Laban Roomes was born and raised in East London his Jamaican parents seperated when he was four years old and his mother brought up Laban and his sister single-handedly. From the age of nine, Laban began working: cleaning cars, cutting hedges, anything to bring in some extra money.

Laban’s resourcefulness was such that by the time he was twelve, he would often bring home more from his work out of school hours than his mother earned full-time at the local factory. By the time he was nineteen, Laban had paid off the mortgage on their family home through working a number of jobs and by buying and shipping cars to Jamaica.

Laban got the idea for a gold-plating business while in the USA, where the service is extremely popular. With his car export business taking up a lot of his time, however, Laban put thoughts of his new business on hold.

Fate intervened with a double blow. His mother was taken ill and his brother and business partner sold the company assets. Laban returned to the UK with only £80 and nowhere to live. He slept on a friend’s floor for nine months while developing the company that started as Midas Touch and is now Goldgenie.

Midas Touch began by offering a specialist gold-plating service for Lexus, Bentley and Rolls Royce. Laban actually designed and manufactured the machine that the company uses for its gold plating process.

Goldgenie achieved a significant level of fame when they were invited to the Emmys in Hollywood to present Gold plated Nokia 8800 phones to the likes of Denzel Washington and then when he appeared on the BBC TV series Dragon’s Den and won the FIRST investment from new Dragon James Caan.