A brain for business: Mike Bandar speaks with Business students
Mike Bandar, founding partner of Turn Partners, recently delivered a talk at Newman University on 14th November to inspire the university’s business and management students.
Turn Partners is a start-up studio focused on the acquisition, turnaround and creation of digital businesses.
Along with business partner James, Mike led the turnaround of the niche-dating agency Toyboy Warehouse, achieving over a 2000% revenue growth in 18 months.
Turn Partners are also behind Hopper HQ, the Instagram planning and scheduling tool, now in over 75 countries.
Turn Partner’s is a bootstrapped business built on creating real value to customers. It reinvests profits to grow new and existing businesses as well as developing a small investment portfolio.
Mike is a graduate from Aston Business School and has owned and operated businesses since the age of 15. His background is mainly within sales, marketing and startup enterprise with experience ranging from the position of Head of New Business at a global advertising agency to providing independent consultancy for clients such as PETRONAS oil, PWC, AXA and Pepsi Co.
Mike believes in empowerment through entrepreneurship and is passionate about encouraging others into bettering their lives through entrepreneurship. Firstly by ‘practising what he preaches’ running his businesses in a people first way, but also by regularly speaking, training and mentoring entrepreneurs and people interested in starting their own business, like the students at Newman University.
This ranges from informal mentoring sessions, workshops within universities and corporates, training on various incubator and accelerator programmes, working with charities supporting enterprise and even leading trips with the British Council training entrepreneurs in developing countries.
In 2017 Mike was featured on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list to receive a British Empire Medal for ‘Services to Young Entrepreneurs in the West Midlands’.
Mike has recently been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Aston University for his contribution to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, making him one of the youngest ever recipients of a DSc.
Recently announced listed on the 2016 Maserati 100, Mike is celebrated as one of the UK’s successful entrepreneurs who give their time to support the next generation of entrepreneurs.
His main focus is now within Turn Partners as well as providing startup and enterprise training to individuals, institutions and corporates across the world.
In the days that followed the presentation, Business students at Newman were able to present, in a conference style, as part of their assignment using Mike’s presentation for inspiration, something which the students enjoyed.