Darryl Collins

Current

Investor / Founder / Chief Executive at Banjax Ltd

Past

Chairman at Cinemagic World Screen Festival for Young People
CEO at Banjax Studios Ltd
Investor / Founder at Twingle

Investor / Founder at Rogue Rocket
Investor / Non-Executive Director at KR Graphics
Investor / Founder / CEO at blackstar.co.uk
Founder / Managing Director at Black Star Films

see less...

4 more...

Education

EAVE - Les Entrepreneurs de l'Audiovisuel
ACE - Ateliers du Cinéma Européen
Film Business School

Recommended

4 people have recommended Darryl

Connections

259 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Darryl Collins’s Summary

Ecommerce and digital media pioneer and explorer. Hard won experience at the forefront of high-level ecommerce in Europe - grew blackstar.co.uk from zero to c.£10m ($20m) annual turnover in 4 years (1998-2002). Now consulting in ecommerce and digital media strategy and working with a number of startups.

* co-founder of 2 animation start-ups
* founder of blackstar.co.uk, the UK's largest online video store
* producer of Irish feature film "Korea" (winner of 3 international feature film awards)
* owner of an international award-winning TV commercials business (Black Star Films)
* 17 years survival as freelance in the film industry to 1992

Darryl Collins’s Specialties:

Financial engineering, finance raising, team recruitment, networking, business development, technology, ecommerce

Darryl Collins’s Experience

Investor / Founder / Chief Executive

Banjax Ltd

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Animation industry)

April 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

Chief Executive in Belfast based digital studio. http://www.banjax.com/
Chairman

Cinemagic World Screen Festival for Young People

(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Motion Pictures and Film industry)

May 2002 — March 2007 (4 years 11 months)

Having been one of the founders of Cinemagic in 1989 (I actually came up with the name in a meeting to discuss setting up some sort of festival) I had almost nothing to do with it for 13 years. I was invited on to the board in 2002 only to find that it was financially challenged! Three years later it is now a thriving and cash positive non-profit organisation. http://www.cinemagic.org.uk/ & blog http://www.cinemagic.tv/
CEO

Banjax Studios Ltd

(Internet industry)

2002 — 2007 (5 years)
Investor / Founder

Twingle

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

July 2001 — May 2006 (4 years 11 months)

Investor
Investor / Founder

Rogue Rocket

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Animation industry)

September 2001 — February 2006 (4 years 6 months)

Investor in Belfast based comic book and animation company. http://www.roguerocket.com/
Investor / Non-Executive Director

KR Graphics

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

October 2002 — August 2005 (2 years 11 months)

Former owner of Belfast based design and communications business servicing Northern Irish clients.
Investor / Founder / CEO

blackstar.co.uk

(Internet industry)

January 1996 — June 2001 (5 years 6 months)

My partners Tony Bowden and Jeremy Glover and I created blackstar.co.uk (now sendit.com), an online retailer of videos and DVDs, in 1997. Through 5 fun filled but fraught years, we managed to grow its annual turnover to around £10m with hundreds of thousands of customers in over 160 countries. Along the way I raised over £10m of private equity and venture capital. We sold the business in 2001 when it was turning over c£10m per year. I was Chief Executive.

HIGHLIGHTS:
* £1.2m sales / month (Nov-00)
* £9.7m 12 months to Mar-01
* over 6.8m page impressions / month (Nov-00)
* over 600k visitors / month (Mar-01)
* over 50k orders / month (Nov-00)
* over 200k cumulative customers to Mar-01
* over 37k purchasing customers / month (Oct-00)
Founder / Managing Director

Black Star Films

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Motion Pictures and Film industry)

January 1985 — December 1995 (11 years)

Producer of film and TV commercials. Winner of numerous international advertising awards. Particularly noted for Northern Ireland Office 'peace' commercials like "Cats in the Cradle", "Days Like This" and "2 Weddings".

Additional Information

Darryl Collins’s Websites:

Darryl Collins’s Interests:

investing, fishing, cycling, power kites, wife, kids, wife & kids, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Dublin, movies, films, animation, toys, gadgets, thrillers, crime fiction, Newcastle United, France, Fermanagh, Vancouver, Software, media, consumer electronics, games, toys, computer animation, CGI, motion picture, movie distribution, motion picture distribution, entertainment, business models, film financing, general management, strategy, business plans, negotiation, deal structure, international, marketing, brand development, brand management, market research, positioning, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, m&a, start-ups, product development.