Jonny Dodge

Dodge has said on the show that he comes from an entrepreneurial family: his father left the family business to set up his own furniture company, making furniture for palaces, superyachts, and private jets, and as a child Dodge spent time on his father’s factory floor, where he got a taste of that lifestyle. He later earned a master’s degree from St Martin’s College.⁠[1][1][1][2]

Dodge first entered the motorsport world through Maximillian Cooper’s Gumball Rally, helping organise a round-the-world celebrity supercar rally that involved airlifting 100 supercars and negotiating with governments; he then went on to organise rallies for speedboats and superyachts. He also invested in Aura, a members’ nightclub in Mayfair, London, owned in part by the airline entrepreneur Tony Fernandes.⁠[3][3][2][3][2]

Dodge founded GP Management, which creates experiences such as F1 hospitality and adventure travel for consumers and companies. He has said that Bernie Ecclestone, who then controlled Formula 1, gave him his first break in the sport; on the show he said that a nightclub business partner who owned an F1 team introduced him to Ecclestone.⁠[3][3][1]

In 2014, with the support of the Mayor of London’s office and local councils, GP Management raced F1 cars through the streets of London and staged an F1 street circuit showcase at Canary Wharf; Dodge later said the content was broadcast to about 30 million people worldwide.⁠[4][3]

For years GP Management has offered superyacht hospitality during the Monaco Grand Prix: the company charters a yacht, arranges speedboat transfers, onboard accommodation, and private dinners, and hosts the GP Lounge party on the Saturday night of race weekend. Dodge has said Monaco, Silverstone, and Abu Dhabi are the company’s biggest and busiest events each year.⁠[5][5][5][5]

As of 2018, GP Management had organised the Grand Prix Ball at the Hurlingham Club in London for eight years, as the opening event of the British Grand Prix weekend, raising funds for the spinal research charity Wings for Life; Dodge has said the event has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years.⁠[3][3][3]

That year he said the company was building spaceexperiences.com, an aggregator of space-related experiences, and described space tourism as the next frontier.⁠[3][3]

By 2023 Dodge was CEO of GPM Experiences, an F1 hospitality and corporate incentive travel company, and founder of My Ocean, a yacht charter, sales, and management company. At the previous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix he had hosted Lewis HamiltonLewis HamiltonLewis Hamilton is a British racing driver, seven-time Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion and Ferrari driver. He also founded Mission 44, a charity supporting opportunities for young people in education and employment.Open the full entry on a superyacht for a sponsor event. In May 2023 he was included in Paddock Magazine’s F1 Power List.⁠[2][6][2]

The Venture Room filmed Dodge’s home and offices in Dubai. He explained on the show that My Ocean runs yacht charter, sales, and management mainly in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, that Your Sky handles private jet charter and sales from Dubai, and that GPM in London looks after F1 and corporate events; he said the biggest deal he had done was a $25 million holiday.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

He said he has also had businesses that failed, and that this is where you learn the most; he described experiences as “the currency of happiness,” and said he expects sports, hospitality, and entertainment experiences to grow further as AI takes over much of people’s work.⁠[1][1][1]

Relationships are fundamental: he sees building relationships as his most important skill: “build a network and everything else comes to you” (at 26:31 in the video).⁠[1][1]

Give from day one: when starting a conversation, first offer the other person something of value, such as an introduction or information they don’t have; “If you’re just there to take, it’s never going to work” (at 26:47 in the video).⁠[1][1][1]

Start by connecting people rather than with a big investment: get to know people in an industry, bring together two people who need each other on a deal, and “don’t look to make anything out of it,” building a track record before gradually finding problems and offering solutions (at 31:59 in the video).⁠[1][1]