Darren Fell
Managing Director

Fed up of years of corporate politics, Darren Fell decided to risk it all on building a top UK digital marketing agency, from scratch and with no investment.

He founded email marketing specialist Pure - which began life as a party portal - in 2001, when he realised that the online email and SMS technology element was scalable and would become an essential business tool for brands. Fast forward seven years and Pure is now the eleventh fastest growing new media company in the UK [1] and named Best Small Business at the Sussex Business Awards 2006/07. Darren won Entrepreneur of the Year at the same ceremony in 2007/08, and also made the shortlist for 02 / Arena magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year competition.

Opportunities are rarely missed and his favourite pastime is doing the seemingly impossible - taking on huge corporate competitors and winning customers in direct pitches. Darren took Pure - which at the time employed 45 people and had over 850 clients including innocent drinks, Financial Times and Rightmove - to the point of a multi-million dollar sale in April 2008 and is now working on his latest venture.

Crunch.co.uk, the UK’s first combined online accounting system and accounting practice dedicated to freelancers, contractors and independent consultants, launched in April 2009.

FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk has also been launched by Darren as a sister site -- an online advice and job resource to help freelancers network, set up and work more efficiently.

Prior to starting Pure in 2001, Darren worked in advertising as e-Commerce Director for Bates Australia. He was also a shareholder in online start-up Frontier, the internet services company, which was later sold to internet service provider Mistral.

A champion of Brighton and the homegrown digital businesses the city is famous for, Darren actively supports as many as he can in his quest to help Brighton become the new media capital of the UK.

[1] Investment bank GP Bullhound’s Media Momentum Top 50 2007