred times over and I have had to fight through more problems than I ever could have imagined.  But, all in all, I have to say that I have absolutely loved the journey, and today, being surrounded by fantastic staff, wonderful partners and grateful clients I honestly would not have changed a thing that I have gone through and I hope to keep going until they want me to leave.  I still smile when people talk about being an “entrepreneur” and talk about their early school business and they expect me to be just like them, when in reality none of that ever was me. I was just some kid who probably was a bit more tenacious than most and for some reason made himself unemployable!

Why did you set up the Starr Trust Charity?

Setting up a charity was not something I ever thought about doing, it was just another accidental moment in my life.  The Starr Trust story started with me losing my Dad to cancer just as he turned 60.  Far too young to die.  Dad was just a wonderful guy.  He always made me feel I could do anything if I just took the first step and applied myself.  It’s amazingly powerful for someone to have so much belief in you.  So when we lost him, I truly lost my best friend. But I never lost his belief in me; his words were still in my head, as they are today.

Just after his death, I took out a £20,000 bank loan to keep Seico afloat.  It was failing fast as I had definitely taken my eye of the ball when Dad was first diagnosed a couple of years earlier and, by the time we lost him, the business was on its last legs. Dad was an amazing guy who worked so hard, but he had never managed to build up a pot of cash, so Seico surviving was so important to not just me but also to my mother, my sister, my wife, my young baby; it was all I had left to keep going.  So I borrowed this money with the intention of buying new computers and desks for the staff to reinvigorate the business.

I was sitting at my desk seeing what I needed to buy when a guy popped in to see me.  I didn’t know him, but he said he had known my Dad.  He spent the next hour telling me how amazing my Dad was and how he had always talked to him and given him time.  The guy was so tearful about losing Dad.  Before he left I asked him how he knew my Dad and he said he had been Dad’s window cleaner.  I was stunned!  I didn’t even know if I had a window cleaner, yet my Dad had made Martin feel like he was the most important man in the world.  That was the moment that changed my life.  I realised then and there Dad’s gift.  He listened and he genuinely cared.

I went back to my desk and in a fit of madness decided to give away the £20,000 I had borrowed and to do it in Dad’s name. I decided that I wanted his legacy to be about inspiring and helping others like he had with me.  I went home that night and told my wife, my sister and my brother-in-law my idea and they were happy to help me find people we could give the money to. For some reason my wife has the ability to just trust me to somehow make everything work – I am beyond lucky to have such a beautiful person trust me like this.

So instead of buying new computers and desks to save my business, I went old school and started selling insurance and mortgages again and, thankfully, within a year I had managed to bring the business back to strength again. Meanwhile, we had given away the £20,000 to local children and groups in my Dad’s name with the simple message of helping them be the best that they can be.  I genuinely thought that we were then done; the money was given out and my job was done.  What I never saw coming was the impact we had on not only the young people, but also on their families. We literally had changed lives and in some cases saved lives.  So how could I then walk away from that!  

Because my business was now sound again, I took the decision that I would cover all the running costs of the charity and then we would build up a small team and together we would fundraise by holding events and then just give 100% of what we raised away to help champion young people. So here we now are, 15 years on, and the Starr Trust is one of the most respected and impactful charities in the city.  We have raised and given out over £1million and helped over 5,000 young people.  Our team is small, but so passionate. I should not really point out any individuals in the team as everyone is equal and important, but I really have to say that my sister Tracey and her partner in crime Rosie (they are known as TRosie) are the life and soul of the charity and they are a force to be reconned with.  Between them, the rest of the team, and all the incredible supporters we now have I can see the Starr Trust continuing to remove roadblocks for young people for many, many more years. We really are just a charity founded on a bank loan and bags of passion and one that was inspired by the amazing man my father Edward Starr was.

Why is it so important to you to champion young children?

As a father of three, I do all I can to give my children the best start that they can have in life.  I think that’s my life and my job – educate them, teach them to be good people and support them in whatever it is that they are passionate about.  Pretty soon they will be adults and heading into the world to start their own journeys, so I just want them to have the best start possible and make their journey the best it can be. But, surely, every child deserves that. Doesn’t every child deserve the chance to be the best that they can be?  

My children are extremely lucky to have been born into a family who cares so much about them and can afford to give them everything they need.  And they are so lucky to have been born healthy and in the “right post code” – Brighton is simply a blessing of a City to be born in.  

I know that life is not like this, but I just wish every child could be given the start my children have been given. And I wish every child could have a voice like I had on my shoulder telling me that I could achieve anything. I know it probably sounds corny, but I just wish all children were given the same chance in life and it’s kind of become a thing for me now to just help as many children believe in themselves as I can. My Dad gave that gift to me and I just want it to be passed on.

You have personally taken on many challenges over the years to raise money including swimming the channel and an Ironman to name a few. What has been the toughest so far?

