Paul Archer

Duel is the Brand Advocacy platform used by Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret, Pandora, Dove, TRESemmé, Charlotte Tilbury, Monica Vinader, NEOM, Elemis and 60 other Fashion and Beauty brands to coordinate and scale their advocates to drive Advocacy and Social Commerce.

I host Building Brand Advocacy, where I interview the greatest brand builders in a bid to uncover the first principles of brand building.

App studio and mischievous photo challenge events company. We ran sold out events around the country, had tickets distributed by all the major experience vendors and caused mayhem wherever we landed. It was a LOT of fun. We built various apps to support the events. I shut it down to focus on the much more scalable opportunity that Duel presented.

My co-author, Johno Ellison, and I penned a book from the around the world expedition. It was released in March 2016, sold 20k+ copies, was translated into four languages and reached various best-selling lists. 'This is the trip I would take if I were younger, braver and lightly but certifiably out of my mind.' Bill Bryson 'An inspiring story told with lashings of energy and humour.' Ranulph Fiennes 'What do you do after leaving university? Get a boring office job – or drive a black cab 43,000 miles around the world? Ernest Hemingway said always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. These lads did and raised 20K whilst smashing two world records. Brilliant.' Andy Parsons - #1 seller in various Amazon travel and automotive categories - 20k+ copies sold - Der Spiegel Bestseller list - Published by Summersdale - So far translated into German, Chinese and 'American' The film rights are still up for grabs. I can neither confirm nor deny that Tom Hanks has expressed interested in playing my part. It is true, however, that Channing Tatum turned down Johno's role for fear of not being handsome enough.

The expedition to drive a black cab around the world. I conceived the original idea and dragged my buddies Leigh Purnell and Johno Ellison along for the ride. - Broke two World Records, - Drove around the whole world, - Raised over £20,000 for the British Red Cross - Racked up £80,000 on the meter - Drove with the Spice Girls in the 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony - Achieved International media coverage, including all the major British outlets and even the front page of the Wall Street Journal I was also in charge of sponsorship before we departed and secured support from 22 sponsors worth over $100,000. www.itsonthemeter.com

I worked with Citrix and specialised in Virtualisation. I was part of a team of great people and it was a fantastic sales experience, but it was just not for me, so I left to drive a taxi around the world instead.

Took time out from university helping to develop, launch and sell a graduate job matchmaking technology called ‘gradintel.com’. As the only other business developer apart from the MD, job roles included managing the marketing of the software on a very tight budget (predominantly online), telesales, general business development at networking events and trade shows meeting and presenting to graduate employers and universities, running presentations to students and graduates and basic software development. - Successfully supporting the roll-out of the gradintel.com software and developing the business in a wide variety of ways including presenting and pitching to all levels, from students to high end managers - Networking, following up leads, cold calling and meeting potential clients, conveying a completely new kind concept and successfully persuading them to use the service or partner to develop the gradintel.com business. - Working with a very tight budget to market gradintel.com to students, persuading 5,000 to sign up.

As well as studying, I was heavily involved in the RAG Society. Managing/member of a 10 man committee and liaising with 400 members to raise over £100,000 for charity through the running of various events, collections and sponsorship opportunities. • Elected a RAG officer in my first term at University and progressed to being elected as Rag President, driving campaigns to raise thousands of pounds for charity • Conceived, implemented and organised a project to take 30 Aston students to Uganda summer 2008 for one month to work with, enhance and start up small businesses and help with local healthcare. • Created, implemented and headed a joint project between Aston and Birmingham University to put on a 2,500 person student music festival with eight stages. Project including achieving sponsorship, booking headline acts and securing the venue. Quoted as “the biggest indoor student festival Birmingham has ever seen” with a turnover of over £15,000.