Clem Chambers of ADVFN is a busy man, and for most investors that use financial websites he will need little introduction.  As the CEO of the £40m valued AIM group of financial websites, he has shepherded the company from the wreckage of the dotcom bubble through to their 2 millionth registered user a decade later.  Along the way the company has expanded internationally to reach almost £9m in sales and show a profit for 2010.   In spite of this, he has still found the time to write a trilogy of financial thrillers. Stockopedia caught up with him this week to check that his eyes are still on the ball and that the muse hasn't overtaken his desire to lead ADVFN on into the next decade.

ADVFN was launched at the genesis of the internet - how did it come about?

 It's a long story, it came out of the internet incubator  Online Plc  which I founded in 1990 and floated in 1995 -  we incubated ADVFN and I came into the company originally as the 'marketing director',  taking it through the float, raising all the money and then going about the development of the site.   Online Plc did a few listings but then the dotcom bubble burst and in the post apocalyptic period of 2001 to 2004 we focused on ADVFN.  I became CEO around that time in 2002 and to keep the wolf from the door we did a few more equity raises at ridiculously low prices as the market was so terrible. It was a pretty horrific and long process, but over that period ADVFN went from blue sky flotation to doing £1m in sales, £3m by 2004, £6m by 2007 and now we are up around just shy of £9m in revenues.

You've recorded consistent revenue growth since then in spite of 2 bear markets. How critical is the health of the stock market for the business?

 We effectively run a diversified portfolio.  We are diversified across countries, and across product types.  Advertising tends to be strong at times when subscriptions are weak.  Geographically, we have a big footprint in Brazil, the US, the UK and upcoming territories in Europe.  Brazil was absolutely flying away 3 years ago, but then all the Private Investors (PIs) there were annihilated by the crash, they've regenerated themselves somewhat, but then you've got the UK where most PIs…

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