THE Scot who runs the legendary Fender guitar company has called on would-be entrepreneurs in his homeland to not let a fear of failure stop them from starting their own business, while underlining the need for the government to encourage more investment in start-ups.

Andy Mooney, who grew up in Whitburn before going on to hold leading roles with Nike, Disney and Quiksilver in the US, was speaking on a flying trip to Glasgow to address a business event hosted by Entrepreneurial Scotland.

Mr Mooney spent 20 years at Nike, holding a range of senior global roles after initially joining as chief financial officer, and developed the $4 billion Disney Princess franchise. He joined LA-based Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, the guitar brand made famous by rock stars such as Jimi Hendrix to Pete Townshend, in June 2015.

Asked how entrepreneurs in Scotland could learn from their counterparts across the Atlantic, Mr Mooney, who said he was the first chief executive in Fender’s history to play guitar, suggested his fellow Scots should not be afraid to take a chance on their business ideas.

“I was a Global Scot [ambassador] for a while and one of the things I was most vocal about is that failure in the US is not a stigma, either financially or personally,” he said. “Chapter 11 [bankruptcy regulation] is a well exercised technique. If you want to attract investors you have to take a risk, so you really want an environment that encourages risk taking.”

Mr Mooney added: “The take-away message [from my speech] is that every good business idea I ever had was either rejected, resisted or got me close to getting fired. It is really a story of perseverance and passion for something you really believe in.”

Mr Mooney praised the “intellectual capital” held by Scotland and the UK, declaring that the “education system is second to none”. However, he feels that where Scotland falls short is in access to capital for growing businesses.

The Herald:

 Andy Mooney, 4th from left,  pictured in St Luke's in Calton, Glasgow with from left- Gary Clark of Danny Wilson (guitar), Chris van der Kuyl, chair of Entrepreneurial Scotland (keyboards), Dougie Vipond of Deacon Blue (drums), Gregor Philp of Deacon Blue (guitar) and Ged Grimes of Simple Minds (bass). All got together to perform at the Entrepreneurial Scotland Presents... Andy Mooney.  Picture:Colin Mearns

“The US has tremendous access to capital,” Mr Mooney said. “I think if there was an encouragement by the Government to create more capital investment and more risk-taking I think that you would see better results in Scotland.”

Asked if he would like to see that capital come in the form private equity, angel investor or venture capitalist backing, he replied: “All of the above. Clearly the big money is coming from the private equity side these days.”

Although there is a perception among some of private equity buyers being ruthless in their pursuit of a return on their capital, Mr Mooney disagrees. In his view such investors can offer a “discipline” which can be really beneficial to businesses, noting that one of Fender’s two private equity backers has held its stake in the instrument maker for around 30 years. The other is the private equity firm Texas Pacific Group.

Mr Mooney emphasised that “both have been very good” investors, adding that they “really complement each other”.

“They bring a discipline to the business that is welcomed in my case,” he said.

On a personal level, Mr Mooney described his role with Fender as his “dream job”, having been a guitarist himself for 50 years. A self-confessed heavy metal enthusiast, whose best friend is Pete Townshend’s long-serving guitar tech Alan Rogan, Mr Mooney said he already owned 40 guitars before he had joined the business. “I literally go to my work in the morning and I’ll be talking to Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine or Jim Root from Slipknot,” said Mr Mooney, who was already living 15 minutes from the Fender office when he took the job. "A lot of them live in LA or obviously tour through LA, and they all drop by the office when they are in town.”

Fender’s legendary status among rock fans was cemented in 1967, when Jimi Hendrix infamously set his Stratocaster alight while performing at the Monterey Pop Festival. Mr Mooney said the company has recreated the guitar in question as signature Hendrix Stratocaster.

“He didn’t play it on stage that night other than on that one song, so the guitar doesn’t exist,” Mr Mooney said.

“We had to work with the Hendrix estate to recreate it from photographs. We’re releasing that Stratocaster to our dealer network for sale at the end of this year.

“That’s one of the most iconic moments of all time.”

While Fender burst on to the scene in the 1960s, Mr Mooney said it remains the most favoured guitar brand for young musicians today.

In an echo of his time with Nike, when he would carry out “shoe counts” at the New York marathon as a proxy for the brand’s market share, he said a similar review of guitarists at major festivals, including T in the Park, revealed Fender guitars and amps are favoured by 80 to 90 per cent of musicians.

Where he sees the big opportunity to grow the business is in effects pedals and acoustic guitars.