The Dragon is incredibly proud of ODs continuing to reach for the sun and who, in doing so, have become hugely successful in a wide range of fields. From making a piece of history like Francesca Wilcox (OD 2013) to developing life-saving apps like Michael Dent (OD 2002), capturing snow leopards on camera like Dan O’Neil (OD 2005) to playing for England like Maia Bouchier (OD 2012) … Read on for the next feature in our Diversity of Dragons series, where the Dragon hears from entrepreneur Ed East (OD 2000), CEO and Co-Founder of Billion Dollar Boy.
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Global Influence
Ed East (OD 2000)
My years at the Dragon were probably some of the best years of my life.
Although now a distant memory, I look back very fondly on my time at the Dragon: playing marbles in the playground, chasing frogs on field trips down the Cherwell, and running the 400 meters in the summer.
I joined The Dragon in C Block as a boarder and really wished I had joined two years earlier in E Block. I made great friends (some of whom are still best friends 20 years later, like Georgia Cummings (OD 2000)) and was also immediately struck by how encouraging all the teachers were. They were not just teachers; they were friends and mentors who really cared about helping you find your passion. Beyond the academics, sports, and extracurricular activities, I think the school’s unwavering commitment to fostering independent thinking is what had the biggest impact on me after my time on Bardwell Road. The teachers’ well-rounded approach to education encouraged a far broader approach that didn’t revolve solely around academics but rather encouraged you to develop confidence, independence, creativity, social skills, and a positive approach to life.
Of all the teachers, Harry Hastings exemplified this best. We recently met for Japanese in London, a lunch I will never forget (more here), and he reminded me exactly why I loved the Dragon so much – he always taught us resilience, trusting your own abilities, and knowing how to speak out at the right time. If only Harry and I had more opportunities to hang out, but I recently moved to New York City to help grow my influencer marketing business, Billion Dollar Boy (BDB), which I founded 9 years ago in London. His guidance really helped prepare me for the challenges I would face setting up and running my own business.
BDB is a global influencer marketing business helping global brands like Heineken, L’Oréal, AirBnB, Dove, Nintendo and TikTok advertise their products, services, and brands via a network of 42,000 influencers around the world. We started out in 2014, sold part of the business in 2017 for £400k and reinvested every penny to grow, a risk I am happy we took. Today we have offices in New York, New Orleans, Copenhagen and London and are a team of 150+. We have been profitable for 3 years while managing to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 70%. It’s great to share the successes of BDB, but I think it’s far more important to highlight that I made countless mistakes along the way and that there have been near misses which could have been its end. I suffer from the ever-present feeling of imposter syndrome as amazing new people join the business and show me what we can be doing far better than before, but I also recognise how vital it is to embrace this open approach in order to grow.
Luckily, the Dragon prepares people very well to work in an entrepreneurial environment by encouraging you to embrace the opinions of others, to be confident in your strengths while recognising your weaknesses, and to be a team player. Some of the best entrepreneurial advice I was ever given was by a fellow OD, Nick Wheeler (OD 1978), and his brilliant and inspiring wife Chrissie who told me that we Brits always sell our businesses too soon and the trick is to keep growing, which is my ambition with BDB to grow into a large multinational business over the next 10 to 20 years.
If I could leave you with one nugget of wisdom, keep calm and carry on TikTokking – only kidding, or am I?
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Let us know what you’ve been up to since your Dragon Days, we’d love to share your story.
Header Image: Ed East and Harry Hastings
