I'm building two digital businesses, growing an audience to 200K+ with 140M+ impressions, and partnering with founders and creators - generating millions in revenue.

How I got here:

2015: Graduated with no connections, no network and no one who looked like me in the rooms I wanted to be in.

2017: Joined BT (£20bn company) as a graduate. One of 200 selected from 26,000 applicants.

2019: Started posting on LinkedIn. Built Gradvance on the side. Began placing graduates at Google, TikTok, Amazon and more.

2023: Moved into BT's innovation team. Launched first in-house digital marketing agency. Scaled start-ups and SaaS businesses with Meta Ads and Google Ads (£100K+/month paid media spend).

2024: Became Chair of BT's Ethnic Diversity Network. Won multiple awards for DE&I and leadership across a business of 100,000+ people. 

2025: Left corporate to go all in. Co-founded Launchpad Creators and scaled fast.

And on the 1st January 2026, I welcomed my first-born son into the world. A very special time.

What I've built:

Gradvance is a UK leading graduate career academy. 450+ placements, £12.4M+ in salary outcomes. (6 figures)

Launchpad Creators is a growth marketing partner for founders and creators. Full funnels, paid ads, creative execution and everything in between. Partners include some of the world's leading founders and creators. (7 figures) 

🚀 Interested in partnering with us? Visit launchpadcreators.com

If you want to learn more or you're building something of your own, I'm documenting the full journey in my newsletter - growing a personal brand, running paid ads without burning cash, operating and scaling digital businesses. The lessons, failures, frameworks and insights. 

And if you're not ready for any of that yet, welcome anyway. I share actionable tips on entrepreneurship, marketing, leadership, careers and personal growth 🌱

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: dan-mian.com

📩 For sponsorships or brand partnerships: dan@dan-mian.com

Dan Mian

Employers look for “the perfect candidate.”

Flawless CV.
Top university.
Years of industry experience.

But this is short-sighted.
Incredible talent is overlooked.

Some of the best performers I’ve ever met didn’t tick every box.

But they showed:

→ Hunger
→ Growth mindset
→ Coachability
→ Curiosity
→ Genuine drive to get better

You can teach skills.
But you can’t teach attitude.

Here’s what great employers do differently:

1️⃣ Hire for mindset
↳ Ambition beats a perfect CV every time.

2️⃣ Look beyond industry experience
↳ New ideas and perspectives are valuable

3️⃣ Invest in development
↳ Great training can nurture top talent. 

4️⃣ Encourage failure early
↳ Growth happens when failure is encouraged.

5️⃣ Build trust fast
↳ Give people ownership and autonomy.

Perfection is a myth.
Hire for potential too.

♻️ Repost this if you agree
👋 Follow Dan Mian for more on careers + leadership

Founder of Launchpad Creators & Gradvance | Building digital businesses | Marketing partner to founders who want to scale | 2x LinkedIn Top Voice | Follow for posts on business, marketing, leadership & personal growth

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Most people don’t fail because they lack talent. 

They just stop too early.

I’ve seen people quit when: 

– They get rejected
– Their effort isn’t recognised
– The honeymoon period wears off
– Business had a bad month (list goes on)

Social media will have you believe that everyone is an overnight success, and it will look easy. 

But the truth is, growth isn’t easy. 
It isn’t glamorous, or super exciting.

Most of the time:

It’s boring
It’s repetitive 
It’s discipline

It’s doing the same small things, over and over again.

The gym when you don’t feel like it.
The applications after another rejection.
The content when engagement is low.
The business work when sales are quiet.

Overtime, those small actions compound.
Ultimately, it’s a game of endurance.

So to be successful and achieve your goals: 

1. concentrate on your own journey
2. and just keep showing up

♻️ Repost if this resonates

Young people are being exploited.

I’m part of the first generation the government ran this experiment on.

University fees went from £3,000 to £9,000 in 2012 (Plan 2).

I’ve worked consistently since graduating, progressed my career, started 2 businesses, and made monthly student loan payments. 

And I owe significantly more now than I did when I left university…

This system is designed to grow balances through interest while telling young people it’s “manageable”.

In 2024–25 alone, graduates repaid £4.8bn.
And £15.2bn of interest was added to balances.

That’s not “education policy". 
That’s profit extracted from grads at scale.

And now the government wants to freeze the Plan 2 repayment threshold at £29,385 until 2030.

So more people in low-mid paying jobs get pulled into re-payments (tax for life).

And it’s even worse for new graduates today (Plan 5)

- Plan 2 repayment threshold is £29,385
- Plan 5 repayment threshold is £25,000

- Plan 2 is written off after 30 years 
- Plan 5 is written off after 40 years 

It’s ridiculous. It's exploitation.

Here’s why the system is damaging to UK economy:

1️⃣ Broken Promises - Profiting From Young People
 ↳ This was sold as “invest in your future and you’ll be better off”. But they lied - increasing interest, changing / freezing threshold. Lower-mid income graduates will suffer most.

2️⃣ Cost-Of-Living Not Considered
 ↳ Rent, bills, food all cost more. Wages haven’t kept up. Freezing the threshold means graduates pay more in real terms at exactly the worst time.

3️⃣It Kills Life Milestones, Ambition & Mobility
 ↳ Saving for a deposit, taking career risks, moving for better jobs, starting a business — all so much harder when a chunk of income is permanently siphoned off and the balance is growing.

4️⃣ It Widens Inequality
 ↳ If your parents can help, you’re fine. If they can’t, you’re screwed. They’re piling more debt on a young person who is already struggling to afford life.

5️⃣ The Degree Doesn’t Guarantee Opportunity Anymore
 ↳ Job market is brutal - entry-level hiring is down, and a degree is less valuable than it used to be, yet the price (and interest) keeps rising.

The UK student loan system is not only unfair — it’s immoral.

Policies have been set to make entire generations suffer.

With youth unemployment the highest in a decade. 

And the median home in England (£290,000) costing 7.7x median full-time earnings (£37,600).

Seriously... 

What kind of future are we building for?
How do we expect the UK economy to thrive?
How are young people meant to build wealth and prosperity?

If this resonate with you please repost ♻️ to raise awareness
And comment below with your thoughts ⬇️

Crowdcube

Head of People and Culture

A trusted stand-alone People and Culture partner, partnering with the senior leadership and c-suite to drive a culture of high performance, diversity and engagement.

Owned and delivered People and Culture initiatives across the spectrum, including workforce planning, restructuring, resourcing, talent management, pay and reward, employee relations, employee engagement and performance management.

Providing strategic advice, guidance and leadership across the business on all aspects of the key risk areas of People and Culture. 

Created philosophies that built an engaged culture, further developed formal feedback surveys and collaborative action planning.

People and Culture Partner

Plumm

HR/People Advisor 

MOHARA

Human Resources Advisor

Titanium Civils 

Human Resources Consultant

McDonald's

Human Resources Administrator

I am a passionate and results-driven People and Culture leader with over six years of experience in Human Resources, now serving as the Head of People and Culture at Crowdcube. My mission is to create workplaces where people can thrive, combining strategic vision with operational excellence to align organisational goals with a positive employee experience.

Throughout my career, I have led initiatives that have driven transformation, improved engagement, and empowered teams to reach their full potential. My expertise spans employee relations, talent strategy, organisational design, and people analytics, with a focus on creating meaningful change and delivering impactful solutions.

I thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environments, leveraging my problem-solving skills and business acumen to navigate change. With experience managing HR functions across the UK, South Africa, Spain, and France, I bring a global perspective to building inclusive, people-centric cultures.

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