WHEN Dominic Marrocco launched his first business venture as a teenager his aim was to be worth £1m by the time he was 30 and £1bn by the time he was 40.
Having passed the first milestone at the age of just 21 after launching a computer business and investing in property, you wouldn't bet against Marrocco – now 32 – achieving the second target earlier than scheduled too.
He's certainly got plenty of money-making ventures. Even the $4m he paid for former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson's mansion could reap a serious profit if his latest plan gets off the ground.
For Leeds-born Marrocco, who has made the majority of his money out of technology ventures, is in the midst of organising a televised poker tournament in which the prize will be the Tyson mansion.
But how can you make money from giving away your home? Well, by combining two popular TV formats – reality TV and poker tournaments – he aims to sign a deal with a major TV network to televise a tournament in which players will pay thousands of dollars to enter.
An online gaming group has already offered him a considerable sum to sponsor the event which will offer that other great TV obsession – celebrity contestants.
The final of the poker tournament will be held in the grounds of the Tyson mansion and the game to decide the winner will include Marrocco and Mike Tyson. Former US basketball superstar Magic Johnson is also eager to take part.
Marrocco is redeveloping the mansion next door to the "Tyson house" so even if he loses, he won't go homeless in Sin City.
Grand plans for one who admits he left school with patchy qualifications and started his business career repairing secondhand computers in his bedroom and then selling them on a market stall.
He branched out into buying computers that were catalogue returns and then selling them at auction.
At the same time he was buying and selling houses and he opened a computer games shop in the Merrion Centre in Leeds. From this vantage point Marrocco could see the development of the internet and knew that customers wanted a low cost efficient internet service provider (ISP).
He acquired the fledgling ISP Firstnet Services in Leeds. "Revenues went from £70,000 to £300,000 in the first year then up to £1m in the second year, and we doubled them every year."
By the time revenues were £12m a year Firstnet was getting noticed and Marrocco sold a 51 per cent stake to vehicle tracking group Minorplanet for £6m in 2001 and then sold the rest of the business to larger rival Pipex in 2004 for a similar figure.
With that money he bought broadband business 186k for about £20m in 2004. It was founded in 2000 by Lattice Group with the aim of providing internet access via fibre-optic cables in gas and sewage pipes.
Lattice invested about £400m in the business but it was put up for sale when National Grid Transco bought Lattice in 2002 and decided to concentrate on its core business.
Marrocco has built up the operation with a spate of small acquisitions. Last year he acquired London-based internet service provider Mailbox Internet, which has 10,000 small business customers.
The deal gives 186k access to customers in London and the South of England, and follows the purchase of about 200 virtual internet service providers (VISPs) from rival Tiscali.
VISPs re-sell internet access to the public bought from a wholesale ISP like Tiscali.
The cost of the deal and the names of the VISPs were not disclosed but they represent about one per cent of Tiscali's total business.
In one of its most recent deals, 186k paid £3m for Bristol-based Invade International, a telephony management software specialist, which allows it to provide voice over internet protocol (VoIP), a way of sending voice calls over the internet. The deal will allow 186k to provide customers with both voice and data internet services.
Marrocco understands that it's all about "convergence" – businesses have increasing communications demands, and a provider which has a portfolio of services is in a strong position in the market.
He also owns Idesta Solutions, which provides hand-held computer systems to customers like BSkyB.
Quite how Marrocco juggles his business interests on both sides of the Atlantic is another matter. He has about a dozen firms in the UK and around 14 in Las Vegas, including Alien Motors which sells "extreme" motorbikes, a coffee shop chain called The Bean as well as a number of commercial and residential property development interests.
Of Alien Motors, he says: "It's a traditional Dominic Marrocco model where the business has executives and I invest and takeover the role of chief executive, provide cash and strategy and leave them to do what they do best and run the business."
But how does he find the people whose ideas he invests in?
"They find me. A nice way of saying it is that I accelerate businesses. I always knew that I would be bringing my IT companies to Vegas. I was looking at Dallas when the Tyson opportunity presented itself and it meant that I had to spend more time here and so decided to relocate all my US operations to Vegas."
But does the lad from Leeds enjoy Sin City?
"It's 24/7 truly and with the time zone being eight hours difference (to the UK] it gives you two days every day – I can do my UK and US work in one day."
Marrocco is never far from his laptop computer and his mobile phone as he juggles his myriad enterprises on both sides of the Atlantic. He works late, into the early hours of the morning, so he can email and telephone the UK. He says he has daily involvement in all his businesses but admits he needs good people running each operation "because you are limited in what you can do 5,000 miles away".
Marrocco has invested in property in both the US and the UK. He has bought a number of large homes on exclusive private estates in Las Vegas and renovated them before selling them on at a good profit.
While America is always seen to be ahead of the game in business terms, he believes that it offers opportunities. Marrocco says Americans traditionally take longer to make business decisions and this allows a quick mover the opportunity to nip in and take advantage.
"Everything is 10 times bigger over here (US) but that means you have 10 times more chance to be successful. But you have to do it better than them (the Americans).
He has his own, very individual, business philosophy.
"In life the system is flawed. If somebody says you can't do something, it's accepted. I believe that something is generally right or precisely wrong. Be general – if you do a business plan then if you stick exactly to it then it will be precisely wrong.
"In the internet boom I could've floated Firstnet for £200m. I didn't because it was my belief that it wasn't right. It's maybe a shame because I could have made more money but it would've gone bust. Others will say: 'You idiot, you could've collected 100 million quid', but it gave me the opportunity to do other things."
Marrocco says that he has had so many opportunities in business because he thrives on "chaos". "Where I'm most comfortable is existing variables and intangibles."
"I have a very inexpensive lifestyle. I don't really drink, I don't smoke, do drugs – I'm boring. I could probably exist on state welfare without much of a change in lifestyle."
david.parkin@ypn.co.uk

Dominic Marrocco

Date of birth: June 3, 1973

Education: Allerton Grange School, Leeds. Now studying for PhD

First job: "I've actually never had a job (always worked for myself)."

Job title: "International man of mystery"

Favourite film: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Favourite holiday destination:
Hawaii – Waikiki (having a few days holiday
with Tyson next week in the Outrigger on the Beach)

Last book read: Dummies' Guide to Playing Poker.

Car driven: Ferrari Super America, Porsche 911 TurboS, Porsche Cayenne Twin Turbo, BMW X5, Mercedes ML430, BMW M3, Lexus RX330, Selection of old MG's, Nissan Skyline 350z, Nissan 350z, Nissan 300zx Twin Turbo, Formerly Nissan 300sx Twin Turbo with veil side conversion to 200mph+ (BERTHA), selection of Mini Cooper TurboS, to name a few…