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16 17 Concordia Merchant Taylors’ School Summer 2015
Design My Night
Nick Telson (1997-2002) co-founded
, the leading
nightlife website in the UK. He recalls
his time at Taylors’ and writes about life
as an entrepreneur
We both
always
wanted to
set up our
own company
but it was
a definite
step into
the unknown.
I started at Taylors’ in 1997 aged
13, of course excited, but also nervous
about meeting lots of new people at
such a huge school. As well as the high
academic level, at the time, Taylors’
was head and shoulders above other
schools in terms of extra-curricular
opportunities and sports facilities;
that’s what I really wanted to take
advantage of.
Unfortunately my passion was football,
not rugby! When I joined, football
was a bit of a second class citizen in
everyone’s eyes but by the time I left in
2002, I had enjoyed two years in the 1st
XI and football was more appreciated…
Hopefully, this trend has continued over
the last 13 years! Throughout my years,
I was a quiet, head-down, hard-study
student. I knew I wanted As and A*s at
GCSE and all As at A-Level so in order
to reach these targets I always put work
first, while still getting involved with
sports and activities.
Looking back now, my stint in
Community Service on Fridays was
actually one of the most important
parts of my time at Taylors’. It taught
me humility, how to interact with
different people and compassion; for
me, all important life skills…even if I
didn’t always enjoy mowing Anne’s
lawn in Northwood on a rainy Friday
afternoon. The Sixth Form was when I
really flourished. I thoroughly enjoyed
the subjects I had chosen (English
Language, Spanish, French and Politics),
was in the JCR and I started my own
football magazine, which I sold to other
students at lunch.
If my memory serves me correctly, it
was called Footy Fanatic; a small team of
us put the monthly magazine together
and worked with the Print Room staff to
put it together. This was my first go at
being an entrepreneur. It sold out every
month and we donated the money made
to a local charity.
It wasn’t until nine years after I
left Taylors’ and after Nottingham
University that I picked up from
my Footy Fanatic days and started
Andrew (best friend from university
and co-founder) and I were on a trip to
New York and were blown away with
the amazing nightlife knowledge of our
hotel concierge. After a few ice-cold
Margaritas, a business idea was born.
We decided we’d had enough of the
half-baked nightlife websites and the
constant hassle of planning a night out
in our favourite city in the world. What
London needed was a site where you
could discover and unlock the best, the
new, the wallet-friendly, and the secret
nightlife on offer. But also a website to
help plan, book online and buy tickets
so the site does all the hard work, so you
could simply enjoy a cracking night out.
We both had very successful
corporate jobs so the risks were large.
We had spent five years climbing the
ladder at our respective companies, so
jumping ship was not only a financial
risk but we also risked undoing all the
hard-work we had done to establish
ourselves in those worlds.
We both always wanted to set up our
own company but it was a definite step
into the unknown. I don’t think we were
ever scared, at the start it’s more exciting
than anything else, but as time ticks on
and the bank balance drops you do have
to be realistic. We always believed in the
idea and thought we had enough about
us, in a growing industry, to succeed.
Getting the business off the ground
came in two stages: the initial 18 months
of grunt work, physically walking
into hundreds of bars in London and
explaining the concept and trying to get
some early adopters on board. This we
managed to do.
We also read up a lot on SEO and
made sure everything on the site was
“Google friendly” so we would get picked
up. After about six months we began to
see traction from Google, which quickly
increased our daily visits and luckily
people responded well to the site so we
got a lot of pick up from social sharing
and word of mouth.
The second growth stage, which we
are in now, came from Angel investment.
We managed to secure funds from six
prominent business Angels who all had
significant success and experience in
growing online brands.
Not only did their financial input
allow us to grow the team, grow the
site and do some low-level marketing,
but their expertise and know-how was
fundamental. Now we stand, four years in,
getting over 2.5m views a month, selling
over 20,000 tickets a month, processing
over 4,000 bookings a month and have a
team of 25 in Old Street, Shoreditch.
My top tips for anyone reading this
who would like to be an entrepreneur,
now or in the future are:
1) Research, research, research! If you
think you have a good idea, speak to as
many people as possible. Not just family
and friends (as they will be biased) but
actual members of the public. There is no
point blindly ploughing on with an idea if
it simply won’t work.
2) Get it live. You can spend years
planning and thinking about an idea. The
best way to learn and improve is to get it
live. You don’t have to spend a fortune to
bring an idea to fruition. This start phase
is called a Minimum Viable Product. You
may not be 100% happy with this MVP or
it may not be your total vision but getting
it live is the key…then learn and improve
from there.
3) The most important aspect we have
learnt is being ready to pivot. Plans will
inevitably change when you start trading,
as might the landscape you’re trading in.
If you stick blindly to your original idea,
you may get left behind. Be quick, be
nimble and be ready to change. Over the
four years we have pivoted from a purely
advertising model, to a bookings model,
to a B2B ticketing model and a B2B
booking software (Collins).
A final thought goes to some of the
amazing teachers I was lucky enough
to have. I think I have taken certain
personality elements from different
Taylors’ teachers as a boss now at
I had Mr Moon
for Spanish, who was fierce but fair, Mr
Andrews for English, who was wise,
listened and was very informed, and Mr
Rocher, an extrovert, laid-back, fun-
but-firm French teacher. I will always
look back with extreme gratitude at the
opportunities offered me at Taylors’
and without doubt it was the perfect
breeding ground for all the qualities you
need to become a good entrepreneur.