Michael Bruce, with his younger brother Kenny, founded Purple Bricks which, in just a few years, has become one of the UK’s leading estate agencies. It shot to fame by offering to sell your house in the UK for a fixed fee of just £845 inclusive of VAT significantly less than the commissions charged by conventional estate agencies. Purple Bricks was recently valued at £868million.

Michael, and his younger brother Kenny and four older sisters were brought up by their single mother in a council house in Larne in the 70s and 80s. His first experience of work was when he was still a schoolboy doing a milk round in the morning and collecting glasses in a local pub in