Peter Ellen’s first business wasn’t quite legal.
When he was away at a traditional British boarding school, Ellen took advantage of the fact that his fellow students were looking for a way to get around the ban on alcohol.
“I saw it was in high demand, so I started a home brewery business,” he says. “It was very profitable for a short period of time — though the product wasn’t the best, if I’m honest.”
Though his brewery idea didn’t quite work out, Ellen’s experience did launch his career as a serial entrepreneur.
“There are many ways to fail, but the breakthrough moments often come through sheer effort,” the London-based entrepreneur explains.
Following school, Ellen worked as a DJ and played saxophone in a band. But he found his big success on the business side of the music industry, co-founding major U.K. retailer Fopp. It made headlines when it was bought by HMV. He switched gears to online marketing and co-founded Maxymiser. Earlier this year it was acquired by Oracle.
It was through his work at Maxymiser that he met his future partner Steven Rose. Turns out their skills complemented each other.
“I got into this field as a business person who understands technology,” Rose says. “I joke that I’m a marketing person who codes.”
In the fall of 2014, the two founded Big Data for Humans, a “data science-as-a-service for the retail, travel and consumer brands sectors.” Working with clients across Europe, Big Data for Humans is disrupting the €100 billion field of customer marketing.
What does that mean in plain speak? The company helps retail clients understand who their customers are and sell more to them, and, according to Ellen — who serves as the company’s CEO — that’s proven to be an area where retail clients need a lot of help.
“Knowing who your customers are is more important than knowing who your prospects are,” Ellen says. “You need to strike a balance between the two to run a great business.”
Having recently secured a $1.2M round of seed funding, the company is working on improving its product and growing its team at its WeWork Moorgate office.
Working at a startup again is hard work, but Ellen says his past experience is valuable.
“Expect it to be tough, but don’t give up,” Ellen advises. “There’s always a barrier in front of you, but the more you do entrepreneurial business, the more you expect things to go wrong and the more you learn to navigate those barriers.”
Rose agrees.
“Take an opportunity if it presents itself,” he suggests. “Far too many people worry about risk and about putting everything on the line. Take a chance — what’s the worst that can happen?”
Ellen says you have to understand that some people won’t get your business model or understand who your customers will be.
“A big VC once told me that the analytics space was busy because ‘Google had a product,’” he says “Just because Google has a product doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a go. That’s like saying, ‘Nordstrom’s got a shop, so why get into shopping?’ If you thought that way, you could give up every day when you start a business.”
But for Ellen, the most difficult aspect of being an entrepreneur is spelling the word.
“I’ve only just learned to spell it recently,” he says with a laugh. “It’s got r’s in places you wouldn’t expect.”
Photo credits: Lauren Kallen, Simon Buxton