SME Spotlight: Apprentice star backs Leeds graduate web startup

A Leeds Trinity University graduate has launched a digital business with the help of an investor best known for an appearance on the Apprentice.

Gareth Craven launched web platform Hire an Artist just six months after finishing his Business Studies degree and completing a stint at Entrepreneurial Spark.

He launched it at the Trinity Alumni Business Network after receiving a £50,000 investment from former Apprentice star Raj Dhonota.

Craven will work with Dhonota over the next 12 months and has also employed a full time digital marketer.

Raj Dhonota appeared on the first series of the BBC’s Apprentice programme in 2005. He has gone on to become a major startup investor, injecting £3m in businesses to date. He currently works with 60 startups.

Craven said: “The new design has all been about the customer experience and I’m delighted with the end product. The process for our clients now is so much smoother and easier, and it just feels so much more professional now. I’m just really excited about the success we can achieve over the next few months with this new platform.”

“Gareth is a very bright entrepreneur and at his young age, his aptitude for business, combined with enthusiasm for his idea, really made investing in it an easy decision,” said Dhonota.

“The art world can be intimidating and is a market in need of disruption. Hire an Artist is taking a fresh new approach to commissioning artwork by empowering people to be able to turn their own unique ideas into artwork and eliminating a potential third party.”

“To have someone of Raj’s stature involved in the business is just unbelievable, and the knowledge and expertise he possess will be invaluable to me over the course of the next year,” Craven added.

“Having the belief of someone like Raj has given me immense confidence and has made me even more driven to make Hire an Artist a success.”