Narinder Nijjar, from sponsors Fraser Stretton, presents the Generation Next Entrepreneur of the Year award to Alex Mills, Art Lindop and Kieran Flynn, from Derby digital marketing agency Alphageek.

Three young founders of a fast-growing Derby digital agency have set their sights on becoming the best in the region after they picked two young entrepreneurs awards.

Art Lindop, Kieran Flynn and Alex Mills, who operate Alphageek, have won both the Breakthrough and Entrepreneur of the Year categories of the East Midlands Chamber Generation Next 2022 awards.

The awards were open to individuals who are aged under 35 as part of the Chamber’s campaign to bring together and inspire a new generation of entrepreneur and business owners.

Art is 25, Alex is 26 and Kieran is 24, and they were entered as a trio into both categories, which were announced at an event at Bustler Market in Siddals Road, Derby last week.

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Their achievement has come at the end of a stellar year for Alphageek, which offers online advertising, pay-per-click campaigns, web design and development, content creation, and brand amplification services.

Originally set up in 2019, Alphageek’s first big client was Casio, for which it has achieved over £1m worth of online sales for its iconic G-SHOCK watches, which are beloved of celebrities including Eminem, John Mayer and Ed Sheeran.

Alphageek now looks after the online activity for around 50 companies in four continents across a range of industries and its clients include Project D, HUUB and Cubo.

In the past year it has grown from 4 staff to 14, increased its turnover to just under £1m and has also relocated to a new office at Cubo in Victoria Street, Derby.

Now, with larger premises at its disposal, Alphageek is launching a new recruitment campaign to fill seven new roles to add to their current team.

Art said: “We are so proud to have picked up these awards in the face of some tough competition on a shortlist of firms who have done some amazing work themselves.

“We’re very ambitious at Alphageek and we’ve set out a pathway towards becoming the Number One digital agency in the East Midlands in the next three years. It’s a big target but this is definitely a first step in achieving that.”

Kieran, who first met Art when they were best friends at school, said: “We’re a really close team and we’re very aware that this wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and talent of everyone in our company. All 3 of us are also especially thankful to our family and friends for the support.”

“Going up to collect the awards was a special moment and something that we couldn’t have possibly imagined a couple of years ago when we were working really long days during lockdown when our clients relied on us to help them keep their businesses going.”

Alex, who is business development director alongside Kieran, who is the operations director and Art, who is the MD, added: “Our industry is so exciting because there’s always something new coming along and we have to adapt to that.

“We focus on everything possible in order to make sure that we do the best for our clients so it’s great that the judges recognised the lengths that we go to.”

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