Experienced Entrepreneur and Business Start-up Consultant
Brighton, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Founder and Managing Director at crunch (www.crunch.co.uk)
- Founder and freelancer at Freelanceadvisor.co.uk
- Past
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- Founder and non-Executive Chairman at Pure (pure360.com)
- Founder at Pure360
- Pan-European Account Manager at Colt Telecom (Colt Internet)
- Sales Exec at Morse Group
- Sales Executive at Morse
- Sales Manager and Shareholder at Frontier Internet Services
- Education
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- Brighton College of Technology
- Recommended
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8 people have recommended Darren - Connections
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274
connections
- Industry
- Marketing and Advertising
- Websites
Darren Fell’s Summary
Following seven years of hard work invested in building Pure360.com from scratch, with little investment, the company was sold to a NASD listed US firm called MobiVentures for $7.8m in April 2008.
Pure grew phenomenally fast and was listed in 2007 as the 11th fastest growing new media business in the UK, in Media Momentum’s Top 50 league table. It was also ranked as one of the top 5 email specialist companies in the UK. By April of 2008, Pure had over 45 employees and more than 850 customers, including many big brand names such as Levi's, Innocent Drinks, EMAP, Rightmove and the entire FT Group. The latter being the final major deal I brought in before departing.
I have moved on to establish myself as an expert business start-up consultant and have taken on possibly one of the most exciting projects I have seen in sometime, called www.crunch.co.uk.
I am really pleased to say Crunch launched on 8th April this year and is the first seamless combination of an outstanding secure online Accounting system and Chartered Accountancy firm, Dedicated to freelancers and contractors; a market that is surging due to the current economic times, the services delivers the complete end to end Accounting function for £59.50+vat per month.
In a bid to promote my learnings of becoming a freelance consultant for the first time, I established www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk, a knowledge portal specifically designed to help freelancers and contractors make the jump, set up or make themselves more efficient if they are running a business already. Since its launch in February last year, the growth of the site has been astonishing in terms of contributors writing articles and high levels of traffic. We now have over 10,000 visitors per month.
Darren Fell’s Specialties:
Formulating new business start-ups
Productisation
Sales and Marketing
Building teams
Darren Fell’s Experience
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Founder and Managing Director
crunch (www.crunch.co.uk)
(Accounting industry)
February 2008 — Present (1 year 10 months)
As described within the summary section, crunch is in partnership with the established Accountancy firm, SRC. SRC has over 600 customers and has been in the marketplace since 1991.
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Founder and freelancer
Freelanceadvisor.co.uk
(Information Services industry)
February 2008 — Present (1 year 10 months)
As already described in the summary section www.freelanceadvisor.co.uk is designed to help freelancers and contractors in every field, with detailed setup advice and ongoing help that even the most experienced freelancers and contractors will find useful.
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Founder and non-Executive Chairman
Pure (pure360.com)
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
January 2001 — January 2008 (7 years 1 month)
Founded Pure in 2001, Darren Fell proved email and sms marketing theories out through online party portal, built a highly competent team and the Pureresponse online application was launched in 2003.
Pure, based in Brighton, now has a team of 43 and over 750 customers including the Financial Times, EMAP, innocent drinks, Rightmove and RS Components globally.
Pure is expanding into Europe, focusing on Spain, Italy and Germany. -
Founder
Pure360
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
2001 — 2008 (7 years )
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Pan-European Account Manager
Colt Telecom (Colt Internet)
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Telecommunications industry)
September 2001 — September 2002 (1 year 1 month)
Managed Pan-european hosting deals for Colt Internet's International division overlaying local country sales teams to put together large multi-location hosting deals for sizable online operations.
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Sales Exec
Morse Group
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1998 — 1999 (1 year )
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Sales Executive
Morse
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
1997 — 1998 (1 year )
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Sales Manager and Shareholder
Frontier Internet Services
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
August 1995 — September 1996 (1 year 2 months)
Built initial sales team for this startup ISP. Frontier was sold to Mistral in 2003.
Darren Fell’s Education
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Brighton College of Technology
Electronic Engineering and Computing Technology 1988 — 1989
Additional Information
Darren Fell’s Websites:
Darren Fell’s Interests:
Helping other entrepreneurs in their start ups New ventures / start-ups Personal growth
Darren Fell’s Groups:
Direct Marketing Association
Hub 100 - fastest growing businesses in Brighton & Hove
Judge for Sussex Business Awards
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The Professional Contractors Group -
Brighton New Media -
Consultants Network -
Freelance professionals -
Creative Solutions -
Brighton and Hove Speakers Club -
Digital United -
Young Enterprise South East - Sussex
Darren Fell’s Honors:
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Sussex Business Awards 2007/8
- 11th fastest growing new media company - Media Momentum Top 50 2007
- Shortlisted - O2 Entrepreneur of the Year 2007
- Small Business of the Year - Sussex Business Awards 2006/7
- Finalist - Entrepreneur of the Year - Sussex Business Awards 2006/7
- Put in 'One to Watch' category by Director magazine August 2008
Also Darren's CV, otherwise known as his 'elevator pitch' appeared in the popular book: 'Pitch Yourself' by Bill and Michael Faust
Darren Fell’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- new ventures
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
