When Phill Brown was growing up in Rawdon, little did he know that one day he would be involved in a firm with links on the other side of the world.

He had more of an interest in history than anything else as a pupil at St Bede's Grammar School in Bradford. His interest in history took him to St Catherine's College, Oxford, which helped him fuel an appetite for medieval times.

At 51, he has more in common with modern-day students - many of whom are using venture capital to create businesses on the world wide web.

For Phill Brown is now chief executive of StartIT.com which raises the seed cash needed to help hi-tech firms set up. He is also one of a group of businessmen who have started enterpriseAsia.com which provides finance for companies wanting to underpin their start-up costs in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Phill Brown returned to his roots after university and has no problem having Bradford as the headquarters of StartIT.com because he believes there is enough expertise in the city to back his business.

He said: "Why go to London when there are most of the people you need on your doorstep? For StartIT.com we used the Bradford branch of Barclays as our bankers and for enterpriseAsia.com we went to the city's branch of HSBC - which is appropriately the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

"We have corporate lawyers in London for enterpriseAsia.com and StartIT.com and for StartIT.com we also use lawyers Read Dunn and Connell in Hustlergate and for accountants we chose Heaton Lumb & Lisle in Idle," he added.

StartIT.com was set up last summer and floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at the beginning of August. The firm raised £1.7 million through a shares issue and two City institutions raised a further £1.7 million in private placings.

StartIT.com is one of a number on of companies on the Parkland Business Centre which is the former Greengates headquarters of the textile firm Parkland Group where some weaving still takes place.

To his delight, the first firm StartIT.com invested in last October was from Bradford. GLS Software develops and sells software for billing and invoicing systems to health clinics, dentists and vets along with software for systems used by hotels. It is also based at the Greengates business centre.

The second firm to benefit was RT Business Solutions which is based in north London. This develops software for the management of resources and people systems used by local authorities, events management facilities and leisure centres.

The third firm was enterpriseAsia.com which was set up to help firms make the most of emerging markets in the Far East. Phill said: "We had good contacts there and are running it from Hong Kong even though it will be a UK Plc."

EnterpriseAsia.com would probably not have made the link with Hong Kong if Phill Brown's wife, Paula, had not made connections of her own years earlier in the former colony. After going to Reading university, Paula decided to continue her studies in Hong Kong but ended up living there for five years and to pay her way taught English. She formed a friendship with students Peter and Vivien So who have maintained links with Phill and Paula ever since.

Peter's background is in banking and finance and over the years the two men often said one day they would like to work in business together. That day has come and now Phill is a director of enterpriseAsia.com Peter is the firm's chairman and the chief executive is Ben Ng.

Phill Brown's history studies have helped him see how a series of apparently inconsequential events can lead to something big happening.

His own story looks like he took on a series of roles which would inevitably lead to his current involvement in business. Although he would not deny that many of the things he has done have helped him get to where he is today, he sees them as unconnected.

After he left university, Phill Brown moved back to Bradford and in 1974 got a job at mail order giant Grattan as a market analyst.

He later moved to Yorkshire Electricity and was involved in helping set up the joint venture between YE and Kingston Communications which created Torch Telecom. When YE was taken over by its American owners he was involved in selling off Torch Telecom.

He left YE in 1997 and spent a few months at the Royal Armouries in Leeds -- going back to his history roots. After that he worked at the National Railway Museum in York where he looked at commercial opportunities.

Events of the past and prospects for the future are driving forces which have helped Phill Brown get to where he is today. Now he is looking forward to using his wide experience in the global firm he is now playing such a vital role in.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.