I think living is probably the biggest challenge of all – it’s not easy sometimes just getting through the week is it! I am joking of course, but there is some truth in that.

Yes, I have taken on a few challenges over the years and each one has tested me. I take on challenges because there is something in my DNA that seems to just make me want to test myself, see how far I can go with things. I have chosen endurance challenges because they really test me most. I’m not by any stretch of the imagination a natural sports person and I also suffer from Crohn’s disease, Arthritis and Osteoporosis – most of these from my childhood. The Crohn’s disease is particularly tough as it means I cannot eat any great volume, am sometimes hit with fatigue and often in pain. But, for me, these illnesses seem to spur me on and make me want to push myself even more.

To answer your question though, the Channel swim was a massive challenge as I was a non-swimmer when I took it on and I went from zero swimming to having to complete 8 & 9 hour pool and sea swims on a regular basis whilst being unable to refuel in the correct way. Also, I did all this training whilst running the business, running the charity, having three children under three and dealing with all of life’s usual stresses and strains. But it was a journey that completely changed my life as well as raising nearly £100,000 for the Starr Trust to give away. Since completing the challenge I have remained a sea swimmer and still swim in the sea all year round every day at 6.30am before work. This challenge really has shaped my life.

But can I honestly say the Ironman wasn’t as hard! Nope. The Ironman is the toughest single day event in the world – 4k sea swim, followed by a 180k bike ride followed by a full marathon. It’s bonkers! It took me almost two years to train for it and then took me almost 14 hours to complete. On the day I think it pushed me harder than any other event I’ve done.

But, then again, have you ever cycled up Le Mont Ventoux in France? It’s called the Giant of Provence for a reason. Don’t even get me started on how that almost broke me!

In truth as I am not a natural sports person in any sport, I think every single endurance event I have ever done has felt at the time like the hardest thing I have ever done.

Can you tell us about this year’s challenge – the 52 x 52?

My 52 x 52 Triathlon challenge may actually be the one that ends my endurance career!  

Having had almost 18 months without any real fundraising, the Starr Trust really needs some money to enable us to fund all the applications we are getting from young people who need us. In particular, there is one young man, Nathan, who is such an inspiration to me and he needs our financial assistance to get him to the next Paralympic Games. So I have decided to push myself harder than I have ever done, to see if I can raise another £100,000 to not only help Nathan, but also to help so many other young Starrs. To get peoples’ attention and garner their support I needed to find something that had never been done before, was a really crazy challenge, but still somehow I felt was doable.

So I chose to follow Nathan’s Olympic theme and choose an Olympic Triathlon – which is a 1.5k Swim, followed by a 40k Bike ride followed by a 10K run. I had done some in the past and I know they take me between 3 – 4 hours to complete. On its own, it is a challenge. In fact, I had once managed to do six in one year and that had been character building. But today, in this world we live in, I decided I needed to do even more than that and really push myself so that people would hopefully be impressed enough to sponsor me and follow my challenge. So I decided to do an Olympic Triathlon every single week for the entire year – that is 52 Triathlons in 52 weeks – hence the 52 x 52 Challenge. I started with my first one on New Year’s Day and so far have not missed a single week – and I will not. I am blogging every week so please do support me and have a look at our website – www.starrtrust.org/52×52-challenge

If you reach the amazing £100,000 target, who specifically will the money raised support?

Well first of all we need to find £20,000 to help Nathan get to the Paralympics. After that, the balance, of whatever we raise will be given out to local young people aged 10-25 to help remove roadblocks that they face. That can be anything that is stopping them from being the best that they can be – sport, art, education, mental health, poverty – anything that is stopping them. Our website holds application forms and I hope young people will reach out to us and let us know how we can help them.  We already have so many applications ready to help, but the more money I can raise the more young people we can help. And, of course, 100% of what we raise will be given out – not a penny goes towards our running costs.

How can businesses get involved to support this amazing challenge and cause?

PLEASE engage with us; 

www.starrtrust.org You can Sponsor me personally via our donate page and every pound helps.  But why not become a Business Partner of the Starr Trust? We desperately need more businesses to support us both financially and offering mentoring to our young Starrs. And we really do engage with our business partners so well. Speak to me or contact Tracey & Rosie and you’ll see how much fun and how rewarding it is working with the Starr Trust, as well as supporting me on this really bonkers challenge!

And did I hear you have written a book as well?

Well, I had a few hours left in my day and didn’t want to waste them…

After spending so many hours in the sea and wondering what was lurking beneath me as I swim around the Palace Pier I decided to let my imagination run wild – which is not a great thing to do when you are hundreds of metres out at sea all alone as a storm is starting to brew. 

My new book is called “What the Tide Brings Back” and it is a Ghost Thriller set in and around Brighton, with a lot of action at sea. It’s available now on my website in Paperback and EBook, robstarr.ampbk.com, or on Amazon, WHSmith, Waterstones or in City Books in Brighton. I would love to see some five star reviews pop up (please!).