Daniel Tannenbaum – “I Used to Make Tea, But Look At Me Now”

London-based digital marketing consultant, Daniel Tannenbaum, finished University in 2011 with dreams of working for a startup environment. After a decade of tricky clients and challenging work placements, he has established himself in the digital marketing sector.

“I graduated with a degree in business management and Spanish from the University of Nottingham in 2011 and this was in the heat of the economic crisis – so working for a bank or in finance didn’t seem too appealing.”

“It was following a work placement at Wonga.com that changed my perceptions about employment choices after Uni. There were some highly intelligent people there who were ex-Paypal, ex-Facebook and Oxbridge grads and it opened my eyes that you could finish Uni and work for a startup and not have to become an accountant or lawyer, something that is pretty much a right of passage in my tight knit community of north-west london.”

“I was desperate to get a job for a startup after graduation but there were no real major ones around in the UK, other than the likes of TripAdvisor, Groupon and Expedia. I darted around working with a number of hopeless entrepreneurs, working out of garages, basements and even their Gran’s spare bedroom – although she made nice sandwiches on one occasion. These people were probably running businesses because they couldn’t do anything else and I got sucked in as a hapless junior, making tea and sometimes not even getting paid.”

“Finally, a year after graduation, an opportunity emerged to work for an online finance startup, with extremely bright and intelligent people. They worked with a top digital marketing agency and my role was to be the middleman between the agency and the senior staff – and this was where I got to learn the ropes and ins and outs of digital marketing across SEO, PPC, affiliates, emails and user experience.”

“In 2015, I felt I had enough experience to become a freelancer and I specialised in SEO (search engine optimisation), the obscure and often vague techniques needed to rank websites to the top of search engines such as Google.”

“I started working with family friends, friends of parents and any job going around to make a name for myself. Fast-forward a few years, I have truly become a specialist in my niche, working with small startups, family businesses and the dizzy heights of David Cameron, Lord Sugar, McDonalds and Betway.”

“I have always been entrepreneurial and have always run a number of my own websites in parallel with managing clients. Creating sub-sites have always been successful, but driving them to the top of Google and receiving commission for any leads or sales, including vehicle and health insurance, funeral plans and mortgages. One of my most rewarding experiences has been running HolocaustMatters.org, which is a site I run for free, and has grown into one of the UK’s largest resources online for Holocaust eduation.”

“My most recent venture is Pheabs, which combines all the skills and connections I have made over the last 10 years. The website is a loans connection service based in the US and connects people looking for loans with those banks and lenders who are most likely to approve them. The website gets an application every 10 seconds and received over 70,000 visitors last month.”

“Overall, I am glad that I followed my passion for startups and digital marketing, because it was an unlikely path to follow 10 years ago, but today it is one of the most popular options for University graduates. I will continue to live my dream, even if my Mum still wants me to be an Accountant!”