Two Derby former schoolmates have turned their shared love of motocross into a fast-growing digital start-up after setting up a competition website aimed at extreme sport junkies.
Jake Daffern and Callum Swan are enjoying a flying start to their entrepreneurial careers thanks to the early success of their website giveawaylife.co.uk, which hosts regular online raffles offering everything from motorcycling gloves right up to a brand new £5,000 bike. You can even win a Lay-Z-Spa hot tub on their website.
The duo, who became friends when they both attended Chellaston School, have talked about setting up in business for a while and, displaying their own sense of fearlessness, finally embarked their venture in April, at the height of the coronavirus lockdown.
Working in partnership with motorbike dealership AJ Trading in Birmingham, giveawaylife.co.uk runs between two and four competitions each week online – the draws are streamed live on Facebook – and has given away hundreds of prizes from a host of big-name brands such as Yamaha, Kawasaki, SM Pro and GoPro.
Competitions are held open for 30 days but typically reach their maximum of 100 or 200 entrants within a week, with each person paying between £1 and £30 for a ticket and answering a skill-based question to enter.
Although they were both in different years at school, Jake and Callum got to know each other through a shared love of motocross.
Callum competes regularly while Jake has only ever ridden for fun, but both saw potential for setting up a competition website raffling off merchandise and goods for the UK’s diehard motocross fans.
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Many of their prizes are also aimed at people who enjoy motocross and mountain biking or simply like to own the latest gadget, while Jake and Callum have plans to include prizes from the worlds of road cycling and other types of motorsport in the future.
Jake, 24, who used to work at Rolls-Royce, is about to leave a full-time job in order to work on giveawaylife.co.uk full time, while Callum, who is the company’s frontman on social media, will continue to work on it alongside running his own insurance business.
Jake said: “Launching a business during the coronavirus was interesting to say the least but because people have been at home and online it’s had a really successful start.
“Motocross is a fun but expensive hobby – as both Callum and I have found out – so we knew that people would be interested in winning gear to add to their collection.
“However, we wanted to make sure that visitors to our site had exceptional user experience so that they would return on a regular basis, so we worked hard to create a website that looks good and is really friendly, inclusive and transparent at the same time.
“We’re really loving running the site…the buzz which it creates when we do the live draws and that feeling you get when someone wins something which they’re so happy about.
“We have received such positive feedback and the start we’ve had has given us the confidence to grow the business further. We’ve got some really exciting plenty of plans for the future and can’t wait to crack on.”
Callum, 29, added: “A few people questioned us after we told them we were setting up a business in the middle of a global pandemic but, for us, it’s worked out really well; everyone has been at home more and spent a lot of time on their phone.
“I’ve started a few businesses before and I’m enjoying the role I have with this one, especially being the front man on social media. I’ve built up a following in motocross over the years and we know that the sport is huge, so there’s plenty of potential.
“We really want to build the site now to get more followers and people taking part.”
ENDS
For further information please contact Simon Burch at Penguin PR on 07735 397888 or email simon@penguinpr.co.uk
