Alison Lawson
On 10 February 2021 we were delighted to welcome Ed Hollands back to the university. Ed graduated from our BA (Hons) Business Studies with first-class honours in 2015. While in his last year at university, Ed knew he wanted to set up his own business but wasn’t sure what to do. Then one day while watching all the traffic on the A38 he noticed the sheer amount of unused space on the side of trucks and vans and thought how many people each day would see advertising if it were there. The idea for Driven Media was born – Ed’s company sells advertising space on the side of vans and trucks. Ed saw this as a win-win situation – the hauliers got paid to carry the advertising and the advertisers got more exposure for their products and services. Driven Media brokers the deals and organises the printing and installation of the advertising.
He started small and on his own, working out how to set up a business and convincing small companies to take advertising on their vehicles. He thought that would be the difficult part, but it was actually persuading other businesses to take up the advertising opportunities that was challenging. But he persisted and he used the skills and knowledge he had learned in his degree. Although he had graduated by the time Driven Media was set up, he still had support from staff at Derby Business School, who encouraged him, helped him with the skills he needed and showed him how to use networking in the local business community to his advantage. The year after he graduated, Ed won Marketing Derby’s first Rising Star award, raising both his own profile and that of his business.
Then a fantastic opportunity came up – the chance to appear on the television show Dragon’s Den. Not imagining that he stood much of a chance, Ed applied to be a contestant and after a rigorous selection process he got through to a day of filming in a television studio. He had prepared well for the occasion, researched all the Dragons and their business interests and specialisms, knew his own business inside out and had practised his presentation until it was flawless. But actually facing the dragons was a different matter.
The pitch went well and lasted much longer than what was shown on television some time later. The pitch, the dragons’ questions and contestants’ answers are, of course, edited for maximum dramatic impact for television. Ed’s hard work in preparation paid off – his answers came easily and he impressed the dragons but then there was a wobble. Ed knew that he knew all his financial data and he knew it was water-tight, but his mind went blank on the financial questions. Would this scupper a potential deal?
After two long hours of answering questions, Ed was rewarded with an offer of £30,000 investment from dragon Jenny Campbell. Not only was the investment fantastic, but the support of an experienced dragon and the exposure of his business on television meant that then next few weeks were frantically busy for Ed as he fielded may phone calls from companies interested in using Driven Media.
In 2021 the company is going from strength to strength and Ed is an accomplished and experienced businessperson. He returned to Derby Business School to talk to students in our first-year module, Business Acumen and Entrepreneurship, taken by all our first year Marketing and Logistics students. Students learn about the many different facets of business – operations, marketing, product/service design, finance, managing people… And the assignment in this module is to prepare an idea about a new business and to pitch it to some dragons (academics, but they don’t breathe any fire). Ed told our students his story and held them rapt with attention. How inspirational to see that a previous student has had such success!
Here’s what some of the students said about the session.
“I thought it was great to hear the story of how it began, the steps he had to take like cold calling suppliers etc, it gave a great insight on how hard he worked.”
“Very useful on how to get ready for our own pitches and feel a lot more prepared. It was nice to hear real life experiences.”
“It was nice to have an insider’s view of the Dragon experience.”
“The guest speaker gave us a great insight into what needs to be considered when setting up a business.”
“Really insightful, helped us know what we should do to prepare our pitches.”
“Genuinely insightful into the business world, and how great things can stem from one good idea.”
“The guest speaker mentioned interesting points to consider when starting a business.”
It’s important to build entrepreneurial skills and Ed has shown how valuable they have been in his business. You can read more about Ed’s story on the University of Derby website here. And find Driven Media on Facebook, Twitter (@DrivenMediaUK) and LinkedIn.