Andrew Ellis, Founder, Eyetoeye Digital, Like Minds and DENA
Andrew is a serial entrepreneur and experienced business development executive. Andrew has been invited to Buckingham Palace and Parliament in the UK to advise on matters of business and enterprise and has been written about in the Sunday Times, Financial Times, and numerous other publications. After a BA Hons degree in Graphic Design at The University of the Arts in London, Andrew started his career as a designer and photographer at the seminal creative partnership Hipgnosis.
In 1982 Andrew designed the world-famous "Choose Life" range of slogan T-Shirts for Katharine Hamnett and co-authored the book 'Album Cover Album Two' with Roger Dean & Storm Thorgerson and collaborated on the second Hipgnosis book 'The Goodbye Look'.In 1982 Andrew founded Icon, an international creative agency based in London and LA specialising in design for the music industry. Andrew sold the business in 1989 to a UK PLC and re-branded the company as Sonicon, now a division of AGI Media Europe.
Andrew studios' creative work has been published on over 350M albums and singles for artists such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Robert Plant, Sir Paul McCartney, Radiohead and Duran Duran, amongst many others.
Andrew founded Eyetoeye in 1994 as one of the world's first new media agencies, advising a broad range of businesses on digital strategy, content creation, website development, branding, and design. Eyetoeye designed and built some of the first websites in the UK. We also advised many start-ups in the Internet boom years, such as First Tuesday and MoneyWorld, which sold to Interactive Investor.
In late 2009 Andrew co-founded the Like Minds Ideas Festival, a global thought leadership platform, holding events in London, Exeter, Helsinki, and New York. We also consult and produce online events for businesses and brands on our digital platform. We launched our own brand, Business Breakfast TV, a weekly online show for entrepreneurs and SME business owners in 2020 and co-founded the Great British Business Festival in 2020.
In 2019 Andrew co-founded DENA Bonds based in London and Berlin as an intermediary for property developers and companies with substantial assets looking for finance.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Instagram as I used to be a professional photographer.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I run three companies, a digital agency called Eyetoeye, a global thought leadership platform which is Like Minds, and a property investment advisory named DENA.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
Every day is different!
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Nothing is forever.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
The new, new thing...
What are you proud of in your life so far?
Seeing my daughters flourish in their own careers, selling my first company to a UK PLC, getting nominated for a Grammy, designing the Choose Life series of T-Shirts for Katherine Hamnett, working with some of the greatest rock and roll bands in the world.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
Initially online and then in person.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Being interested in people and listening to them.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
That you can achieve almost anything if you put your mind to it.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
Peter Christopherson, Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
Art collecting, sea fishing, photography, reading history, watching documentaries.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
Positive, I've managed to pivot one company and increased its turnover from the previous years.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
A few but no one individual and only my children.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Focus and try and meet as many people in the industry as possible and learn from them.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Lack of investment, not having the passion required to keep going.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
Yes, Gymshark and deliciously ella.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Success is being able to lead the life you want to lead, and it's not all about money.