Pictured: Lyndon Wood in Dublin on Friday evening (photo credit: David McAuley Photography)
Successful UK businessman Lyndon Wood has established a new social network called SunZu that will be headquartered in Dublin. Just months in action, the social network, which was formally launched in Dublin at the weekend, already claims to have 500,000 members and hopes to get to 1m by the end of this year.
The Dublin-based platform SunZu The Art of Business, is a new global business network that aims to give business owners the assistance and shared learnings they need in order to grow.
SunZu emerged out of Ecademy which Wood acquired in July last year.
SOSventures investing partner and co-founder of CoderDojo Bill Liao has been appointed director of SunZu.
Wood set up his first business, the Moorhouse Group, at the age of 19. That company is among the top 100 insurance brokerages in the UK.
Now a multi-millionaire, Wood employs 150 people across a number of businesses with a turnover in excess of stg£35m in insurance premiums alone.
Wood also wrote Diary of a Fortune Hunter in 2011, drawn from 21 years in business covering 52 real issues he faced and providing 52 solutions to the problems.
Putting business first
According to Wood, SunZu has amassed a membership of 500,000 since establishing last year.
The purpose of the site is not to be a database of CVs or a recruitment vehicle like some social networks, but instead to provide a platform where business people can meet, share, learn, trade and ultimately to grow.
“The thought process was to make social networking more simplistic and provide businesspeople with the tools they need to monetise their social activity.
“It is about business firs,t which is important; we are not a CV database or a photo-sharing site.
“SunZu is about the sharing of knowledge; encouraging business owners to share knowledge that will inspire and assist others.
“My business background has been helping businesses over the last 15 years and I suppose you could say this is my attempt to do that en masse.”
Wood purposely refuses to use the word ‘help’ when it comes to bringing businesses and their leaders closer to their goals. ‘Help’, he said, implies a weakness and puts a restriction on the minds of owner managers.
“Replace ‘help’ with ‘assist’. The biggest weakness in businesses that are growing is knowledge, so SunZu is about sharing knowledge and encouraging others to share their knowledge.
“Whether you are an established business or a start-up we all have knowledge to share,” Wood said.
