When he was 15, Andrew Daniels built a Manchester United fan website. It was listed in the Yahoo Directory and, as a result, he was headhunted straight out of school by an agency that was angling for a commission to build the football club’s main website.
Since then Daniels has been one step ahead of his peers, or as he puts it, working in jobs “bigger than my years”. Today, aged 31, he is the managing director of digital agency Degree 53, and has more than 50 staff working for him in the Sharp Project in Manchester, which offers space to digital entrepreneurs.
Degree 53 was spun out of bookmaker Betfred, where Daniels used to work as head of mobile development. “I wanted to get development out of the corporate IT department, which wasn’t very creative, and set up an agency,” he says.
The agency launched in September 2013 with 25 former Betfred employees, and although Betfred is still their biggest client, other big names, such as the Co-op bank, have signed up in recent months.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his own background, Daniels is dedicated to bringing young talent into the business. He has two apprentices and a good retention rate among graduates in a traditionally flaky industry.
“I always believe in giving young people an opportunity,” he says. “My management style is to throw people in at the deep end, while supporting them. That’s what happened in my career and I really valued that. When I’m recruiting I don’t really look at what people have done in their degrees because it’s very generic. I am looking for what they have done in their own time.”
Transparency is key and Daniels often spends weekends looking over comments staff have made in 15five, its weekly employee feedback system. He says the system helps safeguard Degree 53’s original close-knit culture: “You’re trying to make sure things aren’t slipping through the cracks.”
Daniels ensures that morale stays high through perks such as flexi time and a monthly competition called Star of the Month – where a £500 prize is awarded to people who go “beyond the call of duty”. A year after launching, Degree 53 had done so well that Daniels took 37 employees to Marbella for the weekend. “Monday in work was pretty quiet,” he says.
Daniels keeps staff engaged with a “no-nonsense” management style and encourages staff to aim high in their careers. “I want to see people come in early in their career, move on and do great things,” he says.
Daniels was nominated by Hayley Stoddart, sales and marketing executive. “Under Andy’s leadership,” she says, “the company is on course to post sales of £2.85m this financial year.” Technical director Robert Walter says Daniels should be leader of the year for his open communication style and because he’s always willing to learn. “He wears his heart on his sleeve,” he says.
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